Modifying FMG's Italian Battleship

As part of building my Global 1936 capability, I’ve converted Bob A Mickelson’s Pacific 1940 Task Force Markers so you can use them for Europe 1940 Armies. I have the small Global war map so think task force markers will be invaluable! As per my Anniversary aid’s used Bob’s work as a base as liked the graphical presentation of his markers the most.

If you download Bob’s original markers from the Pacific 1940 thread you can use for Global 40 as well of course, or Global War 1936 as I intend to.

Hope others find them useful.

France - http://www.mediafire.com/view/098f7r95m45uk3t/Task%20Force%20Markers%20-%20France.png
Italy - http://www.mediafire.com/view/xtwn2jxou1i7gnh/Task%20Force%20Markers%20-%20Italy.png
Germany - http://www.mediafire.com/view/cdhbhs7ibbsg945/Task%20Force%20Markers%20-%20Germany.png
Russia - http://www.mediafire.com/view/c11v6cpn0pmxiw3/Task%20Force%20Markers%20-%20Russia.png

Photo of completed markers:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/w62e415a9dqph95/IMG_2333.jpg

@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

@calvinhobbesliker:

BTW, what happened to FMG? Is it really true that their Chinese factory shut down and stole all the molds?

In short, yes that’s basically what happened and began the hard fall.

They’re still around but they no longer do direct to consumer and I Will Never Grow Up has taken over their product lines (Even the FMG website links back to our webstore instead).

(Long story short, FMG is now a wholesale distributer/R&D/Manufacturing point of contact, IWNGU is the exclusive retailer of their product).

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.

He was sent to the Russian front…

Just looked over your thread again spitfire. Saw you 190’s very cool effect they do look like they may have been supporting some of rommels Afrika core in The desert! Ever thought of showcasing some of your other units spitfire? Maybe more of your air? I would love to see more of your renditons of airpower for the nations! Lhoffman has some great air he painted with just about every air unit type painted for the Germans in dark green schemes.

Regarding prices, here are some quotes that I got from two different Southern California print shops  (I had posted this also on the thread entitled Ambilzi & Grasshopper’s 1940 Global Map)

The first print shop provided the following estimates (note the $52 set up fee):

SET UP:  $52.05 ( digital color file set up, latex printer set up)

48" x 105" vinyl $142.63  print digital color 4/0 on white smooth vinyl (15oz)

48" x 105" canvas  $300.13  print digital color 4/0 on canvas

48" x 105" versa fabric  $273.88  print digital color 4/0 on versa fabric

53" x 116" vinyl  $174.63 print digital color 4/0 on white smooth vinyl (15oz)

53" x 116" canvas $368.13  print digital color 4/0 on canvas

53" x 116" versa fabric $335.88 please note: print cannot be any larger, printing on a 54" rolld

A second set of quotes from a different Southern California printing company for printing on vinyl (the type of material used for advertising banners):

48"x105" ,  white 64" Roland EcoSol Banner, solvent 6 color Roland 4sf  $230.80

53"x116",    white 64" Roland EcoSol Banner, solvent 6 color Roland 4sf  $258.78

56"x122.5",  white 64" Roland EcoSol Banner, solvent 6 color Roland 4sf  $277.42

(I might check on the AliBaba website to see what I can find for printing services in China.  Also, I’m checking on the possibility of printing on upholstery vinyl and marine vinyl).

Guys,

@coachofmany:

very nice!
**––I’m glad you enjoyed them. Lord knows I CERTAINLY ENJOY HBG’S PRODUCTS!

Tall Paul**