Posts made by Spitfire38

@Redleg13A:

Nope, it was the fighter that came in the Italian box, a Fiat G55 I believe.

Really… hmm, is that 2nd Edition? Nice piece.

Good idea starting with the Italians. I really like that fighter; it’s the P-40 from A&A 1941, right?

Thanks for sharing!

This set has been sold to a member of this site. Thank you for your interest.

@Redleg13A:

Are we doing the deal? I’ve sent 3 PMs with no response. All I need is your pay pal stuff and I can pay in full. Awaiting a yes or no so we can either move forward or I can move onto something else…

Sorry for the lack of response - I have been busy the last day or two. Thanks for your patience - I just got back to you.

@Redleg13A:

@Spitfire38:

Hey guys! I’m selling my fully painted 1942 set over on the Marketplace; in the process of preparing the set for sale, I took photos of all of the pieces. They are the pieces that I began painting as a beginner, so you can see the development of the quality over time. I thought you might like to see them for ideas, questions, laughs, etc. If for no other reason, A&A painters love photos!

Here is the link to my Flickr page, where you can see them all. http://goo.gl/SbKgLZ

Happy Wednesday!

Looks awesome! Um…how much for the whole set!

Hey Redleg, I sent you a PM. If anyone else is interested, you can look in the Marketplace subforum for the information.

Hey guys! I’m selling my fully painted 1942 set over on the Marketplace; in the process of preparing the set for sale, I took photos of all of the pieces. They are the pieces that I began painting as a beginner, so you can see the development of the quality over time. I thought you might like to see them for ideas, questions, laughs, etc. If for no other reason, A&A painters love photos!

Here is the link to my Flickr page, where you can see them all. http://goo.gl/SbKgLZ

Happy Wednesday!

Quick Facts

• Pre-Ebay listing just for A&A.org members!

• Price with board and accessories: $325 + shipping

• Price without board and accessories: $300 + shipping

• Photo gallery of entire set: http://goo.gl/SbKgLZ

• Post or PM me if interested

My name is Spitfire38, and I am an active painter in the A&A community. I am saving some money for the next few years at college, so I am selling my hand-painted Spring 1942 set. It has just been sitting on my shelf recently and has not gotten much attention since I got my Global 1940 set; it could use some other fine individual to give it some play-time!

This is a full Spring 1942 1st Edition set, with board, chips, dice, and roundels included. Everything you would find in a newly opened box. It is the first set that I painted, so some of the pieces are better than others, depending on how early on in my “career” I painted them. I have attached a link to my Flickr page so that you can judge for yourself. When I painted these pieces, I tried to find a balance between historical accuracy, visual appeal, and ease-of-use on the board; they are very “newbie” friendly, with most pieces having their nation’s colors displayed.

If nobody here is interested, I will post it on Ebay shortly thereafter. If this is the case, I will provide the link here, so that you don’t feel that you are missing out on anything.

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you may have!

If you would like to see more of my work, head on over to the “Customizations” subforum where you can see my tutorial thread in the pinned threads.

I have had some more free time lately, so I decided to whip out the paints again and paint the P-51 Mustangs that I got from HBG’s US Supplement Set. I only have 4, but that’s enough for the European theater. I went for four different schemes for variety and to add some life to the game, since each plane comes from a different fighter group. From top left, clockwise. “Beantown Banshee” with invasion stripes and the anti-glare panel. The second is “Snoot’s Sniper” from the 352nd FG. Then a plane roughly based off of a Mustang from the 55th FG. The last is from the 332nd African American “Tuskegee Airmen”, or “Red Tails” as they were affectionately known as.

The inspiration and research came from several different sources, which I will provide below to help my fellow customizers in their quest for their perfect set! I am also (re)painting my Russian air force (VVS), so some of these sources were found as I did the research for that.

For P-51 specific schemes I found an RC modeler’s site which had a lot of great examples.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1112761

A resource for general air force painting information is this site by “Fritz the Fox”, with paint schemes and information on different planes and periods of the war.
http://www.fritzthefox.com/camo_guide.html

A Russian air force specific site is hobbyvista.com. Under the “Monthly” section, which I have linked, the author has done extensive research using WWII photographs to determine exact paint schemes and deployment of different fighter groups. If you look under “Links” there is also a plethora of other references that should meet all your Russian painting needs!
http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/Monthly/index.php

I will post more links if/when I find them. Feel free to share any useful sites or resources you have used, even if it doesn’t pertain to air forces.

