Hello, still new to the painting miniatures...boba is my 4th miniature ever...I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to achieve the mandalorian symbol on the shoulder pad? Thanks!!!

Have a look at Sorastro`s painting guide, really good guide and should solve it for you !!

Trying to think of anything but freehanding it, but coming up short.

I've tried custom transfer etc, but nothing really beats just painting it (although when I finished Boba, I just left the shoulder pads, as I wasn't sure I could pull that sort of thing off yet).

It can be a bit intimidating to attempt, but just use a few spare minis or bits to practice on, and when your confident you can nail it, hold you breath and hit Boba with a brush.

Honestly, Sorastro is the best start.

If you are new to painting miniatures, Sorastro starts small then goes large. Soon you'll be thinking to yourself "Now to make it really pop!"

It will be interesting to see how different his Legion Boba will be to the IA Boba.

In addition to Sorastro's helpful videos, I think it's important to reiterate that you don't need to perfectly capture the mythosaur skull. You're really trying to get the suggestion of it, and on such a small scale the brain will fill in the smaller details. For my Boba, I painted a beige rectangle onto the yellow shoulder pad to match the backdrop. I painted a red cone in the center, fat on top and tapered to the bottom, and then did small red lines for the horns coming out from the sides and pointing back towards the center. I didn't worry about nailing the eyes or the veins at the end of the skull, but just those simple red lines is enough to effectively make an illusion of the mythosaur image. An if you mess it up, you can always paint over and start again!