Here’s the actual numbers of German vehicles sold to the Axis minors in toto (as best as I can find them), in order from most to least numerous:

1. Panzer IV: 387
2. StuG III: 252
3. Panzer 35/38: 214
4. Hetzer: 75
5. Panzer III: 31
6. SdKfz 222/223: 20
7. Panzer I: 8
8. Panther: 5
9. Tiger I: 3

The one pause this gives me is that there are alot fewer Panzer III’s than I had expected; I think that when I was just scanning over the lists, rather than taking the time to actually add them all up, I was seeing all the Panzer IV’s and StuGIII’s and mentally filling in more Panzer III’s than I should have.  Of course, these raw #'s don’t tell us which versions were being used.  And Panzer III’s were being used by 3/4 of the countries in question.  Still, the overall picture makes me think that maybe the Panzer IV is an even higher priority than the Panzer III, here.  (Though I know the Panzer III might be a more popular choice.)  Of course, if you do both and do them in German colors, you haven’t really lost anything, because the German-colored versions of the set could then also serve as a “supplement for the German supplement set”, and you wouldn’t have to do any of them in both…  But if I could find out for sure which Panzer IV version was more used by the minors, you could also do a different Panzer IV in both sets, one early short-barrel and one late long-barrel.  I suspect that the minors might have used the earlier version more, but I don’t know for sure.

Have you decided on the  line-up for the German supplement set yet?

Yeah, it’s one thing to have a set of advanced weapons that are 1 notch (or even half a notch) better than the typical, but so many of the new 3d-printed “expansions” just seem so out there…

@DrLarsen:

To me it seems simple: if you’re going to do Super-BB’s, do them for everyone before you stop and do flying boats for some nation…

Wait, on second thought, just skip the stupid flying boats altogether… And those silly gliders and all the other ridiculous and useless units (Landkreuzer P 1000 Ratte, here’s looking at you!)  Has anyone actually gotten any use out of those flying boats or gliders or ridiculous uber-weapons?  Am I missing something here…?!?

Well, I hope you’re wrong about the de-emphasis on sculpts, too.  I try to spend money on all kinds of HBG products to show my support, but it’s the new pieces that make the whole thing worthwhile for me.

As for the 3d modelled ones, I’ve ordered quite a few, both from the HBG site and directly from Shapeways, but I continually find it frustrating that they’re such a mixed bag… So far we have available super-BB’s for Germany, Japan and France… and the Netherlands… but not the USA or UK?  We have a “Taiho-Kai” but no Midway or Malta?  And does anyone get what his obsession is for flying boats?  I can’t for the life of me come up with a use for them…

Meanwhile, though the Amerika piece set + its expansion gives us nearly every jet or heavy tank we could want, they’re available only in a very limited color palette, so they’re not in the colors that I’ve been using for elites (Dark Green for US, Red for Japan & Black for Germany.)  On the other hand, if I switch and have the darker colors be the “normal” and the lighter Amerika shades be the “elites/ heavies” the holes in HBG’s legacy line-up make this difficult, too.  (e.g., no small ships at all available in the dark green…)  It’s like the company has ADD and can’t focus on the little details enough to maintain consistency or logically-fleshed-out model lines across individual products…

To me it seems simple: if you’re going to do Super-BB’s, do them for everyone before you stop and do flying boats for some nation…

Got mine too, last week, and have to generally concur with the mixed feelings: quite happy that they’re finally out and give us some great new options (Pz IV, PBB, greatcoat inf, etc) but a little disappointed in the mold quality/ detail.  I actually thought the PBB was even worse than the Bismark!  The Leipzig was rather misshapen, too, but it’s so small on this scale that its a little hard to tell, really.  After the amazing near-perfection in the sculpts/ molds for the Amerika & Amerika Expansion pieces, this was a real let-down… but then we should maintain perspective: compared head-to-head with oob pieces, even the worst ones in this set aren’t bad in terms of detail; just maybe a little less… oh… “crisp” I would say, maybe partly because of the duller, less “shiny” plastic material (which is consistent with previous HBG products.)

