China & the rest - Axis and Allies Anniversary edition finale!

 Well, this is the last post in the Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition series.

It's been emotional...

The chinese troops colours as as follows

CT Scorpion green (national Colour)
VJ Yellow green 881 (uniform jacket)
VJ Khaki Grey 880 (uniform pants)

The fighter doesn't come with the game. I actually got two fighters from a guy in the US on the condition I paint and base one for his game. Fair trade I thought.

The last thing is the AA Guns, which I simply mounted on painted washers I got from the hardware store.

Probably the most straight forward conversion in the history of modeling that one.

So that's it. Next week I'll continue my look at painting Descent

America! Heck Yeah! Axis and Allies Anniversary edition

I would have said America! F*** Yeah, but kids might be reading this!

The USA is the last nation to get profiled in this series, but they are probably the one that has the highest production values from me.

I had pretty much sorted the process by this point so the USA units have advantages that the earlier nations missed out on.

The Tanks have little flags on the turrets, the aircraft have actual transfers for logos on the wings, and the carriers not only have flags, they are numbered after actual US carriers that fought in the war.

I personally love how the US bombers turned out, such a simple paint job but it really gets across the Superfortress Scheme, which is incredibly iconic. I also like how it contrasts with the hellcat fighters.


 
Colours used

CT Knarloc Green (national Colour and ship sides)
CT Chainmail (bombers)
CT regal blue (flag and fighters)
Ct blood red (flag)
VJ Brown Violet 887 (tanks and helmets)
VJ US Dark green 893 (us Infantry)
VJ Flat eath 983 (ship decks)


Oh and for those who were wondering the carriers are Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown, Enterprise, Wasp and Hornet

This is not the last post in this series as I have to look at China and the other bits and pieces that made up my spangly Axis and Allies set.

I wonder how much a painted set of this would go for online?

Ain't you Benito Mussolini, conqueror of Abyssinia and former dictator of italy? - Axis and Allies Anniversary

Right, continuing our look at Axis and Allies anniversay edition we come to the Italians.

I may not be 100% right here, but I believe this was the first time the Italians were included as a separate playable faction in a global scale Axis and Allies game. Previously, the Italian forces were part of the Germans.

I went for a desert camo scheme, but one that looked different and distinct from the UK 8th army scheme. On the table they are very clearly different units than the British, so I consider that a success.

The colours used were

Ct Scorched Brown (National Colour, ship sides, decks and aircraft camo)
VJ Desert yellow 977 (Aircraft and helmets)
VJ Green Ochre 914 (Infantry uniform)
VJ Iraqi sand 819 (Tanks)

Including Italy does change the game slightly.It allows the Axis to do two stage attacks against an Allied power, one force taking an area that the 2nd can run tanks through. But it also introduces the need for two tech tress. German heavy Bombers won't make Italian Bombers any better.

I really like how the Italian Air Force turned out, probably my favorite units in the whole box. Painting the insignia on the wings was also one of my first real attempts at freehand painting.

Next we will deal with the United States and its shiny shiny bombers!

For King and/or Country - Axis and Allies anniversary edition

RULE BRITANNIA 

BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES!...... and so forth

First of all, this faction is not Britain, its not the United Kingdom, its the entire British Empire and Commonwealth of nations.  

I say this as a New Zealander, on behalf of  all the nations around the world that fought under the banner of the British Empire. This is also why I played around with the skin tones on the British infantry pieces. I also picked the 8th army desert colours for the infantry and tanks. This was mainly to make the faction distinct on the board. 

The British fleet flags are really easy to do. All you need is the wire and drill you use to base planes , some white paper and pva glue. Just cut out some paper, glue one side and bend it around the wire. Leave it to dry and then paint one side at a time. Once painted just drill a small hole in the ship and glue the flag in place with superglue.




Not the best pic of the RAF here, but I used the classic colours on the Spitfires and Lancasters. 

The paints used in this set are

VJ Dark Sand 819 (National colour, ship sides and infantry uniform)
VJ Iraqi sand 847 (tanks and helmets)
VJ London grey 836 (tank camo)
VJ Flat eath 983 (ship decks)
Ct Scorched brown (aircraft)
VJ german dark green (aircraft camo)
CT regal blue (flag)
Ct blood red (flag)

Empire of the Rising Sun - Axis and Allies Anniversary edition

As our epic journey continues into my set of Axis and Allies anniversary edition its time to look at the pacific powerhouse, the axis power that shoots first and asks questions later, the big bad unstoppable HULK SMASH armada that is the nation of Imperial Japan.

Japan was a so-so power in the original Axis and Allies, but in anniversary edition it is seriously dangerous. Left to it's own devices Japan can become a rolling juggernaut that can conquer everyone. If the Allies concentrate 100% on Germany and the Germans can hold out, Japan can become a complete monster.

So, technical issues and such. Here are the signature paints used in this set

CT Blazing Orange (Japan national colour and ship sides)
CT Chainmail (Fighters)
VJ Yellow Oche 913 (tanks)
VJ Middle Stone 882 (uniform)
VJ Khaki Grey 880 (helmets)
VJ German dark green 979 (bombers tank camo)

The aircraft bases are something I haven't mentioned before and they really add a little bit to the presentation of the game (And they look awesome on the carrier planes).

The process for making them isn't too complicated either.

