Painted Shields or Decals?

[Lord Ekard]

Both or either.

I quote same opinion

[Mad Doc Morris]

It depends on your viewpoint: is painting miniatures a craft or art? If you're just interested in getting figures onto the tabletop, decals make life so much easier. However, if you're aiming for that bit of individuality and sensation, there's no better way than custom freehands which, of course, need a lot more practice, effort and time.

Personally, I go for both as required. It's a nice little challenge to research or make up suitable motifs and then get them onto the actual model (which often needs a fair bit of artistic license). But there's a level of detail and accuracy I'm neither able nor determined to achieve, and for that – and a uniformed look in particular – I'm happily using decals. Quite often I find myself mixing both approaches, that is painting over decals, copying given designs by hand or throwing together decals and freehands in the same unit/force.

Whatever works for you best is the right choice.

[wrgmr1]

After 39 years of painting and collecting I've realized my painting limitations.
Thus mostly decals, Thanks LBM!!
I will paint the odd shield if I can't find what I want in a decal.

[Operon]

I pretty much paint all my shields by hand.  That being said, why not combine both techniques?  I have recently repainted some older models that were painted neatly but lacked highlights or blending.  Rather, than stripping the paint and starting over I simply painted over the model with highlights and I was really happy with the results. 

I imagine you could apply a decal then paint over the design.  It sounds like it would be easy as pie as you already have an outlined design.  This would make each shield look unique and allow you to apply more variety in color. 

I know someone who used this technique with Roman shields and it looked like he pained all his shields freehand.  The results were amazing and it took very little time. 

[dm]

i agree with the Captain but with the way my eyes have gone in recent years decals may soon be making their way on to my next project and LBM do some stonkers

[fastolfrus]

There is a third option.

Fingernails.

Find a girl who works in one of those places that do fancy fingernail painting.
Get her to paint your shields.

[James Morris]

I really enjoy painting my own shields, but I know many who don't.  I tried waterslide decals in the past which, I felt, required too much extra work to make them look good.  LBM are brilliant though!