Building model tanks

Hi all, thanks for all of the incredible ongoing support- I’m honored to be a part of the community of makers supporting this awesome hobby.

Here’s a major Jan/Feb '22 update for my etsy shop:

New Models!

Flight Stands in 3 sizes USN Balao-class Submarine - Allied super subs! Panzer III (Pz.Kpfw. Ausf J) - Axis light tanks! Kriegsmarine Type 39 Torpedo Boats - Axis escort ships! Damage/Flame Tokens Naval Mines Czech Hedgehog anti-vehicle obstacles Resource Tokens - Oil Barrels, Metal Ingots, and Grain

New Colors!

In good news for all of you non-painters, I am thrilled to announce that after an obnoxious amount of trial and error I have arrived at the full A&A color-matched palette of materials!

Come see all these and more at my esty shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NathanDetr0itDesigns, and don’t forget to use coupon code AADOTORG22 for 10% off!

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USSR Lid.png USA Lid.png UK Lid.png Weapons Development.png National Production.png Battle Board.png

@DMcLaren Hey thanks! Only with that version. Anniversary got the same treatment (kept it completely original) and currently tapping away at 1914. But I know what you mean. Once the bug bites…

@folewnik as a small time scale modeler, I very much admire your work. You have exceptional attention to detail so I thank you very much for this compliment.

@Ghoster Thanks! And that’s awesome! I think you’ll really enjoy the experience. I’ve been asked this several times now so I’ll just post it here and on YouTube:

Russia - TS-62 NATO Brown
UK - TS-46 Light Sand
USA - TS-28 Olive Drab 2
Germany - TS-6 Matte Black
Australia - TS-66 IJN Gray
Italy - AS-22 Dark Earth

the rest were bottle paints shot from an airbrush:
France - XF-18 (tamiya)
China - Interior Green mixed with some yellow
Japan - Model Master’s Italian Red mixed with Rust from the same company

Per @Midnight_Reaper’s request, I’m working on a USS Atlanta and an IJN Agano for Light Cruisers. The Atlanta has existing open-source examples; the Agano I’ll have to rebuild from bits and photos (all current models are pay-only).

I’ve made a deckbuilding game with a friend that’s set during the American Civil War where you play cards from your deck to move different types of army units around the map, but it’s pretty specific to the Civil War – I don’t think it would port well to WW2.

You might try Quartermaster General; it’s a bit lighter than A&A, but it’s a game about making very efficient use of each card in a relatively small deck to win World War 2 by moving armies around a map.

Lol…

Ya, if you read my previous thread, then you know I’ve basically abandoned about 95% of the HBG custom units I’ve ordered. I had a goal of doubling or tripling my available force pool of units (if I had 10 tanks from the base game, I wanted 20 to 30 in my bins for example). I had at first ordered a little of everything… some additional OOB units, some custom HBG units, etc… after receiving several waves of additional units, I came to the conclusion that the only thing really working for me was mostly the planes (HBG planes blended well with OOB planes). For the most part, the tanks and ships suffered with scaling issues next to the OOB units (as we’ve discussed).

So, in the end, I kept almost all my custom HBG planes, and found a new home for the ships and tanks (another forum member scooped them up)… I then refilled what I wanted with OOB units… once again, this was more about conformity and ease of identity for the new players I was teaching than anything else… I think the HBG units are well done otherwise.

As for my final order of that German Expansion Set 3… we’ll see… they will all get used… one way or another… either i’ll like them and integrate them… or i’ll find a new home for them… don’t want to see them go to waste. I really WANT Panzer-IV’s in my game… if they’re at least close to OOB size, they’ll stay put… if I got to break out tweezers again to move them around, i’ll rehome them.

Very cool looking table. Cant wait to see you play a game on it.

This may sound like an improbable source, but another idea would be for you to go to some local dollar stores and look around.  Back when I was making myself a dice tower, I discovered that some dollar store chains sell (among all the miscellaneous stuff they have in stock) some plain unpainted rectangular wooden trays of various sizes, made of very thin wood.  Their designs could not be simpler – a bottom and four sides glued together, all made of flat wooden pieces – and they’re cheap in both price and appearance, but they’re about the right size for what you have in mind and they would probably look quite nice if you applied some dark wood stain to them.  And because they’re so inexpensive, picking up as many as you need for your table would be very affordable.  It would also be easy to customize them by, for example, subdividing the larger models into sections by cutting some balsa wood sticks (or other types of woods) to suitable sizes and gluing them inside the trays before you stain them.