BUF Half Way

I painted the helmets, puttees and rifle stocks this evening to get the BUF figures about half way completed in the space of three days, all told. The helmets were painted in a 50:50 mix of GW Catachan Green and Camo Green, with a light highlight of the latter.

The puttees were quickly drybrushed in three stage Foundry Drab but could do with a little tidying up later on. The rifle stocks were painted in GW Dark Flesh and will get either a wash or a highlight later too.

After all this fiddly stuff I thought I'd paint a 'thing' rather than a bunch of figures so tackled the CV35 tankette with a big brush and three layers of Foundry Phlegm Green. I quite like the end result so will do the same with the BUF flying column lorries and vans. The tracks and little details of the tankette still need to be picked out but otherwise it's pretty much done.

Next up will be the boots, hair and gun barrels of the infantry together with the Vickers tripod and gun.

Triumphant Standards!

I sent an email off to via the Toofatlardies webshop thing today and was very pleased to have a pdf copy of Triumphant Standards, the interwar supplement for Through the Mud and Blood, posted back to me for free.

Outstanding!

I've had a good read through with particular emphasis on the VBCW bit which includes two excellent scenarios and some very useful bits to integrate the VBCW background with the rules.

The Freikorps section also grabbed my attention as it's something I've been interested in for quite a long time. I even worked out some alternative stuff for AK47 several years ago, including political flowcharts for the Spartakists and Freikorps, which is probably still on the RFCM yahoo group if you look hard enough.

Anyway, it's given me lots of ideas and plenty of inspiration!

BUF Webbing

I painted the webbing on the BUF last night using three shades of Foundry Drab. I didn't get round to the helmets or puttees, however, so they're the target for tonight. I'm still thinking about the shades to use for both of these but will try different things out this evening.

Battle Of Britain Salute Game Photos

In response to requests over on TMP, here are some more pictures of the WWW particiaption game from Salute.

Too Fat Lardies Sale

I was very pleased to find out via TMP that the Too Fat Lardies have a sale on at the moment, with virtually all of their excellent rules and suplements at up to 20% off.

No surprise then that I got a pdf of their Couldn't see an Elephant ACW rules, not being a fan of Fire and Fury and looking for something alternative, a couple of supplements for I Ain't Been Shot Mum, which I may or may not use but should be good reading material, and a copy of Through the Mud and Blood.
All for twenty quid!

I'm thinking of lots of potential uses for Through the Mud and Blood including the Western Front, the Back of Beyond and a Very British Civil War once I get hold of the free additional supplement.

BUF Progress

I got quite a good session in this evening and managed to paint all the flesh on the BUF figures. This included a basecoat of GW Dark Flesh, followed by a undertone of Foundry Flesh Shade, a top layer of Foundry Flesh and a little bit of Foundry Flesh Light to add highlights.

They don't look like much in the photo but they do look better under normal light (honest). Next up will be the webbing and the puttees, which I'm hoping to get done tomorrow night, plus the helmets and possibly the rifles given a bit of time.

BUF Drybrush

I didn't get started 'til late on the BUF yesterday but did manage to give them a drybrush of Foundry Charcoal Black to tone down the black undercoat and highlight the details. I'm going to keep things simple so I'll probably leave the uniforms as they now are, rather than do any fancy three layer shading.

Next up will be the flesh tones. Then I'll tackle the puttees and the webbing, which will probably be in khaki drab. After that I'll do the rifles and automatics and to finish off, I'll add some details like the piping, badges, armbands etc. Nice and straightforward.

I'm thinking of getting some militia figures to act as local back up for the legion but it'll have to wait until next month when the bank manager is in a positive frame of mind.

BUF Flying Column

I've collected together half a dozen suitable die cast trucks and vans to form the transport element of my BUF flying column.

