1940 Europe/Pacific miniatures Question

Is there any way you could “borrow” his pieces and return them to him painted?

Other than that I would suggest you go to historicalboardgaming.com for new pieces.

There are literally hundreds of pieces to these games. I would suggest you paint a small portion of them and then give them to him. If he likes them you could then get his pieces and paint them afterwards. Also on that site is a section where they sell decals which you could stick on the pieces after you paint them. There are other threads in this section where members of this forum have painted their pieces, maybe you could message one of them and ask for advice.

Here is a sample of what you could purchase;
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Sealed-Bag-United-Kingdom-Europe-1940-2nd-Ed_p_1671.html

For what it’s worth, I’d be thrilled if my gf painted my A&A pieces. I’m sure he’ll love it.  :-D

Just to add a few thoughts to this discussion:

• I’m not sure what “Objective: Custom paint miniatures for my bf’s favorite game -A&A 1940 Europe/Pacific Problem: I know nothing about said game and am looking for …” means in precise terms.  I get the impression that sh3lalaalaaa isn’t talking about taking her bf’s existing 1940 Europe/Pacific sculpts and painting them, but rather buying some additional sculpts and painting them.  Her question “Where I can buy them? (preferably together as a set)” seems to imply the second scenario.

• If sh3lalaalaaa does indeed want to buy a complete set of 1940 Europe/Pacific sculpts, then the answer of how to get them is simple: just a buy a copy of the two games.  Trying to buy all the pieces (which add up to several hundred units) just by themselves, without the rest of the game components, would not only be too much trouble, it would probably also be much more expensive than just buying the games.

• If sh3lalaalaaa just wants to buy a few dozen sculpts, then buying them separately makes sense.  This would be a possible source:

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Axis-Allies-Pieces_c_102.html

• If sh3lalaalaaa, on the other hand, plans to borrow her bf’s existing pieces and paint them, then the question of where to get the sculpts is easily answered: from her bf.  I assume, however, that sh3lalaalaaa plans to ask him first rather than spring this on him as a surprise.  (Some surprises in ife are nice, but I’d advise against this particular one.)

I must say its a very expensive and exhausting task.  The cost of having someone paint all the global pieces would be way more than the simple cost of the pieces themselves.  I painted my own pieces and over time of 2 years spent 10 times the initial cost of the game just in resources.  I would suggest you paint your own. 
Piece by piece you will get better.  Then you will add a sense of uniqueness to the set in that it was painted by you. ;)

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=33966.300

I’m copying below a list of the Global 1940 plastic sculpts which was compiled by Young Grasshopper (http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=38473.0).  As Cyanight has noted, painting that many sculpts would be a gigantic project.  Even painting just the Europe 1940 sculpts or just the Pacific 1940 sculpts would involve a lot of work.  So perhaps a good way to approach the matter is to work from the principle that the project would have to be broken down into several sub-projects, and to start with just one such sub-project as a trial run, or as a proof-of-concept.

Here’s what I think might be a quick and easy and inexpensive way to do this trial run: buy a copy of the A&A 1941 game and paint just the infantry pieces.  You mentioned this idea in your original post, and you’re quite correct that its equipment sculpts (meaning the non-infantry sculpts) are different models from the ones in the other A&A games; the infantry sculpts, however, are identical, so by practicing on those you’d be practicing on exactly the same US, UK, USSR, German and Japanese infantry units as in the other games.  The 1941 game is the least expensive of all the A&A games (in part because it has a limited number of powers, of unit types, and of quantities of sculpts provided), so even if the project proves to be unsuccessful you wouldn’t have wasted much money.  Conversely, the painted infantry units from that game might turn out to be a great success – in which case you would be ideally positioned to show the results to your bf and ask for a green light to undertake a more ambitious painting project by buying (either on your own or jointly with him) either the Europe 1940 game or the Pacific 1940 game.  Remember that there’s no need to buy both games at the same time, since just one of them will provide you with enough sculpts to paint to last you for a long time.  Buying both Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940 together is a fair chunk of change, but spreading the cost over a couple of years by buying them separately makes the outlay much less daunting.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, regardless of which 1940 game you start with, you might to start your painting project by focusing on the United States and United Kingdom pieces.  The US and the UK are the only powers in the 1940 games (out of a total of nine) which are player nations in both games and which have plastic sculpts in both games, so by painting those nations first you’d get a set of painted sculpts that are usable in both games if they’re played separately (which can be done under the rules).

