DIY Flight Stands for Lacquered Coffins

I've been away in West Cornwall for a family reunion over the weekend, so got back very early today to find a package of bits from Warbases waiting for me. These are the components for some prototype flight bases to use with 1/300th or possibly 1/144th scale aircraft. 

The basic design uses a sandwich of two 40mm square, 3mm thick mdf bases, a double frame for 7mm mini-dice and a 50mm steel nail. The nail is upside down in the photo but will have the tip cut off and glued into a pre-drilled hole on the upper square, the flat nail head being the surface to which a magnetised model can be attached. It's all very simple and also cheap to put together, making it possible to supply multiple stands to match different terrain cloths without breaking the bank.

I'll glue this lot together during the week and will probably finish them off with a snow or tundra finish, to use with my 1/300th scale early war Soviet models, which I'm going to continue painting next year for both Arctic Eagles and the Contuation War. I also have some plans for Western Desert themed bases to use with 1/144th scale plastic models, assuming I don't go down a Russian Front rabbit hole with those as well? 

2mm ECW Reinforcements

I had an email from Irregular Miniatures this morning to let me know that the rest of my order of 2mm ECW figure blocks is now on the way. This is great news as it means I can complete the Cornish Royalist army and move forwards with the Parliamentarian army as well. I've always been impressed by Irregular's customer service and it is still second to none, despite the longer than expected delay. Excellent! 

Biting the Bag the Hun Re-basing Bullet

I've been thinking of re-basing my hex based 1/300th scale aircraft with magnets, both for storage reasons and to make them flexible enough to use hex and square bases. I magnet based my 1/300th scale Soviet aircraft for the Continuation War project and was really pleased with the result, so I'm going to remove the Raiden Miniatures stands from my other models to match. This will be a bit hair raising as they're glued on tight but I think I can do it without damaging the models. It's a big job so will be one of my new projects for 2025. 

Lacquered Coffins Conundrum

I've had a positive response from some of the club to my Lacquered Coffins proposal, so it's definitely worth pursuing further if only in a planning sense.  I have located my stash of 1/144th scale models and have ordered some 40mm square, 3mm thick bases from Warbases, the suggested base dimensions in the rules being 1 1/2 inches. 

This seemed a bit big for 1/600th scale aircraft, which is what is recommended in the rules, so I'm going to use 1/144th scale models instead, the Zvezda I-16 being pictured next to a 40mm base from my MiG Alley B-29 set up. I'm also obviously considering using my 1/300th scale stuff, as it is quite an extensive collection and just needs re-basing with magnets in order to be deployed. 

It also looks good on a 40mm base, as shown by an unfinished Scotia I-16 model once again mounted on a 40mm square. The actual stands will be higher on the Lacquered Coffins bases and there will be a double dice frame instead of a single one. I think the 1/300th scale option looks very promising, so I now need to decide which scale to use for the project, or even if I could do both?!

Peyk-i Şevket Class Torpedo Cruisers

These are 1/2400th scale Tumbling Dice models of the Chilean Almirante Lynch class torpedo gunboat, which I've repurposed as the two Peyk-i Şevket class torpedo cruisers. These were both obsolete in 1914 but carried on in service during WWI as convoy escorts, both suffering damage from mines and torpedoes as a result. I added fore and aft gun mountings, as well as simplified masts from wire, but otherwise there was very little to do. While not identical to the loan model, they are close enough to do the job.

Lacquered Coffins in 1/144th

I was doing some googling for after action reports of Lacquered Coffins games today, having printed out and read through the rules, when I bumped into this article from Miniature Wargames back in March 2024. I haven't read the whole thing but I noticed that the author decided to use 1/144th scale aircraft models for his games, which reminded me of my plans ages ago to convert Knights of the Sky for WWII air combat. This plan didn't happen in the end but I did amass quite a lot of 1/144th scale kits from Zvezda, Revell and Minicraft for the Russian Front, as well as a couple of pre-painted diecast bombers. The article also rings some bells when it comes to the scope and focus of the games, the aim being to encourage club players to take up aerial wargaming without complicating things with complex rules, hexes, maths or book keeping (or turn cards...the big issue I've had with Bag the Hun as a club set of rules). I am now having some interesting ideas for my own project for next year, using the model kits I have already stockpiled and the Lacquered Coffin rules for club multiplayer games....Tally Ho!

2mm ECW Royalist Army Roadblock

I've had a partial delivery of my 2mm Renaissance order from Irregular Miniatures, some baggage and artillery, but none of the pike blocks I need to start on the Devon Parliamentary forces or to finish the last couple of Cornish Royalist regiments. 

I have managed to make a base of pike and shot from some leftover blocks, representing Sir Thomas Bassett's regiment of foot, but Lord Hopton's regiment will have to wait a while longer. In the meanwhile, I've made a command base so that he can make a personal appearance, together with another artillery base, this time of two sakers or drakes as deployed at Braddock Down.

It's a shame about the Irregular Miniatures delay, as I am almost in a position to field the Royalist forces for the Battle of Stratton, at least in a simplified format. I'm hoping the rest of the order will arrive sooner rather than later?

Air War:C21 2025

In my thus far futile attempt to find a set of air wargaming rules that doesn't either confuse or frustrate club gamers, while simultaneously not ending up too gamey or ahistorical, I've decided to give AirWar:C21 a spin. I've had a copy of these modern air combat rules for years but have never tried them out. After reading some excellent after action reports on Facebook recently, I think it will be worth taking another look, with the Alto Cenepa war offering an option for play testing the system in 1/600th scale, followed by the Angolan Border War as a direction of travel. This will be for next year, as one of my potential projects, so plenty of time to plan ahead 

Ground Loops

It's been a frustrating weekend, partly due to the terrible weather but also as my car has broken down and is now waiting to be repaired, no doubt at an extortionate cost to the wallet. This means that I'm going to miss the Knights of the Sky club game tomorrow, as the other car is being used by the wife all evening and I'm not insured on it anyway. Fortunately, I was able to fore warn the umpire and some replacement pilots have been recruited to fill the ranks. On top of that, I'm now having to get up at 5am to get a lift into work, so I'll be knackered as well. To top if off I have a new mobile phone that's driving me nuts and refuses to let me access my blog, so it's all going a bit tits up at the moment. It could be a lot worse  but it's a bit of a pain in the arse all round!

Flames Above the Falklands Flight Stands

I have a game of Flames Above the Falklands next month so will get on with making some flight stands, previous games having used my naval wargame aircraft bases. I was supposed to have done this ages ago but didn't get round to it, so I have enough bits to make a set of eight bases in three levels. It's not a very exciting job but will be better than using dice for altitude.