I reckon that each squad of nine figures could feasibly squeeze into one of these Lledo Ford A stake trucks, allowing for two in the front and seven in the back. The Vickers will have a truck of it's own and the command figures can drive around in a Ford A van, complete with roof mounted lewis gun (probably)

However, if I leave the trucks open at the back it'll look a bit rubbish, so I need to find some way to model a canvas tilt over the back end. I've used tissue paper for this before but only to cover over the plastic cab roof of a Model T Ford for my Back of Beyond Japanese. This time I need to make some hoops out of brass rod then cover them with PVA soaked paper or make a former out of plastic card that I can fit over the stake bed and then cover in the same material.

I think some experimentation will be required to get this right either way!

VBCW BUF Undercoated

The BUF were successfully undercoated today after I had assembled the Vickers machine gun and the CV35 flamethrower tankette. Although I didn't get any further today, the aim is to finish this lot by the end of the week. I'll have to get cracking but reckon I can do it if I can squeeze at least an hour in each evening until Sunday.

Flaklighter 2

These rules have just be re-published by Dave at PT Dockyard in convenient .pdf format, so I downloaded a copy earlier today to add to my existing collection of coastal warfare rules.

http://ptdockyard.com/narrow-seas/rules/

It's about the only set of rules for WW2 small scale action that I haven't already got, so I jumped at the chance to add them to the pile.

As WW2 coastal warfare is on the list of things to be done this year, I thought it would be a good idea to get hold of a copy of the Flaklighter rules as I've read a lot about them but, up until now, I haven't been able to track them down. At the very least, it'll give me yet another alternative to Action Stations, Away with Torpedoes, Schnellboot et al.

Good stuff!

Salute Game

Although I wasn't able to be there, so missed the game, it appears to have been very succcessful, with lots of interest from the public. Apparently the club ran three games during the day and even had some people lining up to play. It looks pretty good too, especially the custom made flight stands and the terrain.

VBCW BUF Based Up

I've cleaned up and based all of the BUF figures this evening except for the Vickers HMG and the CV35 tankette. It took about an hour to get them done and I had to start on them quite late, so I'm quite pleased to have made some decent progress. I'm hoping to get them undercoated tomorrow morning and to make a start on the flesh tones by the end of the day. If I can finish them by the end of the week I'll be very happy.

The Copplestone Garford Putilov arrived in the post this morning, which was a nice surprise as I only ordered it yesterday (cheers Mr C.). It's a real armoured battlewagon in every sense of the word and will look very impressive when I eventually get round to sticking it together and painting it up.

I also ordered a couple of the Future Wars power armoured figures to add to the Em4 ones that I've already got. They're destined for my near future French Foreign Legion unit that will one day be completed but, for the moment, have been assigned to the leadpile.

New Toys

As I'm not able to get to Salute this weekend I thought I'd take advantage of the 10% discount offer from Copplestone and so ordered a Garford Putilov armoured car for my Bolsheviks.

I don't really need one but it's such an classic piece of over engineering that I couldn't resist. In fact, it would be jolly good as armoured support for the Third Peasants and Workers Shock Brigade, as an occasional stand in for their usual Whippet tank or Austin Putilov armoured car. It would certainly pack more of a punch.

The tiddly magnets also arrived today, which was pretty good as I only ordered them on Wednesday, so I'll definately be using the same supplier again.

Finally, I'm planning to start on the BUF tomorrow if I can find the time as we're pretty busy during the day. I should be able to get a unit or two cleaned up and based at the very least.

Salute 2010

The Wessex Wargamers Winchester participation game for Salute will be on stand GD02, not far from the Raiden Miniatures stand on the right hand side of the hall at the back.

If you're into aerial gaming and fancy leading a squadron of Spitfires or Hurricanes against the Luftwaffe over the channel, then please feel free to drop by and take part. And don't forget to stop by Mark's stand to get some of his superb aircraft in 1/300 or 1/600 scale. Unfortunately, I can't make it to Salute on Saturday due to family stuff, which is the first time in about four years that I've missed the show.

Bummer.