1.) Get a drill bit and some thin wire (And clippers). You also need some washers and some modeling clay like Milliput. All of this can be obtained at a friendly local gaming store or hardware store.
2.) Make a very small drill hole in the bottom of the planes.... very shallow, you don't want to drill through.
3.) Use the clippers to cut the wire into roughly inch long lengths. I'd suggest making the bombers wire a little bit longer so they look more impressive (Like they are flying at a higher altitude)
4.) Glue the wire into the planes with superglue and wait to dry

5.) Grab a washer and the milliput, ball the milliput onto the washer and mould it into a ball shape. Leave it for a short while to harden slightly then drive the wire into the ball so that it almost comes out the bottom through the washer.
6.) Wait for AGES AND AGES for the milliput to harden. Use a knife and trim the excess miliput off the bottom of the washer so that it sits flat on the ground
7.) Paint in faction colours
8.) Attack Pearl Harbour
9.) VICTORY!

Also, to close out here are the capital ships of the all powerful Imperial navy. I'll talk about flags on ships next time, but DON'T THEY JUST LOOK BOTH COOL AND CUTE!

PS : JAPAN HULK SMASH

In Soviet Russia Axis and Allies Paints You

Continuing the exploration of my Axis and Allies set we come to the Soviet Union. When painting these guys a few people said "Its such a big box of models, why are you painting the Russian Fleet so early, i very rarely gets used".

The simple answer is I'm pedantic and process obsessed. If I say "I will paint this in order, I will"..... even if it makes little logical sense.

I'm weird like that, feel free to judge me!

Anyways, I'm really proud of how the Infantry and Armour ended up looking. I picked up a transfer sheet from flames of war along with a paint set. So the Russian Stars are pretty high quality as are the little Russian slogans on the tanks.

Noteworthy colours used in this set are

CT Malachite red (Soviet national colour and ship sides)
VJ Russian green 894 (Soviet armour, bomber and helmets)
VJ USA tan earth 874 (infantry jackets)
VJ Khaki 988 (infantry pants)
VJ German cam brown 826 (ship decks)

I didn't start adding the fleet flags until the Japanese but really, thats fair. Both Germany and the Soviets tend to be light on fleet during the game, especially at the start. So the Soviet fleet just ends up with transfers, which looks good in my book.

There as a deliberate decision not to paint the ships too realistically. No warship I've seen has a bright red hull as that would be pretty foolish. The decision to paint them like this was to make it very very clear what faction controlled what piece at an easy glance. If all ships had gray hulls it would be a bit of a pain to play.

That being said I may have overdone it for the Soviet submarines as they look a bit silly being completely red like that.

If your looking at doing a World War II army of any type I suggest looking at the Flames of War Site. Also, this PDF is amazing for selecting the appropriate colours to be historically accurate.

If I have one small regret it's not basing the Russian soldiers with snow.  

Axis and Allies - Part two - ZE GERMANS

So, the continuing story of the painting of Axis and Allies Anniversary edition.

I started with Ze Germans when i kicked off this project, and well, im not that happy with the results of some of the models.

The Infantry look fine, and i'm quite proud of the aircraft, but I really wish id taken the time to do the flags on the German capital ships. It would have been a nice touch, but by the time i'd finished painting them all I couldn't bring myself to go back to the beginning and make tweaks. I later based the infantry with some standard flock as well.  

The primary colours used in this set are  

• Citadel Codex Grey (German national colour and side of ships, base colour for aircraft)
• Vallejo German Field Grey 830 (Uniform and armour)
• Vallejo luftwaffe cam green 823 (Aircraft camo)
• Vallejo Camo Biege 821 (ship decks)

If you plan on doing World War II era pain jobs might I suggest checking out flames of war and their paint range from Vallejo

One thing to note on these guys is that I didn't use a single transfer. Just a lot of patience. I found the key to doing good German symbols was to paint a solid white cross first and then do two sharp lines in black. Painting over the top in black is much easier than trying to border it in white.

I'll be looking at the Russians next, a force where some people said "WHY THE HECK DID YOU EVEN BOTHER TO PAINT THE SHIPS"

The answer to that question, and many more next time.

Axis and Allies Anniversary - Part one

Our first look into the Black Vault and it's an epic one.


Axis and Allies Anniversary edition is a big game by any definition. It contains over 600 plastic pieces, the board is 120cm long by 60cm wide and the box is big enough to house at least 5 refugee families. When set up it takes up the roughly the same space as a football field and several real wars have had shorter play lengths.

Well some of that is exaggeration.  

I set out on an epic journey, and adventure of sorts to paint this beast. All 600 models, all 7 factions, all to a good standard and all historically accurate while still being game useful. One Month in and there were 500 models left to paint, three months in I wanted to tear my eyes out, Five months in it was done. If it wasn't for the praise and motivation given by the good people at axis and allies.org , especially Imperious Leader who liked the project so much it made the post a sticky, and Viracocha who liked the project so much he started his own impressive project (See his pictures by following the link above).

It was a long tortuous experience that left me reluctant to take on another project this size.

That was until I set the game up that is.

This made it all worth while. I tried getting a shot of the whole game set up but doing that means you can't see anything on the board. These two shots give you an idea of the grandeur and scale of this mighty game. The tragedy is I've only ever played online and never actually used my real set in anger :(

I rationalize this by saying that the intent was always to paint the game as a painting project, but really one day i would like to sit down and play this thing. Until then it sits on a shelf, fully painted but under used.

And no, I don't plan to put it on ebay.

This is the full tray of pieces, all 600+ painted, I even got the Field Marshall games special dice for those final touches on this project.

In coming weeks I will go through the individual nations have have a closer look at their units. I will be posting those up in turn order (For those who haven't played that means Germany is first)