Paintjobs are Lame

[mhensley]

I was really excited about this game when I first heard about it, but after seeing some of the miniatures previews I am starting to have serious doubts. Mainly the painting of these figures are very poor. The painting on the D&D minis are 100% better and they are only mediocre in most cases. A 15mm tank should be at least as big as a 30mm D&D monster so don't tell me its because they are smaller. And if the rumors are true about the infantry being only one figure to a base would totally kill any interest I have in this game. If a tank is painted this poorly, I can only imagine how badly a tiny infantryman will be done. Sigh.... :(

[skeevo666]

I was really excited about this game when I first heard about it, but after seeing some of the miniatures previews I am starting to have serious doubts.

I've got about 3 years of experience with HeroClix (now ended for Star Wars Miniatures thankfully) so I can tell you don't judge a mini by it's preview ;) Many Clix previews looked like hot buttered ### but when pulled out a booster & held in hand were quite nice!

These could well be pre-production mock-ups were seeing or some details/colors may not be picked up by the camera . . .

[StyxParadox]

I've got about 3 years of experience with HeroClix (now ended for Star Wars Miniatures thankfully) so I can tell you don't judge a mini by it's preview ;) Many Clix previews looked like hot buttered ### but when pulled out a booster & held in hand were quite nice!

These could well be pre-production mock-ups were seeing or some details/colors may not be picked up by the camera . . .

I agree, you must wait for the minitures. SWM are very good and I assume they will use the same producers for this product. Now what I don't think is that it will match the detail of a hand painted miniture in the hands of a skilled artisen. I have seen people repaint the SWM with great skill. It is my bet that this will happen with these as well.

[Smith568]

There is definitely something a little bit "cartoonish" about the photos I've seen so far, but I'm still pretty excited about these and I definitely don't think there's much reason to take a negative attitude this early in the process.

These arn't supposed to be museum pieces - they are intended to be gaming tools for people who want to spend their time enjoying the passtime - not spending hours (weeks?) painting their own minis and then worrying about damaging their poster perfect creations.

As a fairly serious collector of the D&D line, I expect the Axis & Allies line to be pretty much indestructable in terms of normal use, and I am totally confident that when deployed on my table top they will look just fine.

Sure - NOTHING beats a really great personal paint job by an expert modeler, but that's not what these are for. We could complain all day - I say let's GAME ON instead!

[JasonR1]

I don’t think the paint jobs look that bad. They are not great but not bad either. I hope it is not one more thing that folks pick up on within the “Looks” category of the game. Minis games are very much about the “looks” of the pieces, and we seem to already have this one-man per base = a squad issue.

Until the game comes out and folks get the pieces in their hand to actually play, it will be hard to tell.

[mhensley]

All I'm saying is that there is one hell of a big difference from the paint job here-

http://maxminis.com/pics/ddm_gallery/Dk/02.jpg

Compared to this-

http://www.wizards.com/global/images/ah_article_ah20050610a_picMain_en.gif


It's just boring. No camouflage, no shading, and it looks like they used all of 2 colors. I mean, c'mon, its the same company behind both of these products so I don't understand why the AH minis aren't just as nice as the D&D ones.

[vogless]

I was really dissapointed with that tank at first. I did look it up and found the tank in that color. Really all it is missing is it's markings. I guess they could weather them up a bit, but when you are dealing with a one color tank, it's going to be boring. Hopefully the finished product will be nicer. Also, it seems the rarer the fig, the better the paintjob in D&D. I'm sure the Tiger is a knockout.

[ArtBraune]

All I'm saying is that there is one hell of a big difference from the paint job here-

http://maxminis.com/pics/ddm_gallery/Dk/02.jpg

Compared to this-

http://www.wizards.com/global/images/ah_article_ah20050610a_picMain_en.gif


It's just boring. No camouflage, no shading, and it looks like they used all of 2 colors. I mean, c'mon, its the same company behind both of these products so I don't understand why the AH minis aren't just as nice as the D&D ones.

Quite a few tanks from the WW2 timeframe were painted in relatively unimaginitive schemes...

Ciao!
Art

[skeevo666]

Quite a few tanks from the WW2 timeframe were painted in relatively unimaginitive schemes...

By all means, blame the Italians! :p

[ArtBraune]

By all means, blame the Italians! :p

Russian and American tanks had less than exciting paint schemes as well.

Ciao!
Art

[vogless]

It would be sweet to see some T 34s with Russian graffitti on the side! :). Seeing how the SW and D&D minis have gone, I'm pretty sure I be happy with the final product. Plus, they seem to improve with each new set.

