LHoffman's Painted Sculpts For Your Consideration

Well, now that I am in the midst of a project that I meant to start two years ago I should have a steady supply of new painted pieces for all here to critique, compare and glean ideas from.

Couple points first off:

1. These are “works in progress”. My goal is to paint an entire set for G40 (or maybe Global War 1939, as that looks like a really cool offshoot). While I am satisfied with these pieces, the paint schemes are not necessarily final. Meaning that I do want to experiment and come up with a number of appealing examples. Your feeback of what you like, what you don’t like and what you think might look good are all encouraged and very much appreciated. So, while nice, I don’t need just a “Wow, great job!”. Other comments are welcome. (Including Gargantua’s unrelated-but-somehow-related interjections.)

2. I have tried to be realistic whenever possible, which means pretty much all the time. So far I have not designed pieces to be easily identifiable while playing. I mean, that is what camouflage is for, right? All pieces will be identifiable by nation in some way: flag, symbol, etc… But that doesn’t mean a piece on the board will scream what country it is from. If one of the Allies overlooks that a ship was Japanese when they thought it was British, or says, “hey I didn’t see that fighter there before!”, that is their fault. Keep a sharp eye out. I hope it will add, or account for, some of the confusion and poor intelligence that sometimes happens in war.

In painting them realistically, I have tried to be as historically accurate as possible regarding camo schemes and markings, while at the same time giving a worn or dirtier look that you might get with a larger historical model. Sometimes this is not the case, as it becomes almost impossible to detail well at this scale, but I will do so when I can. So, do not fear that the colors do not always look continuous or uniform; they are meant that way.

3. Everything you see (as of September for sure) is painted. I have not used any decals. I intended to, and still do I guess, but haven’t gotten around to ordering them. Props to Viracocha for showing us the nice ones from I-94.

4. My origninal plan was to practice on the OOB pieces and have my final set be all the “better”, custom pieces from Historical Board Gaming or Field Marshal Games. Though it looks like I will be having a mix of both as my final product. While FMG is MIA, Historical Board Gaming has provided some very nice custom sculpts and some spares from A&A 1941 (2012), which I do not own. I do intend to paint what HBG (and eventually FMG, I hope) sculpts I order. I have some of them now, but I have not begun work on them yet, as I want to perfect my approach on the OOB pieces.

5. Lastly a thank you to all those who have already done this: Allworkandnoclay, Viracocha, Variable, Koba, Swedo, just to name a few, but others also. I have proudly ripped off your work in some cases and your blazing the trail first has given me many ideas and experience from which to draw. Plus there is some really great stuff out there to look at. I hope to do as well your own. So… for all those painting after me, please feel free to copy or innovate on mine.

We begin with a couple pictures already posted in another thread. Here is a third attempt Yamato and a Japanese carrier in a 1944 Zuikaku camouflage scheme. Also a typical Zero fighter. Below is the example I worked off for the carrier.

Here is one more Japanese carrier I just finished. I thought the green camouflage scheme was interesting, plus I hadn’t seen anyone else do it, so I thought I’d see how it looked. Turned out well, though I decided to add the Rising Sun for recognition purposes. I think it actually makes the ship look better, but that’s just me.

Again, this one was modeled on a version of Zuikaku. I did take the liberty of modifying the island superstructure to better resemble most Japanese carriers, including Zuikaku. The gap on the side where the rest of the bridge was could not be helped, but it is passable. I did order some of the new Akagi-class sculpts from the new A&A 1941, which I hope to receive soon. That way I don’t have to use all Shinano-class; I never understood why that class was chosen as the one ship in it never saw active service, nor was a particularly effective fleet carrier.

Two more pictures of the same.

I apologize for the glaring of the light on the surface. I will see what I can do to take care of that.

Next I have Bismarck. This is pretty standard, though I added the yellow tops to the turrets. That is a pretty famous feature of Bismarck’s, so I have been rather surprised that no one has painted their Bismarck’s as such.  I understand there is some scholarly debate as to when, if ever, Bismarck had yellow on the turrets. Most pictures tend to show it, and I liked the idea as an identifying feature so I put them on. Originally I intended to do Tirpitz with green or red turrets (both of which I have seen), but for some reason ended up going with the yellow for Bismarck first.

Not sure if I like the color and glossiness of the paint I used for the wood of the deck though; that might change. Nazi swastika emblems turned out alright for having to be hand-painted. There really is very little room on this sculpt to put anything like a national marker.

Two more.

Next I have one picture of an early war US carrier. I modeled it on early/pre-war Yorktown, though the paint scheme would suit Enterprise, Lexington or Saratoga. This is more of a throwaway as I am not completely done and haven’t added any markings. It is unlikely that I will finish it, only because I kind of want to try something different or at least revise this one. I painted the hull and island in a metallic steel, which on second thought is better left for a B-17. The deck is nice, looks kinda worn, which I like. The lines, however, were rather hastily done and could use some straightening, though that may be hard to tell from this picture. The picture I referenced did have bow and stern markings on the flight deck of four letters in the carrier’s name, which I tried to spell out: “Y-K-T-N”. But this proved very difficult considering how close the lines are together, so I painted over it. Not sure what to do with this one… but it definitely cannot be called “done”.

Here is a lone Sherman. Yes, it would look a little more impressive in battalion strength, but I have not had time for that yet. It is standard dark green with some dry-brushed sand for a dirtier look. I think I went a little overboard with the sand, so I will tone that down in the next batch. The treads turned out pretty well, though it is hard to see here.

One more.

Apologies for the blurriness. I will try to borrow my fiance’s camera which takes nicer pictures.

Last one for the evening is a Ju-88 German bomber. Again, not sure why this type was chosen over the He-111, but I also ordered some of the new A&A 1941 He-111 sculpts too.

With aircraft especially, there are just so many different styles of camouflage that it would be impossible to try all of them. The hardest part will probably be settling on 2 or 3 styles and then making the entire air force that way. I’d like to do one of everything, but that might look kind of stupid or random when playing. I think most people would like their armies, navies and air forces to look somewhat uniform. Anyway, just thought this was an interesting pattern and had not seen anyone else do it. I know the Luftwaffe crosses and swastikas are a bit hard to see, but it is easier in person. Base color is dark green and the underside is “aircraft grey”.

Two more for reference.

@Swedo:

(as to if bismarck did have yellow turret tops or not can only the crew tell i guess, but according to this website which i had as ref. she did not have yellow tops. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/bismarck/paint_schemes/paintbism1941.html. you can also find good pictures of other german ships there)

Yes, this was the website I came upon also. The author made a convincing case that Bismarck didn’t have colored turrets, which is why I trew in the disclaimer. I would think it unlikely that any crew of Bismarck live today, but this is a question I’d ask if I met one. Fortunately, ich spreche ein bisschen deutsch.

@wittmann:

Very nice Hoffman.

Danke mein Herr.

@koba:

Sehr sehr shon Herr Hoffman.

Sie muss mehr machen.

Thanks. They are in the works. Stay tuned.

@Maofator:

Hoffman, extremely nice work!  Love all the detail. Look forward to seeing more stuff in the near future.

Yes, my apologies to everyone for the delays. Haven’t had much time to work on them lately.

I do have 3 which are finished and I will put them up this evening.

Again, apologies for the wait, but here are a few new ones.

B-17 and F6F. (I realize it is difficult to tell the color, but the B-17 is olive green)

With reference F6F. I rather liked this paint scheme for the Hellcat.