HBG Russian set painted

@leebear

That’ll do it - and after you have used your playing pieces for a while, you’ll see if you need to spray a new layer of matt varnish.

2-3 layers - each layer thinly sprayed - and dry 24 hours between each layer.

You units will last a lifetime:+1:

Ah, yet another good use for the coasters!

I was awarded the Customizer badge at some point unknown, but marked on my pictures post as to when I found out I was a recipient. There is a post somewhere on the forums that tells of the process and from what I recall one has to be nominated by someone to a moderator and there is some sort of review process. Here’s a link to the award discussion thread: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/24173/customizers-round-2

Glad you enjoy the pics and tips! We all inspire each other with our pictures, tips, and techniques, so keep sharing!

@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.

Nice work - Dare I ask how many hours you put into it? For interest’s sake.

Very nice work. I’m way too unsteady of hand and mind to pull that off.

@IdaRed:

Thanks for the input John and Marc.  The differences Marc mentioned do matter to me as I am somewhat obsessive about details. I suspect I will end up a piece junkie eventually as well as I’ve always liked miniatures and model building.  I’m not going to be painting my newer pieces anytime soon.  I am very tempted to start practicing on the older pieces first and work my way to the newer sculpts when I am satisfied with my skill level.  I actually got interested in painting game minis by a friend after he showed me his Battlelore set.  He showed me how just a little bit of paint–even a basic paint job–could make a mini so much more appealing and more fun to game with.  I’ve been really impressed with the painted minis posted in this forum.   Â

I need to sit down and budget out minis. I think I am leaning toward just buying new copies of the games and supplementing with HBG minis for additional sculpts.  The main drawback to just buying HBG minis is a number of the basic ones for ANZAC and Italy are out of stock right now.

It sounds as if you already fully qualify as a piece junkie (even if you don’t necessarily own a lot of sculpts right now), so welcome to the club.  :)

It also sounds as if we operate on a very similar wavelength when it comes to the kinds of details that we consider important.  I have a huge amount of respect for enthusiasts who paint their sculpts – often to an awe-inspiring degree of detail – but in my particular case I’ve never been interested in painting or otherwise customizing my sculpts (which is a good thing, because even if I had the interest I wouldn’t have the time and that I doubt I’d have the required eyesight and manual dexterity).  In fact, for me one of the fun challenges of collecting A&A sculpts has always been: how can I organize the sculpts to make the best possible use of the range of designs and colours available, without actually modifying the sculpts themselves?  How can I make use of the changes in design and colour that have taken place over the years to represent more powers that the current OOB represent?

I’m still waffling over some of the choices available to me, but one example of what I’m talking about has worked out so well that I consider it finalized.  I use the nationally-distinctive butternut-grey ANZAC pieces from G40/2 to represent the southern self-governing Commonwealth Dominions (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), and I use the British-patterned butternut-grey “ANZAC” pieces from G40/1 (boosted with half of the G40/2 ANZAC AAA units) to represent the northern self-governing Commonwealth Dominions of Canada, Newfoundland and Eire.  Initially I had planned to use the “blonde” UK units from D-Day to represent Eire, which starts out as a neutral, but then I realized that this distinction wasn’t necessary: if Eire is neutral then there’s no point in giving it any units at all, and if Eire joins the war then it acquires the same status as the other northern Commonwealth Dominions and thus there’s no need for its units to be different.

These pieces look great. I especially like the armor.

@Albert:

@Spitfire38:

I have looked at I-94’s decals and thought about it… the only ones I have trouble with are the Russian stars. I enjoy hand painting the insignia and I feel like it makes it look more uniform when it’s all paint, but like you said, it would definitely save some time  :lol:

Well you could save some effort there as Moscow ordered upper wing stars to be painted out on the eve of the German invasion……plain green was also changed to green with a black disruptive camo pattern   http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/index.html

I didn’t know that they painted over the top-wing stars. Thanks for sharing! If I were to paint them again, I’d probably leave them on or use decals, just for easy recognition on the game board, but I like knowing what was historically accurate.