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.