Step-by-Step Freehand Aquila

[Bryan Blaire]

Okay, this is how I painted the freehand aquila I did on my Tactical Squad Marine's shoulder pad. It's just my way, and TBH, I'm not sure where I got it from (if anywhere, it just came to me while painting, I just somewhat saw how to do it in my head, so it probably was someone else's explanation lodged in my subconscious) - it took me about twenty minutes to do, including taking pictures and touching up at the end. I hope someone finds this helpful (hopefully Brother Immolator ^_^).

I apologize for the bluriness of the photos, I'm not that great a picture taker and the camera didn't want to cooperate.

So, materials:

-plain shoulder pad painted how you want (although you could definitely do this on any surface you wanted)

-an Army Painter - Wargamer: Character brush (or something similarly sized - I think a Fine Detail Citadel brush is about the same)

-the color you want to paint the aquila, I'd just pick one color and if you need to shade it, I'd just use a wash or something (or if you are really brave, you could try to paint one aquila of a lighter color just slightly shifted over an aquila of a slightly darker color

My starting shoulder pad and brush, I'm using Bleached Bone from a wet pallet

Paint a diamond that is slightly longer on the bottom side than the top

Paint two short lines coming out of the bottom and top points of the diamond at approximately equal but opposite angles

Paint two short straight lines across the bottom lines (or one long one, you can split it with the background color at the end) and paint two L shapes end down across the upper lines (if you can, slant the "base" of the L out a little bit - again, if you prefer to paint one long line with two short lines down at the end, you can split the long line with the background color at the end)

Paint two curved lines out from the remaining two points of the diamond, curve them out beyond the "beaks" you just painted and try and get the lines to end even with the two "neck" lines the aquila heads are on - try and get the curves as even as possible

Paint two lines straight out from the tips of the curved lines, try to get them as parallel to the ground or other straight line you can use as a reference (such as the top or bottom of an armor plate/side)

Paint four "feather" lines for each wing - try to follow the curve in and down as best you can, shortening the "feather" line as you get closer to the body - this can be cleaned up at the end

Use the background color of the shoulder pad to clean up any stray lines, unevenly painted/not straight lines, split any lines that need to be split with the background color, basically clean up anything you think looks funny

Hope that helps/inspires someone to try it, I'd love to see anyone's results! I'm not sure how good it would be, but if you enlarged this, it could possibly provide a good basis for a larger, more detailed aquila as well.

[whiteraven17708]

Im pretty sure I just witnessed IDEA THEFT.... now to turn myself in ^_^

that looks pretty good I may have to try it

[Bryan Blaire]

Im pretty sure I just witnessed IDEA THEFT.... now to turn myself in :(

that looks pretty good I may have to try it

LOL, it can't be theft, I put this up hoping people might try it! ^_^ Unless you meant you've seen this somewhere and know who I got it from, in which case, I'd like to know because I'd really like to thank them for the idea.

 

Let us see some results when you've got 'em! :D

[Brother Kovash]

Whoa, I didn't think it was really that easy. Thanks for the tip Bryan, I'll try this on a vehicle once I start getting them painted.

[elmo]

Bryan - great tutorial, maybe you should put this into the tutorials forum?

 

You can also do a similar technique for the DA icon, just paint an extended crucifix, then fill it out to make the sword. Add the wings as per your post above and there you go. I would put up a diagram or photos to explain it a little better but until the weekends I am limited to text only :D

[The Shadow Guard]

Simple yet so brilliant... That is such an elegant technique... Very nice indeed..

 

SG

[Brother Immolator]

Thanks brother,i am definetly going to try it on some spares this weekend.

 

Ill post results!