After playing Missile Threat a couple of times with modern aircraft, I find the rules very engaging. One drawback I encountered, aircrafts after the 1980s do have a lot of missiles, which results in easy hits. Dogfights are therefore quick encounters, of who passes who first and fires the most rockets. A lot of times the speed is very high, which results bypassing each other too quickly, and then spending multiple turns to get in position agian. So I started to search for earlier aircraft types, were rockets are less efficient and guns still have a major impact. Starting with the Soviets this would be the Mig 15, 17 and 19. I staterd looking for historical conflicts, such as Taiwan strait conflict, Korea war, Suez crisis or Vietnam war. A lot of these conflicts do have nice planes, but not all the planes I like.
As a child, I have been often to the Dutch Militairy Airforce Museum Soesterberg. There they did have almost all the planes which flew during the cold war, and a lot of the second world war planes. The planes I like have been influenced largely by these visits, as I could walk under those, and touch them. And on special occasions sit in the cockpit.
For the reasons mentioned above, I hope to do a project with the most important planes of the Dutch Cold war period, and have created an aircraft list in preparation.
Dutch Airforce
- Gloster Meteor (1948-1958)
- Republic F-84 Thunderjet (1952-1956)
- Repubplic F-84 Thunderflash (1956-1963)
- Hawker Hunter (1955-1968)
- North American F-86K Sabre (1956-1964)
- Lockheed F-104G Starfighter (1962-1982)
- Northrop NF-5A (1970-1991)
- General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon (1979-)
- Sud Aviation Aérospatiale Alouette III (1963-2015)
American forces under Dutch Command (32 TFS)
- North American F-86 Sabre (1955-1956)
- North American F-100 Super Sabre (1956-1960)
- Convair F-102 Delta Dagger (1960-1969)
- McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II (1969-1978)
- McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle (1978-1994)
Soviet and Warshaw pact opponents
- Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-15 “Fagot”
- Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-17 “Fresco”
- Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-19 “Farmer”
- Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-21 “Fishbed”
- Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig -23 “Flogger”
- Soechoj Soe-7 “Fitter”
- Ilyushin Il-28 “Beagle”
- Tupolev Tu-16 “Badger”
- Tupolev Tu-22M “Backfire”
- Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear”
For the soviet list it will be a general list and the aircraft marked with a red star. There have been some historical incidents during the cold war. For example a Polish Mig 23, which violated Dutch airspace without a pilot. The closest Warshaw pact force, where the East Germans. But for game purpose I won’t include all the different nations, and use just the generic Soviet style decals and camouflage schemes.
A F-102 Delta Dagger in colors of the 32 Tactical Fighter Squadron, outside of the Dutch National Militairy Museum
Most models will probably be purchaced from TumblingDice, in scale 1:600, with maybe some PicoArmor models. I have already seen that not all planes are available, so might have to be a little creative for some parts.
Probably I will make also some ground forces, air defences and targets. Hope to create a Nike Hercules Battery, although they are not in the rules yet.
National Militairy Museum.
The Militairy Airforce Museum Soesterberg is the predecessor of the current museum. They have moved and combined it with the army museum, and is now called National Militairy Museum, located on the old Soesterberg Airbase. The cover photo, is a Mig-21 at the outside of the Museum