More painted pieces for consideration

Thanks, Guys! I will try these Ideas out.

@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.

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!

@AlphaKappa:

How does their height compare to the OOB infantry pieces?  The pictures on HBG’s website make them look pretty tall, but without seeing them side-by-side, it’s hard to tell.

Can anyone offer any insight, or maybe even post a picture (if you’re feeling generous with your time)?  Any advice would be appreciated!   Thanks.

Note that the OOB infantry sculpts aren’t all the same height; they vary from nation to nation, as you can see from some of the pictures I posted here:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=30440.0

The best approach I’ve seen was a friend who cut his factories in half with a hacksaw. Large factories are majors, while the smaller, halved factories are minors.

I’ve got mine painted three different colors. Bought a lot of 50 for a few dollars from a vendor at Nashcon in May 2016.

Before Nashcon, I used red Monopoly hotels for the major factories and the green hotels for minor factories. I still like to use the green ones every now and again because I think they’re nifty.

Nice! I like how you kept some of the original piece color in the mix on the French Navy. Lookin’ good all around!

@sgtwiltan:

Yes. There are so many. Trying to get one thing done at a time. I sent back some pieces and have started on a big batch of artillery which he loves. I’m amazed at his patience. Still have a lot of pieces he sent me and was able to find and keep them in a box so I know which pieces are his that I need to work on. They had been lost in multiple boxes from when I moved 4 years ago. I’ve also redone literally hundreds of PZIIIs including some all of the painted ones. One of these days…… I’ll get them done.

That is cool! I’m sure he doesn’t mind, because the end result is fantastic. :-)

What’s your running cost for a fully painted set of say… one nation?

Is it per piece or?

Like if I take my Europe, OOB set of German pieces, and send them to him, what would you expect the price range to be?