Get seated…

I am making progress every evening. Most basic colors are blocked in. And all cockpits are painted on. Next step will be some detail painting. And some grey undersides. After thar I will give them a gloss varnish and prepare for decalling. Hopefully finishing the first planes next week.

The only helicopters are some allouette III’s one for rescueing downed pilots, the other used as scout. Maybe I will add some in the future. Also note this is the Dutch air force, and doesn’t jet include the marine air force.
The hawker hunters. Unfortunately the tumbling dice version doesn’t do the nice shapes much justice..

Dutch airforce references

Most of the colorschemes I am using on the Dutch air force planes, are found on the following site:

Jonkerweb

The site has a collection with references for modeling, but also includes colorschemes used with the Dutch air forces. Most of the time showing the different variants and deliveries used. It has been very helpfull for me.

Airforce is growing slowly

Yesterday and today I have spent some time painting aircraft. This is a slow progress. Every time referencing some photos and choosing what to paint. But it is progress and enjoyable. It will take still significant time to complete everything.

Yesterday evening. Some grey colors ont the modern jet fighters and the cockpits.
This evening the USAF F86 Sabres stationed at Soesterberg AB.

Update

A small update for last week. I have made some progress and played a game. My father and I have played our second game of chain of command. Knowing the rules better it went more smootly. But we have still some things to learn. The scenario was a village road crossing, trying to be captured by both sides. My father played the 1940 Dutch forces, and I the opposing German forces. It ended with a firefight accros one of the roads, with the fire power of my mg34 defeating the Bike platoon of the Dutch.

The crossroad. With my squads on the left side, and the bike cycle platoon on the right in a firefight.

Next to the game I have also managed to do some painting/creating. I have started to make a terrain cloth, with canvas lined with chaulk. I have mixed some color into the chaulk, creating a nice earth tone. This is the first very thin layer. Next I hope to apply a second layer, mixing some sand in it, to get a rougher texture. After that I will apply some grass/turf to create some random landscape.

Terrain cloth

I have also spend some time painting the cold war Dutch airforce planes, just spending an sunday afternoon hour. Still a lot of work to do. But progress is progress.

all the cold war Dutch Air force planes, and some USAF 32nd TSF stationed in the Netherlands. Also the B 52 didn’t fit somewhere else, so resides also in this box. I painted the F4’s, some Thunderstreaks and T33 and started with the gloster meteors. Hope to make some more detailed photos when they are finished.

A lot has changed, but still pressing on

The last blog is a couple of months back. A few months where a lot has happened. Some things sort of planned, some un-expected. A short summery: being fired, Covid-19 and becomming a father. Luckely the last one is very positive and enjoyable. It only reduces modelling and wargame time 😉

But in between all the events, I am still working on some small projects. But I didn’t have time to write some updates.

I have started to paint a bunch of the 1:600 tumbling dice planes. Starting with some of the USAF 32 TFS fighters stationed on Soesterberg, the Netherlands. I didn’t make any photo’s yet, so those have to wait.

Next to that I have started on basing the 10mm Irregular Pike and Shot units, and applied the first paint.

Basing, and applying some sand texture
Primed and applying first colors

I hope to create an army for pikemans lament. I have decided to base them 3-2-1 on 20mm square bases.

But an army does need some terrain to fight. So have also started making some scratchbuild terrain pieces. Some houses, a castlehouse and some forest and ruins. The windmill and one of the houses had been started earlier. Now most things are primed and some have received a paint layer. Hopefully I can do some more next weekend.

Ruins, forest and a well
Overview of the different pieces
House with miniature for scale refference
The housecastle
And receiving first layer of paint

So this was a small update on some work in progress. I have also worked on some scale models in between. Maybe I will post some pictures of those when I have finished them. I am still pressing on, on all different subject. (also reading some books) I hope to update a little more frequently, but expect not too much.

Assembly of planes

The lead pile

This weekend I had planned another attack on the lead pile. Glue-ing the magnets under the planes. There is still a long way to go (probably around 150 planes to go)

But the different air forces are slowly growing. The picture of the ww2 era planes did not turn out to be clear, so there is another can full of planes. I hope to do still some more planes, and then to prime all the planes, so I have something to paint for the coming months.

For glueing of the magnets I have used the following magnets. I prepared a lot of square magnets, with the smaller magnets put on it in the correct orrientation. (I checked the orientation against the bases) Than file or scrape a flat area under the belly of the plane. Put a dot of CA glue on it, let it dry for half a minute, and put them together holding them for another half a minute. Then I would let them cure for 5 minutes. Before removing the rest of the stack and the cube.

Previous weekend, I also started to make some targets to attack. A bridge, fuel storage, an a piece of dike. Hope to put a convoy or some troops on it.

I hope to proceed with the magnetizing the coming weeks. And by the end of January priming them and preparing for painting. Probably not all planes will be based by then, but enough to sustain painting for a couple of months.

