I found a 3D printing company on eBay the other day, Danger Close Studios, which offers a range of 1/144th scale First World War aircraft for very reasonable prices. I've ordered an RE8 and a Halberstadt C.IV to have a look at what the prints are like, and so that I can scale up the 'Hande Hoch!' scenario play testing for a potential demo or participation game.
Shortly after my 'What If?' Chilean - Argentinian pre-dreadnought Summer holiday solo campaign a couple of years ago, I set about expanding both fleets with some cancelled warships. The Chileans gained two Tumbling Dice models of the Constitution class light battleships, which were taken over by the Royal Navy as HMS Triumph and HMS Swiftsure in 1902, following the Pacts of May.
The Argentinians gained two more Garibaldi class armoured cruisers, Mariano Moreno and Bernardino Rivadavia, which were in reality sold to the Japanese. I also looked into the cancelled Ansaldo designed 15000t fast battleships of the Maipu class, deciding on the end to use the Tumbling Dice models of the Regina Elena, which was very similar (the armament of which was actually re-used from the cancelled project).
After some more research today, I decided to convert the model I had already assembled, along with a new build model, to be more like the proposed design. This involved removing the single barrel main armament and replacing it with twin gun barrels using plastic rod. The two ships now look a lot more like the plans, although not identical, so I am going to add them to the Argentinian fleet as ARA Maipu and ARA Chacabuco.
I think I need a bit of a refresher before I paint the Turkish WW1 Black Sea squadron, so I've dug out the extra bits from my South American Naval Race project, which I haven't yet finished. These include a couple of armoured cruisers, two coastal battleships, two river monitors and some torpedo boats, so a very eclectic mix. I've also got a Chilean protected cruiser to paint and possibly a trio of 'What If?' battleships, so plenty to practice on over the next couple of weeks.
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I needed some 1/2400th scale destroyers for my 'Get The Goeben!' naval project, ideally Beagle or 'G' class DD's to be based in Malta for the solo campaign, but Tumbling Dice don't have any and GHQ are not available any more in the UK (I don't think they have any either). I have found some 3D printed 'L' Class destroyer models on eBay, which are three to a pack for four quid, so took a punt and ordered some. They are nicely detailed and could even pass for 'G' class DD's with a bit of light surgery but, as with most 3D printed ships in smaller scales, they do suffer from bendy hulls and are a bit fragile if you try to un-banana them with too much enthusiasm. They'll do for the moment but I think I might scratch build some ships out of plastic card in the long run.
I solo play tested the 'Cat and Mouse' scenario from the Jasta 18 project this afternoon and it turned out to be a good game, after a bit of a false start. The initial scenario set up had both aircraft deployed as blinds but I soon realised that this would make it too easy for the RE8 to make a get away, so changed it to a blind for Lt.Mendel alone. The first couple of turns ended with Lt.Mendel's Albatros sneaking up behind the unexpecting RE8 crew, only to be spotted by Lt.Simms, the observer at the last turn of the card deck.
Luckily for Lt.Mendel, in the following turn the card deck was in his favour, allowing him to close to within three hexes of the RE8, get on the tail and open fire twice. The first burst caused structural damage and killed Lt.Simms, leaving Lt.Maltby with no rear gunner and unable to hard manoeuvre or dive more than three levels at a time. The second burst resulted in a sideslip but otherwise gave Lt.Maltby a chance to make a getaway, a slim chance but better than none at all.
In the last two turns, Lt.Mendel was able to maintain his tailing position as Lt.Malby was unable to throw him off due to the damage to his machine. Another burst of fire hit the pilot but only gave him a light wound, with no affect on his ability to fly the RE8 to safety. Lt.Mendel poured in another eight second burst, his last before he was almost out of ammunition, and this time Lt.Maltby lost control of the RE8 and it went into a spin. Despite his desperate efforts to regain control, his wounds, the damage to the airframe and his low altitude meant that the RE8 smashed into the ground in No Man's Land. A historical outcome which is always a good thing when writing scenarios based on actual events.
This was a very fast moving and enjoyable game. Lt.Mendel almost jammed his guns at one point, which would have allowed the RAF crew to get across the line, while the final burst left Lt.Mendel with only three seconds of ammunition left, not enough to stop the RE8 if it hadn't gone into a spin. Also, Lt.Maltby could have evaded into a nearby cloud but it was at low altitude and he was unable to dive fast enough to make it into cover, largely due to the damage the RE8 had sustained. I tried this out as a 'What If?' after the game and it did actually end up with the RE8 getting away from the Albatros, albeit it only for a turn or so before Lt.Mendel caught up.
That's another scenario play test ticked off...good fun and I reckon I'll give it at least one more go when I get the time, as I really enjoyed it.
I had a half hour time out yesterday, so added some decals to a couple of 1/600th Tumbling Dice models, to upgrade them for some play test games tomorrow. I initially thought these tiny decals would be a pain in the backside to apply, but they went on very smoothly without any swearing involved.
This pristine hardback was only six quid in a National Trust second hand bookshop yesterday, which made up for the place being absolutely heaving and not very enjoyable. I don't have any 50 gun ships in my Napoleonic fleets, for fairly obvious reasons, but I quite like the idea of an earlier project, perhaps the War of American Independence or Anglo Dutch Wars, so there's a good excuse for adding it to my reference collection.
I finished off the Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale Jasta 11 Fokker DrI triplanes this afternoon, so that project is now a wrap, at least for the next couple of months or so. The three aircraft are as accurate as I can get them in this scale, so I'm relatively happy with the end result. I have more Jasta 11 triplanes to paint but need a break from tiddly WW1 aircraft, so have now moved on to tiddly WW1 Turkish ships instead!
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