Redvers and Son have a Baronial Kerfuffle

I’ve been wargaming since the late 1980s. In all that time, the only banners I’ve ever created were pre-cast as part of the model and required either painting or sticking a transfer on. Never have I printed or used a paper banner. But now seems like a good time to start, especially as a large banner will really add some colour and focus to my warband.

I’m well aware that uncle Gerry has a Gerry Can video on this topic, but here’s my experience of my first banner (and pennant).

First up, I ordered a William de Warenne banner from Flags of War. This was bigger than I was expecting and not wanting to cut it down, I need to increase the size of the banner pole. I had used a plastic spear from the Wargames Atlantic starter box but this was a bit flimsy, to replacing it with something sturdier made sense.

I ordered a 1mm diameter steel rod and then got to work removing the plastic spear (easy). Drilling a 1mm hole through the clenched fist of my knight (challenging to keep the hole straight but doable). Cutting the steel rod to the right length (f’ing difficult as I didn’t have anything strong enough to cut steel and didn’t realise how tough steel is – I used a hacksaw and dremel in the end). And then finally sliding the steel rod into place and gluing (easy).

I topped the steel rod with a bit of cut down sprue to at least give it some visual feature.

I was unsure how the paper the banner was printed on would react to the pva glue that I have. I was also unsure whether I should use foil for stiffness and, if I did, how this would work with the glue. I didn’t want to use superglue at any point as this would dry too quickly and likely mess the printed banner.

So, before going further, time to cut some trial banners from the Flags of War paper and test them out. As per the picture below, I tried,

• The paper glued to tin foil and then glued round a pole
• The paper glued to the foil found round the top of a wine bottle
• Just the paper glue round a pole
• The paper glued to some more paper and then glued round a pole

And the conclusion? Gluing the banner to some paper, letting it dry and then gluing that around the pole gave the right level of thickness and rigidity. I also found that the foil didn’t glue so well and wanting to avoid issues, ditched that approach.

With the tests completed, time to glue the banner to some paper, paint the knight holding the banner pole and then glue the banner in place.

I ended up making two banners. The Barons’ War rules allow you to have a banner or a pennant, with the banner being better. But, just in case I want a pennant, I put both together.

The final touch was to paint the white edges of the banner blue and yellow so that it didn’t stand out. And job done.