Despite having a bout of man flu, in June of all months, I've bumped along the 1/600th scale Rolands, Albatros and Nieuport to the ink wash stage, ready to be cleaned up with highlights and detailing. They look pretty grubby at the moment but will be much better after some highlights and touch ups, which don't take long to do but really make a difference. I should get these finished at the weekend.
A wet and windy afternoon better spent at the workbench rather than outdoors. Here we have three 1/600th scale Tumbling Dice Roland C.II two seaters, an Albatros C.III observation machine and Albert Ball's Nieuport 17, the latter a Tumbling Dice Nieuport 17 with the upper wing pinched from a Nieuport 11 model. I'm away tomorrow but hope to start painting these after the weekend.
I bought some 0.3mm brass rod by mistake a couple of weeks ago, intended for 1/3000th scale warship masts but too thin for the job. Instead, I thought I'd try to use it for observer's Lewis guns on 1/600th First World War two seater aircraft. I had a go with a Tumbling Dice Breguet XIV model and I think it turned out looking not too shabby. It wasn't particularly tricky to do either, especially as superglue goes off at the speed of light in his hot weather. I might go back and add some guns to my painted models but I will definitely be using the brass rod on any new aircraft I assemble in the future.
As Paul Sulley put a lot of time and effort into expanding the 1/600th scale French range, it is only fair that I order some of the models and paint them up! I've ordered some packs of Breguet XIV bombers and SPAD VII scouts, which I will paint up for late 1917 in the distinctive, but simple scheme before three tone camouflage was adopted, so a nice and easy job. I've also ordered a pack of the Morane Saulnier N 'bullet' monoplane scouts, which will be painted as RFC machines of No.60 Squadron, with bright red engine cowlings and spinners. Tally Ho!
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| Voisin 8 |
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| Caudron RII |
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| Breguet XIV |
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| Nieuport 28 |
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| Salmson 2 |
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| SPAD VII |
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| Morane Saulnier N |
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| Nieuport 17 |
Paul Sulley from Tumbling Dice was kind enough to send me some samples of the new 1/600th French aircraft he has just produced, although not yet available on the website. These fill some big gaps in the existing range, which is primarily early war, which means that the French, Italian, American, Belgian and Russian air forces are now feasible, give or take a couple of types. The Russian Civil War and Russo Polish War are also possible, so not just the First World War. I'm particularly impressed by the Breguet XIV, which is a lovely model and really looks like the real thing. Excellent!
Some excellent news from Paul at Tumbling Dice today...
"..have just completed the design work on the French WW1 aircraft. The 8 designs will be moulded this week and should be in production next week.
They are
ISA 306 Morane-Saulnier N
ISA 307 Nieuport 17
ISA 308 Nieuport 28
ISA 309 Voisin Type 8
ISA 311 Spad VII/XIII
ISA 312 Breguet Br14
ISA 313 Caudron RII
ISA 315 Salmson 2
A French starter pack will also appear next week."
This opens up all sorts of potential scenarios and brings the French, Belgian, Italian and American air forces into the picture too. I'll definitely be ordering a lot of these, starting with the Starter Pack, no doubt adding some more aircraft to the basket to fill out complete late war squadrons of scouts and bombers.
Zut Alors!
Way back in January last year I started a First World War air wargaming project, intending to use the Spandau and Lewis hexless rules from The Stronghold blog as a simple but elegant, solo friendly system. This then morphed into the Algernon Pulls It Off! project, leaving the initial idea aside without having had the opportunity to actually try out the rules.
I'm now going to have another crack at the Spandau and Lewis project using my 1/600th scale models and some custom made bases, so that I can try out the system and get a few solo games under my belt, eventually aiming to put on a game at the club at some point later this year.
I may also have a go at painting some 1/300th or even 1/144th 3D printed models for this project, as they are much more visually interesting for club participation game purposes, even though people were very complementary about my Tumbling Dice planes last week, which was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.
https://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com/2025/01/spandau-lewis-v13.html?m=1
After a bit of a delay due to work and family stuff, I wrapped up the 1/600th scale Albatros D.II of Ltn.Manfred Von Richthofen today, applying the decals and then a wash over of diluted Warpaints Pure Red. The upper wing crosses should really have white squares underneath but my I-94 decals were badly off register, so I just used the later ones instead. I will use this model for the McCudden's Cut and Run scenario, which I'm hoping to play over the next couple of days. Tally Ho!
I repainted the skull insignia on the 1/600tg scale Albatros D.III today, having originally painted it facing the wrong way, then added some decals to finish off Godwin Von Brumovski's aircraft, or one of them at least. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out in the end and quite fancy converting and painting some more Austro Hungarian Albatros scouts to go alongside this one. Tally Ho! or whatever the Austrian equivalent is?
