Five Pence Flight Stands

I started thinking about the Wings At War flight stands again this afternoon. If the Litko acrylic flight stands were too expensive how could I produce my own bases at a fraction of the cost using stuff I already had lying around?

I'd spotted some nails in Homebase the other day that could be used for flight stands for the club participation game. With this in mind I had a look in the garage to see if I could find some finer gauge nails to use with 1/600th scale planes. I had a pack a 40mm panel pins that looked like they might work so cut the tip off one and stuck into into a 30mm square mdf base that I pre-drilled in the centre. A bit of superglue to fix it in place and the job's done.

As the panel pins are steel I only need one magnet to attach to the plane, in this case a MiG29, so the cost per flight stand is even lower. There's also no trouble with polarity to deal with. I reckon the stand costs about 5p including the base, panel pin and superglue. It looks a bit basic but with some texturing and painting I'm sure it would be well up to scratch.

The only problem is that I don't think I'll be able to find pins that are longer than 40mm, although I'm going to have a look tomorrow to see what's available. I think the best bet would be lost head nails which are usually available in longer lengths.

Wings At War Flight Stands

Out of interest I thought I'd check out the Litko Aerosystems site to see how much it would cost to have some custom made acrylic flight stands made for Wings At War. There's a neat gizmo on the site which calculates a quote for your particular specification of acrylic stand so I entered the relevant details. I specified 30mm x 30mm bases in 3mm acrylic with a flight stand hole pre-drilled in the centre.

A pack of 50 costed out at $20.99, with 100 costing out at £35.99. I'd need to add packs of stands for the four flight levels as well. These vary from $0.99 to $3.99. I added what i need to the order and it totalled out at $35.93. Not too bad. I don't want to get stung by customs so if I can keep it below $40.00 that would be ideal.

However, postage for this lot would cost $13.76 (ouch).

This makes the Litko option very expensive overall at $46.69 which at the current exchange rate would equate to £30.61, which is a lot for some bits of plastic especially as it doesn't include the cost of the magnets to go on top of the flight pegs.

Worth thinking abiut though if I can't work out another option.

Wings At War Mongolia Modifications

I've had a read through of both the Scramble for Britain rulebook and the free Desert Spitfires download with the aim of adapting them for the Nonomhan conflict.

http://freespace.virgin.net/candc.russell/pdfDesertSpitfires.pdf

The Desert Spitfires rules are a very good basis for a Khalkin Gol scenario as they could be used as they are with the omission of the British player and the addition of statistics for the Soviet and Japanese aircraft. I'd also add the formation flying and nightbombing rules from the Battle of Britain set, perhaps also using a more specific range of targets as well including airstrips and troop concentrations.

The real job would be to work out the statistics for the planes and the ratings for the pilots. I can use some of the aircraft in the Desert Spitfires and Scramble for Britain rules as a benchmark. The Fiat BR20 is included anyway but the Gladiator, CR42, Hurricane and Stuka might also give me some comparative information to work out the performance of the I-15, I-16, Nate etc

Tumbling Dice Sample Packs

I've ordered a selection of packs from the Tumbling Dice Soviet and Japanese ranges for the Khalkin Gol / Nonomham project this evening.

The order includes most of the types that I need to start building the forces for both sides, although with an emphasis on the fighters rather than the bombers. I've ordered a few multiple packs of the Nates, I-16's and I-15's together with individual packs of the SB2's, BR20's, Ki15's and a lone TB3.

These should give me a good idea of the size of the various models and some idea of how to base them for Wings At War. I've abandoned the brass tube and rod approach as impractical so need to find an alternative solution.

I quite like the idea of Litko bases but these have to be ordered from the USA and I don't fancy getting stung by customs. I have recently been looking into the possibilty of using wire nails, mdf squares and tiddly magnets for flight stands, as they would be cheap and easy to produce, if a little crude.

If I can crack the basing issue then the whole Wings At War system would be easy to get off the ground.

More on Mongolia

Right, had a quick look at the Tumbling Dice and O8 ranges and did some background refresher googling to work out what would work for the Nomonhan Incident. It looks like most of what's needed is already there, both for the Soviets and the Japanese.

Soviets

Fighters were primarily the I-15bis (ISA 365) and the I-16 (ISA 367).

Some were also equipped with air to ground / air to air rockets and these are also available as variants (ISA 365a / 367a).

There's no I-153 but these only appeared at the end of the conflict. Luckily, O8 do a very nice I-153 so I can use them alongside the TD aircraft to fill the gap.

Bombers were the SB2 (ISA377) but the TB3 (ISA379) was also used for night bombing towards the end of the war.

For reconaissance and liason the R5 was widely employed but it isn't in the current TD range. I could use the DH4 from the WW1 (ISA14) range as a substitute with a bit of filing to the cowling but it isn't quite right.

Japanese

The Japanese used 88 Ki 27 Nate fighters (ISA411).

They also had three squadrons of light bombers, either Ki 15's, Ki 30's, Ki 32's or Ki 51's.

The TD range includes Ki 32 Mary's (ISA417) and Ki 51 Sonia's (ISA413) but no Ki 30's.

