Painted playing pieces

[Krieghund]

Well said, IL.

[chagadiel]

thanks all

I leader said it best. Forums are a great place to share with like minded peaple and give a little bit back to the comunity from which you have sought ideas and influence.

[17Mark71]

Very cool.  Nice job.  I used to build a lot of 1/72 scale armor and had fun with the various paint schemes.  I just don’t have time anymore.

[MEGAEINSTEIN]

Beautiful work!

So well done!

Keep on painting!

You may have however potencial to do a lot better than that!

[MEGAEINSTEIN]

really important is to use a base color with spray - this avoids the ink from being removed with your nails for example later when playing with the painted units.

Dissolve more the ink on water to have a smoother surface after painting.

only use 3 colors to tanks.

with planes and ships you only need to use 1 color and one shadow, using a second color only for details (ex:the front of zero is black and the rest of the plane is dark green or white)

camouflage in tanks was made depending the theater: jungle many diferent greens together, desert just a kind of yellow

camouflage on ships was made using one single color (for example a kind of blue/green for usa ships

camouflage on planes was made in 2 dimensions: below the plane a color of the sky - light grey more frequently (someone looking to the flying plane from ground would see the sky and the below part of the plane). The other dimension is above the plane - someone on another plane flying over that plane sees the above part the plane and the ground - for example the upper part of the usa dauntless was painted blue so that someone looking down would see the blue from the plane and the blue water of pacific ocean.

[MEGAEINSTEIN]

a good benchmarketing is to observe AA miniatures.

all land and air units look pretty real.

the ships do not look that real cause in reality the camouflage used in the ships from the different powers was really very similar, so AA naval miniatures are painted in a surreal method to make each power having specific colors.

in reality however, many times the only way to distinguish to whom each ship belonged  was by analising its silhouette, not its colors (many times there was not even a flag to check)

[Imperious Leader]

I have decided to have a professionally painted set. My guy ED is a Master Painter of nearly 35 years.

But my issue is to wait till FMG pieces comes out and paint them, or just paint the OOB.

Id hate to get all these painted and have to start again and redo them when i get the FMG pieces.

hmmm….

I think i will split the difference. Paint FMG Italy and Germany, and also paint all the other nations using AA pieces.

FMG is doing USA after Germany, so perhaps i will paint USA last in the hopes of painting FMG US pieces instead of AA.

What would you do? Wait for quality or use what i got, or split the difference?

[chagadiel]

To megastein

they are all very valid points and thanks for the feedback.
however for me i have aproached this project with the following priorities

1. They must look good from the gamers view while sitting at the table
2. The must be vivid and not dull in colour to aid in stage 1 and be distinguishable from the other sides
3. be historically accurate

stage 1 and 2 overide 3 for me. I am OCD and love to get it right as much as possible and research everything but on this scale comprimises have to be found.
The ships especially like you say are difficult to identify with out some clue. i have not seen the axis and allies paint style though i have been getting ideas from the GHQ forum although both are a bigger scale. You might not like what i have done to my itallian ships but it makes them unique and have i used a royal navy design from the deck to make the italians differrent.

My uses use of lots of shades and colours is a simple  case of even a 1 colour tank has many shades of colour due to the way light reflects on it.  take the t34 I painted a colour which matched the t34 and and painted some highlights. Becuase of the scale the colour didnt look right and encredibly dull and flat so i dry brush light shades of olive as highlights and egdes. Now it  might look a bit messy up close but on the board they stand out and look about the right shades from that perceived distance.

In the end its about what style and level of detail makes you most happy.

[chagadiel]

I did not know they are making more miniatures.
i have been buying some sherman and german tanks for variety from another figure company since the scales are identicle. But what i want is a wildcat ot corsair for the pacific. wicked.

I dont know what the answer is to your cornundrum. I would say yes paint your new ones but if you got the time paint just the ships of those you havent replaced yet maybe  a few tanks of each unreplaced side

[McLovin1985]

@Imperious:

I have decided to have a professionally painted set. My guy ED is a Master Painter of nearly 35 years.

But my issue is to wait till FMG pieces comes out and paint them, or just paint the OOB.

