It's been more than a week since my last post. I've made a lot of progress on the swordsmen but I don't have any finished models to show just yet.
Thanks for the suggestions! I've tried two alternatives:
Don't mind the exact colours too much. They're actually identical, only with different lighting. The left picture is closest to reality. Left is the original, middle is the original only with yellow borders and right is the original only with yellow borders and a bone-coloured skull. I'm erring toward the middle one. Bold, plain and simple. What do you guys think?
I've also shaded the cannon's barrel because it was looking a bit flat in retrospect. I used a 50/50 dark tone/flow medium mix. Quite an improvement, I think.
Finally, here's a new iteration on the swordsmen's flag, plus the earlier version for comparison:
(left: old, right: new)
The yellow border is slightly thinner, the coat of arms bigger and there's new lettering on the scroll. Interested in any suggestions, as always!
I deliberately chose an old-looking font because it seemed more appropriate than caps locked Times New Roman or whatever the source material used. 'Duty - Honour' is a bit bland but it does sum up Empire swordsmen well enough. I could've used 'Altdorf' but that would've been boring. I experimented with draping the scroll around the cross but that became a tangled mess.