FastHeinz G40 Painted Pieces

I have had a 3D printer hobbyist CAD design a new BB playing piece and a new DD playing piece.
The BB is based on the WW1 UK Iron Duke modified for appearance. It is, certainly, better looking than the original BB design. Additionally, I (we) used a depiction of a WW1 US 4 stacker DD to make a modified DD playing piece for A&A WW1. The rationale that the Sub replaces the need for a DD just doesn’t ‘cut it’ (make sense). Most of the colour filaments used to 3D print these units are a good match to the original playing piece colours. I will post pictures of these as I have assistance doing so.

Because so many of the ship types are too similar (to my admittedly weak eyesight, at least), I have decided to use some poker chips of various colors as bases for these ships. These poker chips are the same exact size and type as the white/grey, red, and green ones already included in the game.

Since we need to be able to tip the capital ships (battleships and aircraft carriers) onto their sides (to indicate when they are damaged), I don’t need to uses poker chip bases for them. That leaves the other four classes (cruisers; destroyers; subs; transports). Since I did not want for these chips to use any color that is already used by the game pieces (wither as chips or as units), that left me with purple, orange, yellow, and pink as my options.

So, I’ll be using purple for cruisers, orange for destroyers, yellow for submarines, and pink for transports.

Here is an image of the work in progress: my cruisers on purple poker-chip bases.

cruisers.jpg

Thanks for tolerating my bragging about my project. ^_^

Franklin

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!

Excellent job. I also love the subs.

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

@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

@DiscoKnekt:

Nice table! Really like the NO cards! We have a problem that people tend to forget what NOs they have so we need some kind of reminder, maybe this is solution! Is there any chance you could share the file for the cards so that i save some time typing them? :)

My NO card deck will be available soon, I will let you know by PM how you can get one when they’re ready.

Thanks  :-) that worked a treat. My planes are now all airworthy!