Best HBG pieces for Chinese Artillery

@leebear

That’ll do it - and after you have used your playing pieces for a while, you’ll see if you need to spray a new layer of matt varnish.

2-3 layers - each layer thinly sprayed - and dry 24 hours between each layer.

You units will last a lifetime:+1:

Hello everyone. I wanted to share my latest Essex class carrier customization.

Essex 1200x900.jpg

There is a famous picture of an Essex class carrier where the hull camouflage is prominently displayed. I wanted to reproduce this late war hull pattern for piece and give it a deck a similar style as my other US carriers.

Essex Carriers.jpg

I used this image as my source for port and starboard hull camouflage patterns and color scheme.

Essex Hull Camouflage Pattern.jpg

This game piece is from HBG and it is sold in 5 packs, so I gave them deck numbers 9-13.

Essex Port View 1200x900.jpg

Essex Starboard View 1200x900.jpg

I’ve added two magnets so they hold 2 aircraft each. You can find these on my site here.

Hey there!

I’m excited to see this expansion! It’s nice to see Canada represented on the board. While it can certainly be argued that they are not big enough to warrant inclusion, Canada did have it’s parts to play in the war. Plus, if the Netherlands can be playable, it’s only right Canada can be as well. I’m also all for more nations on the map. Would love to see something similar done with South Africa, and the Axis minors (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland) as well.

In terms of actual impact on the game, I don’t think it will be much at all.

Besides their light infantry units, Canada can essentially only build one land unit per turn the whole game. True, that rule doesn’t include naval or air units, but with Canada making at best +9 IPP’s a turn (unless they capture territory), they aren’t building large amounts of those either. I think you’re kind of at a wash at this point with the negative impact of UK money being taken away and forced to cross the Atlantic, and adding bonus income to Canada, which still needs the means to get to Europe.

From there, I think the further changes are a wash too. The Germans effectively get 4 free submarines. That’s pretty nice for them. I could truly see that altering some initial builds for a German player. It may allow them to focus a bit more on some air or land forces, knowing they have subs waiting.

On the flip side, the fact that Canadian allies can build an aircraft at -2 IPP’s each turn is potentially pretty big. Again, I know they still have to travel from Canada, but when you consider that the UK, ANZAC, USA, Free France (and the Netherlands, if that Expansion is being used) all get that, that’s +8-10 IPP’s income Allies-wide a turn.

Part 4: Starting the ships, adding decals to the tanks, skin tones on the soldiers

Today spent some time adding paint to the sprayed ships, including painting the water jettisons on the subs black (this was very tricky and ended up looking a little sloppy). Advice for painting the jettisons: toothpicks are not small enough! If you do use toothpicks, you’ll have to dab a dot of black for each tiny jettison.

The battleships were a bit easier, and painting the decks, bridge, and smoke stacks were all done in silver. I plan on adding the final grey coat last after the deck and stacks/bridge dry. I experimented with how to add the national emblem, and will probably opt for a white background with a red dot on the bow of the ship. In the future I may do that with the rear end of the ship.

I painted the tranny smoke stacks silver and added a white background for the emblem on the destroyers. All in all, the Japanese navy is coming along nicely.

The armor is pretty much done. I added a white flag to the front side of the armor and will be adding the red dots later. For the aircraft, I’ll be adding a red band around the rear part of the plane. I was debating between sky blue and red and may alternate just for some variety.

The soldiers got some skin! And I just want to say that adding the paint alone brings out the contours of their facial features in an excellent manner on their own. I may add a touch of black to certain areas of the face but that will be a last step. The next step will be panting their uniforms, rifles, and helmets.

After all this is done, I will be spray painting the japanese bombers white, the aircraft carrier black, and then will add the details to those. The Japanese are about 55% done all in all and I’m pleased with the results so far even if they do look a bit amateurish. Stay tuned.

IMG_6405.JPG IMG_6404.JPG IMG_6403.JPG IMG_6402.JPG

Also note that, as a weight-saving measure, battlecruisers sometimes carried fewer main gun turrets than battleships.  British practice in the first two decades of the 20th century was to build battlecruiser counterparts to each battleship class, typically with fewer main guns, lighter armour, greater length and so forth.

I’m considering replacing the default black pieces with the HBG grey German pieces. Does anyone have a picture of what that looks like setup on the board?

@wimo08:

HBG latest newsletter said it’s delayed.Â

Thanks for the update.

@coachofmany:

@AlphaKappa:

@Buran:

I have just received my US units I have attached some photos.  I was just wondering if what the fifth air unit is?  It looks like an F6F Hellcat fighter.  But there is nothing on the website about it.

Nice!  They look pretty good.  How’s the color compared to the OOB stuff?

HBG Olive Drab color is very close to Global 40 2nd Edition IMHO.

I don’t know, Coach!  I just bought a few of your new Shermans from a friend and I was pleasantly surprised that they match my 1st Edition US pieces pretty well.   :wink:

These Sherman sculpts are ace.  You guys did a good job with these and now I’m looking forward to getting some of the other ones too.

EDIT:  Okay, upon closer inspection in daylight, I changed my mind.  They are definitely closer in tone to 2nd Edition US.