Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Kelly Wilkinson]

Note: Jon asked me if I had put this process on the web page for others to use. It was a reply to Bill Chris and his question regarding decal softeners but I thought it would be best to give it a subject line most could easily find. The following is the basic gist.

One suggestion I was given by my friend Mark Duncan (the former Prez of the IPMS International Plastic Modelers Society.) is to either use glossy white paint to undercoat your shields or use a flat white matt and then coat the shields with Future non wax acryllic floor wax. This will make the surface smooth and allow for a better surface.

The process that I follow is this.

Step one. Apply a coating of Future to an already overcoated (matte) shield, this process is not necessary if you used glossy paint to undercoate.

Step two. Apply shield decal to surface of shield, after the transfer is in place using a decal softener and let dry.

Step three. Apply a coat of Future over the whole shield. This serves to seal the decal to the shield and will inhibit that curling effect from the edges of the shield that we sometimes get.

Step four. Dull cote with the painted miniature and shield. ***Note that sometimes it's best to leave the future on the shield in the case of Greek Hoplites and other troop types as this glossy look can really make the figure look glorious! On the other hand, Romans and their ilk who aren't into flashy eastern stuff (most anything eastern was considered effeminate to the Romans!), look best with a dull coate finish.

I hope this helps,

Kelly Wilkinson

PS if anyone has any further questions or needs help, feel free to ask.

[Kelly Wilkinson]

painters here in Kansas City, use this mixture of Future, Citidel Flesh wash (or Windsor and Newton "peat brown"), and Citidel black ink (or Windsor and Newton "black ink") when we finish painting. This stuff works really well when mixed with the future which was created to flow to the cracks of your kitchen floor! In our case, this works great with miniatures as well. The important thing here is that you don't use too much ink, if you do, simply cut it with more future.

In several cases, you will find yourself having to apply your shields in two halves and you will have to decide what to paint the shield boss and spine as in the case of the Republican/Marian Romans. In this case, using an appropriate ink mixed with Future is a great thing to do as it will seal as well as enhance your shields and in my case, cover up my numerous mistakes.

I hope this helps those who are thinking about using these great transfers.

Kelly Wilkinson

[Kelly Wilkinson]

For those of you who are curious about how the LBM studios shields that I've been using look, go to the album and check out the pics that Todd Kaeser put in for Historicon 2006. There are two pictures of my Greeks that I loaned to my friend, Charles Yaw. Additionally, there is a picture of Charle's Cartagenian Vetrans that have beautiful LBM Shields that I helped him with (Charles did an excellent job prettying them up and is an excellent painter in his own right, I would like to add). I believe that most will agree that LBM Shield transfers kick butt.

Kelly