Posts made by DMcLaren

Yes, our group has, and you missed the HBG JU-87G Stuka tank killer. http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Battle-Pieces--German-Exp--Tactical-Bomber-x5_p_2175.html Put that one on your list- it’s a great looking piece we add with advanced artillery.

One thing to remember is that the HBG expansions are for their Global War (GW) game & rules. GW uses 12 sided dice and a different technology chart, with some easier to roll than others (if I recall). Adapting the special rules in most cases is just a matter of dividing the 12 sided roll by 2 for A&A. But in the Going Nuke scenario the “4 turns of successful tech rolls” equates to paying 2 IPC’s per turn in the Global War game to advance your tech marker along the development line for 4 turns. In GW, you either take your roll for tech to see if you advance the tech marker, or pay 2 IPC’s to advance your marker. So in A&A you could just pay the 2 IPC’s every turn, or whatever your group decides for balance.

There is also a house rules section here that’s worth checking out if you haven’t been there yet, as well as the Global War section.

Our group uses most of the HBG pieces for A&A tech, to differentiate pieces on the board from those with technology and those without (long range vs. regular aircraft, for example). And we’ve added pieces not on the roster but available from HBG, like light tanks and light cruisers. If you’re a piece junkie and you haven’t bought the game yet, check out HBG’s “Amerkia”- it has some excellent pieces and the price has really come down (and it’s also a fun game).

I’ve read the rules on the Atlantis scenario, and agree it looks like it would be fun to try, but on the GW 1939 map. In my opinion, it would be difficult to do on the G40 board because of the smaller number of sea zones. You could probably tweek it a bit to make it work, though. And it would make for a neat twist on a G40 game if it could work.

So… have you thought about painting your pieces yet?

We’re still in the process of making storage. FO got hold of an old metal card file cabinet section that’s about 18x36 inches with either 24 or 28 drawers (6 or 7 columns of 4 drawers) that are slightly wider and twice as deep as the piece storage box that comes with the game, and a little over twice as long. He’s also got some foam sheets we’ll eventually cut for them so each piece sits in its own little cut out. The only thing he’s had to worry about are the little planes on the pieces with launch catapults. Two or three weren’t glued in solid enough and have come off. The rest are pretty solid- enough so that you can pick up the piece by the little aircraft sitting on the launch catapult.

@Phelan-Kell - you BET I can’t wait to bring some detailed SBD’s in on these and toss a handfull of dice in the box against them! We had a pretty kick-arse game of “Check Your 6!” with the aircraft last Thanksgiving. I put a few pictures in the “Other Axis & Allies Variants” section.

“Sink the Bismark!” is free on youtube and worth the watch if you haven’t seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cFOAG0wfBw

The IJN Unryu by FOlewnik. Mast is a broken sewing needle and conning tower is from the GHQ carrier extras. I tried to get good pictures of the cutaways on the bow and stern- hope you can see the detail. There’s a good side by side with an unpainted Shinano sculpt to help show the modifications.

Are the arrows small enough to fit on the rudder?

Whoa… 8 pounds for a decal sheet? Hmmm… it DOES have a ton of stuff on the sheet. If I can’t find one on this side of the pond, I’ll have to spring for it. THANK YOU for sharing the link!

Agreed- #3 Heavy looks best. That one has a few landings to his credit, from the looks of him.

Those look great! Where did you get the arrow decals?

Finally got pictures of the Japanese starting subs (previous Japanese sub pics are super subs). We’re using the Kaichu subs from the 1941 set, with extras purchased from HBG. FOlewnik did the paint & I did the decals. I’d be happier if the pictures were a little sharper but you can still see the detail on the piece. Needless to say, the 20/0 and smaller brushes got a workout on the flanks of these pieces. It took a very steady hand to keep the lines straight on the ballast ports- if one was even just a little off it stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. I made the flags from the white stripes on the Italian roundel decal sheet and the red dots from the US early roundel decal sheet like on the super subs posted earlier (the I series from the Pacific set). The numbers on the conning tower are from the I-94 white numbers & letters decal sheet.

