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.
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.
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 f15The 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.
A little week of holidays past, to take a good rest. I did not spend anything at wargaming. But last saturday I visited the Dutch Air Force Open days, at Volkol Airbase, and took some pictures of Dutch planes.
Nice view on the rear of a F-16
Newest addition to the Dutch air force, F-35
Nicely decorated F-16 tail
Weather was not very good, but did give some nice effect on this C-130
Hawker Hunter with friendly pilot
And old Cold war bird still flying today, Dutch Hawker Hunter
Four F-16 Fighting falcon, in simulated bomb run
But there where also some guest from other countries.
Belgian F-16 solo display in nice scheme
Red arrows leaving for Britain
Nice old Saab Viggen
The Saab Viggen flown by a 71-year old pilot
Danish F-16 with some flares
Some new inspiration to go ahead with Cold war Dutch air force.
Last week I played some Missile Threat in the Falklands with my father. As I was painting the house, I did not have time to write this report earlier.
HMS Glasgow (type 42) and HMS Brilliant (type 22), still unpainted from the collection of my father.
The scenario is loosely based the attack of the HMS Glasgow (type 42) and HMS Brilliant (type 22). Forming a Type 42-22 combo. In our scenario the two ships are patrolling, with two harrier on CAP mission in the vicinity. The Argentinean are planning two attack with two flights of two a-4 Skyhwaks and a flight of two mirages. All equipped with bombs. The Skyhawks are coming in low (level 1) over land, to avoid detection, and mirages are entering on just cruising height somewhat behind.
Begin deployment. The ships are patrolling in the south, two Hariers on CAP in the West, and three flights of attackers approaching from the North-East. The Mirages and two of the Skyhawks are still unpainted from the collection of my father. The Hariers and the other two Skyhawks are from my own collection and painted up. The map is from my father, he designed himself with google earth images and let it print on PVC.
Because the Harrier where some distance away they would not intercept before the first attack. Therefore the first pair of Skyhawks came in low and fast and took the ships by surprise. Damaging the HMS Glasgow, keeping her crew occupied with saving the vessel. So already the air defense of one of the ships was taken out. The Harriers had closed in, and on of them fired a sidewinder on the first pair, from a large distance. This missile tried to track them but was in the end out ranged, and missed. The second harrier spotted the other two waves and tried to get a advantageous position.
The Harrier launches a sidewinder from long distance, just before the first bombs hit. Blue dice is aircraft number (Argentinean blue, British red) Black dice is height and yellow dice the speed.The sidewinder will eventually miss, but the attack is successful heavily damaging the ship. Knocking it out of action. Th HMS Brilliant was still unaware.
The second wave of Skyhawks closed in too quickly and the Harriers couldn’t prevent the attack. The HMS Brilliant was alerted by the previous attack, and was shooting with Medium AA, but the AA missles were not ready. One of the Skyhawks did attack the already damaged HMS Glasgow, and was hit again, sinking the ship. The HMS Brilliant was hit and lightly damaged.
Although now on Battle stations, the HMS Brilliant couldn’t do anything to prevent some minor damage.
The Harriers started to get behind the multiple attackers. Performing some advanced maneuvers to align their guns. They got some hits, wounding one of the Mirage pilots. But this was not enough to stop them, and the Mirages sunk the HMS Brilliant on the next attack. One of the Skyhawks was less lucky, and got shot down after it already had released its bombs.
The Hariers try to shoot down the attacking planes. Mostly with gun attacks.
Then the fight was over quite quickly, the Harriers went back to the carrier as there was nothing to defend, and the Argentineans went home bingo on fuel.
The causalities of the game. One Skyhawk shot down by the Harriers, and two ships sunk.
This was a good scenario, we had hoped the ships would have a bigger impact with their air defenses and that is why the British lost so much. Therefore this was a mayor victory for the Argentineans, as they only lost one Skyhawk, but sunk to ships.
The Missle Threat rules are very interesting and fun to play. But sometimes a little challenging to remember all the pilot actions. (When to perform a pilot check, and which attacks are allowed on which moment) Only the missiles feel a little strange. IR guided missiles are much easier to fire. And do not perform that much differently than radar guided ones. So it is very beneficial to have IR missiles over radar guided ones. Probably will play more games in the future. Hope to do also some solo campaign with the Ethiopian air force.
After priming the planes yesterday, I have done a quick painting session this morning after church. I have painted the two Skyhawks and two sea Harriers. I am happy with the results. I could have worked longer on the details, and the free hand markings are not completly streight. It does look the job, and on table will probably look fine.
The inspiration for the colors did came from a decal manufacturer which has a lot of decals of unknown conflicts. Allthough these decals are for a different scale, the instructions on his website were a good guidance.
Maybe I will paint some extra details, like the exhaust and wheels on the Harriers on monday. But probably will spend some time on creating a scenario.
For my birthday I received some Tumblingdice aircraft. Two Harriers, two a-4 Skyhawks and two MB-339 planes. The last two will be reserved for the Eritrean air force, the others will be used for a quick paint up for the Falklands war. We will have a gaming evening next Tuesday I hope to finish it in time, so we can do a try out for the conflict. My father is doing a larger project, with extensive naval and air forces but his forces are still taking some time to be completed.
Next to these planes I already created an Avro Vulcan from scratch earlier and I had some mi-24 Hinds left in stock which I also based and primed.
Hope to be finishing the Falkland planes over the weekend. So they will be ready for a game. Still have to think about a scenario. I am thinking about some alternate history, were the British didn’t have the newest Sidewinder missle yet.
