Painted Pieces by Johnson

Here’s another pic in dimmer light, which is a better comparison to the before picture above.

The silver pops nicely. Before, in the same lighting situation, I couldn’t see most of the border lines at all.

I used the Edding 5300 silver acrylic paint marker with a 1-2 mm tip
The silver seems to really catch what little light there is in the room.

As the paint the marker ran low of paint it was harder and harder to control, so I reccomend just stopping and using a fresh paint marker if this happens. A few of the last lines I did are fatter than I would like because of this.
But the overal result is a huge improvement.

IMG_20230304_154631.jpg

Thank you for the information @vodot . Yes the AAA infantry pieces would be hard to print.
Looking at an 3D printer like the ANYCUBIC Photon S 3D Printer, UV LCD Resin Printer with Dual Z-axis Linear Rail and Upgraded UV Module & Print Quietly and Off-line Printing, Build Size 4.53"(L) x 2.56"(W) x 6.49"(H).

https://www.amazon.com/ANYCUBIC-Photon-Upgraded-Off-line-Printing/dp/B07RY6NSL8/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=3d+sla+printer&qid=1576351692&sr=8-7

I think this one will do well with most AAA pieces.

@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.

@Trenacker:

I look forward to buying some cruisers and battleships from you in the next month or so. What is the appropriate scale to match up with OOB pieces?

On the left-side of my shop homepage there is a list of categories. Anything in the “Axis & Allies” categories is sized to exactly match the OOB pieces. Avoid the 1/1800, 1/2400, and 1/4800 scales. Also all of my models should have their dimensions listed in their descriptions, so you can verify the size if you’re interested.

Appreciate the comments. You must have been busy the last few days. Haven’t seen any of your work.

Are you and your friend painting anything, this week?

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 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.

@Albert:

@Spitfire38:

I have looked at I-94’s decals and thought about it… the only ones I have trouble with are the Russian stars. I enjoy hand painting the insignia and I feel like it makes it look more uniform when it’s all paint, but like you said, it would definitely save some time  :lol:

Well you could save some effort there as Moscow ordered upper wing stars to be painted out on the eve of the German invasion……plain green was also changed to green with a black disruptive camo pattern   http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/index.html

I didn’t know that they painted over the top-wing stars. Thanks for sharing! If I were to paint them again, I’d probably leave them on or use decals, just for easy recognition on the game board, but I like knowing what was historically accurate.