Can HBG and GHQ be mixed?

[CWO Marc]

Two other suppliers you may want to investigate are Panzerschiffe (http://www.panzerschiffe.com/), which produces 1/2400 scale model ships cast in resin, and Navwar (http://www.navwar.co.uk/nav/), which produces 1:3000 scale and 1:1200 scale model ships in metal.  Both are somewhat less detailed than GHQ ships, as I recall, but the variety of models they have is quite extensive.

[Modest_Proposal]

Thank you all for your valuable contributions.

Wolfshanze - you have given me some insight on the differences between the OOB units and HBG units in terms of scaling. Good to know and something I will keep in mind.

Considering that HBG and GHQ both scale based on realistic dimensions, they should both be more similar in dimension then either are to OOB.

CWO - I appreciate the links and will check them out.

Leather - I suppose this brings into question the viability of certain units on the board. For example, certain large heavy tanks and especially bomber planes might clutter the board too much. Does this appear to be a problem with appropriately scaled units? Even sea units, I would imagine, in the smaller channels.

John - I will try to find those videos. Much appreciated! Can you tell me, however, if the feeling of handling metal pieces differs significantly from handling plastic pieces?

,David

[carsonbparker]

With GHQ everything will be good to scale for the board game except bombers and the larger ships.  Basically battleships, carriers, and “heavy bombers” will be much larger than the OOB axis pieces.  Some of the tactical bombers can be a good size larger as well. I am working on an all GHQ set but I’ll eventually have a larger board.  Maybe 90 x 45.  I’ll also use flight stands for the tactical and heavy bombers as well.  I plan to use task for cards or markers for the big navies too.

[spencer8030]

Yes they can. I’ve used GHQ, CinC, and HBG armor units together and they fit together nicely. There is a difference in detail so when sitting GHQ pieces next to HBG ones you will see a difference, but HBG is much easier on the pocket book.  I wouldn’t recommend GHQ and CinC navel pieces as they are noticeably bigger than OOB. They only exception is the destroyers, they a very close to OOB and HBG destroyer pieces. I also find the 1/600 is too small for fighters, I’ve found that 1/500 is closer to the OOB size for most fighters.  Here is the scale chart that I use.

Carrier: 6.5 cm
Light/Escort Carrier: 5cm
Battleship: 6 cm
Cruiser: 5.5(HBG)
Light Cruiser 5 cm to 5.5cm
Destroyer 4.8 cm

Planes: (cm is wingtip to wingtip)
Heavy Bomber: 4.7 cm 1/700
Medium Bomber: 3.5 cm 1/600
Heavy Fighter: (Twin engine) 2.8 cm 1/600
Fighter: 2.2 cm 1/500
Light Fighter: 1.7 cm 1/600
Dive/Torpedo Bomber: 3 cm 1/500

[John Brown]

David, I personally don’t have the GHQ models, so I don’t know how they feel, but I’m sure these guys can describe them. :-)

John

[John Brown]

MP, the video of DTROYS GHQ models, is called, “Painted Axis and Allies game board pieces.” This was DTROYS first video ever on Dec. 9, 2013.

I hope this helps!

Cheers!

John

[cyanight]

I use some GHQ for land units.  They are good pieces but the barrels on the tanks tend to bend a lot unlike plastic pieces that have fixed barrels.

[Leatherneckinlv]

Personally I like to scale units

I use 1/3000 scale DD’s for Torpedo Boat Destroyers
I like seeing a Type 95 or an L 6/40 getting dwarfed by a Tiger. Tanks should have variances

For planes I use stands so they are not an issue.

It’s worth it to customize in my opinion

[Modest_Proposal]

carsonbparker -

So, considering you are trying to make a full GHQ set, do you find the battleships, carriers, and heavy bombers (without stands) to be too large for the standard Global and/or Anniversary map?

Perhaps if I tactfully choose only a few large battleships and carriers and stuck mostly to the medium-smaller ones + support carriers.

,David

[sgtwiltan]

HBG vehicles are scaled more to the 1/300 scale while CinC and GHQ are 1/285.
I was going to use the GHQ route but the noodle gun barrels, weight, and paint chipping made me scratch build my own in plastic. Loved it when HBG came along but their older pieces were a little hit or miss in detail and scale. Their newer stuff is fantastic. I have tons of HBG pieces and modify the crap out of them as well as the out of box pieces. Look at my thread in the customization forum and you can see side by side comparisons of HBG, GHQ and OOB pieces and you can see the size relationships.

I also weighed OOB pieces against GHQ metal and found that the GHQ tiger weighs as much as 8 OOB tigers or 6 HBG Tigers. Think about that when you have lots of those metal pieces in you game box. That is why I switched to plastics.

[carsonbparker]

@Modest_Proposal:

carsonbparker -

So, considering you are trying to make a full GHQ set, do you find the battleships, carriers, and heavy bombers (without stands) to be too large for the standard Global and/or Anniversary map?

Perhaps if I tactfully choose only a few large battleships and carriers and stuck mostly to the medium-smaller ones + support carriers.

,David

I think with the bombers is were the real problem would be.  In the average game there usually aren’t tons of carriers and battleships littered across the board so even though they’re a little big its doable.  A big carrier like the Yorktown or the battleship Yamato or Bismark can easy be longer than an individual sea zone.  The destroyer size is perfect and cruisers and smaller battleships fit nicely. The Yorktown for instance is a quarter longer than my middle finger so they’re close to 4 inches long.  But I just finished the Japanese Escort carrier Ryujo and it’s honestly a great size (maybe more like 2.5 /inches). Tanks are perfect, mechanized infantry is just right, fighters are a tab bigger but good size.  Bombers now can span more that a whole country.  For instance the German HE-11 bomber has a wing span of about 2.5 / 3 inches.  On the ground they would virtually take up all the space of say Western Germany.  The magnet flight stands I use have a nail shaft to hold them up (they’re kinda heavy compared to plastic) and the pewter base I use is around the circumference of a quarter so the stands them selves still take up some room.  As the gentleman noted as well the pieces are a bit heavier bit I like the solid feel they bring and they’re kinda tacky on the board which is cool.  Regarding the bigger ships I’ve never been one for shying away for using task cards or zones.  The big navies always use these anyways in my games so they’re not much of a problem.  I’m also going to be to be using a bigger board soon so that will help with the pieces being on the bigger side.  It’s just the tactical and heavy bombers that need to be lifted to make room for the pieces on the bottom.