@Call77 and its not finished like I have said a few times
Custom Infantry
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I was able to buy 6 boxes of infantry at my local hobby store in the model department. This is your best bet because you don’t have to wait or pay a shipping fee. I bought 2 boxes from Amazon. They have a great selection and quick delivery (type in “Airfix 1:72 figures” into the search box and see what they have). The Italians are out of print so had to get them from Ebay (paid twice as much for delivery as I paid for the box).
Airfix is not the only brand but those are the only ones I’ve tried so far. There are several brands and I found a website based in Atlanta that sells all of them. I have ordered 6 more boxes from them but can’t vouch for them yet because I have not received delivery yet (still too soon). Their site is;
https://www.hobbylinc.com/1:72-scale-world-war-ii-wwii-plastic-model-military-figuresMy infantry arrived in good condition and in a timely fashion. It took about as long as an order from HBG to get to me way up here in Northern British Columbia. Some things I’ve learned about these custom infantry that I should share with you;
1. Not all sets are created equal. The Russian Infantry and the Japanese Infantry had tiny bases on them and they don’t stand up very well.
2. Not all manufacturers are equal. Up until the time that I created my original post here I had only used Airfix Pieces. Since then I’ve purchased Caesar Miniatures and Pegasus brand pieces and they were better quality than Airfix. Not all of the Airfix sets were bad most of them I’m happy with. I’m going to do a video on all of my customizations and you can see the difference between them. I do have both in my R&D video, Greatcoat Germans from Caesar Miniatures and Greatcoat Russians from Pegasus but I don’t get up close to them and talk about them. Both have much better bases. The Russians you have to partly assemble but the end product is well worth it, they are the best that I have. I have just ordered some Japanese from Pegasus so I don’t have to keep picking them up off their tiny little faces.There are hundreds of sets from different manufacturers at the Hobbylinc site if you want to check them out;
https://www.hobbylinc.com/1:72-scale-world-war-ii-wwii-plastic-model-military-figures -
I didn’t use primer but I don’t really know what I’m doing though. I washed the pieces in warm, soapy water then dried them thoroughly. I found the best way to paint them was to lay them all face down on a piece of cardboard and spray them as per directions on the can. After about 10-15 minutes I moved them to a drier part of the cardboard using a toothpick to keep them from sticking to the surface. After about 2 hours I flipped them all over and painted the other side again moving them with the toothpick.
While I haven’t painted anything for Axis and Allies (due to the fact, I’m still kinda stuck on OOB units and nobody to play against)… I have been active in customizing Risk (classic) and Risk: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition… yea… not Axis and Allies, my true love, but at least I can get my kids to play Risk with me (they’re getting quite good at it too). I have, oddly enough, done a lot of custom work for those games, painting capitals for classic Risk and Fortresses and Oliphants for LotR Risk… so painting multiple units of tiny size is something I’m kinda used to.
Here’s some tips you might find useful painting multiple tiny units on a mass scale that should save you some time and headache with the “paint on one side, then flip over with toothpicks and move to paint again” issue you described.
I paint all sides at once, because what I do is lay down some strips of masking tape, sticky-side up, the stick all my tiny units “standing up” on the sticky masking tape (I then tape the masking tape down to my painting surface so the tape doesn’t move either)… this keeps them from falling over during painting, but I can spray them from all sides in one go, without having to flip them with toothpicks… they just don’t move when stuck to masking tape, and they easily come off the masking tape when dry.
Here’s a couple of samples of how I tape-up some units (before and after applying some primer paint).
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a couple of units I use for my Far East Command.
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Nice!
Are those the WW1 Indian Infantry by HAT? -
Colonial India British Infantry by Esci. I think there is another box called Kumar Pass.
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I use these for my Italian Colonial Units, Militia.
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more pics of Colonial
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These are awesome. Great job. :-)
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I just ordered the last batch of Airfix Australian WWII soldiers off of Amazon…. how does the 1:72 scale soldiers match up to OOB Infantry units… same size, smaller/bigger? I’ve never been happy with the OOB Aussies, they’re either clones of British infantry or 12 feet tall compared to the others.
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They are the same size as the regular OOB infantry. Those ANZAC OOB infantry are so big because they are actually Amazon chicks. You have to look closely to tell but under a microscope it is unmistakable.
Haha made you look :-P
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Dammit!
[slowly puts away microscope]
I ended up with both sets of OOB Aussies… the British look-alikes at 6ft tall and the 2nd Ed OOB Aussies standing in at 12ft tall… i’ll paint the (1st edition) all Nutmeg (my 2nd Ed Aussies are in my bin of shame)… but I went ahead and ordered those Aussies from Airfix and paint them to match. I won’t be using any that look too freaky for A&A (prone position, running at full speed)… I think they would look odd.
I want to get the British Infantry units… especially the ones that are surrendering (I think Private Panic would appreciate them).
Anyways GHG, thanks for the heads-up… if this project goes good with the Aussies, I might consider other nations as well. Oh… how do the Airfix Aussies stand (on their stand)… are they pretty stable like OOB units, or do they fall-over if you look at them funny?
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They are not too bad. The best ones that I’ve bought so far is the Pegasus brand Russians. Really quality and great detail. Those and Caesar are definately a cut above the Airfix. Unfortunately you can’t get Aussies in anything but Airfix. I did get some WWI Aussies but ironically they were the same size as the Amazon chicks from the OOB ANZAC. My guess is that an Aussie is the one designing these sculpts and is purposefully making them 12 feet tall and bulletproof. Oy! Oy! Oy!
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Unfortunately you can’t get Aussies in anything but Airfix.
Not true… what do you call this then? I’ve seen it online…
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This is the first time I’ve seen that set. I bet they are better than the Airfix.
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http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx
I always use this because you get to see all the sculpts in every set
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@Imperious:
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx
I always use this because you get to see all the sculpts in every set
Nice link Imperious Leader!
…in regards to the Aussies, here’s the two reviews:
Airfix: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=48
Revell: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=342I’m going to vote a win for Airfix on this one… Revell has 7 units that are a no-go right off the bat… 4 firing at paratroopers in the air and 3 surrendering… not exactly what I want for A&A bravado!
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Those Aussie hats look pretty stupid too. Looks like something an old lady would wear to the beach.
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This is the last Russian set i bought;
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1409I have this one too;
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1410You actually have to glue them together first but they are head and shoulders above any other sets I’ve gotten so far.
I have these ones from Caesar too. I really like them;
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1827This set of Japanese are much better than the Airfix;
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1229 -
I do like the Revell Japanese infantry… there’s nothing super special, but what I like is that they all seem to have natural poses good as standard A&A infantry, and almost all of them wear the hat instead of the helmet, which I really like.
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Yes those ones look awesome. That one dude isn’t surrendering, his team just scored a touchdown and he’s totally jacked about it.
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