Tuesday 6 January 2015

Well at least the aircraft are done!

Marie bought me a load of 1:1200 aircraft (WW2 German and Italian) which I finally completed last night.  The hardest part was drilling the teeny tiny holes in the bottom to fit the wires into - then finding thin aluminium tubes for the wires to slip into (thanks Russ for the shout about Oxton Road Model Shop).

Now they all live on a old car sponge!

For the Germans, 10 Stukas, 10 Me109's, 3 He 111 bombers, 2 Condors (shore based recon but can also be bomb armed), 10 Arado recon and 4 He 115 torpedo bombers / recon.

For the Italians, 20 assorted fighters, 6 Sparviero bombers / torpedo bombers, 6 BR20 medium bomber and 10 RO43 recon planes.

More than enough for the average Thursday night game but the basis for a more ambitious air force should the need arise.  The Italians aimed for the idea that their fleets would operate close to where their aircraft could patrol so more heavy bombers and fighters may be required.  For the Germans, the proposed 1944 plan called for 2 aircraft carriers so I will probably need more Stukas and fighters (a shame that the Me 262 could not be considered as an option for a carrier fighter!).

The basing was relatively easy and I went for manageable 'heights' and numbers (mainly as the tubes work out at £1.10 each for 30cm!).

So the torpedo bombers sit at 3 cm above the sea (both countries had twin-engined torpedo bombers so I've done them as single plane stands).  Large bombers are also single stands at 6cm above the sea, dive bombers at 6cm and 9cm heights on the same stand (mainly for the Stukas), fighter aircraft the same and recon as single stands at 10cm.

The double heights (dive bombers and fighters) look OK to me and suggest more action taking place (getting ready to dive or in the process of doing so).

I'll bring them down Thursday night for you to look at.  

In the meantime I have started work on rebasing the German and Italian fleets with more of a 3D effect on the ship's wake.  The first real attempt (on an Italian battleship) looks much better than the orginal and has inspired me to complete both fleets in the same manner.  I'll do a little tutorial as well should you like the effect.  Again, I'll bring it down on Thursday.  However, only one done so far and it takes a little bit of time and care on each one to get the effect right.  But I think they'll look the business once both fleets are done.

1 comment:

Ian said...

I look forward to the tutorial. We already have set heights for the aircraft; 4cm torpedo bombers, 6cms dive bombers and 12cms for fighters if I remember correctly.