Dwarven Stickers

cracker nate · Post by **cracker nate** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:15 pm

Hey everyone. Hot on the heels (...hooves...whatever) or my centaur stickers, I submit to you stickers for my dwarf clan (The Fist of the Mountain). I didn't bother doing torsos, as their beards tend to cover those up anyway. So for the torsos I'm using the chainmail pattern that was posted on this forum a few months back.

Anyway, first off are are the shields, using (of course) Sava's templates, but designs and graphics of my very own, done 100% in MSPaint (I really need a new program).

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/lbkna ... hields.jpg

The runes really don't mean anything at this point. And actually they're probably not even real, but rather a mix of "I thought I saw this somewhere before" and "random designs out of my head".

Next up is a battle standard: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/lbkna ... _start.jpg

I used the same runes, but tried to give them a feel of being carved into the wood. I'm still not 100% sure I succeeded, but it still looks pretty good regardless.

The sticker is meant to go on this peice:
http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/891
I haven't seen more than a handful of people out there use it as a banner, and (to my knowledge) no one has slapped a sticker on it. Woo-hoo! I'm first. I thought it turned out pretty well.

Hope you all enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Post by **Formendacil** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:24 pm

Nice designs, they work quite well. The colours and designs look very dwarfen and clean.

Then only thing I think that might look better changed is the runes on the shield. I think that they might look better if the strokes were wider (say one and a half to twice as wide as they currently are), just to give them a bit more of an obvious impact. Also, I'm not sure how well they'll hold up at a printed size.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:52 am

Those runes appear influenced by both Tolkien's Dwarf runes, and Nordic runes.

That's probably where you've seen them (many copies of the Lord of the Rings novels have a border of Dwarf runes, for some reason).

Anyway.. they're good. Although why did you choose to do a banner design in 'wood'?

cracker nate · Post by **cracker nate** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:02 pm

Thanks for the comments. First off, the runes on the shield are a little small. I printed them out yesterday and while they are clearly visible, they look a little "slight" for a group of stout dwarves. I ran into that problem initially on the banner and corrected it, but didn't do it on the shields. I need to go back and do that.

As to the banner in the wood, I really just like the way it looked. I thought that strong dwarves wouldn't have too much of a problem lifting it and toting it around. Also, it goes along more with the idea of the solidity of the dwarves. And while I like cloth banners (and other factions will be getting cloth) I wanted to be able to use metal on it, thus the brackets at the top and bottom.

Hope that answered your questions!

Azaghal · Post by **Azaghal** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:51 pm

I think those are really cool, very Dwarvish. If you're interested in making the runes actually say something (currently they say XAF*, where the * is a non-attested shape and the alphabet is the historical runes, not the Tolkien ones.), then this page will be a big help.

I can't wait to see those on some actual minifigs- will torso stickers follow?

ottoatm · Post by **ottoatm** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:38 pm

At first I wasn't sure how I felt about these because of the possible problem printing the runes... but since you say that is no problem, they are perfect for a group of warriors! Well done - I wonder what software you used?

>>edit>> done 100% in MSPaint (I really need a new program).

DOH... I didn't see that... WELL done for MS Paint

cracker nate · Post by **cracker nate** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:27 pm

Thanks for all the comments. As far as the runes go, I might get around to making them actually say something, but I'm not sure. Thanks for that site though. I'll definatly use that in the future for other projects.

And it was all done in MS Paint, but it wasn't easy. It's taken me over the course of 3 moves, 3 new jobs, 2 computers and 6 months to finally get it to where I was happy with it. (Not working on it constantly of course).

Anyway, I've got the stickers printed out and my small dwarven army assembled, but I'm still trying to locate my camera. As soon as I do though, I'll get pics of these guys up.

Rubberchickenknight · Post by **Rubberchickenknight** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 3:07 am

those look nice. being a fan of dwarves, i congratulate you. i look forward to seeing more dwarf factions. even if you don't make anymore, i will!

here's tolkien's dwarf languge, if you need anymore runes:http://home.online.no/~bjoernat/batman/fonts_dl.htmplus some other fantasy fonts. dwarvish is the 2nd font. there's also some dwarvish from other fantasy series.

Ja_izzle · Post by **Ja_izzle** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:52 pm

Um, i have a quick question for ya.. with your banner.. i've considered stickering that piece before, but i never knew the correct size for it, so what size in pixels did you use to make that stickie?

Jason

Umgarla · Post by **Umgarla** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:40 pm

Azaghal wrote:(currently they say XAF*, where the * is a non-attested shape and the alphabet is the historical runes, not the Tolkien ones.)

You're close, but in fact it says ZAF* if you're speaking of norse runes.

cracker nate · Post by **cracker nate** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:47 pm

Um, i have a quick question for ya.. with your banner.. i've considered stickering that piece before, but i never knew the correct size for it, so what size in pixels did you use to make that stickie?

Jeez, I have to honest. I don't know. I just made it at a workable size, and then copy and pasted it to word, and changed the size of the image there. Basically, the size on the Brickself account is what I worked at.