New flight stands

For aerial wargaming I have been using 1/600 scale models. For putting them on the table, I had used some homemade stands. Consisting of a hexagon shape base plate, with small vertical rod. On top of the rod was a colored bead, with a magnet glued on. On the base was a rectangle for a 7mm D6 dice. (see image below) I have used these for several games, and they work fine. But have the downside, that everything needed to be noted with dice. The speed, height and often an ID marker, to check which unit it was. (with flights of multiple identical planes). So a better way to do this had to be found.

The old stand on the right and middle, the new stand on the left

After ordering the new planes, it was time to order some new magnets to base the planes. When looking on the magnet seller site, I noted some long thin magnets. And a new idea sprang into my head. I have seen people using Lego bricks to denote the different height levels. But it might be also possible to do this with magnets. And you can see the results below.

The bare bases, 25mm hexagon (I think from pendraken/minibits)
I spray painted them in three different colors, from a rattle can. Blue, Red and grey. Two opposing side, and a neutral color for civilian or ordnance etc. Or when needed extension on one of the two sides. I have 10 of each, so 30 in total.
Because the color bases would be much to visible, I opted to use some aerial photography to cover the face. In google earth I searched from some nice pieces of lands. Most have been of dutch Landscapes. Some fields, polders, coast line, city and rivers. All the bases were glued to the back.
After drying the bases were carefully cut out.
All 30 bases cut out, with one blank on on top.
Then it was time to add a small magnet to the middle. This could have also been a small metal bead or ring. And I am thinking to do drill next time a hole, and glue it in the MDF. Then covering it with the printed textures, so they are not visible anymore.
The Fokker G-1s show the concept and the final product. Height can now be noted with the amount of cubes. So you can directly see which plane is higher. Also you can see some different textures.

I am very happy with how the finished result looks like. I am still thinking to add a dice frame, for the speed. But will probably play a game first. I hope this helps others too. Now I can proceed on basing the planes, and painting more.

Air raids coming in

A couple of weeks ago my father and I placed a substantial order at TumblingDice. Within less than a week, the package was send and delivered. A was astonished by how quickly this went. This was a very good service. He even included a sample of some 16th century ships, as we are curious how these are, for Anglo-Dutch wars.

A large pile of bags, with lead. All planes nicely packed separately.

Directly after arrival I checked al my planes, and now have over 200 planes to clean and paint. Which I already have started. I think I have not even halfway. But the results are looking interestingly.

All cleaned up planes on row.
The German airforce for the Dutch ww2 and Spanish Civil war projects. The JU 52 and float planes are not yet shown, as these consist of multiple parts. The painted examples were already in my possession from a earlier order.
The Dutch ww2 airforce. The rear two planes are 2 Vicker wellingtons. I will try to convert these to Fokker T.V bomber planes. By changing the tail.
The planes for the 32 TFS stationed at Soesterberg AB in the Netherlands. This was an American Fighter Squadron under Dutch command during the Cold War era. It shows the complete period, from f86f to the f15
The Dutch Airforce during Cold War. From the Gloster meteor to the F16.
On top the opposition, the Soviet planes. Including some bomber planes. There are still a couple of others.

These are only the planes I have cleaned up. And I think it is only around half of the pile. As I have still the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somalian planes. Plus all the Spanish Civil war bi-planes and some additional soviet planes.

I have already ordered some new magnets, so I can base all the planes. Hope these will be delivered this week. Hope to have more detailed pictures when I start painting the different air forces. I have already started searching for color schemes. I have not decided yet on which air force to start. Maybe the Dutch or American Cold war forces, as I know best the colors for these, or maybe the ww2 forces. Up to the next update.

Decals arrived

Last friday the ordered decals arrived. What is very quick, as I ordered them on the 12th of july, and they arrived at the 19th, from US to NL.

It are 12 different sheets (packed per 2) They look very nice, and are recognizable for every country.

I hope to show some of the roundels on the planes soon. For the others I have to order some new planes to test them out .

Decals on order

For the different 1/600 air projects, I was in need for decals. I hope this enabled the finish of the planes, and take it to a little higher level. For most of the projects decals were readily available. But for the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somali air forces, no suitable could be found. Luckily Dan from flight deck decals was willing to create these new ones, which are now available on his website.

I have ordered the following list. I hope they arrive soon. I have no experience with them yet. But hope to show the results when ready.

New decals:

  • 1/600 Ethiopia Imerpial Roundel
  • 1/600 Ethuipia DERG Roundel
  • 1/600 Ethiopia modern roundel
  • 1/600 Somali roundel
  • 1/600 Eritrean roundel

Existing ones:

  • 1/600 USAF Markings 50 /50
  • 1/600 USAAF & USN Post War White Star Red Bar 1947-1950s
  • 1/600 Soviet Red Stars White Red 1943 – 1992
  • 1/600 Spanish Spain Aviación Nacional Roundels
  • 1/600 Netherlands Modern Roundels
  • 1/600 Netherlands WWII Roundels
  • 1/600 German Balkan Cross Black, Thick White Band with Black Edges

So if you are in need of some 1/600 decals, plese check out his website, as he has many variants available, and when not, he is willing to create new ones.

https://www.flightdeckdecals2400.com/

Next step painting some planes in stock and use the decals. Probably working on the Dutch 1940 planes, which are already half way painting.