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Carlson's College of Arms and Graffiti


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We've all been there at some point, man, don't sweat it. I'm currently off of my beloved Crimson Sons for a little while because I just felt like my imagination and sculpting skills had been locked down into the box of semi-realistic marine stuff for too long and I'm stagnating; gotta stretch the legs and get some fresh air.

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  • 2 months later...

As some of you may have noticed on the front page new topics feed, Carlson's College of Arms and Graffiti is once again open. On a limited basis for the moment - between normal holiday workload and a recent rebranding of my company, I don't have much free time for decal sheets.

 

I'm hoping to take care of the outstanding jobs first, though 'as the inspiration takes me'. I'll touch base with previous patrons over the next few days.

 

Also, from here on out, I'll be working on a strictly public basis - all new sheets will be publicly posted; no exclusive, private sheets will be produced.

 

So, on to the latest bits of work...

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Project: Lamenters Badab War Campaign Badge 

Sponsor: Boudan

In IA 9, all Lamenters vehicles sport this campaign badge on their armor. Not a difficult sheet design to reproduce, although the amount of elements in the design meant I had to cut a significant number of logos to get it under the B&C file size limit.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Project: Red Shadows 

Sponsor: tresillian

tresillian approached me earlier in the year with a commission for a custom sheet. The subject: the Red Shadows force from Palitoy's Action Force toy line (itself a  licensee of Hasbro's G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero toy line). Works well when combined with the Cyrillic Alphabet decal sheet I produced (which was actually a by-product of this commission).   

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Project: Carcharodons Badab War Era

Sponsor: CommodusXIII

So Brother Commodus approached me with a request. He wanted a sheet for the Carcharodons chapter logo that included their 'honor tattoos' as seen in IA10. I decided it'd be best as two sheets: one for the logo, one for the honor markings. That may go up to three sheets, as I've got enough source material prepped that I may need to have the borders/arm wraps in a separate file due to file size limitations. Also, due to file size, these may end up being A6 sheets, rather than the usual A5.

A lot of these will probably get scrapped - too 'tribal' rather than 'Polynesian'; more sharks and rays, less turtles, geckos, and dolphins; too detailed for the final print size.

gallery_80588_10710_52667.jpg

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Project: The Emperor's Shadows

 

This one has been on the back burner for a long while, and while taking a short break from the Carcharodons Honor Markings sheet (need to figure out where I'm going with that to keep it under B&C upload size limits), I thought I'd revisit it. In the 5th Edition How to Paint Space Marines book, there is a gallery in the back showing the various home-brew chapters of some painters. I've posted a couple before, but still have a handful that I collected the resources for but didn't do anything with.

That said, of the logos in the book, this is perhaps the most difficult one to prep. So much so that when I reached a stand still point on it, I lost interest in moving to the others. Glad I went back to it - it was fun working out how to cut corners in the design and keep the 'proper' look.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?app=downloads&module=display&section=screenshot&record=2446&id=500&full=1

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I'm sure Ms Lamb would have loved the resource you've made brother, back when she created the Emperor's Shadows. :D

 

Say... is there any particular reason the bottom right one is reversed?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sure Ms Lamb would have loved the resource you've made brother, back when she created the Emperor's Shadows. :biggrin.:

 

Say... is there any particular reason the bottom right one is reversed?

Thanks for the compliment. I just wish B&C size limits were larger so I could've posted my original version (more detailed bonsai, full gradient sun transition...)

 

As for the reversed logo, for the past few months, I've been placing a few logos flipped on all sheets (well, except for right/left symmetrical logos) for use by Terminators (who have the chapter logo on the right shoulder) and vehicles. That way, the logo is always facing forward. Habit I got into after my fiancé and I went to her son's boot camp graduation. I noticed the US flag on his right shoulder was 'facing the wrong way'. The reason for that, he said, is because the US Army is always moving forward.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-

Just so folks are aware: the Carcharodons honor markings sheet that's going to be a complement to the Chapter Logo sheet is still in the works. I've downloaded/'vectorized' loads of Maori and other Polynesian tattoos and loaded them in Illustrator. Currently in the process of limiting the details of the images to cut file size.  I may end up having to post a hi-res raster file instead of my usual vector PDF - with the number of individual vectors in this sheet so far, a JPG will probably come in smaller.

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You know, I noticed the reversed flag on a couple of soldiers eating at a Quizno's (which is a side fact).  Then I looked it up on USFlag.org - it's reversed on the right arm to give "the effect off the flag flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward".

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Two things: firstly, a heartfelt thank you for all of your excellent work with these decals. Such dedication to detail, quality and the community is rare and often goes unnoticed.

Secondly, have you discussed the upload size limit with the admins? And is there no other alternative (ie. Having the hi-res files uploaded somewhere else and linked to the download page of the low-res ones here on the B&C)?

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Two things: firstly, a heartfelt thank you for all of your excellent work with these decals. Such dedication to detail, quality and the community is rare and often goes unnoticed.

 

:blush.: Ahh, kind words...excellent payment. 

 

Secondly, have you discussed the upload size limit with the admins? And is there no other alternative (ie. Having the hi-res files uploaded somewhere else and linked to the download page of the low-res ones here on the B&C)?