MiG Alley Odds and Ends

I thought I'd wrap up the various bits and bobs for MiG Alley before tackling the BUF this weekend, so this is the result of an evening's work, together with the planes I cleaned up earlier in the week before the tiddly magnet crisis.

I've cleaned up eight Meteors for 77 Squadron and a single USAF B29, just to see how it goes together. It's a big model and will look pretty impressive in formation with the others that I have to put together. I've also got the two Thunderjets and the L5 Sentinel which I finished up on Monday although the magnets still need to be added to finish them off.

For the North Koreans I've done another two IL10 Sturmoviks, six Yak 9's and six La5's. I've also had a crack at converting a Douglas Devastator into an ersatz Yak 18 although I still need to do something with the cowling, probably with slivers of plastic card or green stuff.

This is it for the moment, althought I'm planning to do the rest of the B29's and some USN/USMC aircraft once the 28mm VBCW figures have been tackled.

Away, Boarders!

This looks like a very nice set of rules with it's own dedicated line of 1:300 paper ship models:

http://www.warartisan.com/rules

My immediate thought was to combine the rules with Rod Langton's superb range of ships for the Great Lakes. Either that or go with the paper option despite all the hassle of putting them together. The ones in the gallery pictures look fantastic but I fear are way beyond my hamfisted paper modelling skills.

Another one of those projects for some time in the distant future?

Yak 18's for MiG Alley

I had the last delivery of MiG Alley planes from Tumbling Dice yesterday in the form of some extra FAA Sea Furies (with rockets for ground attack), Fireflies (to balance out the flights) and some Seafires (so that I can do 1950, before all the Seafires fell to bits).

The order also included some Douglas TBD Devastators which I'm hoping to convert into something not unlike a Yak 18. I need a couple of flights of these to represent the 'bedcheck charlie' night nuisance raiders of the North Korean Peoples Air Force , otherwise my USAF nightfighters won't have much to shoot down.

As you can see, the Devastator is a bit on the large size for a Yak, but otherwise is roughly the same shape. I'll have to trim down the wings, level off the cockpit canopy and try to do something about the engine cowling to reproduce the nacelles over the cylinder heads. This may or may not work but it's worth a try.

I've also ordered a pack of Fairey Swordfish to see if I can turn them into Po2's but that's more of a long shot as they're much bigger and have completely different wing profiles. If I can get away with the Yak's I won't need to try the Swordfish conversions anyway.

BUF

While I'm waiting for the magnets to turn up, hopefully tomorrow, I think I'll get on with the BUF figures for a Very British Civil War, as I've promised Jon that I'd get them done by the end of the month.

As that's rapidly approaching (arggh!), it's about time the MiG Alley project took a step to the side so that I can crack on with the BUF platoon and get them done and dusted for a game in a couple of weeks time.

I have a bit of time this weekend so I'll try to get them based up for Friday. If I can I'll also try to paint them by the beginning of next week. There's only about twenty figures to do and, being blackshirts, they shouldn't be too tricky to paint up!

That's the theory anyway.

Charlie Don't Surf

I'm looking forward to the release of this new set of rules by the Toofatlardies as it's a period I've always wanted to game but, as yet, haven't been able to tie down to a set of rules that I really like.

I've got copies of The Men of Company B and From the Delta to the DMZ, both of which look like excellent platoon level rules with lots of period specific elements. MOCB is a bit abstract, however, being similar to Patrols in the Sudan which I have played using my 15mm Mahdist army. So not quite as open format and less adaptable to scenarios than a generic ruleset perhaps?

On the other hand, Delta to DMZ has some nice touches, like the card based turn sequence for example, but is perhaps a little too generic. It has a definite Vietnam flavour but somehow doesn't have the right 'feel', with some things like helicopters overly simplified and others given too much emphasis.

One advantage of both rules is that they use the same basing conventions give or take some individual basing for command figures.