The Axis Powers

Germany
Japan
Italy

The Allied Powers

Soviet Union
United States
China
United Kingdom
ANZAC
France

PLASTIC UNIT PIECES

GERMANY - BLACK

40 Infantry
8 Artillery
9 Mechanized Infantry
12 Tanks
8 Antiaircraft Artillery

8 Fighters
9 Tactical Bombers
4 Strategic Bombers

2 Battleships
2 Aircraft Carriers
4 Cruisers
6 Destroyers
6 Submarines
6 Transports

JAPAN - ORANGE

40 Infantry
12 Artillery
9 Mechanized Infantry
12 Tanks
8 Antiaircraft Artillery

16 Fighters
9 Tactical Bombers
8 Strategic Bombers

8 Battleships
8 Aircraft Carriers
8 Cruisers
12 Destroyers
12 Submarines
12 Transports

SOVIET UNION - MAROON

40 Infantry
8 Artillery
9 Mechanized Infantry
10 Tanks
8 Antiaircraft Artillery

8 Fighters
9 Tactical Bombers
2 Strategic Bombers

2 Battleships
2 Aircraft Carriers
2 Cruisers
4 Destroyers
4 Submarines
4 Transports

UNITED STATES - GREEN

40 Infantry
12 Artillery
15 Mechanized Infantry
12 Tanks
16 Antiaircraft Artillery

16 Fighters
15 Tactical Bombers
12 Strategic Bombers

8 Battleships
8 Aircraft Carriers
8 Cruisers
12 Destroyers
12 Submarines
12 Transports

CHINA - LIME GREEN

30 Infantry

UNITED KINGDOM - BEIGE

40 Infantry
12 Artillery
12 Mechanized Infantry
16 Tanks
16 Antiaircraft Artillery

16 Fighters
12 Tactical Bombers
12 Strategic Bombers

8 Battleships
4 Aircraft Carriers
8 Cruisers
12 Destroyers
12 Submarines
12 Transports

ITALY - BROWN

20 Infantry
8 Artillery
6 Mechanized Infantry
10 Tanks
8 Antiaircraft Artillery

8 Fighters
6 Tactical Bombers
4 Strategic Bombers

2 Battleships
2 Aircraft Carriers
4 Cruisers
6 Destroyers
6 Submarines
6 Transports

ANZAC - GRAY

20 Infantry
6 Artillery
6 Mechanized Infantry
8 Tanks
8 Antiaircraft Artillery

8 Fighters
6 Tactical Bombers
6 Strategic Bombers

4 Battleships
4 Aircraft Carriers
4 Cruisers
6 Destroyers
6 Submarines
6 Transports

FRANCE - BLUE

20 Infantry
8 Artillery
8 Mechanized Infantry
10 Tanks
8 Antiaircraft Artillery

8 Fighters
6 Tactical Bombers
2 Strategic Bombers

2 Battleships
2 Aircraft Carriers
2 Cruisers
4 Destroyers
4 Submarines
4 Transports

Just to follow up on my post from a moment ago, here’s a link to a table compiled by JeeVeeDee39 (http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=30066.0  Reply #3 on: March 11, 2016, 11:32:13 am) which gives the breakdown of the units into Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940 columns.  This will give you the figures that apply separately to the US and the UK in each of those games, since both countries are player powers in both games.

In case this is useful, here’s a page which shows photos of all the sculpt types in A&A 1941 (http://www.axisandallies.org/p/axis-allies-1941-preview-unit-details-and-abilities/) along with a list of how many sculpts of each type are in the game.  Clicking on each picture will give you an enlarged version.