Painted scultps with National Colored base stands

Tall Paul

I like those stars and stripes! That’s a mean stack of armor right there!
––I’m glad you liked them. You’ll notice that the US flags are the correct ones having only 48 stars instead of 50. Again, these are I-94 Enterprises decals. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND them. As far as the “stack of armor” you’ll notice 6 Anzac Stuart light tanks in their “outback” camoflage in the corner of the pic. They have the dark blue circle w/white dot center national insignias.
It’s a pretty cool idea. By having the decal in place on the units, the only time you’d really need a roundel is when two ally nations are occupying the same conquered territory. Like say if Japan and Germany were both in Egypt, or USA and UK both in France. But otherwise that saves on room, since standard cardboard roundels are pretty large. A lot of prime real estate gets taken up by them, enough room for what, like 4 infantry? I think it would help with crowding for sure.

I often wonder why they don’t cut the diameter on the roundels in half so they could print twice as many. They’d still be easy enough to pop, since you could just use the back end of a pencil or something. Japan often run out of roundels, sometimes G and UK too, so any system that cuts back on them would free those up for other uses.
––IMHO, I try to make everything on the map visable and immediately identifyable from 5 feet away. This really helps in speeding up the game and everyones’ ability to organise their thoughts/plans quickly
Again though, nice job on the sculpts. The detailing is killer!
––Thanks again. There are MANY TALENTED people here on A&A.Org-detailers, painters, mapmakers, etc. and the best thing is that they are friendly and SHARE their talents with the rest of us! I only try to do my small part, but I’m very happy if I might have inspired you to try painting your units. For some more “inspiration” you might check out the rest of my painted units using the link below"

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=29550.0

Tall Paul

LHoffman

Ahh… now that brings back memories. Nice to see an armor pool every now and then.

@Black_Elk:

It’s a pretty cool idea. By having the decal in place on the units, the only time you’d really need a roundel is when two ally nations are occupying the same conquered territory. Like say if Japan and Germany were both in Egypt, or USA and UK both in France. But otherwise that saves on room, since standard cardboard roundels are pretty large. A lot of prime real estate gets taken up by them, enough room for what, like 4 infantry? I think it would help with crowding for sure.

I often wonder why they don’t cut the diameter on the roundels in half so they could print twice as many. They’d still be easy enough to pop, since you could just use the back end of a pencil or something. Japan often run out of roundels, sometimes G and UK too, so any system that cuts back on them would free those up for other uses.

My perspective here… The standard bases are totally fine with me. I like the units to look as realistic as possible and adding a larger rectangle on the bottom of a tank or a ship would just look very odd. The only units I have had issues with falling over are subs. Yes, infantry will fall if you knock the board, but they are really pretty stable as they are. And airplanes would look ungainly with a rectangular base, not to mention it would cover up a beautiful painted carrier deck.

In the future, whenever that is, I intend to have all of my units fully painted. I do not feel the need to keep part of the unit unpainted (original plastic color) to aid in recognition. That is what decals are for or the roundel bases on infantry. Being able to determine a unit’s nationality may not always be glaringly obvious with a cursory glance. However, that is okay for me. Seasoned players should be able to keep track of their units and territories. I think it also can add to the ‘fog of war’ effect, which is sorely lacking in this game.

Tall Paul mentioned Allworkandnoclay, who has painted many of his units. I remember that in Allwork’s original painting thread, he actually left a very small portion of each unit unpainted to show the plastic color underneath. Supposedly this was to allow for recognition of what country’s units they were, though I thought the unpainted part to be way too small for truly effective recognition. But you could do something similar with your units if you are concerned about being able to tell the difference. It might look weird, but it’s an option.

I highly doubt that either HBG or Wizards will reconfigure their molds to include squared of bases. (I don’t know if you were suggesting this, but it kinda sounded like it) It would add a huge amount of plastic and therefore expense. However, I would think that you could glue your pieces to rectangular bases pretty easily. That way you can make them exactly how you would like.

And as for roundels (because I love sharing my opinion… :roll:), my philosophy for their use is that they are only necessary in conquered territories and only when you have few or no other units in that conquered territory. No need to put roundels in your own territories (rather redundant since they already have one printed on the map) unless possibly said territory is changing hands every turn and needs to be kept close track of. Consequently, they don’t take up too much space for me. Each roundel is only slightly larger than an infantry base, so I do not quite understand why you are saying they take up enough space for 4 infantry. Reducing their size by half would save a little space, but they would be harder to see and more prone to getting lost or moved around on the board. Integrating a roundel on each infantry base will further reduce the need to use roundels on their own.

cyanight

The roundels still need to be used. I can think of the standard attack that Italy does with their tanks on Poland and other Russian territories to allow the Luftwaffe to land and defend it. The territory without a roundel would look like it was controlled by Germany since It would have more pieces and specifically the Inf which has the roundel painted on the base rather than the Italian tank which took it first.

Tall Paul

@LHoffman:

Tall Paul mentioned Allworkandnoclay, who has painted many of his units. I remember that in Allwork’s original painting thread, he actually left a very small portion of each unit unpainted to show the plastic color underneath. Supposedly this was to allow for recognition of what country’s units they were, though I thought the unpainted part to be way too small for truly effective recognition. But you could do something similar with your units if you are concerned about being able to tell the difference. It might look weird, but it’s an option.

