Modifying FMG's Italian Battleship

  • Customizer

    Here the BB is showing how it is to be trimmed.

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  • Customizer

    You’ll need sheet styrene.  Cut out some pieces and glue them on top ofeach other in a stack equal to the height of the FMG BB turret.

    Then trim the piece into the square shape of the turret.

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  • Customizer

    Glue the new turret on top of the BB’s B turret.

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  • Customizer

    Next, you’ll need to make the barrels.  I used styrene strips .022 x .033 .

    Cut 3 equal length strips the same length as the BB’s barrels.

    Glue them in place using cyanoacrylate glue.

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  • Customizer

    All 3 barrels in place:

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  • Customizer

    And then paint whatever colour you wish.  I primed the ship first, and then used an acryllic avocado green for the ship, as I did all the Italian pieces I have.

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  • Nice job! Wished some one made a generic triple turrent for smaller(cruiser) ships.Some of my metal models have bad mounts due to old molds.

  • Customizer

    Looks like you did a terrific job.  The final painted version looks almost like it was made that way.  Seems like an awful lot of work though.  Of course, not everyone is a piece junkie like me and bought 5 sets.  I would have to modify 30 battleships if I wanted to do this.  A couple of questions:

    1 - What if you just want to keep your ship(s) in the original molded color?

    2 - Why did you choose that light green color for your Italians?  FMG is coming out with a Canadian set after USA, UK and ANZAC and I think they will be about the same color.  What will you do then?  Or do you not plan on adding the Canadians?

    Just curious.

  • Customizer

    If I wanted to keep it the original brown, I would use a colour matched acrylic just on the BBs.  No need to repaint all the pieces the same brown.

    I chose the green I did as it was a close match to the green Avalon Hill used for their British in the AA Revised.  I thought the colour stood out nicely against the other nations.  And it was similar to the green Avalon Hill used for their Rise and Decline of the Third Reich.

    I don’t plan on buying the Canadian or Anzac sets, but if I do, then there’s always more colours to choose from.  :-)

  • '14

    How about taking a good turret off another battleship? HBG has a lot ships and to keep the color cut a turret off one battleship to use for the messed up turret. 1 battleship to make 2 good ones!  Just an idea!!

  • Customizer

    You could.

    But then you’d have a ‘scrap’ BB.  The seam where it was glued would show as well unless it was painted over.

  • Customizer

    Jim, I like what you’ve done here.  I’ll be trying this with my own as well…

  • '14

    I fixed the battleship by cutting off gun on one battleship and gluing on another. I know it junks one but if you only need 3 or 4 what does it matter. I’ll post picks later. Looks great!!!

  • Customizer

    How does the seam look?


  • Jim,

    You did a great job on this.

    FWIW, I paint my pieces too.  I paint the hull of all my ships (except the subs) Navy Grey and the decks and superstructure the “nation” color.  This makes a very nice effect.

    I have not painted the Italians of my AAE40 set yet, but my nation colors are …
    US - wood decks w/ navy grey superstructures
    UK - Armor sand decks w/ aluminum superstructures
    ANZAC - Forest green decks /w grey superstructures
    Russia - who cares - Light brown
    Japan - leave the decks orange after painting the hull navy grey and paint the superstructure aluminum
    Germany - Paint the hull navy grey, leave the decks alone and paint the superstructures aluminum

    I’m sure there are folks that have ideas for better nation colors or more imagination for the superstructures than aluminum, but something along these lines does add to the effect of painted ships.

    I also paint my other pieces but the color scheme does not exactly match the ships.  For Jaoan, I use IJN green, IJA green and Sand as colors for units.  My Russians get a light brown.  My US units are olive w/ other colors like brown boots and weapons.  My UK units are armor sand and Aussies are forest green; both w/ brown weapons and boots.

    Enjoyed it. Good Luck.

  • Customizer

    I’ve toyed with doing more realistic paint jobs like you have.  I guess I gave up as it involved more than a spray can.  I wouldn’t mind having nively detailed painted pieces for a deluxe game one day though.

    Pics?

  • Customizer

    Hey Dino -

    I painted my AA50th set like what you’ve described, couldn’t agree with you more - and if you do alterations like Jim’s, it also covers up the changes nicely.  Yeah Dino, as far as the paint selections you describe, I like it because such an approach adds enough detail to the minis to make them closer in resemblance to the historical counterparts… yet with color schemes that allow for ease of game play.  I have tried to do total historical accuracy when painting A&A minis before… but it gets too difficult for new players (and some veteran ones) to recognize who is who at a glance - extends gameplay (and that REALLY isn’t needed)… Your (and my I guess) approach offers enough uniformity to avoid this.

    Now… I’m considering other options in regard to altering the battleship’s top cannon… I was wondering if if might be easier for me to simply “raise” the whole thing by merely building onto the one already there with modeling clay.  Hmm…  Mainly because I don’t have the other materials handy right now.

  • Customizer

    You’ll find that the sheet styrene is really going to be easier.  1 block for the turret, 3 strips for the barrels.

  • Customizer

    Hmm… you may be right.  The clay at that scale gets really ‘fiddly’.

  • '14

    THis is what I did, I took the turret off one ship and replaced it on another.

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