Modifying FMG's Italian Battleship

[jim010]

Unless you mean other pieces?  I used Table Tactics’ half track, and Avalon Hill’s infantry.  All other pieces I used were FMG’s.  I didn’t use FMG’s trucks, armoured cars or infantry.

[Lunarwolf]

how come you dont use their infantry? too small?

[Tall Paul]

Jim010,

Good Job!  And on such a small size as well.  Well done.

“Tall Paul”

[jim010]

@Tall:

Jim010,

Good Job!  And on such a small size as well.  Well done.

“Tall Paul”

Thanks.  Wasn’t hard to do, though.  I still have a couple Italian BBs I will do, so later on I’ll post a how to.

CHeers

[jim010]

OK, here we go:

First, here’s a shot of teh FMG BB again before modification.

Use an exacto knife to trim off the B turret barrels so that you have a level plane from the top of A turret to the top of B turret.

[jim010]

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

[jim010]

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.

[jim010]

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

[jim010]

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.

[jim010]

All 3 barrels in place:

[jim010]

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.

[KOOLHOVEN]

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.

[knp7765]

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.

[jim010]

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.  :-)

[Tigerman77]

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!!

[jim010]

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.

[Viracocha]

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

[Tigerman77]

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!!!

[jim010]

How does the seam look?

[dinosaur]

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.