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Free Handing Banners – Black to White

By Rob Baer | April 25th, 2013 | Categories: Chaos Space Marines, Hobby Hacks, How To Tutorial, Space Marines, Warhammer 40k

Hey guys, Rage of Khorne here from The Order of Chaos gaming society looking to paint up some banners for my loyalist Sons of Horus 30K army. 


This step by step tutorial focuses on black banners with white detailing and minimal colours but the process I use can be substituted for many other colour combos. 

Some other colour combos that come to mind are using a dark brown instead of black and a sepia colour as the base and starting with a dark red and working up to dark grey.


For both of my designs today I start without using a reference image to paint from, but most of the time it’s a good idea to print off some images of designs you want to copy elements from. I start off by fully basing, washing, and highlighting the banner cloth itself, as the free hand work is the last step in painting on the banner. 

The design was then blocked onto the banner so that you have a clear area to work on. In the image below I have coloured in the approximate shape of the design with yellow so you get a basic idea of what shape to use. It’s not important that the basic shape is perfect, it’s more important that you get the general shape right.

The next step is the lighten the colour you’re using the same way you’d do highlights on the rest of the model, for grey this means just adding white a touch at a time. 

This works for most colours but adding yellow or light brown to red works better for red banner designs.



The more layers added, the more detail starts to take shape, and this is where you have to be more careful with the edges. Keeping the edges sharp and straight really helps bring the design together.



The final stage of highlights is pure white and should be applied very sparingly to the top edges to emphasize the shape. This is what makes the design stand out and look more 3D.



The last step is to clean up the outer edges and add small detail touches with pure black. This helps fix any mistakes that could have been made earlier and adds contrast to the edges of the design.
This is the second design I did with the same basic process. Enjoy 🙂

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About the Author: Rob Baer

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Rob Baer

Job Title: Managing Editor

Founded Spikey Bits in 2009

Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X

About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.

Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls. 

Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.

Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.

With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.

While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.

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