Hi all,

Here are a few (dramatic!) pictures taken from the attack on Hellfire Pass....

General situation:

British advance, left flank:

The Flak 36 AT gun operated by some regular and elite troops awaits the British assault:

Another view of the Flak gun with the second one ready to kill as well:

The German point of view:

British infantry advances with support from tank fire:

I did not play with the painted figs yet. I hope for a Fall of Tobruk or an Assault on Kidney Ridge this summer. I'll try to show some pictures...

MB

Nice. I wish someone would paint my figures.

Outstanding man! Really makes quite a difference and makes each unit more realistic.Maybe they should hire you at Fantasy flight to help produce an optional prepainted set of figures and tanks which could be purchased by those of us who can"t really paint that well at that scale. Id buy a set for each of my expansions as well as the main set. If you ever get the Russian "Bear" expansion please show us what they look like painted. Very interesting and thanks for showing.

Nice. Painted up like that they start to emphasise the...."flatness" of the underlying board and are begging for more realistic terrain.

As a miniature painter of many years, I am curious as to how paints on this type of soft plastic stand up to game wear and tear. I am just curious...

- What paint/s have you used? (i.e acrylic or enamel)

- Have you used a sealer such as spray varnish?

Cheers

Thanks guys!

It is lot of work. But there are not that many figs to paint in the hole ToI collection (and I limited myself to the Germans and the British plus 4 Shermans), so I could face it.

VanCamper: as soon as I get FoB, I start painting. I'll show the end product here.

nath;, here's how I proceded:

1. Soaked the figs in vinegar. Tossed and turn them so they'd be real clean. Rinsed with water.

2. Primed them with a grey acrylic color.

3. Painted them with acrylics.

4. Varnished the figs, two coats. I used Liquitex Matte Varnish. This was suggested by my friend Luisito, who has painted lots of (beautifully done) plastic figures. His don't seem to wear. Time will tell if mine do wear because of the extra manipulations the bases entail.

I used brushes only. No spray, no air brush.

With a good hockey or soccer game in the background, I say painting figs is better than yoga!

Cheers,

MB

Cheers Meta.

Reasonably straight forward....although the vinegar rinse is a new approach to me (as opposed to the old water and detergent method) that I suspect would be quite effective in removing residual release agent and grime etc.

Painting can be very relaxing, but I do need background music or television going too.

Good luck with the FOTB minis once they arrive. Be sure to post pics of them too.

Meta very nice job. I'd never heard of vinegar either but thanks for that tip

Bjaffe01

keep up the good work. thumbs up!

Thanks!

Here are a few close-ups I made when I first painted the Germans...

Regs and mortar...

MG...

And Elites...

(They must feel warm in those continental cloths in the desert. Don't know if I should tell them they're gonna fight in the East in a few months!)

MB

Say,maybe you could list the exact colors and name of the paints you used. I 'm going to try to paint my set using those latest photos as a guide. I like the overall combination and contrast you used. Painting the base of each figure the same as the round base top was a good idea too; makes that plastic strip disappear and the figure appear as if standing directly on the ground. By the way what did you use for the base cover?

The painted figures look great - you've inspired me to paint mine!

Thanks for the vinegar tip,too.

I'm now thinking that it might be worth the effort (and expense) to make color copies of the board and then make a more 3d map by stacking up hexes with higher elevation, especially those large hills? Maybe also making some kind of wall around the perimeter of the building hexes to give it a simi kind of cover. I'm not sure how far to go though, cause then there are the woods hexes to consider on the other boards.

Thanks, MaxieTPB. Cheers with this painting project!

VanCamper, problem is I mixed my own colors. I think you can easily find painting kits (for WWII Americans, Germans, etc.) if you don't want to proceed the way I did. Besides, I painted the bases the same way I painted the figs, if this is what's you're asking: vinegar, water, grey primer, brown color (2 coats), varnish (2 coats). Keep going with your painting project. It really brings the game to another dimension, at no important additional cost (in $), really (but be patient! Painting figs is a slow process).

MB

Vancamper If you have the cash one option, especially if achieving some "historical" accuracy is important to you, then the paint sets for Flames of War are a good way to go. They sell them in boxes by nationality with pre selected paints that closely approximate the realworld uniforms used.

Of course, if you dont do much (or any) painting of miniatures in general it could be more $$$ then is really justified for one boardgame worth of painting.

Very nice work.

www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/images/miniatures/Tide%20of%20Iron/ToI%20US%20Forces%20(3).JPG

www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/images/miniatures/Tide%20of%20Iron/ToI%20US%20Forces%20(3).JPG

VanCamper said:

The above link is showing how detailed you can paint these models in TOI. I do not know if this guy is still active, but his method really adds even more detail to the models. And they go very well with the new expansion board artwork.

www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/Tide%20of%20Iron.htm

OK, this is the link to the whole collection of TOI models and how they were painted in detail.

Great, thats what the image looks like in the link. Now those Shermans look really nice on the new expansion set boards.

Great, now that I have figured out how to use this editor, here is an image showing how the newer edition expansion board set compares to the original TOI boards. I am late in getting around to expanding my set, but I liked the Normandy Expansion boards much better, especially the highlites of forest and the more widened stream hexes, and the buildings too. Most of you probably already have the new boards so this is old news. I just wanted to add my compliments to the efforts of FFG for their efforts. I will be buying these new boards when I get that Fury of the Bear expansion.

VanCamper said:

Beautiful work, indeed. Pictures from this site inspired my own painting...

And yes, the darker colors on the new board make them more appealing.

Did you begin your own painting, VanCamper?

MB

Meta Baston said:

No, unfortunately, I have been preoccupied with other things, like rebuilding my ehgine with parts from the junkyard. And then there was a lot of time wasted on Political forums arguing about the elections. Tnen I also play COH online which can be addictive and also a nice waste of my time. So lately, to calm down, I got back to this forum to find ojut if FOTB was out yet. There was not that much that interesting to me, so I remembered your thread about painting and brought it back when I found those other painting guides.

I did get a set of about 12 different acrylic colors and a nice set of small brushes. Once I get my engine rebuilt, and it runs ok, then I will have some time to start. The thing is, there are prepainted infantry figures from Axis & Allies that are closer scale to the TO! tanks, so I might just buy those instead. But after seeing how well those tanks look painted in the previous posts, I think I will try painting the vehicles myself.

Absolutly awesome pictures! Thanks for showing them off.

Here are some more models I wish to get, or wish that FFG could get in an expansion set:

These are all 144th scale pre-painted models. These pictures are about 25% larger than the actual size of the models, which are just slightly larger than the Tiger I and Pzkw-MKIV models in TOI base set. Very nicely detailed, especially the tracks and roadwheels.

This is an illustration of the size difference of 144th scale to TOI Sherman model scale: Memoir, TOI, WTM (144th), and A&A