…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…)
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…)
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.
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.
@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.aspI 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.
I actually have a fair # of Navwar & Davco ships in 1/3000 and Panzerschiffen in 1/2400. Â (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. Â I also tried 1/4800, but they’re too small. Â One would want a true “Super-BB/ CV/ CA” to be noticeably bigger, not a little smaller than the standard type. Â 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…
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…
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…
Nice chart but it’s a bit small and hard to read (even when clicked to expand it). Would you have a larger version? Your posted files are in the 20 to 75 KB range, but the forum allows posts up to 1536 KB in size.
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?
I’ve just downloaded the Word files and cranked up the magnification, which made the contents of the charts easily readable (at the expense of no longer being able to see the whole chart at once, which is fine; all one has to do is scroll either sideways or up and down). Thanks for the idea.
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, 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…
And even just sticking to the OOB sculpts, we still have a lot of information to absorb. If we take the OOB Global 1940 2nd edition sculpts, replace Britain’s American-pattern naval transport with the British design from A&A 1941, replace Russia’s British-pattern aircraft carrier with the Russian design from A&A 1941, give China an American P-40 Warhawk from A&A 1941 as its Flying Tiger fighter unit, and ignore France’s non-infantry equipment units because they’re foreign-patterned, that adds up to 101 individual sculpt designs spread out over nine nations and fourteen unit categories. As I once read in a book about wargaming, “For those who like complications, World War Two is ideal.”
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a9d6c9feeb404498732dab770&id=5f954f9aef&e=61dfa6b239
" We have received our German Set 3 from China and are in the middle of QC, and will be sending out the pre-ordered sets next week. We will not be offering future pieces in sets but only in pieces in quantity of 5 so please be aware. You will see the sets slowly going away. We have had a major issue with these pieces, we have had 100% failure on the Bismarck and Leipzig ships so these 2 pieces will not be for sale BUT they will be included in the pre-ordered sets plus 2 extra Panzer IV tanks and 2 extra Panzer V tanks to compensate for the defective pieces. We are very sorry about this but it is beyond our control."
Soooo… that is really bad news. I assume this is part of the reason to stop selling full sets.
100% failure sounds to me like the pieces are very warped or disfigured somehow. Apparently they are okay enough to include in the pre-orders but not for individual sale? I don’t quite understand. Very unfortunate since both of these were pieces I was REALLY looking forward to getting. Kudos to HBG for including extra tanks to compensate for the problem pieces.
Couple questions for HBG should they be inclined to answer: (1) Any chance of these molds being included or revised for future re-production? (2) If not, could these models be made available through Shapeways (in their appropriate A&A/Battle Pieces scale)?
In their comments section to their Facebook post linking to that newsletter, HBG said they will do 3D printed runs of the Bismark and Leipzig.
When will that be, who knows.
But I’m glad that it will be a thing. I was looking forward to the Bismark the most and didn’t realize it until I read that the pieces were defective. Hope to see those 3D printed pieces on their website soon.
Some good news for those of us waiting for the French sets.
Coach has said that they are starting on them very soon. I’ve been waiting for these for a while, so I am looking forward to them.
Some good news for those of us waiting for the French sets.
Coach has said that they are starting on them very soon. I’ve been waiting for these for a while, so I am looking forward to them.
That is great news. I’m looking forward to that set. Thanks for the info. :-D
Some good news for those of us waiting for the French sets.
Coach has said that they are starting on them very soon.� I’ve been waiting for these for a while, so I am looking forward to them.
That is great news. I’m looking forward to that set. Thanks for the info. :-D
Keen as for the French. Obviously I’ll be using them for EW French and Vichy forces, in addition I’ll be painting quite a few sculpts as Belgian, Romanian and Spanish republic forces
Some good news for those of us waiting for the French sets.
Coach has said that they are starting on them very soon.� I’ve been waiting for these for a while, so I am looking forward to them.
That is great news. I’m looking forward to that set. Thanks for the info. :-D
Keen as for the French. Obviously I’ll be using them for EW French and Vichy forces, in addition I’ll be painting quite a few sculpts as Belgian, Romanian and Spanish republic forces
Awesome, cannot wait, to see them painted.
Here is pictures of the new HBG German Set. Enjoy. :-D
These come in black or dark gray.
First picture is the infantry with trench coat.
Next, we have the mechs.
Guys, I’m having trouble posting these. Let me see if I can figure out. Sorry! :-(
I’m using the paint program at only 10%, and it is still telling the file is too large, even putting just one picture on the post. I’m not sure what to do. Very frustrated. :-(
