HBG Red (Communist China) vs Light Red


  • Hello all,

    Does anyone have pieces in both these HBG colours and are they close enough that you could mix and match between the two to form your Communist Chinese force? I don’t like painting except when I absolutely have to.

    Are they a closer match than Pumpkin Orange vs ‘wrong coloured’ Japanese pieces as a useful comparison?

    If some one could post a photo of the two colours side by side that would be really helpful.

    Thanks in advance for any help.

    Cred


  • @Credulous

    That’s interesting that you point that out. I don’t know if I even realized they had a Light Red color. It’s funny, when I look at pieces by color, and go to the Light Red section, I see all the pieces there available in Pumpkin Orange, Yellow Gold, Rose, and Red, but Light Red is not an option to select.

    I’d be curious to hear this as well, as I’m with you, in that I like to have the different colors for my forces. It would be nice to one day actually paint my units fully, but that’s not realistic for my time and ability at this point.

    My gut reaction, if the colors they use on their website are any indication, is that the Light Red looks similar enough to the Red where you could supplement your Communist Chinese pretty well.

    But again, would also like to hear from someone who has actually gotten some.


  • @Credulous they are the same color. They also match the red Japanese pieces that came with the old version of A&A Pacific 2001.


  • @JustLuthor

    Thank you - I had a feeling they might be but thanks for confirming. Makes getting the whole Communist China force sorted a little easier! Although all infantry sculpts across ‘both’ colours currently sold out which is a little annoying.

    I have some Pacific 2001 pieces as the nucleus to my force - I like the red!

    @Chris_Henry - I don’t have the same problem with the website you do. Under light red I just see all the Soviet sculpts. So not sure what is going on there for you!


  • @Credulous interesting, so I see the same thing, all the Soviet sculpts. But the color options to chose from, even though it’s the Light Red filter, are only Maroon, Brown, Red, Plum.

    That may have been part of my confusion. If so, I apologize for muddying the waters! Yes, the Communist Red and Light Red would be considered the same thing then. It’s just a different filtering option so that you can see certain colors as opposed to nations. In this case, both lead to the same options!

    I just didn’t realize Soviet Red was considered Light Red!

    You might not want to mix it up at all, but I’m pretty sure the Japanese Red is also pretty spot on as well!


  • Initially, I was going to use the “Japanese” red to build Manchukuo or Siamese forces, but found that it was difficult for me to tell the difference between the two when they’re placed on the board (I’m significantly red-green colorblind). At least with the Russian pieces, I can tell what they are.


  • I am red/green/brown colour blind, but not to the degree you describe.

    I use celery green brits for the KMT as I don’t like the lack of available units from HBG in yellow green, but I do struggle to tell them apart from tan brits a little.

    As a non-painter (except where I have to), all the major powers are relatively easy to get a full setup without painting (Apart from the gaps which are going to be addressed by base set 2 and other future sets, and the other important colours (red, yellow, plum, light grey, and Dutch orange) have got pretty good coverage, but I wish HBG would release their base sets in those colours to really fill in the gaps.

    They could also do with a sub, mech inf and a carrier sculpt in the colours which don’t have those available (light grey, yellow, plum, Dutch orange, and white).

    And then a load more yellow green sculpts so you can do KMT properly.

    One day maybe…


  • @Credulous I totally agree with you, would LOVE to have some other units in the other colors as well. I get it might not make financial sense to make some units, but I hope that changes! I’m with you, I don’t have a ton of extra time/money to paint, so having units available in other colors would be great. I’m dying for a Dutch orange submarine haha. I know they have a sub in that expansion, but I’d definitely like one that isn’t just painted. A neutral nation sub to go with the destroyer, cruiser, and transport, would be ideal!

    I find the yellow green for the KMT to be just fine. Yeah, it’s a little off, but it gets the point across!


  • @Chris_Henry, agreed! What I’ve done in the meantime is I bought A&A Classic subs, and painted them orange for my Dutch set.


  • @Chris_Henry I don’t actually have any of the yellow green HBG pieces - I just went straight for my revised edition celery green pieces as the coverage was good. The yellow green would be my preference but the unit coverage is so poor given they have the potential to be a major power.

    On the not financially viable point you make as I understand it when Doug does a run in a colour there are a certain number of slots to fill with the supplier in the order of 12-14 sculpts so as long as you have missing sculpts to match that quota in a certain colour you should be able to make something that people will buy - KMT easily meets that criteria given how poor the coverage of the current range is but maybe he has plans for an actual China set at some point?

    Its kinda funny that by comparison you can buy Red sculpts of heavy battleships, heavy bombers and super subs (as extreme examples) for your communist Chinese force should you wish!


  • @Credulous Nice, I wish I had some of those celery green UK units! Every once in a while I get tempted to buy the stock HBG has. I’d love to create a separate Canadian and South African force sometime, Canada being the blonde, and South Africa the celery. I have the blonde UK infantry from D-Day, and with the celery infantry you can then create small armies for each from the stock HBG has already in each of those colors! Maybe I’ll pull the trigger some time. Those infantry are hard to come by!

    Interesting, I suppose that makes sense for buying! I always just assume it was something like Doug thought it wasn’t viable to buy X number of a certain unit in a certain color when only Y amount will realistically be sold. But if a bit easier than that would definitely be nice to see some units/nations/colors fanned out a bit more for some!

    A China set would be pretty awesome if they did it! One of those though where it’s how often will China realistically buy anything other than infantry, cavalry, and artillery though? But I agree, it’s a bummer in some ways that you can buy units in certain colors you’ll never have a use for, and others that you could totally use are unavailable!

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