First Time painting units/starting my own paintkrieg

@brpiusosb

We order from GBS enterprises. They have mattress protectors in all sizes., and they are water proof.

Any good mattress protectors should be water proof, and I’m sure there are other companies that sell them.

We quit using mattress pads, because it takes the feel away from a new mattress, because of the padding in them.

@Eric-Poppleton @GEN-MANSTEIN

Benefits of making all units AA.

No need separate AA gun, more space. Cheaper air and naval costs allow more different combination of purchases. It encourage German naval build up and two ocean going USA. Losing air unit isn’t a big deal anymore.

Though I have been still working on balancing units with each other after giving AA ability. I think I’m getting closer.

Further stacks do not increase AA possibilities. Only matter is amount of attacker planes. 1/6 shot down chance per attacker air unit.

I had to give ground forces +1 defense otherwise especially infantry would become so ineffective considering fighter has 2 defense and just 3ipc cost.

This is of course unplayable on board because of fractionel numbers and upkeep ( Yes there is also upkeep and method to buy 1 destroyer despite 3.5 ipc cost but its out of topic otherwise calculating massive stacks would be huge trouble). Its totally for TripleA I just wanted to learn with these unit set up, would air units be underpowered/overpowered or balanced?

The current unit set up like this (still progressing);

chart.png

@cavestone I also use vallejo paints. The key question here is are you brush painting, or using an airbrush, or both?

The Vallejo paints have a “Model Air” line that comes pre-thinned. You can buy a thinning product (from them) to add to the “Model Color” series paints, which are the exact same thing, just more concentrated and thicker.

If you’ve never used an airbrush, its a bit finicky–it requires regular cleaning and a without a good brush and compressor the paint will flow very inconsistently. The process will be very frustrating unless you use the pre-thinned paints because the brush can only blow paint that is within a certain set of thickness parameters that are difficult to achieve, especially if you are trying to mix the air in the brush’s reserve or in small quantities. That’s why having copies of both Model Air and Model Color is fine by me–unlike Warhammer 40K I’m using primarily earthy colors, greens, dunkelgelb and dunkelgrau… other AFV and camoflage colors and so i don’t need a collection of primary or bright colors.

But I recommend it. The airbrush creates a sublime, beautiful layer and slight mix variations can be used to create shadows, grades, etc. Then you go back over with your brush, adding highlights, lines, details. Then, back over again with a drybrushing…then back to the airbrush to blast Flory Wash all over it.

Can’t see your photos, you can’t post photos until you have a certain post count. I wouldn’t use water to thin paints, they are water soluble but the mix and viscosity is all wrong (though water is obv. cheap and easy to clean up)

As for oil-based paints, these require thinner to clean up, they are much more difficult to drybrush with and are not used for airbrushing. The days of the old testors paints is long behind us–even apple barrel paints are easier to work with and cheaper. The early painting methods were much more about glomming thick layers of paint onto lead miniatures and the modern approach with water based paint and a series of different techniques creates much better results.

@Harvard3X1 Thanks for the comment :)
The Panther is the regular panzer. The Tiger 2 is SS-Panzer and the E100 is Heavy SS- Panzer
The SS-Panzer can be produced by a max of 4 from round “late 1942” and cost 2 IPC upgraded from a normal panzer in Berlin. Attack at 4 and defend at 5
The Heavy SS-Panzer can be produced by a max of 2 from round “late 1944” and cost 2 IPC upgraded from a SS-Panzer in Berlin. Attacks and Defends at 5 and uses 2 dice. Its has 2 Hit Points as capital ships.

There is a golf Tee system used by one of the players here in Toronto. Met him at YG’s Tourney this year. Pretty cheap. Two tees of the same colour. One goes in country of origin, and the other goes into the battle territory. Just need to paint a few sets of Tees different colours, or use ones that are already coloured. Worked out nicely. If they are small enough, they aren’t very intrusive at all.

I have seen lots of people here use acrylics and I have on occasion. Most of my paints are enamels though. I find that is stays wet longer (which is a good thing) and doesn’t clump up nearly as much on your brush. I also use enamels in my airbrush. I find that enamels are actually much easier to clean than acrylics. While acrylics are water soluble, they don’t just dissolve, especially if already dry. It involves a great deal of scrubbing and scraping. With enamels, all you need is some mineral spirits cleaner and it takes the paint right off with very little effort. Cleaning acrylic paint out of my airbrush was hell the first time I did it… never using acrylics in there again. In terms of the finish, I can only assume that enamels hold up better to bumps and scrapes than acrylic paint does.

Someone once asked if enamels, by default, have a glossy finish to them. They do not, as long as you are using flat enamels, which seem to be the standard. I use flats and they have an excellent, non-shiny finish. I feel like enamel colors are a little deeper too, on the whole, but I suppose it depends on the brand of acrylic you use. Vallejo seems to be a popular choice for acrylics. I use predominantly Model Masters (Testors) enamels. In general, I would just said to find a brand you like to work with and produces the results you like. Don’t buy super cheap paint… you will get the results you pay for.

Good luck!

jwo1984 & Others,

––This thread shows how the Shipyard was made by Ebard re-designing his Dry Dock, adding a large wharf area, adding a second crane, several warehouses, storerooms, and supplies to the dock area including some pics of the finished painted units. Enjoy, and ask any other questions you might have.
––It Also shows his Small Naval Base and Air Base (straight) units.

Tall Paul

soem as well
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=21680.15