That's right, I've got one more model to contribute to the Storm Wardens army. We've all picked up a member or two from the Command Squad and I asked for the Banner Bearer.
First, let me say thanks to everyone who has donated so far, I was notified of last week's weekly prize winner (Thank you to my local store Game Vault for donating it) and it has gone out in the mail to him. There are a few weeks left, so keep an eye out for more weekly prizes and then the big drawing in the end.
But onto the Banner Bearer. Mik from Mik's Minis was kind enough to send me the model to use. All I had to do was get him "battle ready."
He arrived in good shape and just needed a little bit of work. He was already primed so that had to be removed. A bath in Dawn Power Dissolver followed by a quick toothbrush scrub and he came out spotless.
I scraped and filed away some obvious mold lines and pinned him to his base (Corbania Prime has a good article on pinning) that was provided by misterjustin from Secret Weapon Miniatures.
I sculpted some iconography on him and sculpted his shoulderpad as well. He needed a left arm so I gave him a bolt pistol. Then I realised he has a holster on his belt with a bolt pistol in it already. So I broke that arm off and replaced it with an arm holding a chainsword.
Sometimes the obvious stuff escapes me.
Then it was onto the banner design. I sent a couple emails to the guys at Fantasy Flight Games (since this Chapter was born as part of their new Deathwatch RPG) to see if they had anything in mind in terms of imagery and they were real open to everything. They had a couple ideas (and things they thought might be cool to see in there) that got me started down the right track. I did some hunting on the internet and found a few images I thought would work.
I loved the one on the right and used it for the banner sketch below. The idea of a figure slaying a serpent and tying it in with their homeworld came from the guys at FFG. Very cool stuff.
I plan on painting it up to look more like a tapestry instead of a flag or banner. Not that there is any great difference in the actual painting style, it just means the image will look more like a painting instead of a simple icon on a plain background.
The sketch above has since been refined, cleaned up and scaled down to size. I draw it about 3 times larger than it really is so I can get the detail in there. I'll be spending the next few days painting the model and banner.
With a few extras added like purity seals and such, it should make for a nice addition to the Command Squad.
Additional related links:
Making banners from cardstock by Ron (FTW)
Creating digital artwork for banners by Volomir's Blog