––This would be a good time to “update” everyone on my preferences for painted Infantry bases. When I first noticed Chad and was completely awed by his painting talents, he was painting the national insignias on the bases of all Infantry units and also painted the vertical parts of their bases the color of the original unpainted plastic as an aid to further identification. I bought several of his units and commisioned him to do a few hundred more. I never liked the “clash” of colors that were on the Infantry bases (see below for pics) and when HBG produced some Paratrooper units I decided it was time for a change.
––Although we still had several hundred units in the “que” to be painted,…I decided I wanted to go back and repaint the vertical parts of ALL of the Infantry units BLACK which would compliment the national insignia colors and somewhat “frame” them. That is, all except the Paratrooper units which would have the vertical parts of their bases painted WHITE, so as to immediately make them stand out as not only different but Paratroopers.
––I had already done something simular to this with ALL of the Air Transport aircraft by painting White engine cowlings and wingtips on them to make them immediately identifyiable to all players in the game.

–Notice in these “old” pics the vertical parts of the bases below are painted to represent the colors of the OOB unpainted plastic,…Light Gray for Anzac and Lime Green for National China.
–These vertical parts will be repainted into the new standard of BLACK on all Infantry units other than Paratroopers,….which will have WHITE vertical surfaces to obviously mark them as units with special capabilities. I find that the White color also subconsiously reminds everyone of the white parachutes they utilize.

Tall Paul

LHoffman

@cyanight:

The roundels still need to be used. I can think of the standard attack that Italy does with their tanks on Poland and other Russian territories to allow the Luftwaffe to land and defend it. The territory without a roundel would look like it was controlled by Germany since It would have more pieces and specifically the Inf which has the roundel painted on the base rather than the Italian tank which took it first.

This is obviously true. I did not bring up this scenario because Black Elk already did. Two (or more) Powers jointly occupying a territory occurs in maybe 10% of territories on the board… meaning it is the exception rather than the norm.

Tall Paul

@LHoffman:

@cyanight:

The roundels still need to be used. I can think of the standard attack that Italy does with their tanks on Poland and other Russian territories to allow the Luftwaffe to land and defend it. The territory without a roundel would look like it was controlled by Germany since It would have more pieces and specifically the Inf which has the roundel painted on the base rather than the Italian tank which took it first.

This is obviously true. I did not bring up this scenario because Black Elk already did. Two (or more) Powers jointly occupying a territory occurs in maybe 10% of territories on the board… meaning it is the exception rather than the norm.
––As usual I find myself agreeing with Lucas. I believe I used the terms “usually” and “almost automatic” in my descriptions above.

Tall Paul

Black_Elk

@LHoffman:

Each roundel is only slightly larger than an infantry base, so I do not quite understand why you are saying they take up enough space for 4 infantry. Reducing their size by half would save a little space, but they would be harder to see and more prone to getting lost or moved around on the board.

Well I was just going with the rough approximation. A normal roundel chip is about the same diameter as 2 infantry dudes right next to each other. For about the same space on the map as a roundel, I think you can usually squeeze in 4.
4 can all stand atop a single roundel if you face the rifles in instead of out.

Probably the description I was presenting doesn’t match the visual I had in my head. For units larger than infantry I was still thinking squares at the same size, not creeping out round the edges, but just underneath so the bottoms would be flat. My planes all tip at the wings so I was thinking like a small square under each wing to level, but without spilling out larger than the wingspan. Basically colored bottoms, like the other guy you mentioned. Though I agree, subs are definitely prone to tip, and way too thin for a base to solve the problem without looking all clunky. Honestly, Cyanight’s magnetic solution seems pretty awesome. Labor intensive no doubt, but the payoff is that unit wobble is totally eliminated! I’m definitely intrigued!

You guys have taken it to a whole 'nother level. This section has some great ideas and solutions. Thanks for the insights :)

cyanight

@LHoffman:

@cyanight:

The roundels still need to be used. Â I can think of the standard attack that Italy does with their tanks on Poland and other Russian territories to allow the Luftwaffe to land and defend it. Â The territory without a roundel would look like it was controlled by Germany since It would have more pieces and specifically the Inf which has the roundel painted on the base rather than the Italian tank which took it first.

This is obviously true. I did not bring up this scenario because Black Elk already did. Two (or more) Powers jointly occupying a territory occurs in maybe 10% of territories on the board… meaning it is the exception rather than the norm.

Very good point. I do think it happens more that 10%. We might try to use less roundels in our next game and see how it goes.

LHoffman

@Black_Elk:

Well I was just going with the rough approximation. A normal roundel chip is about the same diameter as 2 infantry dudes right next to each other. For about the same space on the map as a roundel, I think you can usually squeeze in 4.
4 can all stand atop a single roundel if you face the rifles in instead of out.

Well, I stand corrected then. It must be a while since I have played. Very good picture.

@Black_Elk:

Probably the description I was presenting doesn’t match the visual I had in my head. For units larger than infantry I was still thinking squares at the same size, not creeping out round the edges, but just underneath so the bottoms would be flat. My planes all tip at the wings so I was thinking like a small square under each wing to level, but without spilling out larger than the wingspan. Basically colored bottoms, like the other guy you mentioned. Though I agree, subs are definitely prone to tip, and way too thin for a base to solve the problem without looking all clunky. Honestly, Cyanight’s magnetic solution seems pretty awesome. Labor intensive no doubt, but the payoff is that unit wobble is totally eliminated! I’m definitely intrigued!

I think I understand a little bit better. For me at least, sculpt instability still isn’t too much of an issue. And if I am imagining your aircraft description properly, it seems like it would make them all look like flying boats. Space-wise, things do get a little cramped, but I am okay with that. I do intend, when all pieces are painted and my dream is complete, to have an enlarged board in a semi-permanent setup. Something like HBG’s Global War. That board seems big enough to alleviate issues of space, but I have never played it so I don’t know.

The11HP20

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

Painted scultps with National Colored base stands

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