1940 Global table & painted pieces

I haven’t used that map, but I’d recommend scaling your pieces up by about 10-20% to keep things proportional. Test fit as you go to make sure it works.

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.

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@barnee thanks, I was inspired after watching Midway to do them like that, and to differentiate them from fighters for my less observant friends. I liked it so much I did my Stukas and Japanese tacs the same way as well.

@Mr_Tricorder:

Have tried them out yet? If so, how big of a difference do they make?

Yes.
It’s definitely faster.
And it removes irritating conversations like:
“3! Hit!”
“Wait! Didn’t you announce rolling for your destroyer?”
“Nope. I wanted the cruiser.”
“Hmm”

@SS:

Siredblood has a you tube video of drilling colored dice

I got my inspiration from that one and added the extra holes for 2,3 and 4.

I’ve demonstrated this method in a video on my new youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNBL6d1o0U

@cyanight:

Everyone has their own unique way of painting the pieces.  No matter how we paint the pieces they must still be playable within the game.

And the nice difference between game sculpts and real military equipment is that sculpts are rarely lost or damaged in combat.  If that wasn’t the case, people might actually hesitate to risk sending their painted sculpts into battle on the game map, given the large amount of time they’ve spent on customizing them.  :-)

Heyo Paul,

I’ll look around… I think I have some A&A pics I never posted, I’ll slap 'em on here.  Been painting other figs more recently (when I actually have time :|).  You have any pics of your cool minis during a game?  I think it would be cool to see them ‘in action!’.

Thank you Paul. These all look very cool. Looks like I have a few options.

Jon