Painted some of my A&A

[mentok27]

Over the years since anniversary edition came out I’ve gotten the urge from time to time to paint the pieces… I’ve started a few times and I’ll do a few dozen components here and there but generally Ive barely made a dent. I’m going for a hybrid look between accuracy and ease of identification when in use on the board afterall these are gaming pieces not scale models.

On my last RnR from work I was in the mood for some painting and knocked out quite a few pieces! The following pictures were taken over a few days to show my gaming mate the progress and get him keen for a game soon… I have got more stuff from previous painting fads done up but at this stage no photos to show.

First of all on this round was the French navy.

In previous painting stints ive managed to knock out sufficient japanese, American, British and soviet fleets with only german, italian and australian having minimal painted pieces and I’d like to square them away soon.

Next up was a random impulse… I did a spare set of British navy pieces and a set of the ships from the HBG allies set as the Canadian navy, this was mostly just for fun and the celery green decks are in the same vain as tan decks on my UK fleet and the lighter Blonde on FEC ships. This is a prime example of the gaming piece aspect taking over from the painted model angle.

Next I did a quick set up to draw inspiration on what to work on next

I ended up doing more italian ground units, which I didnt snap a phot of but I shouldn’t ever need anymore after how many I did!

It also became clear that I’d been avoiding the air units for too long, with only a dozen german Me109’s and a few dozen mixed RAF units done I’d need to bunker down and make some headway

Needless to say I’m very pleased with the results and the look great with the IJN As well

Inspired by my japanese planes I decided to get started on the Italians!

And that’s us mostly up to date…. I did do another 22 japanese infantry but I didn’t quite get them 100% before I flew out for work.

[cyanight]

Excellent work!  Very nice job on the ships and planes.

[John Brown]

These are great. Love your ships, especially. :-)

[IWillNeverGrowUp]

Very nice. Clean, neat, excellent work. Color me impressed.

[The11HP20]

Very nice work. 👍

[Chris_Henry]

Thee look incredible! Everything looks very clean. I like that you added a Canadian navy.

Something I hope to do one of these days.

[CWO Marc]

Excellent work!  Very impressive and good-looking.

[mentok27]

Thank guys! I’m pretty bummed that I’m not gonna be able to make anymore progress on these for the next 2 weeks…… But that’s what happens when you work away.

The grand plan I’ve got means this will never reach a point where the project is completed. I’d like to have small assortments for all the minor allies and axis nations… Plus a handful of neutrals like Sweden, Spain, turkey and Argentina. this level takes it beyond what will realisticly see use in game but its pretty cheap compared to the other hobbies I’ve been involved in.

Also I do have a few closer shots of that setup I did last week so tonight after work I’ll post them up and probably do a big HBG order for some things I wanna focus on when I’m off work next!

[Der Kuenstler]

Your hybrid style is exactly the way I’d want to paint my pieces - great work!

[Spitfire38]

Very impressive work Mentok! I’ll echo the others and say that your work is very clean. The lines are crisp, the camouflages aren’t distracting, and the color schemes are pleasing to the eye. I assume you use acrylic paints, from what I can tell from the photos. What brand do you use?

[mentok27]

@Spitfire38:

Very impressive work Mentok! I’ll echo the others and say that your work is very clean. The lines are crisp, the camouflages aren’t distracting, and the color schemes are pleasing to the eye. I assume you use acrylic paints, from what I can tell from the photos. What brand do you use?

I’ve got somewhere in the vicinity of 150 paints that I’ve amassed over my 15 years of war gaming. Half of them would be the previous generation of GW’s citadel paint range and then the remaining half is a 50/50 mix between the newer citadel range and Vallejo paints.

I lost interest in games workshop games 7 or so years ago but I was in truth I always loved the hobby and army building aspect more than the gaming and every now and then I get nostalgic and break the paints out on different things…. Flames of war, 28mm medieval, dystopian wars… But none of these I lasts long on and I just end up with expensive half finished projects…

[mentok27]

I’ve tried multiple times to upload these pics all in one post but I’m having internet dramas and the post keeps refreshing before I’ve got it all together and I end up having to start from scratch…. So I’m going to have to do multiple post and spam the thread unfortunately.

