Making a Trophy Banner

Before our game, Jay and I made a deal that the loser would make a banner go give out as a trophy for winning the game. I lost, so here's a look at how I made my trophy banner.

 

My plan was to make a base piled with bodies of the fallen, and a tattered flag planted in the ground. I used a 40mm round-lipped base, and built up a slight hill in the center with modeling putty. The base was then decorated with pieces from my parts box– skeleton and grave guard bits, arranged to look like they had fallen in battle. The gaps between the pieces were filled with fine ballast.

 

I also added a piece of thick floral wire for the flagpole.

 

 

 

The corpse pile was painted to match the models in my army, and I added some static grass to finish off the base.

 

 

For the banner itself, I used one of the spare banners I had printed for my army. If you want to see how I made these, check out my previous post: Modeling: Banners. 

 

 

The banner was printed in two halves, and I folded and creased the paper so it would appear to be "billowing" in the wind. After the two halves were glued together and had dried, I cut the edges with a sharp hobby knife, and tore up the ends to make the flag appear a little more shredded than normal.

 

 

I painted all of the exposed white paper along the edges and folds with Army Painter Crusted Sore to match the deep red of the banner. Before the banner was placed over the pole, the entire thing was given a coating of matte Mod Podge to help stiffen and protect it, and to tone down the glossy shine of the paper. I used a drop of super glue to secure it in place,and added a skull at the top of the banner pole.

Here's the finished trophy banner:

 

 

Mementos like this are fun to make, and a great way to remember notable battles or campaigns.  A while back, I made more simplified versions of a trophy banner to bring to a grand tournament to mark when enemy units had captured my banners, and I let my opponents keep them after the game.

'Til next time!