Cyanight's Customizations

@cyanight:

I spoke with Doug from HBG the last week of July and he said the UK set would be out in 5 weeks. That should be next week.Â

Not really sure how I’m going to paint them.  I customized all the carriers and probably will start with the battleships next.Â

Here is a link of my carriers that I customized
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=34206.0

I want the ships to look more realistic but I also want it to be easy to identify their nation on the game board.  The first time I painted all my subs grey and the players got confused.  So I may keep the ships the way they are.  If you notice my battleships have these big flags on them.  Its because some of our players had problems seeing the tiny flags. So I made them larger and out of scale.Â

Battleships have flags
Cruisers have a decal on their stern.
Destroyers and subs have no markings.

That’s the system we came up with to differentiate the Battleships, cruisers and destroyers from one another.  Battleships and cruisers are not that difficult to distinguish from each other but cruisers and destroyers are difficult.

I guess we will know, soon enough, if we will get them soon or not.

cyanight and others,

@cyanight:

I spoke with Doug from HBG the last week of July and he said the UK set would be out in 5 weeks. That should be next week.�

Not really sure how I’m going to paint them.

I want the ships to look more realistic but I also want it to be easy to identify their nation on the game board.� The first time I painted all my subs grey and the players got confused.

**––Here’s something for you to consider. If you paint all of your navies in a distinctively different paint scheme (DESIGN as well as COLOR) you should be able to distinguish them from each other even without national ensigns or flags. This might seem overly simple,…but it WORKS! For example:

U.S. in solid Medium Blue,
U.K. in Blue/Black/White “dazzle”
Japan in Dark Gray
Germany in Light Gray
Italy has their Red/White striped bows
Russia,…well, that shouldn’t be a real problem.

----In addition to the colors, ALL of my naval ships will have a national ensign to assist in their identity. On most every I-94 Enterprise decal sheet is a stripe of the naional colors which can be sliced into a very small national ensign,…even for subs.
----I personally may be a “dummy”,…but I’ve found that with enough time & effort I can come up with a workable solution to most of my problems. And I’ve certainly found it to be true that the more time you spend in PLANNING the less problems you’ll have in execution. This answer was only an explanation of how things “work” for me and shouldn’t be misconstrued in any manner as a criticism of anyone.
----This forum “A&A.Org” is a GREAT place to find answers and inspiration from people a lot smartter than myself. I hope this might help you in some way.

Tall Paul**

@cyanight:

I was looking on HBG’s site this morning and noticed this on the UK expansion set.

Please do NOT order this with other units. All items on your Pre-order will ship together at the latest time the pieces are available. We should have them in stock September 15th, 2014

So it will be a week and a half. Thanks buddy for the info. :-)

I must say, those are pretty cool. Are you going to paint them different colors? :-D

@John:

I must say, those are pretty cool.

I agree!  Very nice.

@cyanight:

Now that I think about it I’m not sure I like the color I painted them, lol.

LOL, sorry, I didn’t know you painted them. :-D

cyanight & others,

@cyanight:

NP, John… I was trying to find a unique color for them. Canary Yellow isn’t doing it , hehe.  I’m thinking maybe grey with a black wash followed by some detail color on the center of the radar dish.

**––Guys, I’ve tested out many variations of almost everything relating to my A&A gaming experience, especially player preferences, even if they are unconsious ones. My “test subjects” vary widely from a 90-year old WW2 vet (eyes, mobility, and slight unit identity issues due to age) to younger, more vibrant but definately NEWBIE players. Many of the things I do in/for our games are testing their preferences whether they’re aware of it or not.

----I think your plan of Gray with a Black wash is perfect,…and either
an “R” (for Radar) or a Red dot in the center of the dish would easily and pleasingly identify them and look great, too!.

----IMHO, the answer that I found through research is that any basic INFRASTRUCTURE unit that doesn’t need to be nation specific such as
Air Bases, Naval Bases, AA guns or Radar Dishes is better left in a basic but pleasing color scheme that doesn’t take any TIME for your brain to identify them. Check out my AA guns in the pic, below.