 

Haven't discussed it with the Powers That Be, and really hadn't intended to. It has it's purpose - maintaining the health of the B&C - and though it's a handicap, it's also forced me to learn additional techniques to save size (I hadn't realized the size savings of embedding fonts until I needed to make smaller files). That said, after the changes I've had to make to a couple sheets to fit in that size limit, I've been toying with setting up an off-site store. The main delay I've had on that is thinking about what site (probably a Google Drive or Dropbox account, though if someone has a better and, more importantly, free option, I'm all ears) (Edit: decided to do a shared-link Google Drive account, if only because that's what I'm most comfortable with - it's empty now, but I've started organizing things a bit), how to link to it (most likely post a PDF sample here with the off-site download link).

 

(Also, kudos to my fiancé. When I was worrying about what account to go with based on available space, she pointed out that I wasn't going to upload my full work-in-progress decal files; just the final ready-to-print PDFs - DUH!)

Edited by Carlson793
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Okay, so following Dosjetka's suggestion (which confirmed an idea I was toying with), I've started a semi-public Google Drive for my decal files. The plan is to load a sample version here on the B&C for larger files (either in this thread or in the Downloads section, with a link to the full file), while still posting smaller files in the Downloads section.

(Note: the following is not meant to be in any way critical of the B&C or the Admins. The file size limitation is in place for a reason, and I think it's a good decision for the health of the site.)

What kind of difference does the B&C file size limit have on the decal sheets I produce? Well, recently I posted a file here based on Victoria Lamb's The Emperor's Shadows Space Marine chapter from the 5th Edition SM codex (You can see the result in post #82 above - scroll up and check it out; I'll wait). Unfortunately, to get it under the size limit, I had to cut a lot of corners (well, actually points on the vectors that made up the image). How many corners? Well, the file I posted came in at 2mb for an A6 sized sheet (that's about 1/4 the size of regular printer paper); the original version was 8.7mb for my usual A5 sheet (so double the print size, but over 4x the file size).

So what's that reduction in file/print size look like? Well, if you click on the spoiler below, you'll see the posted image on the left beside the original version.

gallery_80588_10710_173124.jpg

Big difference, huh?

So, the version on the left can be found in the Downloads section of the B&C at the top of the page. If you'd like the original version, click here.

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One of the side projects that's come out of the Carcharodons work I'm doing for CommodusXIII are Polynesian-style borders. While creating vectors of all the tattoos I was planning to use for the honour markings, I noticed that many of the shoulder tats had a strip that wrapped around the upper arm. Easy enough to pull them out, but the detail was so great, it wasn't until I decided to keep a Google Drive for my decals that I'd be able to share it with the B&C. (A PDF sampler for the sheet is being added to the Carcharodons post in the Downloads section, with a link to the full version of the file.) The full versions have the borders in 3mm and 2mm heights, with the 3mm ones stretching almost the full width of an A5 sheet.

gallery_80588_10710_11737.jpg

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...and, for my part, the Carcharodons are done! Just loaded the Honour Markings to the Google Drive. Three files, each clocking in at 17.6mb. About 100 different designs (plus a few duplicates - missed them, but oh well...). In 8mm (shoulder), 5 mm (knee) and... okay, I didn't actually measure the third size, but they're smaller than the first two.

gallery_80588_10710_408878.jpg

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and... okay, I didn't actually measure the third size, but they're smaller than the first two.

 

So... miscellaneous stuff like the sides of weapons and such, right? 

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and... okay, I didn't actually measure the third size, but they're smaller than the first two.

 

So... miscellaneous stuff like the sides of weapons and such, right? 

Maybe not quite that small - probably closer to 2mm. Then again, I didn't measure (or even print a sample), so maybe they are.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Project: Crimson Praetors

Sponsor: Dosjetka

Pretty quick turn around on this one. Dosjetka approached me a day or so ago, asking if I had some kind of tip jar/Patreon set up for my decal work (answer: no - would feel too much like a job, which'd kill the fun I have doing 'em). Over the past 24 hours, that led to a commission for D's Crimson Praetors SM chapter.

Three samples here. This first one is the final design Dosjetka picked.

gallery_80588_10710_170462.jpg

The other two show the design process in progress. The Angels Revenant logo shows the source of the gene seed for Dosjetka's chapter. A few on the second one moved too close to a WWII German look, so obviously might not be suited for public consumption.

The others, however, are unused designs - anyone want to claim one for their own chapter? Should you need a different shield design, you can see a collection of various ones (sourced from Grey Knights and Imperial Knights) I currently have prepped for substitution on the right of the first image. I also have a other sword designs should those be needed.

gallery_80588_10710_276530.jpg

gallery_80588_10710_417313.jpg

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I... might want the keep + another element not yet present for my Inheritors...

One of the Rooks with something else added? Easy enough to accomplish, think.

Ooohhh... I really like the keep no. 10. No idea what I'd use it for (Heresy Imperial Fists Company identifier, maybe?) but I like it.

Maybe replace the Angels Revenant burning skull with the Imperial Fists...umm, fist. Treat it like a campaign badge, perhaps. Maybe swap the crossed gladius for a more IF iconographic weapon pair...

gallery_80588_10710_90280.jpg

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I... might want the keep + another element not yet present for my Inheritors...

One of the Rooks with something else added? Easy enough to accomplish, think. 

 

Well, I was thinking of a hybrid aquila inside the rook (the wings from one image and the central body+heads+talons from another).

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