The first time I did this my dad came in (a Marine multiple tour infantry/door gunner Vietnam Vet) with a Dragon set of 4 US Marines from Vietnam and said, we’re going to build a diorama and submit it in a contest that was 2 weeks away. So I diligently started putting together and painting the Marine figures based off the colors that the box had set for their uniforms and equipment. After finishing a few he came in to inspect my work and flatly said “the uniforms are the wrong color”…I said that forest green was the color the box had on it. He mentioned “sure, maybe when they’re issued, but not after they’ve been exposed to sweat, dirt, and the sun for months on end. They should be a very light green to almost a white color because this portion of the battle takes place after the monsoon season and the sun will bleach those uniforms several shades lighter then when they were issued.” I was only about 12 at this time and didn’t really have any concept of what my dad did in Vietnam at that point…but it was at this point that I realized that 1. my dad really seemed to know what he was talking about…and I wondered why that was and 2. if he saw that, then the judges would certainly see that. The following week he dropped off a stack of books on the subject in my room and basically said; “If you want to make this right, you need to start reading.” And boy did I start reading lol. I ended up taking second in that contest but it lit a fire to really get into the nitty gritty of the research portion of not only the soldiers, their equipment, and their battles, but also on books that were published that concentrated on making your figures “come to life”. It took a lot of trial and error and I must say my neck, shoulders, and eyesight probably paid for it being hunched over for hours looking through a magnifying glass trying to get that oh so small piece of equipment just the right combo of OD green and weathered dirt color.

The close connection between modeling work and history is one of the reasons that it is so great. Your work becomes that much more personal and interesting when you have studied the history behind it and can make your pieces/dioramas/game boards have stories and authenticity.

I did a 1/35 scale one of a PBR river boat extraction of a SEAL team under fire in the Mekong Delta. That was a very difficult one to do trying to get the resin I used as water to look realistic with the motor wash of the boat, the splashes of the team scrambling in the shallow water to get to the boat, and the splashes to make it look like rifle and machine gun fire was landing in the water around them as they exfilled. I don’t know how many times I had to start over getting it just right…but once I did…it looked awesome.

Uff, that sounds terribly frustrating. You’re right though- I bet it looked really sweet! I’ve only ever seen dioramas with stagnant/flowing water, and those looked great, so I can imagine that the effects you could get with some hard work would be well worth it.

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Men of War: Assault Squad! If you like the tactical engagement aspect of the war, then this is the game for you.

Hey ThinBlueBBQ -

I personally don’t use decals, as it’s just more expense and hassle to deal with, and I like my pieces to be uniformly hand-painted. That being said, I think they are very useful for planes and ships, especially aircraft carriers, and I have seen some really snazzy looking pieces that use decals.

So, I can’t pitch in with much information, but I will say that I-94 is certainly the place to go to. Make sure you do some research on the best method to apply decals, as there are a few different ways people like to do it. Best of luck with your projects, and of course I/we will be here answering questions, supporting you, and drooling over new pictures when you finish some work! Enjoy  :-D

@Redleg13A:

It takes me back to my military modeling days. When I was a teenager I would spend countless hours painting 1/72-1/35 scale miniatures to build military dioramas. I even did one for my Senior project in high school where I made a diorama of the US Special Forces camp at Lang Vei being overrun by PT-76 tanks and NVA in 1-35 scale…

Wow, those sound like really cool projects! You don’t happen to have any photos of these dioramas, do you? I bet you have a lot of experience in terrain and weathering as well. Really neat.

@Redleg13A:

Maybe when my kids get a little older I can start the hobby back up and practice on my Axis and Allies pieces since they look (the infantry at least) about the same size as 1/72 scale.

I have painted some 1/72 infantry, and it is almost the same size; probably a bit closer to 1/76. Good luck on all future customization projects!

Sure thing!

