Completed Flight Stands

Last summer I built a dozen flight stands for the air game Check Your Six.

Since then I’ve had them out a couple of times.  I even took the trouble of photographing them with some of my Battle of Britain miniatures. I even uploaded the images!  However despite all of this I failed to actually write a post to accompany the images. 

 

A section of images of a V of Spitfire Is  being followed  by a V of  Hurricane Is at different alatudes

Details about the process of building the stands can be read in an earlier post.

So here we have what amounts to a range of aircraft balanced on radio aerials. Saying that I am quite proud of them and although it can get a bit forestry with the more than four planes in a  particular section of the playing surface these stands offer a really simple and effective way to represent height in the game.

 

One error I made was when I was attaching the aerials I did not attach some at a 90 degree right-angle. This means has you extend the aerial when the aircraft climbs it become unstable.

 

The other issue is these bases are suitable for larger aircraft such as bombers, the whole affair just get too top heavy and topples over. I am still working on the a solution for that. Any suggestions would be most welcome. 

Here are images of  Bf 109Es in the four finger formation flying past.

Thanks for taking the time to look!

 

Flight Stands For Check Your Six

This afternoon  I have  completed my first batch of home made in to the world of flight Stands.

It has taken  a fair bit of trial and error so I'll  outline the process, 

The components   required  for each stand are as follows :  an antenna,  I used a

37.5cm 6 section telescopic antenna to reflect the six Combat Altitude Levels  in Check your Six.  On the  top  of the  antenna   the is a ball bearing with  a   2cm length of brass tube  soldered to it.  This  ball and female socket  was attached to  the aerial with a   length of  rubber  tube ( from a fish tank air filter.)  the base consists of an  50mm Hex base with a Raiden Miniatures base glued to it for  a little extra weight.  The aerial has a screw  on the end of it which screws into the Hex base for extra strength.   

 Finally  a 5mm dice  frame holder  was  glued onto  the base to hold a D6 to indicate the speed.
 

Each of my fighter aircraft  had a male brass rod  attached to the underside.  Then could be inserted  into ball joint on the end of the aerial.  This allows us  to represent  the pitch and yawl of an aircraft in flight. 

 The final picture here  is a Bf109e  bouncing a Hurricane MK1 , which  I put together  to ensure  the the stands  worked as  I hoped.

I hope you like  them  and  Now  I can't wait to get a coat of paint onto them  and get them into action.

Maid for all Work

Well has promised in a previous posting I have added the decals to my 1/285^th scale Ju.88s last night and here they are in all their glory.

When I painted these last year I fell into the trap of going too dark with my shades.  In addition the over spray with a rattle can of matt clear seemed to reduce the contrast between the olive green and dark green further still.

The Ju.88s was originally conceived as a ground support dive bomber.  The "maid for all work" has it became known because of the huge variety of roles they were asked to  perform while in service with the Luftwaffe.  These ranged from medium bomber to air defence night fighter. However even by 1940 when it was deployed in the Battle of Britain it was considered under powered and vulnerable to the new breed of single engine fighters which had been developed in the years leading up to the outbreak of war.

So I'll see how they fair against a couple of wings of Spitfires and Hurricanes using the Thunderbolt and Lightening rules  now they are all marked up.

Kitchen Table Air Combat

The thing that got me back into wargaming a year or so ago was some 1/285 scale aircraft  from Raiden Miniatures which saw online.  In addition to manufacturing and selling these aircraft individually, Raidian also supply some useful battle sets with all you need to play a game including two sets of opposing aircraft. What you see in the pictures here are the contents of the Battle of Britain Set 1. They also include a set of quick play rules called Thunderbolt and Lightning and even a couple of dice. Although I think my dice are broken they only roll ones.  

Heinkel 111

So far they have come out on a few occasions for a fly about. For an evening’s entertainment when I am home alone I will set up a single player game, or a Jerry no mates game as it has become known in the parlance of the house !

Bf110

So far I am amassing a nice little collection by simply getting the two Battle of Britain sets available. So far I have confining my collection to Spitfire and Hurricane Mk Is, Bf109 E, Bf110s and a couple of bomber flights of He111 and JU 88s.

Bf109E

These guys are a joy to paint although I have fallen into my old trap of painting them too dark again this is particularly apparent with the lack of definition in the two tone green camouflage on the top side of the German aircraft.

Spitfire I

Furthermore in addition to using these little fellas in air combat games they can also be put into action in Blitzkrieg Commander as air support elements.

Spitfire I