Posts made by toblerone77

Biggest problem with Russia in pretty much every game is that it simply is too weak throughout the entire game and is a bore to play for most players. Russia should start out weak like it did historically.  However there should be some sort of mechanic not unlike the US where Russia at a certain point accelerates production wise.

Honestly I’ve never cared for NOs anyway. Turn triggers or event cards would be much better for the series IMO. The way production is handled in this game has become convoluted and ahistorical in each subsequent edition.

Off topic but I think relevant is a suggestion to all parties with rights to the franchise. Sell it. Let someone else reboot Axis & Allies who actually gives a damn. Reboot Classic for the launch. Spend two years developing a “bug-free” global. While that is in development offer two expansions a year for the Classic Reboot. Throughout this whole transition keep selling 1942SE boxed with a small catalog of “what’s to come”.

A&A needs a game company not a toy company like Hasbro to produce it. My suggestion would be Fantasy Flight or possibly a wargaming miniatures company that produce tabletop games, rules, and minis.

@jwo1984:

wow DM I really liked how you drummeled out all that ugly blocky plastic on the stringbag’s.  Looks soo much better now that is some customization work! I agree with you as well the HBG Stirling bomber was massive! you try using that piece on a spring 1942 board and there is no way it is too massive next too the Lancaster or Halifax.  But a great piece for some research pieces in global for a heavy bomber. I ended up painting panel lines on mine just cause the piece was so big I wanted to add somemore detail.  I wish that the king George battleships were a little bigger as well! Enjoying your pieces and historical accuracy on your aircraft! keep posting pics!

ROFL! My last FTF game was Spring '42 and the Stirling was WAY too big for that board. Nice model but I think it may need to be used elsewhere in my plastic arsenal. In fact it’s big enough that you could pre-shade panel-lines with an airbrush and a .2mm or maybe .3mm needle nozzle :D

HOLY SCHNIKIES! Those are Beauties DM! I just want to pull them out of the screen and play “Micro Machines” with them.

DM and JB,

I just wanted to say I love your paint jobs. It has taken me months to get my painting rig up and running (still working on paint). I’ve switched to using an air brush for a lot of my paint work as well as stepping away from A&A and branching into different WWII themed and other games, be they board game or table-top miniatures games.

There’s a lot of research, trial, and error in painting at the scale of A&A pieces. At this level any feat is great., but to do it, and actually make them look good is praise in and of itself. To do it without professionals and minimal equipment or finance is heroic. Spitfire38 was a huge inspiration to me showing how “craft store” acrylics could be used to do phenomenal paint jobs on A&A game pieces. This helped me with my own techniques.

I’m a bit bashful to show my own work, and my previous work is not that great. However the pure therapeutic pleasure of painting minis and leaving the big world behind and escaping to your own private universe of painting minis is beyond priceless.

Cheers Guys,

toblerone77.

I know it’s really different by my wife picked up the USA trails to rails spin-off. We havent played it but if it’s as good as it looks well probably pick up the merchant’s of Europe game too. There is anothoer game in the series but I think it’s OOP that is based on Germany.

My first experience playing Catan and it’s expansions was not a good one as I really dislike the people I played it with some initial and it was a bit of a rollover so it left a bad taste in my mouth.

That said I saw an expansion that made me want to give it another go that involves sea exploration and combat.

Well I’ve well expanded out of the A&A universe though it is still a first love. There is a HUGE world of games that we especially as US gamers have overlooked outside of A&A. WWII has a plethora of games out there if you’re willing to explore.

However, in the UK market especially, there are many, many, many games covering even the smallest and largest battles of history varying on complexity.

I would encourage anyone to take a dip in this pool. I actually got my wife to not only play but ask for more of Memoir '44. Sure it’s not A&A but it’s WWII and some day A&A may be “go to” game.

So, while A&A is a favorite, a smaller, weirder, not necessarily A&A game can be the gateway to WWII without “overwhelming” potential a “war game junkie” with the likes of G40 or even AA41.

It seems backwards but more “complicated” games with a smaller scope can really convert people to the thought “well this is really fun, what else have you got?”.

Don’t remember what it’s called but there is a hex and tile war game based upon this as well as miniature games.

Lol JB blue tack is great for masking stuff as well as the blue painter’s tape. There is also a way to use silly putty. Some guys will use silly putty when airbrushing camo schemes but that’s on larger models.

The stuff you hang posters with

Here’s a tip for your noses. If you prime in white or gray paint the nose first and mask it with a very thin layer of after it has dried. If you lay the blue tack on thin you can even trim it to precision with your exacto knife. Then paint your darker colors over the rest of the plane. This also works well for masking smaller deatails in other areas.