Id hate to get all these painted and have to start again and redo them when i get the FMG pieces.

hmmm….

I think i will split the difference. Paint FMG Italy and Germany, and also paint all the other nations using AA pieces.

FMG is doing USA after Germany, so perhaps i will paint USA last in the hopes of painting FMG US pieces instead of AA.

What would you do? Wait for quality or use what i got, or split the difference?

Anything painted makes the game more interesting in my opinion. I say have your guy paint the OOB pieces, then possibly sell them when the entire FMG pieces come out. I’m guessing it’ll be awhile until they have every country made, so you’ll be waiting awhile until you’ve got a painted set.

[shintokamikaze]

wow,great detail for such small pieces,i love the panther winter camo,great for barbarosa

[chagadiel]

B 17’s

Italians
not the most exact design, especially the navy but hey i am happy and there is no mistaking those italian ships. i dont know what country used the deck design i got from a ghq painted set of ships but i thought that would good forthe italians

my cat made a peacefull protest against the war while we had a break by sleeping in our dice box.

[Imperious Leader]

Those are very nice!

[poloplayer15]

i second your opinion Imperious Leader

[dinosaur]

Those pieces are much more elaborate than the ones I painted.  I also recognized that at this scale, historical accuracy is just not a priority.  Also for me I wanted them to use the idea, “This color goes to this nation” sort of approach.  My most elaborate ones are for the Japanese.  Back when I was playing Revised, I also wanted two colors of UK troops because of the temperate and tropical environments.  I may have painted Marines for the US in the Pacific if I had stuck with it long enough.

For the Japanese, I used three colors for “bodies”, sand, IJN Green and IJA Green.  I added a lot of meatballs and silver for glass on the fighters.  I also painted the lower hull of all ships with Battleship Grey.

The UK were painted either a regular green or a color called Armor Sand for tropical uniforms.

The decks of US warships were painted “wood” and the superstructures were painted battleship grey.

Russian Pieces were colored a pale brown.  German pieces were colored European Grey.  Chinese pieces were going to be a dark brown.

Now I have a new challange to find colors for French, Italian and Aussie pieces.

[chrillenilsson]

so… the US fleet is as good as ready now… Maybe not historicly correct, but playable :)

ok?

[chagadiel]

Good stuff chrillenilsson like you say they may not be totaly accurate but they look like ships rather than olive plastic and are easilly distinquishable as american. good decals are they from ghq?

I am also haveing trouble coming up with ideas for the anzacs to make them destinquishable from the brits.

[CWO Marc]

@chagadiel:

i am happy and there is no mistaking those italian ships. i dont know what country used the deck design i got from a ghq painted set of ships but i thought that would good forthe italians

Nice work!  It must take a lot of squinting to paint sculpts which are that small…or do you use some sort of magnifying glass?

The diagonal recognition stripes on the decks which you mention were indeed used by the Italian Navy.  I’m not aware of any other country using them.

By the way, the shot of the cat sleeping in the box is a great picture!

[chrillenilsson]

@chagadiel:

Good stuff chrillenilsson like you say they may not be totaly accurate but they look like ships rather than olive plastic and are easilly distinquishable as american. good decals are they from ghq?

I am also haveing trouble coming up with ideas for the anzacs to make them destinquishable from the brits.

thanks…
I agree… And yes, the decals ae from them. I really like them and they are affordable. I live in Sweden, Europe and still they came pretty quick. The thing about the decals is that they dont break that easy, which is good :)

Keep up the good work!

[chrillenilsson]

@CWO:

@chagadiel:

i am happy and there is no mistaking those italian ships. i dont know what country used the deck design i got from a ghq painted set of ships but i thought that would good forthe italians

Nice work!  It must take a lot of squinting to paint sculpts which are that small…or do you use some sort of magnifying glass?

The diagonal recognition stripes on the decks which you mention were indeed used by the Italian Navy.  I’m not aware of any other country using them.

By the way, the shot of the cat sleeping in the box is a great picture!

Well, I dont know… I´m not using any magnifying glass. Some paint end up in the wrong place, buy hey… That must have happened in WWII as well, for real :) I guess…