1940 Global table & painted pieces

@Phelan-Kell
Thanks for the great reply! I am hoping to add decals to each as well, so thanks for that tip too. Sounds like I definitely do need to do a bit more homework on this before I get started. I want to do it right!

@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

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.

The new water layer is great!

I love it!  I especially love the plexiglass over the board!

I have seen lots of people here use acrylics and I have on occasion. Most of my paints are enamels though. I find that is stays wet longer (which is a good thing) and doesn’t clump up nearly as much on your brush. I also use enamels in my airbrush. I find that enamels are actually much easier to clean than acrylics. While acrylics are water soluble, they don’t just dissolve, especially if already dry. It involves a great deal of scrubbing and scraping. With enamels, all you need is some mineral spirits cleaner and it takes the paint right off with very little effort. Cleaning acrylic paint out of my airbrush was hell the first time I did it… never using acrylics in there again. In terms of the finish, I can only assume that enamels hold up better to bumps and scrapes than acrylic paint does.

Someone once asked if enamels, by default, have a glossy finish to them. They do not, as long as you are using flat enamels, which seem to be the standard. I use flats and they have an excellent, non-shiny finish. I feel like enamel colors are a little deeper too, on the whole, but I suppose it depends on the brand of acrylic you use. Vallejo seems to be a popular choice for acrylics. I use predominantly Model Masters (Testors) enamels. In general, I would just said to find a brand you like to work with and produces the results you like. Don’t buy super cheap paint… you will get the results you pay for.

Good luck!

Man, those are sweet too! Very nice! Don’t won’t to mess with the black shirts, LOL. :-D

@MrRoyboto:

(My apologies for the non-linkable links. For some reason the forum won’t let me embed links.)

Probably that you don’t have enough posts.

I would be curious to see photos of these Bit Pits with A&A pieces in them.

Also the Magic Chamber with dividers and A&A pieces in them.

Also how many Bit Pits will fit into a final sized Magic Chamber?

Does each side have a lid?