So, overall, while I’d say that they only fall a bit short of the original/ usual HBG standards; it’s just because they fall so far short of the raised bar that was the Amerika piece set that it seems like it’s worse than it really is…

Was there something radically different in the whole production process between the Amerika set and the Germany #3 set that explains the big quality gap, though?  It does seem a little mystifying to me…

Yeah, one way or another, it’s a lot of data to try to take in all at once…  Which does give some perspective on just how much HBG has accomplished over the years…

Yeah, I noticed that too after I posted.  I also attached the MS Word file, so you could try opening or downloading that.  I could also try converting it to pdf?  Part of the problem is that with 12 sets and almost 30 unit types, it’s hard to get them to fit without making them small… But maybe I’m missing a trick?

Aha, it looks like that worked… Now here’s the other one, a comprehensive list of all the sculpts HBG has done.  Feel free to let me know if I’ve missed anything and I’ll make corrections…

HBG Supplemental Set Piece-Type List C.doc

I thought I’d post this chart that organizes all the current HBG sets/ colors/ nations since I found it helpful in planning/ organizing my own collection… Hopefully this works…

HBG Colors & Nations.doc

@CWO:

Although they’re scaled too big for use in A&A, Navwar has a huge array of 1:3000 scale cast metal warships (WWII and other eras), including some classes which were projected but never laid down or completed.� Â

http://www.navwar.co.uk/nav/pdf/webcat.pdf
http://www.navwar.co.uk/nav/default.asp

I own a small fleet of Navwar WWII-era battleships, though I’ve never yet gotten around to using them in a tabletop game.�  I’ve supplemented them with some epoxy WWII-era carriers from Panzerschiffe.�  They’re a bit larger scale (1:2400) than my battleships, but the difference isn’t too noticeable when they’re side by side.�  Navwar has carriers too, but I got the Panzerschiffe ones because they’re less expensive; my main interest is in battleships, not so much in carriers, so I didn’t bother to invest in a metal carrier fleet.

http://www.panzerschiffe.com/

I actually have a fair # of Navwar & Davco ships in 1/3000 and Panzerschiffen in 1/2400.  (I basically have 1 of most of the key ship-types for each CA, CV, & BB, though my Navwar range has some gaps, as I found them a little hard to get ahold of over here across the pond…)

But like you said, they’re too big for A&A.  I also tried 1/4800, but they’re too small.  One would want a true “Super-BB/ CV/ CA” to be noticeably bigger, not a little smaller than the standard type.  I suppose if one replaced entire navies it would work, but I haven’t been ready to seriously contemplate this yet… I remain hopeful that HBG will come through with a few more of these and then we’ll have a range sized just right…

…But back on topic, HBG’s wonderful products:

Just picked up several of their new 3d-printed “expansion” pieces, and I’m quite Impressed.  Good concept, too; It gives the option of picking up just a few “advanced” or truly unique units for each nation that you’d never need in bulk, like an H-Class or a “Super-Yamato” or a Taiho armored carrier.  I also like having an Alsace and a Bretagne: now at least I have a COUPLE of French ships that aren’t Soviet.  (It STILL mystifies me why WotC gave France Soviet units;  have any of you out there ever even heard of a rational explanation for it?)  I don’t see the logic of some of the 3-d printed options, though… Short Sunderland sea planes?  What would we ever use that for?

What I’m eagerly hoping for to round out the set of “super-ship” expansion pieces is a US Montana super-BB, Midway super-CV, a British Malta super-CV and either a Lion or a Vanguard class for a British super-BB.  I know Variable sells 1/1800 Midways and Maltas at least on his Shapeways site, and I bought one of each to paint up for my WW2 “Mini-Museum…”  I’m somewhat mystified why he hasn’t gotten around to re-sizing at least those two to oh, about 1/4000 or so for HBG to sell as AAA accessories.  Heck, seeing as Variable also has a Sovietsky Soyuz in 1/1800, he ought to re-scale that one too, just to give us a complete set of super-BB’s…  Since the Soyuz was roughly based on the Italian UP41 design, it could be painted (or maybe even printed) in both shades of brown to give a complete set of super-BB’s for all the major powers in the game!  (Once, that is, they’ve got a Lion and a Montana to go along with it…)