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Got my sets in the mail. Have to say that I am very impressed with the pieces. I concur with basically everything that Leatherneckinlv has stated about the sculpts. Not a fan of the size of Leningrad or Ottawa, beautiful pieces just need to be downsized. I do not like the Cairo pyramid, too big for sure, and not 100% on the design itself. Maybe a sculpt with a couple pyramids on it? Or would that be too close to the Ossel design?  Leatherneckinlv beat me to the pictures and the painting, so I won’t jam up the thread with unnecessary pictures. I love the Shanghai pieces and plan to reorder the upsized original capital city pieces.

Thanks to eBard for letting me pre-order.

All the sculpts were top notch. Detail and quality are phenomenal. Leatherneckinlv’s photos dont show the level of quality on the Honolulu piece, there is a tiny cross on top of the sculpt, really adds to it. Really like the painting on Leatherneckinlv’s models.

I just got my set in the mail today too. Based on a two-second glance at the pieces, they all look pretty good; nothing broken or otherwise wrong with the printing process. Honolulu tower was a bit small, so I will probably scale that up for the smaller set. I’ll try to post pictures tonight.

For the bigger set, my plan is to swap out the Leningrad, Cairo, and Ottawa sculpts with the ones from the smaller set. That happens to be an easy fix to get all the sculpts the same size on the bigger set.

As for the pyramid, I need to look closer at the smaller version tonight and see how I feel about it. I think I designed it in the smaller scale and then scaled it up for the larger version, so it’s possible this version may look better. I also have a few ideas of how I might be able to make it better, so I’ll experiment tonight and see what I can come up with.

My first attempt at making the Cairo sculpt actually included the three pyramids on it; but I really didn’t like it because each pyramid was tiny yet the sculpt as a whole was quite large (bigger than the current pyramid). My second attempt was the single pyramid that we received.

Pictures of the smaller set. Here are all the pieces together. (painted pieces are the original set of capital cities)

More pictures…

And more pictures… First is of the smaller pyramid, which I actually don’t think looks too bad. Second picture is of the original capitals that I redid.

I’m currently painting the pyramid to see if that changes how it looks. I’m leaning towards using the smaller pyramid in both sets; that was the size I designed the model for and I think it looks fine in-person. The other option I’m considering is creating a version with flat sides (no steps), maybe with a different sharper angle to the top, and offering it in White Strong & Flexible to achieve the not-smooth look from a distance.

I like the larger scale for most of the pieces. Can i get them at the smaller scale price? :-D

I personally think the Pyramid looks great with the steps!

I may be in the minority here, but I don’t see any major changes that need to be made. Having three pyramids on the piece, while it would look great if doable, is also going a bit far to the unnecessary in my opinion. I think we all need to remember that 1) EBard is being awesome in taking everyone’s suggestions here, but in the end these are his pieces! You don’t like them, don’t buy them. 2) This are just gaming aids, and not the focal point of the entire game. That’s my thought anyways. As long as they stand out, look cool, and give my pieces a visual objective to shoot for, I’m okay with everything!

Here are some pictures of the pyramid painted, I really think at the smaller size it looks fine. This is on the Global War 36 oversized board.

So I’m going to use the smaller pyramid in both sets, same as Leningrad and Ottawa. And when I say “smaller” I do want to be clear that these three pieces are exactly the same size as the larger set’s Stalingrad factory. So if anything they were probably oversized to begin with.

I’ll work on getting the sets ready now and they should be available for purchase later tonight or tomorrow at latest.

Hurray!!!

I’m still waiting for my set. It must have gotten hung up in customs at the border.

Ok, the sets are all available for purchase on my Shapeways shop. Here is the link to the page listing them all. Please let me know if anything is confusing or if you encounter any problems… otherwise, enjoy!

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/ebardmodels?section=Axis+%26+Allies+Capitals&s=0

I’ve put in an order for both new Victory Cities sets in the smaller size compatible with your original run of capitals. The latter are a constant hit at any event I attend.