The IJN Shinano hull required some heavy and tricky cutting away under the front of the flight deck, and a little at the back, to look like the IJN Shinano from the side view. FOlewnik cut those away and added a few other small details to round out the final look. He went with a grey base hull to make the camo silhouette stand out better than what the schematic shows. Once again plagued by bad lighting (all the recent posts were shot at the same time with that bad light) but one good picture shows the true colors.

When FOlewnik was researching the Taiho & Shinano, he noticed that the sculpt is much closer to the Taiho in it’s layout than it is the Shinano. He worked on both pretty much at the same time and they seemed to me to get done pretty quick. Once again our lighting was poor for a lot of the shots, but I tried to lighten them up with photoshop. It helped bring out the detail at the expense of some true color, so thankfully there’s one good shot with good light so you can see the true colors of the IJN Taiho. Most of the schematics showed the ship with a grey deck, but I’m including one with a tan color deck for the detail.

Not a bad idea. I’m always forgetting non-combat moves, so that would be a good way to remind myself during combat moves.

Thanks, Sarge, I’ll pass that along to FOlewnik. I wanted to find the schematic he used as a guide but Google wasn’t giving it to me. Shame, too, since I feel this is another one that he nailed. I do have the schematics for the Taiyo and Shinano and will post them when I post the pictures.

I’ve got to finish cropping pictures of the finished IJN Shinano and IJN Taiho, but in the mean time take a look at FOlewnik’s IJN Hiyo, made from a modified Shinano sculpt. Note the cut away under the flight deck in front and back.

Thank you, sjelso. And wow… I just noticed I’ve been blessed with a “customizer” tag! Thanks, guys!

FJO finished the Japanese light carriers off with 4 from HBG. Since he’d already made a Ryujo light carrier, he painted 4 of the 5 HBG Ryujo light carriers- 2 Chitose class and 2 escort carriers (the 5th sculpt of the set was ruined in an attempt at a merchant freighter to carrier conversion. Heck, the Japanese did it successfully so we thought it could be done with plastic). We didn’t have the greatest light so I had to brighten up the pictures a bit, but starting with the top picture, The IJN Chuyo escort carrier, The IJN Chiyoda and IJN Chitose of the Chitose converted seaplane class light carrier, and the IJN Taiyo escort carrier. No deck decals used- these are all hand painted. You might even be able to print the top view (shrunk down of course) and cut it out for a deck decal, if you’re so inclined. You have to post a picture if you do.

I found a good set of pictures of a desert Stuka to go with the German Desert Luftwaffe shown earlier in the post, so now that’s done. I couldn’t find a yellow “C” small enough, so I had to use the smallest letters on the l-94 yellow letter and number sheet.

Thank you, gentlemen. We’ve enjoyed seeing your work as well.

FJO and I are collaborating on the Japanese subs- he’s painting and I’m adding decals. He’s on the forums here now as “folewnik”, so I’ll just call him FO. (no snickering.) The first batch pictured here we’re using as super subs- the “I” class. I couldn’t find Japanese flags small enough to fit on the conning tower, so FO tried painting white squares on some, and I used slices of the white stripes from the l-94 Italian aircraft markings sheet for white squares and added the red dots from the l-94 US roundels sheet to all of them to make the flags. The numbers aren’t where they should be, but we wanted them to stand out on the super subs a little more than the standard subs (which are almost done) and went with the larger numbers on the hull rather than the smaller numbers on the conning tower. These are the mid size numbers from the l-94 white letters and numbers sheet. FO did the deck detail in brown pen and the hull details in black pen from a schematic we found online.

@cyanight - Thank you very much! Seeing some of your work here several years ago inspired us, so your compliment means a lot.

@Quirky-Turtle: Great video! The printed map looks fantastic. I’m curious though- what do the Litko Flaming Wreckage and Splash Markers indicate on the printed map, and the large green chess pawn looking things on the oob board represent?