----With all of the now HUNDREDS of new units and variations of each type, I’ve even decided on “STADARDISING” a few basic units with the same well-detailed sculpts, such as 105mm Artillery and  Sea Transports, with all of the individual
Air Transports having their wingtips, fuselage stripes, and engine nacelles painted White,…the only aircraft to have White markings.

----Although, I’ve personally found that marking the IPC Factories with their nation specific flags speeds things along, especially when the gameboard gets really “clutterred”. Also, my guys LOVE to replace an enemy’s factory with one having their own flag on it whenever they capture one.  :-D

----Of course all of the above is simply MY opinion,…and we all have different tastes and/or preferences. I only offer them as the solutions that I’ve found that work for ME,…and to help anyone who might like them. I always enjoy seeing your wonderful paint jobs and look forward to many more.

Tall Paul**

Those are really cool, Cyanight! I especially like your airforce and navy. :-)

@cyanight:

Thanks John :)

I really wish I was painting UK units…� � Like the new ones from HBG but still no email on shipment yet.� � I called Doug on Monday and he said they would ship by the end of the week.� � I really don’t understand the holdup but I guess I need to be patient.� �

I will tell you what he told me in the forums. He says that they will start shipping this Friday, but that it would take up to 7 to 10 days to ship everyone’s pieces. That means, if yours ship on the 10th day, it will be sometime in October, before you actually get your hands on them.

See, I’m trying to wait on my British set as well, because I want Spitfire38 to paint the UK Pacific next.

I understand how you feel,  because I’m feeling the same way, but I have come to the conclusion that they can’t pump these sets out as fast as they thought.

On average, at the rate they are going, I see 2 or 3 a year sets is the most they could produce a year, because they have so many other products they are doing.

I hope this helps.

I want them as bad as you, but I decided couple months back not to give my hopes up, because production is so slow. :-)

No problem, my friend. :-)

@John:

I understand how you feel, because I’m feeling the same way, but I have come to the conclusion that they can’t pump these sets out as fast as they thought. On average, at the rate they are going, I see 2 or 3 a year sets is the most they could produce a year, because they have so many other products they are doing. […]  I want them as bad as you, but I decided couple months back not to give my hopes up, because production is so slow.

This is a good point which raises a pretty fundamental question.  If HBG over the past year or so has been experiencing bottlenecks with regard to the ability of its overseas factory to produce unit sculpts, while at the same time HBG has been developing (or thinking about developing) many different new sculpt sets (both as stand-alone sets and as part of boxed games like Amerika), has a situation developed in which HBG is getting too far ahead of itself?  In other words, are we in a situation in which the ratio of projected sets under development versus completed sets actually leaving the factory is becoming too lopsided?

The potential problem with having too many projected sets stacking up relative to the rate at which they can actually be produced is that it can create the kind of frustration that people experience when they see a desirable product in the front window of a store that’s closed for renovations.  It’s also been contributing on this forum to many debates (I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call them arguments) about the order in which the projected sets should be manufactured.  If the sets were being produced at a rapid clip, it wouldn’t matter very much if such-and-such a set comes first while a certain other one comes, let’s say, fifth, because even the fifth one would end up in people’s hands within a reasonable timeframe – perhaps even a timeframe that could be estimated with reasonable accuracy.  If, on the other hand, sets come out slowly, then it becomes a much more serious matter whether a particular set is first or fifth in the cue, and customers will therefore be tempted to press the case for why their particular favourites should me moved up in the production order.

I certainly don’t want to see HBG drop its production and QC standards to get pieces out faster, since the quality of their products is one of their prime selling points.  I do, however, think it might be a good idea for HBG to put a temporary moratorium on announcing concepts for new sets of sculpts until it’s made headway on clearing the traffic jam of existing projects.  Adding more cars at the tail end of a snarled traffic line at rush-hour just results in more frustration for more people, without making the cars already in the line roll any faster.  Personally, at this point I’d prefer not to know what long-range plans HBG is considering for additional sculpt sets beyond the many ones that it has already announced or about which it has asked this community to vote to express its preferences.