Custom carriers from OOB's and painted pieces

Finally got pictures of the Japanese starting subs (previous Japanese sub pics are super subs). We’re using the Kaichu subs from the 1941 set, with extras purchased from HBG. FOlewnik did the paint & I did the decals. I’d be happier if the pictures were a little sharper but you can still see the detail on the piece. Needless to say, the 20/0 and smaller brushes got a workout on the flanks of these pieces. It took a very steady hand to keep the lines straight on the ballast ports- if one was even just a little off it stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. I made the flags from the white stripes on the Italian roundel decal sheet and the red dots from the US early roundel decal sheet like on the super subs posted earlier (the I series from the Pacific set). The numbers on the conning tower are from the I-94 white numbers & letters decal sheet.

The IJN Unryu by FOlewnik. Mast is a broken sewing needle and conning tower is from the GHQ carrier extras. I tried to get good pictures of the cutaways on the bow and stern- hope you can see the detail. There’s a good side by side with an unpainted Shinano sculpt to help show the modifications.

We’re still in the process of making storage. FO got hold of an old metal card file cabinet section that’s about 18x36 inches with either 24 or 28 drawers (6 or 7 columns of 4 drawers) that are slightly wider and twice as deep as the piece storage box that comes with the game, and a little over twice as long. He’s also got some foam sheets we’ll eventually cut for them so each piece sits in its own little cut out. The only thing he’s had to worry about are the little planes on the pieces with launch catapults. Two or three weren’t glued in solid enough and have come off. The rest are pretty solid- enough so that you can pick up the piece by the little aircraft sitting on the launch catapult.

@Phelan-Kell - you BET I can’t wait to bring some detailed SBD’s in on these and toss a handfull of dice in the box against them! We had a pretty kick-arse game of “Check Your 6!” with the aircraft last Thanksgiving. I put a few pictures in the “Other Axis & Allies Variants” section.

The IJN Junyo has been done for a while but I’ve just now gotten around to cropping the pictures to post. So without further ado, FOlewnik’s (a.k.a. FJO) IJN Junyo in late war livery made from a Shinano sculpt.

Not carriers but I posted a picture of the Takaos a few pages back in an older post (to compare over time) that need a rest and refit to replace their scout planes.

Oh! lol, no. We use the smallest version of the Litko “Flaming Wreckage” markers. They sit well on carriers, but have to sit next to ships.

A few of the blurry pictures on the first page of the post have been replaced with better pictures, and pictures have been added to the finished IJN Shoho post earlier in the thread, and a destroyer family photo added of the IJN destroyers. Speaking of family photos, here are all the IJN aircraft carriers together. The last one still to complete is on the far right of the capital carriers- it just needs the deck painted. It’s a “what if” carrier of a converted battleship the Japanese player can upgrade to when fixing a damaged battleship. (The Japanese originally planned this for the Ise but went with a scaled down version to retain the big guns.) Might take a turn to convert, we haven’t play-tested it yet. The light carriers have the IJN Hiyo with them on the left just because of length- FOlewnik put 2 magnets in it so we could use it for either light or capital. You can see the finished canopies on the Zeroes.

A while ago, HBG had a sale on orange pieces so I took advantage of it and bought a lot of aircraft on the cheap. While looking for paint schemes for TBF Avengers, I came across a set of pictures of a model someone had built of a Royal Navy Avenger and decided it would be the first I attempted so I could add it to the Mosquitoes. While looking for better pictures of the canopy I found another depiction on Wings Palette with a description of its history. I haven’t put the magnet in it yet, but that will go in soon.

Thanks, guys. Glad you like the pieces. I replaced the pictures of the Vals on the bottom of page 2 with recent pictures of the finished bunch with their canopies done. We realized we’d never finished the canopies on the Oscars, so when those are done I’ll replace the picture of the Japanese fighters. We wanted to show how the camouflage schemes of the Imperial Japanese Navy went together so we put a few sorties together for a few runs down The Slot.

The Night Raiders:

The Coastal Fleet:

And my personal favorite, The Fleet of Fog:

(Can you find the 6 airplanes in the Fog Fleet?)