More painted pieces for consideration

I have had a 3D printer hobbyist CAD design a new BB playing piece and a new DD playing piece.
The BB is based on the WW1 UK Iron Duke modified for appearance. It is, certainly, better looking than the original BB design. Additionally, I (we) used a depiction of a WW1 US 4 stacker DD to make a modified DD playing piece for A&A WW1. The rationale that the Sub replaces the need for a DD just doesn’t ‘cut it’ (make sense). Most of the colour filaments used to 3D print these units are a good match to the original playing piece colours. I will post pictures of these as I have assistance doing so.

@Midnight_Reaper well, i use the 3 pieces of the first image, they serve me well, for that they are.
Now, the system and the mechanics of the game are made for a fast gameplay, and map and combat are more a -ww2 in europe- theme or abstraction, instant of a true 100% historical simulation.
Yes, random dice can by a problem some times, but rock-paper-scissors system can minimice the dice factor. And there are some post-production official optional rules and ideas, i find in the forums, to engance gameplay.
Wen i playtest all options, i can put here, if you want to know, my full opinion on the game.

@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.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Landing-Vehicle-Tracked-LVT4-2017381051873202/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2201403350137637

@AlphaKappa:

That is so helpful!  Thank you for the analysis!

It was my pleasure. A chance to pull out my games and admire them? If I must…  :-D

@AlphaKappa:

It’s too bad Avalon Hill didn’t print the new Anniversary Edition in the same colors as Europe '40 Second Edition.  I really like the lighter shade of those Italian pieces because they’re easier to distinguish from Soviet red-brown.

To be fair to Hasbro/WotC/Avalon Hill, all they promised was a re-print. And to a large degree, that is what the New A&A Anniversary edition was: a straight up re-print of the original go at things. Were there differences between the two prints? Of course there were. Were all of those changes for the better? I don’t think so, no. I especially wish they had kept the US F6F Hellcat fighters but instead we got more P-38 Lightnings. But overall, it was probably as faithful as they could do and a long shot better than either 1) not doing it at all (what a pity that would have been) or 2) just phoning it in and wholesale dumping all of the right pieces from A&A 42 and A&A Europe 40.1 Italy.

Instead, we got the original Anniversary Edition Italian tank, the M14/41. We got the Italian brown Japanese Betty bombers and Type 92 Howitzers (artillery). And they put them into a shade about as close as to the shade of the original Anniversary Edition Italians as they were going to get from two print runs separated by 9 years. And that meant that we got a bunch of Italian brown German ships and fighters. But we got a re-print of a game I didn’t think was ever coming back.

And for that, I don’t mind dark brown Italians. Even if I would have rather gotten the F6Fs and the Maroon UK Country class cruisers, I’m happy with what we did get.

-Midnight_Reaper

Nice work - Dare I ask how many hours you put into it? For interest’s sake.

@mentok27:

Man now I wish I had some new stuff to share. But I didn’t finish any pieces  I started recently…. I did do quite a few Hungarian pieces but I was waiting till I did the Air Force as wel before I snapped a pic.

I lost a lot of time recently on the battlefield 1 beta.

No problem, you have inspired me to get back to painting. Due to health reasons, I haven’t done anything in a year, but I’m about to least, do some small jobs, here and there.

Can’t wait to see your Hungarian pieces. :-)

Cheers,

John