[kniterangr]

Here are a couple of pictures that have more detail. Most probably have seen these.
Wargamer AAM Review (http://www.wargamer.com/articles/on_board_specialedition/)

Edit: I also saw Richard say that they were interested in doing different camo on the minis but it seems to be a wait and see how things go.

[gamesy]

Paint jobs look good to me from the pics I've seen. Particularly at the beginning of the war paint jobs on vehicles were pretty simple. They may get more interesting when we see vehicles for desert and jungle theaters of war.

[GoblinSlayer]

ok if you don't like how a mini is painted then repaint it,
and if you don't like to paint minis then you shouldn't be complaining.

[mhensley]

ok if you don't like how a mini is painted then repaint it,
and if you don't like to paint minis then you shouldn't be complaining.

You forgot the third option- if you don't like the paint jobs on prepainted minis then don't buy them.

And unless they look better than this, I won't. From what I have seen so far, they are barely more attractive than the pieces in my A&A D-Day game.

[GoblinSlayer]

You forgot the third option- if you don't like the paint jobs on prepainted minis then don't buy them.

And unless they look better than this, I won't. From what I have seen so far, they are barely more attractive than the pieces in my A&A D-Day game.
Well When I decide if I'm going to buy a mini game the paint jobs aren't that important, I would think that most people would look at gameplay and subject first, paint jobs are easy to fix.

[SeattleGamer]

Well Slayer, there are two camps of gamers interested in this new line from AH.

The first camp is interested in the game it self, Axis & Allies Miniatures. Nifty double-sided full color terrain boards, fast-play rules, fun gaming experience, etc. A game in a box, with expansion packs to build your ideal force.

The second camp doesn't care about the "game" at all (or very little). They are interested in buying pallets of minis to be used in some OTHER game (or games) which are played on tabletops using 3D terrain, etc. How the A&AM game plays is just a side bonus because if it's fun, perhaps more new folks will join the minis gaming community, and some may eventually gravitate to tabletop minis gaming (thus swelling their ranks).

So while you may care about how this game plays, to many on these boards the game itself is really just a AAA minor league ball club, and we wish it well, and hope to see some of you graduate to the Majors! ;-)

[GoblinSlayer]

Well Slayer, there are two camps of gamers interested in this new line from AH.

The first camp is interested in the game it self, Axis & Allies Miniatures. Nifty double-sided full color terrain boards, fast-play rules, fun gaming experience, etc. A game in a box, with expansion packs to build your ideal force.

The second camp doesn't care about the "game" at all (or very little). They are interested in buying pallets of minis to be used in some OTHER game (or games) which are played on tabletops using 3D terrain, etc. How the A&AM game plays is just a side bonus because if it's fun, perhaps more new folks will join the minis gaming community, and some may eventually gravitate to tabletop minis gaming (thus swelling their ranks).

So while you may care about how this game plays, to many on these boards the game itself is really just a AAA minor league ball club, and we wish it well, and hope to see some of you graduate to the Majors! ;-)
You make a good point, and I hope that some people who start out in the vast world of gaming with this game join your ranks I think the game is being marketed more for the first camp of gamers and that Wizards and avalon Hill will be concentrating alot more time to make this camp of gamers happy.
I do hope though that for many customers sake that they make the second group of players happy to.

[ArtBraune]

You make a good point, and I hope that some people who start out in the vast world of gaming with this game join your ranks I think the game is being marketed more for the first camp of gamers and that Wizards and Avalon Hill will be concentrating alot more time to make this camp of gamers happy.
I do hope though that for many customers sake that they make the second group of players happy to.

I hope they strike a happy medium between the two. I would like reasonably historically accurate figs for use not only with the rules that come with the game, but also for other rulesets.

I have the time, inclination, skills, and financial resources to go the FoW route. I would rather spend my time playing the game though. Buy, open, play...

Then I can spend some time on setting up nice terrain for my little tanks to drive across. :D

Ciao!
Art

[TheFoeHammer]

I like that in some ways they will be a little "vanilla". If they all had markings and weathering it would be more work to customize. With a plain pallet to start on I can weather it appropriately and put my own markings if I want it.

I personally want the paint jobs to be good enough to look real, but not so good that it requires hand painting and raises the cost or decreases the quantity of figures.

[PANZERBUNNY]

real indepth camo didn't really start showing up until late mid war - late war.

Panzer gray was..well....dark gray. Russians had..well...green .....italians had a sandy brown etc.

Apart from shading and weathering(which u wont get from this game unless you do it yourself) I doubt you'll see the quality you seem to want from this product.

[vogless]

Looking at the newest pics, the paint jobs are looking MUCH better. The Panther Gray tanks are weathered and some have markings. It looked from the early pics that they would be whatever color plastic they were molded from. Now, however, even the single color tanks are looking pretty.