Magnetic Planes and Carrier mods *video

@pyrix137 Is anyone here playing Conquest of Nerath?
It is VERY Gamemaster Series-like so I guess a sizeable part of Axis and Allies players might like it.

I just bought this game…

Thank you for the positive feedback! I forgot to say that in the previous post, and it’s very important that I do. It’s very encouraging and motivating to get good feedback, and we certainly appreciate it. The above mentioned four Essex class carriers are complete, a long with several other ships of the US Navy, so its time to update the thread. Just ships by FOlewnik in this post. More aircraft are almost done but I haven’t put magnets in them yet (so not really done), so no aircraft pictures this post.

We’ll start with the two “odd men out” of the HBG sculpt Baltimore Class Heavy Cruisers. Why “odd men out”? Because in the below picture we have on the left, the USS Unnamed Baltimore Class Cruiser Wearing Measure 31a, Design 9C, and on the right is the USS Columbus (CA 74), which wasn’t commissioned until June 8, 1945. The cruiser with the long name is wearing a design that was never used, but was taken from a period design found at https://www.wikiwand.com/en/World_War_II_US_Navy_dazzle_camouflage_measures_31,_32_and_33:_cruisers. The USS Columbus is wearing a Measure 12 Modified designed by FOlewnik to match the pieces we’ll be using for the US Atlantic fleet. These will get aircraft added, but at the time of the photographs the decals on the wings of the aircraft were drying.
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Next up are some metal destroyers from GHQ. Below on the left, the very brave USS Johnston (DD-557) painted in MS-3_/6D as it looked when it was “Sunk by Japanese Warships off Samar October 25 1944,” and next to it is USS Van Valkenburgh (DD-656) painted in camouflage Measure 31, Design 9d. All Wartime photos taken from Navsource.org, a great resource for US Navy history buffs.
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Below, the real USS Johnston shortly before her final battle, and the official design sheet:
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A great wartime picture of the USS Van Valkenburgh, which is the same on both sides:
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Now on to these two. From GHQ, USS The Sullivans (DD-537) painted in Measure 1, and the HBG sculpt light cruiser USS Marblehead (CL-12) who always wore Measure 2 throughout the war. If I can get FOlewnik to put the Shamrock on the first stack of The Sullivans when he puts the scout aircraft on the Marblehead, as seen in the below wartime photograph, I’ll come back and edit the post.
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The post previous to this post showed four Essex Class sculpts from HBG getting prepped and started with a base coat. Those are now completed and I had too much fun playing with them and the aircraft (that are complete so far) while I was taking photographs. I’m pretty sure I didn’t make any wooshing sea or aircraft noises or FOlewnik would have laughed at me. I was tempted though, and here’s why:
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Above we have the first of the Long Hull Essex Class, USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) on the left looking as she did after her April 1945 refit from suffering a Kamikaze Attack on January 21, 1945, and USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) on the right. The Bunker Hill is wearing Measure 33, Design 6A, of which Navsource says, “Her port side camouflage pattern was the most intricate design applied to any carrier.” One glance can confirm that!
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The final two Essex Class carriers are the USS Essex (CV-9) herself, and the USS Bennington (CV-20). The Essex is wearing a unique pattern, Measure 32v6, Design 10D, adapted from a destroyer pattern specifically for the long hulled Essex. The Bennington is painted in Measure 32, Design 17A.
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Finally, some group pictures just for fun:
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Thank you for checking out the post! If you liked it, please click the little heart. I’m trying to figure out why our post is only rated with a 2 when it seems it should be a bit higher if the other likes are any indication.

Those are very impressive, sir.  Not just the details and kitbashing but the paint job and wash as well.

@Young:

Thanks CWO Marc, really appreciate your comments… do you play often? I understand there is a lot of players in Montreal, do you have a game group?

