I agree totally. Half my IJN fleet is WSF and the other FUD. It's hard to tell the difference from across the room, but on the tabletop, FUD is much more crisp. Also, because used multiple base coats rather than sealing the WSF before painting, each year, it looks a bit more grainy. Sticking with FUD from now on.
Shapeway Kongo is so pretty, been needing to get on to replace the WOTC Kongo Class minis
Yeah, the W@S mini leaves a bit to be desired. Kongo in WSF was one of the first Shapeways paints I did. I recently decided to re-do in FUD - tons more detail.
Thanks! For the destroyer/cruiser decks, I used basecoat brown sand (vallejo 70876), then top coat woodgrain transparent (vallejo 70828). Because it's a transparent, the basecoat color has a huge effect. So if you want to two tone or add depth, use a second basecoat in a lighter or darker color "loosely" over the brown sand.
I am working through a huge number of IJN ships these days. You're right about Roe - he's really done an excellent job with IJN. I finished Hyuga and Ise a few days ago, and have Tone and collection of light cruisers (Isuzu, Kiso, Sendai and Tama) in the workshop now. Always a pleasure to paint his stuff - so much detail to work with!
I'll post pics of a few of these cruisers shortly.
3) Other units: Ashigara: Sank HMS Exeter. Is a "rare" unit not in other decks, though would be the 4th Myoko in the game - a tall order when Haguro is a goto selection. Chokai: another "rare" for Japan - adds another takao CA to Atagi and Maya
3) Other units: HMS Norfolk. A good unit as a historical scenario piece. Norfolk was involved in the sinking of both Bismarck and Scharnhorst and otherwise had an active wartime career.
ps. Thanks for the comments! I nicknamed Mogami the "dark cruiser". Because I started so dark, I was able to drybrush in 2 additional colors while still keeping it subtle.
So far, just priming. I don't quite have the hang of controlling it yet!! I've been practicing a little on accuracy, but still "buckshot at the barn door".. However, I hand-prime every deck in Vallejo "brown sand" over the gray black primer I use for the rest of the mini. On some of Roe's SW models, priming the deck can take a pretty long time around all of the bits. It dawned on me the other day that my next go at airbrushing should try to mix deck and hull. Stepping into two colors...!
Last week, I had some time off (work and kids!) for the first time in a while, and had a chance to do some painting. I'm super-excited to be painting my IJN in FUD. My first two ships were Kongo and Fuso (Kongo being one of my favorite ships in the game), but I was really happy to begin to paint my cruiser fleet. I started with Nachi, (A-Go) Mogami and Jintsu. I chose Jintsu because it was the last WotC ship I began to paint many years ago before switching to Shapeways. I never did finish her, so glad to have a completed Jintsu back in my collection. All ships below are from Roe's "Tiny Thingamajigs" Shapeways store (Edit: Sendai model used for Jintsu).
Anyway, Nachi, Mogami and Jintsu:
Nachi:
(A-Go) Mogami as an aircraft cruiser 1943/44:
Group shot together with Jintsu:
So, I picked up an airbrush last year. This has been one of my best purchases so far for this hobby - it has saved hours and hours of prep time on SW models. Unfortunately, I ran out of airbrush primer this round and ended up using regular Vallejo acrylics to prime Mogami. It worked, but strangely, the outer coat ended up peeling completely off of one of the side catepults. Not the primer, just the top coat. ...strange...
Thanks for looking!
Last Edit: May 9, 2018 23:51:39 GMT by Hap Hapablap