Anyway, I'm hoping that Charlie Don't Surf will fill the gap and give me a set of rules with both an interesting card based turn sequence and the flexibility to set up some good scenarios. The after action game reports on the Vislardica site suggest it might just fit the bill:


http://www.vislardica.com/

I'll need to set up some 15mm forces for both the NVA/VC and the US/ARVN but this shouldn't be a problem as they're already in the leadpile waiting for a good excuse to be dusted off and painted up.

On the other hand, I really should finish off the 12mm ARVN?

Ho hum.

More Magnets!

I had a google around at breaktime this morning for an alternative source of tiddly magnets to replace the ones I've lost and found this Ebay seller:

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/magnetsmagnetsmagnets

I've ordered 250 magnets which cost just over £12, so a pretty good deal, especially as postage was free. The seller is also based in Devizes which is about 40 minutes away so they shouldn't take long to arrive once they get in the post, unlike the ones I ordered from the States a while back.

This means I'll be able to finish off the planes for MiG Alley and even do a few more to top up what I've already got, particularly for the North Koreans.

Magnetic Anomaly

I just spent about 45 minutes cleaning up and assembling an L5 Sentinel, two Thunderjets and six Yak 9's, before I realised that the little plastic bag containing my remaining thirty or so magnets had disappeared.

There are three possible explanations:

1. I chucked them away by mistake and they're now at the bottom of the wheely bin of doom.
2. They've fallen down the back of my workbench into the cobwebs and concrete dust.
3. One of my evil offspring has pinched them and is now magnetising everything in sight and/or has eaten them.

Bugger.

I'm sure they'll turn up at some point but for the moment it's brought a sudden halt to my last phase of basing before I start painting the first installment of the planes for MiG Alley.

On a more positive note, the B29 Osprey and the Furies and Fireflies book turned up in the post today and both look like very good background reading material.

So it's not all crap.

Back of a Postcard from the Lost World

I've neglected my yahoo group Lost World Safari recently due to my various diversions into other gaming projects so thought it was about time I fired it up again.

It picks up new members on a weekly basis and it would be good to get more of a discussion going so that they get the benefit of joining, aside from the back catalogue of rules related stuff and other resources that are already posted there.

So I decided to launch a 'Rules on the Back of a Postcard' type competition. The aim is to write a set of dinosaur hunting rules to fit on one or at most two sides of the aforementioned stationary. They should be for Victorian era very big game hunting but, aside from that, they can be for any scale and have any setting that you like.

There will be extra credit for original ideas and unusual mechanisms and the winner will get a prize of some sort, once I work out what I've got in the spares box! The deadline for entries is the 1st May and they can be posted in a folder on the group.

Anyway, it may result in a deluge of new posts and some neat homegrown rules systems or it may crash and burn, it doesn't really matter either way as long as it gets things moving over on the Lost World Safari group again.

We'll have to wait and see.

Back Home

Finally got back home today after a couple of long journeys and a short stop at my Dad's in Cornwall. His broadband was playing up hence no updates over the last couple of days. I did manage to clean up and magnet base six Sea Furys and four Fireflys in the intervening news black out, however, so at least achieved something over the weekend. I also had some nice parcels from Tumbling Dice and Fighting 15's waiting for me when I got home this afternoon. 

The Japanese and Soviets for Nomomhan made up the bulk of the stuff plus extras for Korea including some more Thunderjets, Corsairs, L5 Stinson Sentinels for FAC's, some S55 Helicopters for SAR and some TU2's for the North Koreans. After checking Dom's site to see if he was up and running, I've also ordered a few final bits and bobs for Nomonhan plus a whole load of 1/600th decals for both the Japanese and the Soviets, just in case he drops off the radar again and even packs the whole thing in (which he seems to hint at every so often). 

 I haven't forgotten the BUF for VBCW either (honest!) but they'll be sorted out once I've finished the last of the USAF and USN / USMC for MiG Alley, including the B29's and some Panthers and Banshees at the very least. The naval aviation element will have to be scaled down considerably, given the diminishing stockpile of magnets, but I'm hoping to do at least a core of the original US force that I planned out a week or so past.

