John Brown's Painted Axis and Allies Pieces

@Evidential Nice, but Corsica need to by Blue, and Greece Green.
If the year is 1941.
¿Here do you put the ICs?

@cavestone I also use vallejo paints. The key question here is are you brush painting, or using an airbrush, or both?

The Vallejo paints have a “Model Air” line that comes pre-thinned. You can buy a thinning product (from them) to add to the “Model Color” series paints, which are the exact same thing, just more concentrated and thicker.

If you’ve never used an airbrush, its a bit finicky–it requires regular cleaning and a without a good brush and compressor the paint will flow very inconsistently. The process will be very frustrating unless you use the pre-thinned paints because the brush can only blow paint that is within a certain set of thickness parameters that are difficult to achieve, especially if you are trying to mix the air in the brush’s reserve or in small quantities. That’s why having copies of both Model Air and Model Color is fine by me–unlike Warhammer 40K I’m using primarily earthy colors, greens, dunkelgelb and dunkelgrau… other AFV and camoflage colors and so i don’t need a collection of primary or bright colors.

But I recommend it. The airbrush creates a sublime, beautiful layer and slight mix variations can be used to create shadows, grades, etc. Then you go back over with your brush, adding highlights, lines, details. Then, back over again with a drybrushing…then back to the airbrush to blast Flory Wash all over it.

Can’t see your photos, you can’t post photos until you have a certain post count. I wouldn’t use water to thin paints, they are water soluble but the mix and viscosity is all wrong (though water is obv. cheap and easy to clean up)

As for oil-based paints, these require thinner to clean up, they are much more difficult to drybrush with and are not used for airbrushing. The days of the old testors paints is long behind us–even apple barrel paints are easier to work with and cheaper. The early painting methods were much more about glomming thick layers of paint onto lead miniatures and the modern approach with water based paint and a series of different techniques creates much better results.

@GeneralHandGrenade:

I was just going to fork over my roundels SS. Feel free to send a well equipped, well fed army capable of stemming the onslaught of fascism and imperialism at the dawn of the nuclear age.

Attack !!!

Smitty I sent you a PM

I do sell pieces cheaper than HBG plus I do have the 3 x 6  anniversary map also that I may part with.

HBG Kaga with the Standard of Admiral of IJN on its Deck

kaga 2.jpg
kaga 1.jpg

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!

Nice work - Dare I ask how many hours you put into it? For interest’s sake.

I keep my games separate, however I add pieces to them from HBG.

@Tall:

Guys,

––Here is an “in-process” pic of one of the U.S. Navy APD Fast Transports. These are the famous
“Green Dragon’s” that were re-built from WW-1 ‘four-piper’ Destroyers into Fast Transports to assist the Marine Raiders in their endeavors. The paint scheme utilises “Allworkandnoclay’s” talent to the max. The units are from Shapeways and have had their depth-charge racks removed so as to have the 48-star U.S. Flag applied to their stern decks. More on these six ships as they progress. Enjoy!
––Unless I’m mistaken these are the first highly detailed, painted and decalled SHIPS that the
WarMachine has done so far.

Tall Paul Â

That is definitely a cool looking transport. :-D