I didn’t realize that all of the naval vessels you produce are appropriately scaled for A&A. I look forward to making some purchases of cruisers next week, along with the four-stack factories.

I got the smaller versions of Cairo, Ottawa and Leningrad……perfect

I finally got my set in the mail from Shapeways. The pictures certainly don’t do the pieces justice. I can’t believe how much nicer they are than the original set of capital cities that I already had. Great job E-Bard!!

Here is the video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivOhgivJOEM&t=12s

Thanks for making the video, that was great! I’ll try to answer a few of your questions that came up in the video below:

Q: Why are there two pieces for Paris?
A: When I made the first set of capital pieces there were people who wanted the Eiffel Tower and others who wanted the Arch de Triumph. Since the Eiffel Tower is a civilian landmark while the Arch de Triumph has a military background (commemorating the French who fought and died in the revolution and Napoleonic wars) I thought both landmarks had a strong case to be included. The real reason there are two is that the Eiffel Tower was easy to make, so I added it in as an extra.
Bonus answer: The Arch de Triumph can also be used to represent the Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest if you play with that victory city.

Q: Why are there two pieces for Hong Kong?
A: The Queen’s Building represents British rule of Hong Kong while the Wong Tai Sin temple represents a native Chinese landmark. I also tried to keep the Queen’s building smaller, for people who were tight on board space, while the temple is larger for the crowd that prefers bigger pieces. Finally, I figured that the Wong Tai Sin temple could easily be used as a victory city for any other Chinese city in the event that was desirable.

I also want to clarify for anyone late to the thread that the sculpts for Leningrad, Cairo, and Ottawa were scaled down in the “Large” set of victory cities from what you saw in the video. The Honolulu Aloha Tower sculpt was scaled up for the “Small” set of victory cities so that it is closer in size to the one in the video (video was of the “Large” set).

The difference in size between the “Small” and “Large” sets is about 30-40% – put differently, it’s about 5mm different for any given piece. So if you are worried about board space, look at the smaller set; whereas if you are most interested in visible detail and pieces that stand out on the board, you may like the larger set.

so when do you make the neutral  nations capitols set ? Istanbul, Madrid, Stockholm, or for the A&A WWI, Wien, etc etc, If there is a marked, you dont lose your investment, I hope…

BTW, my copies are coming in the mail 6 days from now, cant wait

I am planning to continue on and make additional cities. I’m hoping to get one or two sets done over the next 8 weeks during my time off around the holidays. As soon as I get a set done, it will be released. Here’s my current list of cities and buildings and a very tentative breakdown into sets (#1 and #3 may trade some pieces).

Set 1:
Helsinki - Central Railway Station
Belgrade - St. Mark’s Church
Kiev - Saint Sophia Cathedral
Libya - Marble Arch

Set 2:
Peking - Temple of Heaven
Singapore - Raffles Hotel
Vladivostok - Trans-Siberian Rail Station
Novosibirsk - Railway Station

Set 3:
Istanbul - Hagia Sofia
Algiers - Basilica of Algiers
Cape Town  - City Hall
Stockholm - City Hall

Set 4:
Rio de Janeiro - Christ the Redeemer statue
Buenos Aires - Kavanagh building or Casa Rosada?
New York City - Empire State Building
Chicago - The Stevens Hotel or Navy Pier? Navy Pier?

At the moment I don’t have any plans to make any additional pieces beyond these. But if you have suggestions for cities or buildings, please do send them to me and I’ll write them down. I do like the way these pieces look on the board, and it’s been fun to see how others are using them to spice up their games; so if there is a compelling set 5 or set 6 to make, I am definitely open to making them. A “capitals of Europe” set with Madrid, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, and Prague seems like a decent possibility eventually.

At the moment, the Arc de Triomphe could probably do double duty as the Marble Arch in Libya if one is content to keep the Eiffel Tower on the board.