A solution for Improved flag realism.

[sargentx]

I've been experimenting with different approaches to flags lately and am always dissatisfied with their toy-like appearance. I tried painting on foil, transferring decals to gel medium skins, the usual foil sandwich thing, partially melting decals, you name it. I figure the reason they look wrong is that there is simply a lack of fine detail in the creases and folds that no material can capture at these scales.

So.... I downloaded some photographs of real flags blowing in the wind, resized them and adjusted their look in photoshop. I printed them off, glued them back to back and added real curves and undulations to add to the faux, photographic distortions. I touched up the sides with a pen and glued them onto the pole with some gel medium. To my eye, things look a lot more realistic than my previous strategies and they photograph really well in the final model shots.
Probably only good for larger ship scales.

[RNfanDan]

Nice!

Looks much better than the old, thick, foil-sandwich method!

[biggles2]

I put flag decals on a piece of aluminum foil then trim it out when the decal has well and truly set and dried. Then it can be bent, folded, and mutilated to your heart's desire.

[sargentx]

For me at least, No matter how much I can bend and fold a flag....be it on tin foil or any other method , it never seems to have enough micro detail. The photographic detail quadruples the appearance of detail. Give it a try... and it's very low risk with the paper. No cracking decals, multiple shots at the same flag etc.

[silvershadow]

Nice idea Quick question, once you glued it to position, do you use any medium to make the flag in a pose, or is this just by crunching the paper to get the look you got there going?
Nice idea tho, will definitely refer this method and even use it myself. Thanks ^^)

[sargentx]

thanks....well, its just two pieces of paper glued together with white glue. It has a rubbery quality to it. It's basically just a few simple bends that were done BEFORE attaching it to the pole. It looks way more complex because of the 'wrinkled' flag image. It pretty much held it's s-curve shape on its own. I tried to make bends that relate to the wrinkle os the image.

[frenchinamst]

About foil solution : i used to get this method but the decal do not reallly stick to the aluminium and get destroyed in small pieces when adjusting for "wing effect"... is it because my decal was to old or did i forgot something before to add the decal on the foil ? Glue or varnishing stuff ? Thanks for your tips again...

[Aop Aur]

Thanks for the tip, Chris! I barely think of flags and decals when building my ships (cause they're all unfinished). Now some ideas to make them look real! I really hope one day you will be back at ship modeling, though...but as a painter myself, I know too that modelling really is time-consuming and will take over your art time.

Aop

[Mike Reading]

Nicely realistic looking, you mention best suited to larger scales. Can you say what you have in mind, please.

[wefalck]

Looks like another variant of what is used in those 'photorealistic' kits they sell for railway modellers. My concern would be minimum thickness of the paper you can feed through a printer.

Some of the 'micro-details' mentioned probably could be also achieved by careful shading and highlighting folds and creases, as figure modellers do for representing fabrics.

[biggles2]

I would think the thickness of two paper sheets would be over-scale even in 1/350. I did something similar; a friend wanted a Montreal Canadians (hockey team) pennant for a 1/35 armored vehicle. I down-loaded a suitable pennant and re-sized it. The pennant was about 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch. I made one file with the pennant in proper position, and a second file with the pennant flipped so it was in reverse. Then printed the proper side (when printing a single subject the image prints right in the center of the paper), flipped the sheet of paper making sure it was still right side up, then printed again with the reverse image. I had a pennant printed both sides of the same sheet of paper (one side proper and the other in reverse) and in perfect register. Just had to cut it out. Bit of a waste of printing paper, but it's cheap. And got a nice flag.

[frenchinamst]

I put flag decals on a piece of aluminum foil then trim it out when the decal has well and truly set and dried. Then it can be bent, folded, and mutilated to your heart's desire.

I tried this but the decal do not stick to the aluminium foil when "wind or stand" shaped/foiled.. it get out bit by bit.

[K494]

They look great,thanks for the tip.

Scott

[biggles2]

I put flag decals on a piece of aluminum foil then trim it out when the decal has well and truly set and dried. Then it can be bent, folded, and mutilated to your heart's desire.

I tried this but the decal do not stick to the aluminium foil when "wind or stand" shaped/foiled.. it get out bit by bit.

Forgot to say that I primed the foil first.

[MatthewB]

For me at least, No matter how much I can bend and fold a flag....be it on tin foil or any other method , it never seems to have enough micro detail. The photographic detail quadruples the appearance of detail. Give it a try... and it's very low risk with the paper. No cracking decals, multiple shots at the same flag etc.

This is the method we use for 28mm and 15mm miniatures.

It never even occurred to me that it could be used on smaller models.

Although I wonder how easily I can get it to work in 1/700 (I have yet to do any flags for my 1/700 models, as they are supposed to be in fighting trim, and I have been unsure what they would be flying, and where).

But I'll have to remember this method for the 1/700 as well.

MB

[speedbird]

Great for 350 but in 700, typically the flag is too heavy to easily attach to the rigging without pulling. I've agonized over this myself for years.

I use a heavier matte foil that I prime in dark grey, fold over and matte finish. Here are some examples of a few I've done:

[Wolfman_63]

That looks Great! Thanks for the tip.
I like that idea of using an actual picture of the flag to get the shadows/highlights.
It the past I have used "bare metal foil"
Placed decal on the foil, cut out and folded the adhesive side together. It is thin enough. But extreme care has to be used.
With as thin as it is, it is very easy to crush beyond use.

[speedbird]

Or just hand paint the whole thing:

[url=https://postimg.org/image/919w0xvfb/]