B29'S for MiG Alley

I have some reference stuff for superfortress units in Korea but it's a bit limited, as most books tend to focus on fighter operations rather than the tactical and/or strategic bombing aspects of the war, so I picked up this Osprey on Ebay to fill the gap.

Hopefully, it will be useful when I get around to assembling and painting up the eight B29's that I have for night bombing raids in MiG Alley. The TD models come in four parts, the fuselage, two wings and a tailplane, so there's a bit of gluing and fitting required but they should look good once they're done. I'm also going to try to put some nose art decals on them which are meant for 1/300th scal but should be OK for the B29's as they're pretty big even in 1/600th.

Commonwealth for MiG Alley

I've checked the contents of the bits box and have set aside twenty magnets for the following RAAF and FAA aircraft:

8 x Gloster Meteor (RAAF)

6 x Fairey Fireflys (FAA)

6 x Hawker Sea Furys (FAA)

I'm a bit worried about the invasion stripes but otherwise these will be a nice addition to the UN forces I've assembled so far. The remaining twenty magnets I have left over will be used for some of the USN / USMC aircraft that I had planned to do.

Galactiar Troopers v. the Harboon Droids

I promised my eldest son that I'd post his 100 word homework story on the blog, so here it is:

GALACTIAR WARS

It was the middle of a space war between the deadly Harboon droids and the muscular Galactiar troopers. A Galactiar star defender was speeding to attack a Harboon battleship that was collecting meteor rocks near the rings of planet Harboona.

The four flashing laser blasters on the front of the powerful star defender were incinerating the fiery engines of the battleship.

BLAM BLAM BLAM!

Four Harboon moon speeders ambushed the zooming star defender from behind a massive brown meteor. The Galactiar shadow pilot quickly turned his star defender and activated the shark missiles.

KABOOM!

The speeders were destroyed.

Not bad as he's only seven and wrote it himself, with a bit of help with spelling and composition.

A couple of weeks ago he painted up some em4 plastic space fighters, although they weren't finished off at the time. We're going to get them decalled and based for a game of Tacship between the Galactiar Legion and the Harboon droids when we get back from France, as it would be a shame not to follow up the story with some space fighter gaming.

MiG Alley RAAF and FAA

As I've been urged to do some non-US forces for MiG Alley I thought I'd start by doing a bit of gratuitous book buying, which is always a good idea at the start of a new project as it tends to give you ideas for scenarios.

Although I already have a number of reference books and magazine articles for Korea, I thought I could justify getting one or two more, so ordered a copy of this book from an Ebay bookshop. It looks like a really interesting and comprehensive book on the role played by the RAAF, FAA and SAAF in the air war.

I may even divert some of the remaining magnets from the USN / USMC to use on the Meteors, Fireflies and Sea Furies that I have in the box of bits.

MiG Alley Reds

I've cleaned and based up most of the North Korean / Chinese / Soviet planes for MiG Alley this evening but will be adding more later when I have additional magnets to use.

The initial communist force consists of:

16 x MiG 15 (fighter)

4 x Il10m Sturmovik (ground attack)

I need to add some extra MiG 15's, some Yak 9's and, if I can find a suitable model, some Yak 18's or Po2's for night attacks.

Otherwise this lot should be a good basis as opposition for the UN.

MiG Alley USAF basing completed

I finished off the USAF this evening with the exception of the B29's and the last four F86 Sabres, which I decided to skip so that I can save the magnets for the Fleet Air Arm or extra North Korean / Chinese aircraft. The lot I cleaned up and based today included the following:

4 x F86 Sabres (fighters)

8 x F80 Shooting Stars (ground attack)

6 x B26 Invaders (light bombers)

2 x F81 Twin Mustangs (nightfighters)

The Twin Mustangs were a pain in the a%$* as I had file away a section of the centreline radar pod to get the magnets to fit but otherwise this lot went quite smoothly.

