Making an Aspis - Ring Method (Visual Aids)

[Chris B]

Okay. Like I said earlier, I have gotten the most PM's about how I paint my shields. I am sure many others here do similiar things, but here goes.

Unless your a PHENOMINAL free hand artist or auto detailer, I would STRONGLY recommend making patterns and working out all the bugs in your design on paper, cardboard, or posterboard first. I use posterboard because it is thick enough that it is hard for the pencil to pull through the template, but it is thin enough to fold around contour.

First, I design a rough pattern and play with the colors via freehand drawing and computer paint programs. When I decide on a pattern, I blow up images of the pattern as large as I can or sections of the pattern if I need larger than can be printed on 11 X 17 paper. I piece the parts of the pattern together and then transfer it to cardboard.

For example, with this shield's design, I blew up that picture of the star and cut out one of each of the two size rays. Then I drew lines equal distances apart to make sure the rays would be spaced equally. I then drew the center circle and started tracing the rays to the cardboard. I will then cut out the inside of the rays with an exacto knife so that I have one perfect pattern to trace to the shield.

I then printed a half of the inner rim and glued it to the cardboard. I cut out the half rim, folded it in half and traced it to the other half of the cardboard to get a perfect circle. I then centered the sunburst inside this and traced the inner circle to the sunburst pattern to make sure they will meet up perfectly once traced to the shield. I will cut out two or three key patterns and simply turn the pattern clockwise until there is a full pattern around all 360 degrees of the inner circle.

When you have a natural border like a rim, it is easiest to just cut out ONE of the pattern and keep repeating it until they meet. MAKE SURE YOU DO SOME QUICK MATH CALCULATIONS TO MAKE SURE THEY WILL MEET UP! Those are the two stencils shown at the top of the picture.

Another small trick is to trace your patterns with map pencils in close to the same color as will be touching the edge. It will take less work to cover up the marks. For instance, if you trace a yellow wing on a Scutum with black pencil, it will take many coats to cover it with yellow, but if you had traced it with yellow, it will cover up very quickly, and you will never see the pencil. Here are my stencils ready to have the detail cut out of them.