Russians. The second infantry I did. A lot of compromise to get them looking distinctive. I’m not too fussed about the soviets since there fleet and air forces don’t see as much use as other nations. I will swap out the OOB mech for HBG pieces however

UK. Where as the other nations navy’s have there national piece colour either on the sides of the hull(French, soviet) or spot painted on the stacks(German, Italian, American) I decided to do the UK and dominion colours on the decking. This allows the scheme for them all to be quite similar yet still distinctive.

I’m not a fan of desert uniform Brits fighting in Europe but is a compromise to keep things simple

Germans. Seems I don’t have enough painted infantry. I actually also have a full range of land equipment painted grey but grey panthers don’t sit right with me. I did these 3 tone pieces more recently and even though it feels wrong using them for early war I can make my peace with that.

Italians. My favorite nation to play and paint. I’ve gone more accurate on these Probably as a result of enjoying them so much. When I bulk up my Italian navy I’ll also redo those deck stripes since they were a rush job before a game and it shows.

[mentok27]

And for something different.

Japan. This obviously wasn’t part of the setup but was a joke pic taken to stir up my chief rival. This was at the time the extent of my Japanese land forces…. Which then inspired me to work on artillery and infantry to bulk them up. Japan is very close to being my First Nation with 100% painted pieces! Just need bombers next

[John Brown]

Wow mentok, these are super cool to look at. Every painter has unique way of doing things, and it is interesting to see what each one does. Great job on these. :-D

John

[LHoffman]

Great work sir! Your superstructure work on the ships really makes it stand out.

[Spitfire38]

@LHoffman:

Great work sir! Your superstructure work on the ships really makes it stand out.

Agreed! Do you wash the superstructure (and sides/hull, or no?) and then paint the wooden decks?

[mentok27]

@Spitfire38:

@LHoffman:

Great work sir! Your superstructure work on the ships really makes it stand out.

Agreed! Do you wash the superstructure (and sides/hull, or no?) and then paint the wooden decks?

@LHoffman:

Great work sir! Your superstructure work on the ships really makes it stand out.

i do make extensive use of washes on all my pieces(except some aircraft)and the ships superstructures also generally benefit from a dry brush before getting a coat of wash.

I rely heavily on army painted spray paint to get the pieces to a colour I can work straight from. Most of my fleets get sprayed grey as a first Step.

Every nation I’ve done so far I’ve used a different method. There are similarities and common approaches but it order to make each fleet look unique and like all its components belong together I’ve not used the exact same method/colours…yet… Once I get started on some of the minor nations I’ll have to retread methods with only the national colour changing.

I often do the whole fleet in one hit and just wing it as I go and see what happens. For instance on the French I had no plan until I sat down and looked at the spray painted pieces and thought a clean and lighter set of colours would pair well with the national blue. That would end up on the hulls…

I do superstructure first as the drybrush and wash is very difficult to keep tidy. Depending what I want the decks to look like I may paint them before the wash and coat them in at the same time. If I didn’t include the deck in the wash I’ll pick that out next which is probably the most time consuming part as you really can’t afford to get deck paint onto your superstructure at this stage… Once you get use to a particular sculpt you get quicker and quicker. Then the hulls get a quick paint with either the national colour or a shade of grey. Probably knock out a 40 ish piece fleet in a solid 2 hour stint but I rarely do the whole job in one sitting. The roundels I’ve painted have been really easy(not done US or soviets) and that’s probably a 10-20 minute job for a fleet.

Since its been many years since I started and by just winging the method I’ve actually forgotten the exact colours to use on most of my older jobs… I’ll be able to reverse engineer them though if I wanted to add new sculpts or units to the existing stuff.

[dangermouse650]

Excellent work, crisp and clean lines.

[LHoffman]

@mentok27:

Since its been many years since I started and by just winging the method I’ve actually forgotten the exact colours to use on most of my older jobs….

That is my problem too. I need to keep better track of what colors I use where.

[Tall Paul]

Mentok27,

––Nice work! I like the very sharp edges on your paint divisions.

Tall Paul