What's the correct font for the names stenciled on Marine armour and helmets?

PM sent Sidewinder
UKCM @ www.colonialmarines.co.uk
[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/mantroon/exewingbanner.jpg[/img]
www.exewing.co.uk/

A man may fight for many things: his country, his principles, his friends, the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally I'd mud wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock, and a sack of French porn.

I'll chip in here for anyone who missed it the last time.

As far as we know, nobody has ever managed to find a ready-made font which looks like the one used on the armour (and the Sulaco sets etc etc), so I took it upon myself to create one. It looks like this

[img]http://www.encom.demon.co.uk/fonts/armourname.jpg[/img]

and you can get it free by clicking on the image.

While we're at it, I also created a font to simulate the writing on the nametapes (worn on the breasts of the BDUs). As the originals were written by hand and vary a lot, this was done by gathering as many photos of the originals as possible and averaging them out!

[img]http://www.encom.demon.co.uk/fonts/nametapename.jpg[/img]

- again, click on the image to download it.

I'm happy to give these away to anyone who wants them - my only wish is to see more armour (and nametapes) done in the right font; that's the point of the exercise.

Further information: the armour names should be in matt black, and 12mm high (if you use my font just use 50pt). For positioning, see my diagram below:

[img]http://www.encom.demon.co.uk/ezboard/placement.jpg[/img]

The armour font is capitals only; I didn't do lower case because it isn't used in the film. If you type lower case you'll get the letters but they're not stencil. As a graphic designer I'd rather not see the font used like this. Also, if you use these fonts on websites or graphics, please don't stretch them!

For the nametapes, if you want screen-accurate you need to write them on with something like black marker pen. Check out photos of the original costumes to get the size right.

That's all I can think of. Have fun!
Mike

Brilliant, thanks guys.

Mike, how did you know my surname was Smith??

SAS
Anything that, in happening causes itself to happen, happens again.

Just a wild stab in the dark.
Mike

You've seen these before, but to make your day..

[img]http://home.earthlink.net/~treadwell_jay/images/USCM/HelmetBacksm.jpg[/img]

[img]http://home.earthlink.net/~treadwell_jay/images/USCM/front1sm.jpg[/img]

(Don't have a pic of my nametape handy. Armor's more weathered now, but anyway...)

Thanks again for making those fonts, Mike!

Edited by: [url=http://p220.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=treadwell>Treadwell[/url]  at: 11/7/06 10:03 am

Ah, so 12 mm even if your name is too long then? Ok, I take good note.
Cpl Saincantin, J. A07/TQ0.0.82143E1

The current location of Mike Rush's USCM fonts are now here:

http://www.mrush.co.uk/sffonts/

Russ

_________________
"A writer needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a filmmaker an army." - Orson Wells.

http://www.rookscastle.com
http://www.alchemyarms.com

Hey everyone

Just thought I'd create this thread for the Archives as an updated resource for Mike Rush's amazing fonts which we are so grateful for.

Here's what Mike had to say about them in the original archived thread:



USCM Armour Stencil Font Height: 12mm/50pt
USCM Nametapes Font Height: 13mm/50pt

LINK to download .zip file containing both the Armour Stencil and Name Tape fonts:



Once downloaded to your preferred destination, right click the .zip folder, select "Extract to: USCM Fonts" and it will create an unzipped folder. Head into that and right click each font file and click "Install".

_________________
Lt. Melissa L. Klassen, ALG
AL Colonial Admin. - Executive Officer (XO) -- 2021-2022
RCCM | Royal Canadian Colonial Marines - Commanding Officer (CO) -- 2021-2022

Read the AL Charter Rules & Regulations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i3gd9QUyIqI_6rfk8kpxspbKU-JT4MBAjLPxfCkvGJ8

Thanks VERY much!

Question: What is the policy on use of these fonts for projects like my 3D Aliens web-comic, using these fonts on the 3D models of the Colonial Marines that I've made, etc?

In all the lawyer talks I have had regarding cosplay:
Unless you are selling a physical likeness caricature (mini figure) generally the copyright holders are going to generally leave you alone.
If you can prove you are drawing everything from scratch and not outright copying you should be fine.

Copyright law has two levels of penalty willful infringement and another I can not remember the name of. Willful infringement is where it gets expensive.

Fan artwork and derivative works where you are taking things is generally protected. As long as you make an effort to make it unique you should be fine.

Did you show your stuff to Michael Bien and get his thoughts? As a director if he gave the thumbs up I would give that as an indication you are fine.

Generally you will not get a response if you ask for permission from the copyright holders (studios.) You can take the silence to equate to acceptance of what you are doing.

I am not a lawyer but that is the small smidgen I know on things. If you do not have any copyright lawyers in your area I can point you to one of the lawyers here locally that did some of the RIAA lawsuits if you need clarification with absolute certainty.

_________________
The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

I believe Mike's original request that you not use these fonts for commercial gain. You can always ask Harry, and he in turn might be able to ask Mike.

Russ

_________________
"A writer needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a filmmaker an army." - Orson Wells.

http://www.rookscastle.com
http://www.alchemyarms.com

Thanks to you both for the info; that is much appreciated. I will ask Harry about getting Mike's permission to use the fonts; I'm a designer too, and I know how I'd feel about somebody using my fonts without asking. The project I'm using them for is definitely non-commercial, just a fan-based web-comic that's an unofficial non-canon "sequel" to Aliens (http://www.ncc-1701-a.net/aliens), but still I'd not use somebody else's fonts without their permission and without giving them proper credit. Again, many thanks for the info.

Usually, giving credit where credit is due is enough, but it NEVER hurts to ask first.

Russ

_________________
"A writer needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a filmmaker an army." - Orson Wells.

http://www.rookscastle.com
http://www.alchemyarms.com