While away I had the opportunity to acquire more vital wargaming stuff. Stuff like transport planes. I also took the opportunity to change the scale I use for fixed wing aircraft in moderns games to 1/144, and to take the opportunity to acquire aircraft in (or around) that scale for use in CD moderns games.
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| First up, a Revell 1/144 scale C-17 that I muled back in my luggage. |
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| Interior detail that will soon be hidden forever! |
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| 1/130 scale C-130 kits by Testors. Fully assembled but soon to get a more generic paint scheme. |
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| C-17 cockpit. One piece, no fiddly bits, but this kit does hold a few traps! |
In CD, each model aircraft represents a flight of four aircraft. This means that I can drop a great deal of paratroopers on the table at once, should I feel the need to do so, or conduct other useful air missions.
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| Cutting the wheels off was quite easy with the Dremel! |
I also decided to raid my old diecasts to see if I could find some old Matchbox Skybusters planes suitable for refurbishing. I did find some, including this rather beaten up old Lear Jet, which required a bit of work to get up and flying again. The first step was to cut off the wheels.
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| That will need replacing! |
The next step was to replace the missing tailwing. I did this by tracing the existing one on to plastic card and cutting it out. I actually did this twice, because the first one was too thick.
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| A new one is ready to be cut out. |
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| Cockpit windscreen is a little damaged too... |
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| This Learjet had a hard life, but a fun one! |
The windscreen, and the hole on the underside of the plane, where the wheels used to attach, were then filled up with Green Stuff. The model is probably that of a Model 25 Learjet, but I plan to use this as the larger, and more useful Model 35 Learjet.
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| Repairs complete. Now for a new paint job |
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| Wheel and rivet holes filled. Ready for undercoating. |
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| And undercoated.... along with some 1/144 scale SU-22s. |
Right, back to building and painting planes. I've got a couple of air forces to build.
Nice. those planes will be very cool! I think you should do an escorting mission where those fighters have to protect that leer jet as it flies over hostile territory!
ReplyDeleteHi Gowan, That sounds like an interesting idea for a game, but if I was going to do that I would most likely use much smaller size models in order to expand the size of the playable area. Modern air combat is very fast and area intensive (from start to finish). In the games I play the models are used to represent flights of aircraft that are interacting with ground forces, so the models being a larger size isn't that important as their interactions with other aerial units are virtually abstracted.
DeleteGood to see the forces of Harad et al expanding. Looking forward to a resumption of hostilities.
ReplyDeleteHi Sean, I am currently gearing up for exactly that.
DeleteBrian - about the Gettysburg map. I estimate that the ground represented is about 6 miles square. A brigade frontage on such a map would be about an inch, very roughly, taking a 4-regiment brigade in 2 by 2 formation. But you might check out the frontages (and scales) of the reverse. Those pink and blue oblongs look to represent brigades.
ReplyDeleteYou seemed to prefer Division sized units. In that case the CSA would get 9, the Union 19. But each of the CSA ones would represent about 6000 men, the Union about 4333. That implies divisional strength ratio of 24 to 17. If the CSA Divs were taken across the board as Strength 6, say, I'd simply round off the Union at 4. Buford's Cavalry should be SP=3 if numbers are the sole criterion.
The 3" counter size would probably be OK for each Division, though for the Union that would be a squash lined up along Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill. A smaller size would make the CSA look a bit sparse...
Don't know what to do about guns. 4 CSA and 5 Union would look sensible.
An alternative is 2-figure (foot; 2x1-horse stands for Buford's Cav) brigades upon 1" (or 2cm if you can get them to fit) stands. 7 CSA guns and 9 USA.
You might want to cut out some profiles just to see how they fit on the map.
Cheers,
Ion
I think this may be the way. Thanks for all the number crunching Ion!
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