For many years I’ve had too much going on in my life, professionally and otherwise, to have had time to do much of anything other than collecting the A&A games.  And, to be honest, I have too many issues with many of the features of the various A&A games that I’ll probably never play anything other than what I’m hoping to create at some distant point in the future when I do have the time for it, which is a completely personalized version of the Global game that, for all intents and purposes, keeps the sculpts and the map board but throws out the entire rulebook and reconceptualizes the game from scratch.  And it’s not even fully correct to say “keeps the sculpts and the map board” either.  I’ll be expanding the number of nations and the number of unit types by making use of the very large pool of A&A sculpts I’ve acquired over the years, for instance the ones from the early-edition games and the ones from 1941 and 1914.  And as I’ve noted in the thread where I’ve posted pictures of my custom table, one of the first things I did to the Global 1940 map was to rework its “under-the-plexiglass” roundel allocations to better reflect the structure of the world as it existed prior to the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, as a starting point from which I can then modify the map (by placing roundels on top of the plexiglass) to represent any subsequent starting date from 1931 onward.  A related project that I worked on to create the infrastructure for this eventual new game was the Global 1940 map inventory, a copy of which I posted over here last September:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36590.0

But at this point I don’t have an actual plan for what this reconceptualization will look like.  Nor am I likely to do so until I have the time to work on this project solidly for months at a time…so this may have to wait until retirement (which isn’t for tomorrow by a long shot) before this idea translates into anything concrete.

I went to the local dollar store and bought some plastic storage trays that fit all my pieces. The blue tack planes and stands all fit in one of the trays, so i don’t waste time breaking them down. The odd one i have to reattach, but the freeing of space on the board is worth any hassle. I think in time i will invest in the magnets for the stands and planes, would be nice to have every plane with magnets so the stands will be more universal.

So very true. When I first started painting my aircraft I had to include decal roundels for the players to distinguish the pieces from one another. My naval units are painted mostly with a color scheme for playability except for the capital ships like the Carriers and popular Battleships. All of them have a decal or flag to show which nation they belong too. I actually replaced the OOB British Cruisers because I thought they looked too close in size with the destroyers. I ended up replacing with some ships I found on Shapeways. The biggest problem I had with naval units is that they can exist in the same seazone with enemy pieces unlike land territories. Because of this I decided to keep the subs, destroyers, cruisers and non unique battleships following a color scheme. There are so many colors in the spectrum though we should be able to come up with a solution that will make them look more historical yet keep the pattern or color scheme for the nation. I really would love to paint all the ships historically and maybe I will revisit them again someday. Every time I go back and repaint my pieces I seem to get better at it. Or at least I think I do, hehe.

Anzac defender,

––Keep up the good work.
----I don’t know if you’re interested, but there is a company called I-94 Enterprises that make many, many decals that are useful for our A&A units.

Tall Paul

You guys might want to check these sites out. Or just scroll up above this post.

@Imperious:

I found it.

http://corseceng.com/omni-stand/

This link has everything you need.  I will be using the black 30 mm stand with peg and micro magnets from the above link.

I think for global 40 sets will suffice, possibly 50. Need micro magnets for all the planes ( about 80-90) and 40 for the stands.

@Imperious:

I am combining the resources for making these bases.

This site has the proper magnets. Still looking for metal rods that are pre-cut about 2 inches.

A friend of mine has the most perfect examples. Here is what he did ( reprinted from email).

I bought the magnets from K&J Magnetics…  They were almost the smallest available size with a hole in the center to fit a 1/16" rod.

I drilled holes in pennies, glued 1/16 inch brass rod into them, placed the magnet on top and glued it down.

http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=10
http://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=RC22  ( this link has the base with 1/8 OD hole)

@Gargantua:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=21083.0

Is a link where YOU personally link the instructional!

Also
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=21207.0

@Gargantua:

Somewhere in the customizations section a guy made a whole tutorial, with downloadable PDF’s.

Other Links

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=22472.0

http://www.downloadonline.info/dl/870394/magnetic_ac/