@BluGerman:

today i managed to read through this year long forum thread and I have to ask what happened after November 17th 2011?.. did everybody in this forum mysteriously dissapear? or was it just discontinued? or was it moved to another forum thread or something?.. somebody please let me know because I was really excited to see Allworks whole board with his miniatures (they are awesome!)

In answer to your question- I don’t really know.  :? Allworkandnoclay is an artist who does all sorts of other work for money, not just Axis and Allies. I presume that he moved on to other work, as his Flickr account shows him doing some sculpting and what not. To be honest though, he stopped posting pics, people stopped commenting, and it sort of fell of the face of the earth. There’s some stuff on TallPaul’s page, and there are plenty of other artists with some awesome stuff if you need your daily fix of painted minis!

@Makoshark13:

If the “combat tuxedo” is for surrender, you should give tuxedos to the entire French army.  :-D

Haha nice one!!!  :-D That reminds me…

“Why do French tanks have rear view mirrors?”
– “So they can see the enemy as they’re running away!”

Poor French… they got the bad end of the deal. In '39, the U.S. military was ranked 17th in the world, right behind Romania. The French may have had the troops, but nobody was prepared for Blitzkreig.

For anyone reading this, I will be posting more tutorials (or at least pictures) in the near future… there have been many developments lately. I was away for travel, but I’ve recently purchased some HBG units, as well as toured Bastogne. I have some inspiration! Right now I’m finishing up some British infantry, and then I’ll move on to a tutorial.

Thanks for the views- hopefully it’s a good resource that can stick around.

I seemed to have missed this thread in my absence from the forums. Great work, especially the ships!!! They look amazing man  :-o

I’ll try to elaborate on those tanks. I’m not sure exactly what to tell you, but I’ll give you my best thoughts.

All right, so I started with a coat of spray can primer, just a standard light gray primer from the hardware store. Then, I painted a base coat of dark gray on it. However, the base coat needs to be lighter than you intend the final product to be because of the wash. If I had gone with a near black gray from the start, the tanks would just be black and you wouldn’t see any detail and it would be nasty looking. The base coat was something like “Value 2” from this color swatch.

That’s the best estimate I can give you, since I didn’t take a picture of my paint when I was painting. I can tell you it was one of my dark gray paints with a bit of black mixed in to make it a bit darker. After that, I did a wash with black. (I have black and brown; I just used the straight black wash. There’s a picture of it a few posts up.) This was liberally applied, then I sucked up any thick pools of it with my brush until it was a decent amount left, mostly from the tracks and the hatch/MG at the top of the StuGs. If you want the wash to really do it’s job, you should apply the wash one side at a time, setting the piece on it’s side to dry. That way it seeps into the tracks and the lines in between the side skirt panels or under the turret, depending on what you’re painting. After the wash was completely done drying (20 mins?), I went back over and did a drybrush with a light gray. Something like “Value 4” or “5” from the image. This was applied pretty liberally, because I felt that I had gone overboard with the darkness and that the piece was too dark for what I wanted. But it’s all personal preference, so if you like the color you bave, don’t worry about making the streaks and highlights show up everywhere. So it was applied liberally, and I really made sure to get the ridges on the Hummel and the skirts and turrets of the StuGs and Panzers, since these are the really defining parts of the piece, and the parts that have really defined edges and make for a great drybrush. This all gives it the “scratched paint” look, and since I did it enough, it sort of looks like there is a light gray base coat that I somehow covered up with gray, while it was actually the other way around. Here’s an example with the Hummel.

You can see it on the desert scheme Hummel as well. After the drybrush, I did a light drybrush with brown on the turret and MG, and the back a bit, just to simulate dirt and stuff like that. Very light drybrush though. Then it was divisional markings and identification stuff, and Then I was done. Oh, the tracks. The tracks are done by dragging a brush with just a bit of paint across the tracks, and since they are raised (both the tracks themselves and the mechanisms), it makes your job really easy.

I’ll try to specifically answer your points. @LHoffman:

It is not flat

I think this is directly due to the wash. I can’t state it enough; a wash really makes the model look more 3D, and the shadows/highlighting give it more of a sense of color and realism IMO. Here, on the StuGs. The gun is really separate from the rest of the piece from the wash, which is retained even after the drybrush.

