Making your own decals

 
Continuing with my recent efforts to update some of my older miniatures I've turned my attention to the original tactical squad and particularly the lack of any identifying icons so I decided they'd need some decals. I could've just bought the Forgeworld ones but to ensure all the icons look roughly the same across the whole any and be consistant with the other models such as the standard bearer I decided making my own would be best.

Second Death Guard Tactical Squad - Test Model

 I managed to find some time at the weekend and got this test model done. After doing the shoulder pads I couldn't wait to get some paint on it and find out how the moldings really looked. I decided to include a Plague Marine and also an older Pre-Heresy Death Guard model in the photo's to give some comparison and see if I had pulled off the look I was after. All in all I think it went pretty well so here's a bit of an explanation...

Second Death Guard Tactical Squad & Sculpted Shoulder Pads

Here are some WIP shots of the second tactical squad I've been working on. After reading a few great tutorials from Ron at From The Warp on sculpting and then molding shoulder pads I decided to have a go myself. I won't go into any real details on the process itself as i pretty much followed the way Ron suggested. The only real difference is that I used Mulliput for the reproduction shoulder pads as I found it to be softer and more easier to mold. It also sets rock hard so there are no flexing issues in the pads. I also changed the theme of the bases to a more urban setting from the original bases so I can't wait to see how it all looks once I've done some painting!

Improvements to be made

After taking a few photos of the original tactical squad a had to admit that although I like the models I realised there were some improvements to be made. After a bit of head scratching I decided to take a side by side photo with one of my post heresy Death Guard Plague Marines (I may put up some more photo's of these too in future). The model I chose was one that I had re-based a while back when experimenting with urban style bases.