The Ki 15 Babs (ISA 410) is probably better empoyed as a scout / reconnaisance aircraft, as these were also used a lot during the conflict.

There was one squadron of heavy bombers which probably were Fiat BR20's (ISA465) but there may also have been Ki 21 Sally's (ISA416).

Overall, just about everything is available in the Tumbling Dice range, including some useful ground targets in the ISL range too. I need to look at the O8 Russian stuff too, as I'm sure I can find some suitable early war things there that could be used as objectives or targets for strafing.

Wings At War Mongolia 1939

I've been thinking about alternatives to the Battle of Britain for Wings At War and had a flashback to an idea I originally had a couple of years ago.

I thought about doing the Nonomhan Incident in 1/300th scale using Bag The Hun at the time and even got together a selection of aircraft for both but these got sidelined by other things. I also came to the conclusion that the numbers of aircraft involved meant that 1/300th scale wasn't quite right, as I'd only be using squadron strength units at the most for reasons of gameplay and workload.

Today I had the idea of using 1/600th scale with a variant of Scramble For Britain as a basis for a Battle of Khalkin Gol, as the Soviets called it at the time. Nearly all the required aircraft are available from Tumbling Dice and would be easy to paint up, base and organise into relatively large squadron sized units.

I'd have to work out a set of objectives, missions and some special rules to fit the particular conflict but a lot of the rest could just be lifted or adapted from the existing Wings At War system. The terrain would also be very easy to do!

I'm quite interested in working this out if I can find the thinking time over Easter.

Dustbins

I've been thinking about the VBCW BUF force and have decided that the auxilliary bus drivers and conductors idea, using the SCW Assault Guard figures, is a bit boring. However, over on TMP there's a news item that Empress have just re-released their Talares Rio Tinto armoured truck, which is such a cool looking model that I think I need to get one.

I reckon it would make an excellent armoured dustbin lorry and the Assaultos would be perfect as an armed dustbinmen militia. This also fits neatly into Jon's background blurb for the war in Dorset, which involves a fascist county council taking over against the resistance of the Anglican League, so dustbinmen would be a perfect source of potential recruits for the blackshirts.

Of course I could always scratchbuild one but I can't really be bothered!

Belgium 1 / Portugal 0

The Aeronef clash this evening ended in yet another defeat for the hapless Portuguese, although not quite to the extent of the previous drubbing. In fact it was more of a draw with the total of destroyed aeronefs equal and the decision going to a comparison of damage points to the surviving vessels. A close run thing indeed!

Nonetheless, the Portuguese took a bit of a beating losing half of their fleet to the concentrated firepower of the Belgian Alliance. I think it's time that that Portuguese steamed off into the sunset and that my formidable Japanese fleet made a long overdue appearence in the next game against Andy's chocolate munching cohorts.

Wings At War Battle of Britain

The Wings at War starter pack for Sramble for Britain arrived yesterday from Tumbling Dice. It's the usual A5 format stapled booklet with a very nice colour cover in glossy card rather than the usual plain card used on other sets in the series. The layout and mechanisms will be familiar to anyone who has seen a set of Wings At War rules before, with the established system of movement and aerial combat applied in this case to the Battle of Britain.

There are, of course, specific rules for the Battle of Britain including the table layout, formation flying, bombing targets, radar and night fighters, the last of which looks like a really interesting addition to the system. Overall, the new period specific additions to the basic rules are very well thought out and should give a historically realistic feel to the game. In combination with the starter pack of selected TD 1/600th scale planes, the whole package represents excellent value for money.

I doubt I'll be taking the plunge into Scramble for Britain at the moment, however, as I already have plans for Mig Alley which should come first in the list of things to do. I've also got quite a few planes in 1/300th for Bag The Hun, so should focus on that first when it comes to the Battle of Britain. On the other hand, I like the system and the TD planes so much that I might just add a few more Spitfires, Hurricanes, Stukas and the so on to the collection, just in case I feel the need to do 1940 in a smaller scale and at a larger level.

Highly recommended!

Silly Buggers.

For some reason the blogger wotsit seems to be playing silly buggers with the piccies this afternoon but, in the true Dunkirk spirit of stiff upper lipishness, we'll carry on regardless.

I've finally managed to get the postponed Aeronef game against Andy's combined Belgian - Luxembourg fleet on for tomorrow evening, although at the expense of a Bag The Hun 2 try out game. I just haven't had the time to read through the BTH2 rules and neither has Andy, so it's the trusty fall back alternative one brain cell Aeronef option instead.

The mighty Portuguese armada was throroughly trashed by the duplicitous Belgies last time so they're out for revenge. I suspect they may get thoroughly trashed again as Andy is a master of aerial ironclad manoevering and has an uncanny ability to do the right thing at the the right time, in contrast to my 'full steam ahead and damn the (aerial) torpedoes' approach to things.

Anyway, as promised here are some photos of my Bolshevik Aeronef fleet, which won't be sallying forth tomorrow but may well be dispatched at a later date if the Portuguese don't cut the mustard or pass the port tomorrow.