Standardized Colors

@coedewa

Valejo has all WWII paint you can imagine. Most of them are even named, for example: German Camouflage Red Brown, German Tank Grey, Afrika Korps Sand Yellow, etc.

For example, all you need to do is decide which year you want your Luftwaffe units from - since Luftwaffe colors changed during the War depending on which season (Summer or Winter) and Theatre of War.

Luftwaffe paintings are named RLM and then a number, for example RLM 65 or RLM 65 A (grey).

As the War progressed, various camouflage paintings became less available due to shortages in general.

Most Tank models in Late 1944 and Early 1945 were from the production line painted overall Tank Grey since this paint was still plentyfull.
This color was also perfect for City Fighting.

Frontline units needed to repaint their equipment with everyrhing they could find or capture from the enemy.

You might find inspiration here:

Panzer Colors I Panzer Colors II Panzer Colors III Messerschmitt Bf 109 in action Ju 87 Stuka in action SS Armor

All of the above are from Squadron/signal puplications
Multiple other books are available from this company.

Also check out:

The Eastern Front - Armor Camouflage and Markings 1941 to 1945, by Steven J. Zaloca & James Grandsen

I use waterbased paint from Valejo and acrylic paint from Humbrol.

After painting is dry, I add multiple layers of Matt Spray Varnish for further protection against wear and tear.

You can check out on this forum:
Global 1940 Game Report Thread. There you’ll find some pictures of the units I have in my Axis & Allies game.

November Update: Pictured below are some of the new designs and things in the shop, including four new colors and four new units:

Colors:

China Lime Green UK Light Tan/Beige Dutch Bright Orange French Blue

Units:

LCVP “Higgins” boats M3 Stuart Light Tanks GMC “Jimmy” CCKW 2 1/2 Ton trucks Kriegsmarine Type IX U-boats

IMG_7373.JPG

These and most of my other prints are $0.60 per model or less! Come check them out, and let me know if you have more ideas below.

As always, A&A forum members can use coupon code AADOTORG21 for 10% off your order for the rest of 2021: www.etsy.com/shop/NathanDetr0itDesigns?coupon=AADOTORG21

@AlphaKappa:

That is so helpful!  Thank you for the analysis!

It was my pleasure. A chance to pull out my games and admire them? If I must…  :-D

@AlphaKappa:

It’s too bad Avalon Hill didn’t print the new Anniversary Edition in the same colors as Europe '40 Second Edition.  I really like the lighter shade of those Italian pieces because they’re easier to distinguish from Soviet red-brown.

To be fair to Hasbro/WotC/Avalon Hill, all they promised was a re-print. And to a large degree, that is what the New A&A Anniversary edition was: a straight up re-print of the original go at things. Were there differences between the two prints? Of course there were. Were all of those changes for the better? I don’t think so, no. I especially wish they had kept the US F6F Hellcat fighters but instead we got more P-38 Lightnings. But overall, it was probably as faithful as they could do and a long shot better than either 1) not doing it at all (what a pity that would have been) or 2) just phoning it in and wholesale dumping all of the right pieces from A&A 42 and A&A Europe 40.1 Italy.

Instead, we got the original Anniversary Edition Italian tank, the M14/41. We got the Italian brown Japanese Betty bombers and Type 92 Howitzers (artillery). And they put them into a shade about as close as to the shade of the original Anniversary Edition Italians as they were going to get from two print runs separated by 9 years. And that meant that we got a bunch of Italian brown German ships and fighters. But we got a re-print of a game I didn’t think was ever coming back.

And for that, I don’t mind dark brown Italians. Even if I would have rather gotten the F6Fs and the Maroon UK Country class cruisers, I’m happy with what we did get.

-Midnight_Reaper

Rust-o-leum Rustic Orange

@hengst said in Historical Board Gaming Piece Colors:

On this note, is “blonde” or “tan” a better color match for OOB UK G40 pieces?

I think tan is a better match. Blonde is too light a color to be a good match.

-Midnight_Reaper

I’ve always had a problem with HBG’s “orange” Japanese units not being of the same tone of orange from OOB A&A… most other colors of custom HBG units seem to match pretty good, but that orange always seemed off to me… so much so I’ve never kept a custom HBG Japanese unit in my nation bins… sad, cuz I really like some of them.

(and yes, I’m one of those anal-retentive guys where if the color is just off a tad, it “ruins” it for me… I know I’m odd that way).

P.S.
Dang, I just realized this forum won’t let you use the first three letters of Japanese units without blanking it out as a profanity.

Very nice work. I’m way too unsteady of hand and mind to pull that off.

@gosanchez6 IMG_2948.JPG

Vallejo Japanese Army uniform for the win!