HBG should be making national flag tokens for ( Global 40) like these….

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Hi all, here are the latest additions to the ever-growing “Affordable Armory” :)

In addition to beginning to print in Gray and Black as well as the original White, I’ve also newly designed an Anti-Aircraft Gun (similar to OOB), a Kriegsmarine Escort Ship (Type 39 Torpedo Boat), and I’m printing the Royal Navy Hunt-Class light Destroyers (original model by AntarcticFox on thingiverse) for the Allied side as well.

While I work on a few bigger things (Light Tanks, Escort Carriers, Rail Depots, Coastal Artillery…) there are also some new miscellaneous bits as well: Oil Drums, Naval/Landmines, “Czech Hedgehog” anti-tank obstacles, and Metal Bars/Ingots. Come take a look at www.Etsy.com/shop/NathanDetr0itDesigns!

@hopper1999 I’ve access to both resin and PLA printers, and while resin has a couple of extra steps compared to PLA, I wouldn’t consider it painful. I’ve come to appreciate resin’s ability to show detail even in very small scale. For me its worth the extra steps to clean and cure, for those results. What’s great is there are so many free units available, with some simple editing/converting you can quickly build cool armies.
As for casting, while I haven’t casted any A&A parts yet (still building my unit library), I have casted a lot of 3.75 action figure parts. I’ve gotten best results using a syringe and pressure pot. (I converted a old paint pressure tank). You inject your mold, and then put it under pressure, I’d do around 30psi, to help the resin into the thinner parts of the mold and prevent bubbles. It also helps, when making your mold to put it under pressure as well. I’ve found it helps prevents bubbles in the silicone and between the silicone and the part being cast.
I plan on using casting to duplicate units I already have, that I can’t find stl files for.

I just received my order. I happen to have an AAG40 game underway right now, and it’s in the middle of turn 7. So my plan is to try and incorporate these 4 expansions into the current game. I’m going to have the US start research on nukes immediately. Japan and Germany are really dominating this game though, so I don’t know if the US can get any nukes ready in time. If not, then I’ll try again next game.

I’m also going to have the US build some Marines so I can use that expansion set too and hopefully push the Japanese back across the Pacific.

But Germany and Japan are also going to start building the P170 jet and Super Yamato respectively, which should give the Allies second thoughts. Oh, the drama! Can’t wait to see how these expansions affect the war!

@coachofmany:

@AlphaKappa:

@Buran:

I have just received my US units I have attached some photos.  I was just wondering if what the fifth air unit is?  It looks like an F6F Hellcat fighter.  But there is nothing on the website about it.

Nice!  They look pretty good.  How’s the color compared to the OOB stuff?

HBG Olive Drab color is very close to Global 40 2nd Edition IMHO.

I don’t know, Coach!  I just bought a few of your new Shermans from a friend and I was pleasantly surprised that they match my 1st Edition US pieces pretty well.   :wink:

These Sherman sculpts are ace.  You guys did a good job with these and now I’m looking forward to getting some of the other ones too.

EDIT:  Okay, upon closer inspection in daylight, I changed my mind.  They are definitely closer in tone to 2nd Edition US.

@IdaRed:

Thanks for the input John and Marc.  The differences Marc mentioned do matter to me as I am somewhat obsessive about details. I suspect I will end up a piece junkie eventually as well as I’ve always liked miniatures and model building.  I’m not going to be painting my newer pieces anytime soon.  I am very tempted to start practicing on the older pieces first and work my way to the newer sculpts when I am satisfied with my skill level.  I actually got interested in painting game minis by a friend after he showed me his Battlelore set.  He showed me how just a little bit of paint–even a basic paint job–could make a mini so much more appealing and more fun to game with.  I’ve been really impressed with the painted minis posted in this forum.   Â

I need to sit down and budget out minis. I think I am leaning toward just buying new copies of the games and supplementing with HBG minis for additional sculpts.  The main drawback to just buying HBG minis is a number of the basic ones for ANZAC and Italy are out of stock right now.

It sounds as if you already fully qualify as a piece junkie (even if you don’t necessarily own a lot of sculpts right now), so welcome to the club.  :)

It also sounds as if we operate on a very similar wavelength when it comes to the kinds of details that we consider important.  I have a huge amount of respect for enthusiasts who paint their sculpts – often to an awe-inspiring degree of detail – but in my particular case I’ve never been interested in painting or otherwise customizing my sculpts (which is a good thing, because even if I had the interest I wouldn’t have the time and that I doubt I’d have the required eyesight and manual dexterity).  In fact, for me one of the fun challenges of collecting A&A sculpts has always been: how can I organize the sculpts to make the best possible use of the range of designs and colours available, without actually modifying the sculpts themselves?  How can I make use of the changes in design and colour that have taken place over the years to represent more powers that the current OOB represent?

I’m still waffling over some of the choices available to me, but one example of what I’m talking about has worked out so well that I consider it finalized.  I use the nationally-distinctive butternut-grey ANZAC pieces from G40/2 to represent the southern self-governing Commonwealth Dominions (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), and I use the British-patterned butternut-grey “ANZAC” pieces from G40/1 (boosted with half of the G40/2 ANZAC AAA units) to represent the northern self-governing Commonwealth Dominions of Canada, Newfoundland and Eire.  Initially I had planned to use the “blonde” UK units from D-Day to represent Eire, which starts out as a neutral, but then I realized that this distinction wasn’t necessary: if Eire is neutral then there’s no point in giving it any units at all, and if Eire joins the war then it acquires the same status as the other northern Commonwealth Dominions and thus there’s no need for its units to be different.

@cyanight:

Everyone has their own unique way of painting the pieces.  No matter how we paint the pieces they must still be playable within the game.

And the nice difference between game sculpts and real military equipment is that sculpts are rarely lost or damaged in combat.  If that wasn’t the case, people might actually hesitate to risk sending their painted sculpts into battle on the game map, given the large amount of time they’ve spent on customizing them.  :-)

@CWO:

@wartorn:

EXCELLENT!!! These are amazing. These will be easy to trim out to just an outline. Thanks a bunch!!!

My pleasure.  Good luck with your project.  When you refer to putting the unit images in each country, are you talking about modifying a digital version of the map or are you talking about printing out something on paper and placing it on the physical map?  Just wondering.

I plan on modifying the digital map from YGH’s post a while back. I do like the map that cyanight made for his sheet metal table, so i think i may end up using that one (base map is the same as YGH’s, but with a couple of alterations)  http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=33872.0

What powers?  The Axis and Allied nations in AA50th edition… as opposed to other editions.

Yeah - have the US and got a German cross recently.  Just wondering if there will be the order-the-whole set option anytime soon or whether you were doing them periodically/correlating with new releases.  They do work well for marshaling boards/look snazzy - going to do some DIY since not all of them are out yet.  No biggy, judging by how often I order… I’ll have a complete set and then some eventually. :-)