Accurate Miniature Equivalents for Custom Painting your 1940 E&P

@Pvt_Griff Thank you

Custom Ship Deck Decal Sets

Hello everybody. I wanted to announce that AxisandAlliesBoardGaming.com has released new decal sets specifically made for the Axis & Allies naval game pieces from the following game versions: Europe 1940, Pacific 1940, Spring 1942 & 1941 Anniversary Edition.

This is the DIY option for those who want the enjoyment and challenge of painting their own game pieces. Now you can finish them off with precision-cut waterslide decals to give your creations a professional look. Each individual ship deck decal has been pre-cut to ensure a perfect fit every time.

It is very difficult to get a clean edge on your ship decks using a paint brush by hand. One side of the ship might have straight lines but the other side might be noticeably wavy or you painted onto the superstructure by accident. You can pay others to painstakingly paint your ships but that can be very expensive for an entire fleet or game set. With these decals, there are no more worries about the final look and feel of your ships. Now it is easy to produce game pieces like a pro, and you can paint as many pieces as you want and every one will look great.

These are sold in fleet sets that include deck decals for all the naval game pieces for the selected country and game version. Some examples:

The Italian Europe 1940 set – 26 ships in all.
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The German 1941 Anniversary Edition set – 42 ships in all.
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The French Europe 1940 set – 18 ships in all.
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The US 1941 Anniversary Edition set – 48 ships in all.
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Check them out and more at www.axisandalliesboardgaming.com.

Greetings,
Did you ever finish your map?
If so, can you share with community?
I am in process of selecting a map to print, and yours embodies much of what I am looking for in a map.

Thank you for the positive feedback! I forgot to say that in the previous post, and it’s very important that I do. It’s very encouraging and motivating to get good feedback, and we certainly appreciate it. The above mentioned four Essex class carriers are complete, a long with several other ships of the US Navy, so its time to update the thread. Just ships by FOlewnik in this post. More aircraft are almost done but I haven’t put magnets in them yet (so not really done), so no aircraft pictures this post.

We’ll start with the two “odd men out” of the HBG sculpt Baltimore Class Heavy Cruisers. Why “odd men out”? Because in the below picture we have on the left, the USS Unnamed Baltimore Class Cruiser Wearing Measure 31a, Design 9C, and on the right is the USS Columbus (CA 74), which wasn’t commissioned until June 8, 1945. The cruiser with the long name is wearing a design that was never used, but was taken from a period design found at https://www.wikiwand.com/en/World_War_II_US_Navy_dazzle_camouflage_measures_31,_32_and_33:_cruisers. The USS Columbus is wearing a Measure 12 Modified designed by FOlewnik to match the pieces we’ll be using for the US Atlantic fleet. These will get aircraft added, but at the time of the photographs the decals on the wings of the aircraft were drying.
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Next up are some metal destroyers from GHQ. Below on the left, the very brave USS Johnston (DD-557) painted in MS-3_/6D as it looked when it was “Sunk by Japanese Warships off Samar October 25 1944,” and next to it is USS Van Valkenburgh (DD-656) painted in camouflage Measure 31, Design 9d. All Wartime photos taken from Navsource.org, a great resource for US Navy history buffs.
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Below, the real USS Johnston shortly before her final battle, and the official design sheet:
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A great wartime picture of the USS Van Valkenburgh, which is the same on both sides:
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Now on to these two. From GHQ, USS The Sullivans (DD-537) painted in Measure 1, and the HBG sculpt light cruiser USS Marblehead (CL-12) who always wore Measure 2 throughout the war. If I can get FOlewnik to put the Shamrock on the first stack of The Sullivans when he puts the scout aircraft on the Marblehead, as seen in the below wartime photograph, I’ll come back and edit the post.
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The post previous to this post showed four Essex Class sculpts from HBG getting prepped and started with a base coat. Those are now completed and I had too much fun playing with them and the aircraft (that are complete so far) while I was taking photographs. I’m pretty sure I didn’t make any wooshing sea or aircraft noises or FOlewnik would have laughed at me. I was tempted though, and here’s why:
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Above we have the first of the Long Hull Essex Class, USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) on the left looking as she did after her April 1945 refit from suffering a Kamikaze Attack on January 21, 1945, and USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) on the right. The Bunker Hill is wearing Measure 33, Design 6A, of which Navsource says, “Her port side camouflage pattern was the most intricate design applied to any carrier.” One glance can confirm that!
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The final two Essex Class carriers are the USS Essex (CV-9) herself, and the USS Bennington (CV-20). The Essex is wearing a unique pattern, Measure 32v6, Design 10D, adapted from a destroyer pattern specifically for the long hulled Essex. The Bennington is painted in Measure 32, Design 17A.
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Finally, some group pictures just for fun:
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Thank you for checking out the post! If you liked it, please click the little heart. I’m trying to figure out why our post is only rated with a 2 when it seems it should be a bit higher if the other likes are any indication.

@Young:

I’m deep into trying to get my custom card decks released right now, but I will certainly look into it.

Yeah I use your first card deck without the house roules for my games.  :-D

So very true. When I first started painting my aircraft I had to include decal roundels for the players to distinguish the pieces from one another. My naval units are painted mostly with a color scheme for playability except for the capital ships like the Carriers and popular Battleships. All of them have a decal or flag to show which nation they belong too. I actually replaced the OOB British Cruisers because I thought they looked too close in size with the destroyers. I ended up replacing with some ships I found on Shapeways. The biggest problem I had with naval units is that they can exist in the same seazone with enemy pieces unlike land territories. Because of this I decided to keep the subs, destroyers, cruisers and non unique battleships following a color scheme. There are so many colors in the spectrum though we should be able to come up with a solution that will make them look more historical yet keep the pattern or color scheme for the nation. I really would love to paint all the ships historically and maybe I will revisit them again someday. Every time I go back and repaint my pieces I seem to get better at it. Or at least I think I do, hehe.

You, sir, are an inspiration.

Given time, I think I’ll “sincerely flatter” your works.

@Tall:

Lucas,

––My friend,…I DO NOT want to hear from you for a month! Please go and take care of your important personal business. I wish you and your soon-to-be wife THE BEST!
––We’ll talk about paint jobs in a month (or so).

Here’s my best wishes to your future happiness.

“Tall Paul”

Haha… I will do my best on that front. Thanks again for the well wishes. I will keep the German aircraft safe at home for the time being.