If you do buy an airbrush kit from TCP global via eBay make sure you really pay attention to what actually comes in the kit you’re buying. The way the ad on eBay was orginally shown was that I was getting three cheap Chinese made beginner airbrushes in the set. I didn’t get them. I did get the Iwata airbrush though and the original price was $200 more.

Basically there web department didn’t do a good job editing thier ad on ebay so it was a fair deal but it wasn’t this closeout deal I thought I was getting.

Main thing is that I got the airbrush compressor with a tank and a pretty good airbrush as well as some good accessories.  The paint looks to be really “low rent” and not all that great and I probably won’t use it.

I plan to get a Badger Patriot 105 and some Modelaire paints next payday and really get to work.All and all I got a pretty good set-up for a decent price but there’s a lot to learn and research to do when it comes to airbrushing.

Well that is a whole bunch of questions and answers rolled into one. Essentially I bought a compressor and air tank with a set of airbrushes. As far as paints go you can use pretty much any kind as long as you can keep them thinned enough for the paint not to clog the airbrush.

That’s the short answer. The long answer I’ll need to work on and probably post a video link.

Here’s what I bought:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/IWATA-HP-C-PLUS-AIRBRUSH-w-COMPRESSOR-KIT-Createx-Hobby-/141572913099?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20f66737cb

Here’s a quick video of some airbrushing a miniature:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQejZJp2TlI

Funny I found this thread. I have been buying a ton of games lately and the missus was not angry but somewhat annoyed. I simply told her If I died she would be able sell off my games and have more than enough to bury me. My dark sense of humor on the subject was met with a “Oh don’t say that!”.

In all honesty I hope my games collection is passed on to someone who really cares about them, and when it happens I think my wife would pass them on properly.

As for the site. My participation has slowed as I have been involved in other games and projects. However A&A is still my muse in most regards.

We seem to see people come and go here but some are constant and if they died I truly would mourn. If I won the lotto I would invite my favorite A&A.org members to a week long gaming event at the Tillamook Air Museum. All expenses and lodging paid. A “golden bucket” list item I would think but hey, a guy can dream.

I use the FMG SM 79 as a transport and the stock SM79 as a bomber. If I paint them I will paint the larger one as a transport either way. That’s just me though I hope it helps. Now that I have my airbrush kit a whole new world of painting is on my horizon so I may be churning out some units soon.

Remember there’s more than one yellow.

Just bought this and it’s predecessor 1812: Invasion of Canada. Both great games, I recommend them both!

@Black_Elk:

I prefer number 4 too. But just curious, if such a unit class was adopted what sort of sculpt would you use for it? Does HBG have something at the ready?

I would think from an ease of adoption perspective it would be a lot easier to introduce a second class of tank, then something like a gun unit or second class of artillery. I say this mainly because there are OOB boards that already have units one might use. Thinking here of the big tanks in 41 or the skinny tanks of D Day. Whether they fit the role or not is another question, but at least therespective pieces we could use. Otherwise I guess you’d have to kit bust a model set, or bring in pieces from another game maybe? Did you have something in mind like that for anti tank guns?

Finally I think I would rather have a stronger unit at a cost of 5, as opposed to a somewhat weaker unit at 4. Just to fill the 5 spot, that has been kind of lacking ever since AA50.

HBG has enough models for everyone to have SPA and TDs if you use the Katyusha as the Soviet SPA.

As for your 5 IPC unit somewhere on the site someone mentioned using the “Classic” armor stats for tank destroyers. The guys from the Dicetruction podcast HR SPAs from HBG as follows M2 C5 A2 D2 awarding plus 1 to infantry and mechs at 1:1 ratio.

Cool stuff!

Baron, I am considering using HBG units SPA and TD Like this:

SPA C5 M2 A2 D2 gives +1 to infantry or mechs.

TD C5 M2 A2 D2 +1 when paired 1:1 with tank.

I use AAA guns as Heavy Artillery C6 M1 A2 D2 supports 2 infantry or mechs.

@John:

Guys, I’m just curious, am I using too much protective coat or is it just the lighting in my pictures. I notice my paint jobs have tiny bumps or is that normal?

Any help would be appreciative.

Thanks,

John

John,

The pieces look great. As for small bumps it could be many things they’re not really noticeable. One thing to remember is the scale you’re working with. These pieces will be seen from a couple feet away thus they are perfect from a tabletop point of view.

I’ve researched this from miniature war game painter’s techniques. In otherwords when painting large armies in small scales the greatest effect is achieved by not a single model but the grouping of many models on the tabletop which create the “wow” factor.

If you get on YouTube look up 6mm miniature painting and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

All in all I think your pieces look great and anyone playing with them is going to get an extra level of depth and excitement playing the game.