The nightfighters also got me thinking about what I can use for the 'bedcheck charlie' night nuisance attacks, which were made by Po2's and Yak 18's, neither of which are found in the Tumbling Dice range.

The Po2 is a non starter but I could find something to use for the Yak 18's. They look a little bit like a T6 Texan, only with a different wing profile and engine cowling but it might be possible to get something reasonably close with some judicicious sanding and filing, especially asI have four of them spare.

It's worth a try anyway.

A and A Games Air Combat Operations

This looks like a really interesting and flexible set of rules, with the emphasis firmly on large scale engagements with lots of 1/600th scale planes:

http://www.aandagames.co.uk/Work_in_Progress.htm#Air

I'll definately be getting a download of these rules when they're published, perhaps as another option for the Nonomhan project.

Mig Alley USAF update

I've started on the USAF planes for Mig Alley and managed to get the following cleaned up and magnet based yesterday in the space of a couple of hours:

8 x F86 Sabres (fighters)
6 x F84 Thunderjets (fighter bombers)
2 x F94 Starfires (nightfighters)
2 x T6 Texans (Forward Air Controller)

This lot took longer than I expected due to some flash and casting lines that I hadn't spotted. I also had to fiddle around with the method for sticking the magnets onto the castings as I needed to get the polarity all the same way round.

This doesn't matter for the Wings At War bases as they use steel panel pins but if I'm going to use the planes for Bag The Mig or Clash of Sabres, for example, I'll need to base them on hexes using magnets attached to the flight stands, so the polarity has to be all in the same direction or they'll be pinging off into outer space rather than sticking together.

Anyway, I stuck a master magnet to the flight base I brought with me and used that to align the polarity of the magnets on the planes which worked well and also enabled me to base two planes at a time using the magnet on the base and the panel pin flight stand as temporary mounts.

If I can I'll get the rest of the Sabres plus the Shooting Stars, Twin Mustangs and Invaders done tonight. The B29's will need assembling and will also probably need drilling to make the magnets more secure, so they'll have to wait until I get back to the UK.

Incidentally, I also found an online retailer of tiddly magnets on Ebay so have ordered 100 more at only a marginally higher price than from Dom, who I'd much rather use but whose online shop is closed at the moment. Hopefully, he'll be back up and running soon as I also need some 1/600th scale Japanese hinomaru decals for the Khalkin Gol project.

Interstate 76

You may remember this old PC game from a long time ago when, like me, you had the time to waste playing hours of flight sims, driving games and first person shooters.

Anyway, I had one of those flashback funky five minutes today.

I reckon this would make an excellent Axles and Alloys scenario and/or campaign, although to be honest the exact details of the game are a bit sketchy. I was fairly useless at it as I didn't have a wheel and had to fall back on a mouse and keyboard but, nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and had an excellent storyline.

In gaming terms the possibilties for 1970's and 1980's diecast conversions are very cool. There are also some good storyline ideas to be developed into potential scenarios. There's also the retro funkiness of the whole thing, which would add some flavour to the proceedings.

Cool.

US Navy / Marines for Mig Alley

I've got just over 30 magnets left after the USAF and North Koreans are based so I'm going to use them up on the USN and USMC, leaving any left over for the South Koreans.

Here's what I'm planning to do:

4 x F4U Corsair (Marines)

4 x AD Skyraider (Marines)

2 x F7F Tigercat (Marines)

2 x F3D Skynight (Marines)

4 x F2H Banshee (Navy)

8 x F9F Panther (Navy)

2 x S51 SAR Helicopters (Navy)

This leaves only four spare magnets which I'm probably going to use for four ROK F51 Mustangs or use on four Il10m Sturmoviks or Yak 9's for the North Koreans.

USAF MiG Alley

I've had a look at the contents of the boxes of Tumbling Dice planes I have collected for MiG Alley and have decided to start with the USAF, followed closely by the USN and Marines.

