I mostly cheat as well, bung the originals, print the shields out and glue to card...works with pavisen and all other types.
http://paulsbods.blogspot.de/2011/05/pavisen-in-172nd.html
It's awesome that you make your own shields from scratch, and do such a good job at that!
I always have a very hard time producing my own shields. My problem was always with symmetry. I used to draw and cut out half of the shield and then trace it, flip it, trace it again, but symmetry was always shoddy. I totally learned from your article that printing and gluing the shape and then using that to cut is obviously the best answer! So obvious after someone shows you
Thanks a lot for posting,
n.