@LHoffman:

nor are the highlights overstated

I think I just got lucky on this one :D Apply the drybrush in layers. You can always add more, but you can’t really take it off once it’s done. Make sure you really go for the sharp edges on the piece.

I hope this helps, and if there’s anything I missed or something extra you’d like to know, just ask!

All right, here are the new pictures for my German units. These are from the HBG Axis Supplement Set, but I just use them as Germans.
But first, some French infantry.

Here are the German woodland camo troops, my favorites.

Here are all the German “support” units. If you notice there are 3 schemes. Desert, Woodland, and standard black/grey, although it turned out a bit dark.

And now all the armor.

And the entire set.

The woodland camo is a 3 step process. First of all, I painted a dark khaki color, based off of a photograph or drawing. Then I painted a burnt sienna brown in stripes and an occasional “splotch”, to simulate the camo. Then I painted a dark forest green overlapping the brown, making sure to cover most of the piece. There are many different kinds of camo, but as a general rule, it looks better when it overlaps, when it’s not a predictable pattern (you don’t want parallel stripes running along the length of the piece  :-)), and when you cover the entire piece, then paint details over it. This makes it look more authentic in my opinion. For example, here is a Panther, picture taken from the most amazing WWII reference site for painting. (http://ww2drawings.jexiste.fr/) If you have any problems accessing it, let me know, because they underwent a site change and now it sometimes reroutes you to a different site.

Happy painting! Please chip in with tips for painting camouflage, and if you have any questions, let me know!

@LHoffman:

Question:

How do you normally approach washes? I do a bit of dry brushing but have struggled with washes, especially on something so small as A&A pieces, in the past. I have used some black ink, watered down, on occasion, but it does not seem to seep well enough; if you know what I mean.

Well, I used to use black acrylic paint mixed with water, but that just wasn’t dark enough and it didn’t hold. So don’t try that. Then, I decided that I would go ahead and try actual washes, so I went to the local hobby store and got a “Citadel Shade” wash, one in brown (Agrax Earthsahde) and one in black (Nuln Oil), which appears to be some sort of ink wash. They were each 6 euros/7.50 dollars, and they should last me the rest of my Global set. I would say you could paint one entire Global set, all 800 or whatever amount of pieces they are with just 2 bottles. I have never gotten into Warhammer or Flames of War, so I was new to washes, but I didn’t find them difficult after my 2nd or 3rd use. Here’s the wash I use. (Webcam photo, excuse the crappy quality)

Basically you paint your piece, preferably in a slightly lighter shade than you want the end product to be (but not 100% necessary), then wait for it to dry, and get a largish brush and apply wash liberally. Suck up any pools of wash that collect in the elbows of infantry, the conning towers of ships, tracks of tanks, etc, but only until it’s not a giant pool. You still want it to collect in the recesses. Then just wait for it to dry, and drybrush it with the original shade, or lighter if you really want it to pop. I’ll post a tutorial next time I get around to painting, and hopefully that will help a bit more. It’s personal preference and practice, but it’s not too difficult to get good at IMO.

@jluna1273:

Wow, that Navy looks amazing. I haven’t started on my American fleet yet, so I may try your color scheme with a wash and see how it turns out.

Thanks!! I based the colors on a scheme called Measure 22 that they used in WWII. Here’s the link I used; scroll down to the “Late 1943 to late 1945” portion of the description to see what it says. And it has color palettes so that you can see what to mix. (I’m warning you now… I find waterlines/stripes are hard to paint on ships! Expect some frustration :D) http://abbot.us/DD629/fletcher/camouflage.shtml

Here is half of the US Navy.

If you look closely on the right side, you can see some US destroyers from A&A 1941 that I threw in as a light cruiser/destroyer. “One of these things is not like the others…”

Spitfire’s tip: When painting, “washes” and a subsequent drybrush with a lighter shade of the original will really make your pieces pop, as the shadows will be emphasized and the raised parts/corners will be highlighted. This is most effective on ships and infantry, although you can get some really cool “battle scarred” or “rusted metal” or “dirty tracks” looks on your ground vehicles as well!