I've already decided on 16 Sabres as a starting point but will also be adding the following to round out the Air Force presence in the skies of North Korea:

8 x B29's

6 x B26 Invaders

6 x F84 Thunderjets (although I'll get some more of these later)

8 x F80 Shooting Stars

2 x F94 Starfire

2 x F82 Twin Mustang

2 x T6 Texan FAC

This should give me plenty of scope for different types of mission and form the basis of most of the games I'll start to play.

MiG Alley Aircraft

I've been planning out what I'm going to do for the MiG Alley project today and will be drawing up a list later on this evening to set out my forces for ther UN, North Koreans and Chinese. I have 100 tiddly magnets to use up so have lots of choices to make when it comes to using them.

I'm going to start with 16 Sabres and 16 MiG 15's.

This should be as good basis for the USAF and North Korean contingents.

After that I'm going to have just under 70 magnets left which I'll split between the USAF, USN / Marines, the South Koreans with perhaps a few Communist and Commonwealth aircraft squeezed in as well.

More on this later when I've checked the contents of the 1/600 scale aircraft boxes to see exactly what's avialable.

AK47 Objective Marker?

I saw this in the paper yesterday and thought it would make a very impressive objective marker for AK47, although you'd need to scale it down a bit. Apparently, President Wade of Senegal plans to rent it out and charge tourists to see it, even though it's visible for miles.

Bonkers.

I'm on the lookout for something in a large scale for the Independent Republic of Nbuto or the neighbouring Democratic Socialist State of Mbote, which is my next AK47 project. I'm sure I can find something suitably African in a charity shop somewhere or perhaps adapt a 54mm Russian figure or two into a socialist-realist monument.

France (again)

Off to the in laws tomorrow (bugger!)

I've decided to leave the paints at home but have packed a box of 1/600th planes for Mig Alley and the 28mm BUF platoon to see if I can get them cleaned up and based over the Easter break.

I've also taken some reference material so I can decide how I'm going to paint up the Korean War stuff when I get back in a couple of weeks time. If I find the time to get all this done I'll be surprised but it's worth a try.

At any rate, I should be able to pick up some decent wargame and military history magazines and, hopefully, some of the BD titles in Le Grand Duc series.

On a more positive note, I picked up some aluminium wire mesh from Halfords today when I was supposed to be buying a car seat for the youngest of the sprogs, so I'll be able to do some more Mad Max style Hotwheels conversions at some point in the not too distant future.

Panel Pins

I managed to find some nice stainless steel panel pins today but only in 40mm, 30mm, 25mm, 20mm and 13mm. Nonethless, I've made some additional flight stand prototypes using each size apart from the 25mm which seemed to be too similar to either 20mm or 30mm to be useful.

I now have 4 flight levels although the 13mm one is very low, even if the MiG29 is quite big, and the 40mm one not particularly high. I think they look fine, so I'm going to make a load more as they are very simple and quick to produce.

I've also had a tip off about 50mm panel pins available from Wickes (thanks Jon) and, if I can get some of them I can use them for level 4 flight stands instead of the 40mm ones, which means the 13mm level 1 stands can be replaced by 20mm ones.

Result!

MiG Alley

If I'm successful in tracking down some panel pins or nails for the Wings At War flight stands, then I'm going to try to get the long overdue MiG Alley planes done over Easter instead of the 28mm BUF. It was one of the six projects on the list in the New Year so it will be a good thing to get done.

I haven't had time to clean up and base the VBCW figures, despite my best laid plans, so I think I'll leave them until after the holidays so that I can do them properly. They won't take long so I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I'll get them done by the end of April, which gives me a couple of weeks after the holidays.

In the meantime, I'm going to crack on with the MiG Alley planes, providing the flight stand idea works out, so that I can at least try out the game mechanics before tackling the Nonomhan project. I can take them to France for painting as they only require a limited range of paint shades and are quick to do on a production line.

More planes...but a different scale!