1/2400 scale flight stands

As my urge to paint 1/2400 WWII naval miniatures has resurfaced after 3 years in hiding, I've decided that I had better get more aircraft stands ready, so I can represent air strikes. 

I'm starting off with GHQ's Japanese B5N Kate torpedo bombers:

for no other reason than that I have to start somewhere. I cut a 1"x1" (25mm x 25mm) styrene square and drilled three holes in it. Then I superglued three bits of wire (all approx. 1" tall) into the holes:

I tried using quite thin wire at first (.015), but it was far too flexible and springy. After substituting wire thick enough to be rigid (.047), I put a tiny dot of Gorilla Super Glue Gel on the tip of each wire and added the aircraft. After they were dry, the whole thing got a light coat of black spray primer. 

After painting the base my usual "sea" color (see my post of Sep. 13, 2015), I left the wires black and painted the Kates:

Tough to get the tiny devils in focus.

I won't get into the thorny topic of what color early war Japanese aircraft were painted. Suffice to say that as B5N Kates were built by Nakajima, I went with the same color that the plant painted the A6M Zekes that it produced, a slightly greenish light tan. No, Zekes were never pale grey. Anyway, I have a largish bottle of Floquil Aged Concrete that was the exact shade. A coat of gloss and my Kates are ready for their first torpedo run! The hardest part of the whole process was getting those microscopic hinomaru on the wings and fuselage!

Having masses of aircraft stands cluttering the gaming table is highly annoying, so I don't try to model aircraft 1:1 (except for reconnaissance aircraft). Each stand can represent anything from a flight of three aircraft to a full squadron of eighteen. So, as I do with my ships, I mark the stand's edge with nationality and a stand number:

I keep track separately of how many aircraft each stand represents. Now I need to add steel paper to the bottom of the stand, so it can be stored in my magnetic-bottomed Bunker Boxes. 

Not a bad evening's work. Just a few dozen more to go. Ugh!!!

The Mi-6 Hook

This week I've fiddled around with two Mil Mi-6 Hook minis. Maybe I shouldn't say "minis", as these models are pretty damned large! Ok, they're not 1/32 scale, but for 3mm, they're big!!

The Hook:

was (and remains) the second largest helicopter ever to go into production, with a lift capacity of 26,400 lbs (12,000 kilos), surpassed only by the Mil Mi-26 Halo:

as you can see on this comparison chart. Click on the image and it should take you to a zoomable version:

What would've been the largest helicopter, and called the Mi-12, never went into production and only two test platforms were ever built:

I don't know as I'd even call that a helicopter, though technically it is. 

In any case, the Halo didn't begin entering service until 1983 and wasn't fully operational until 1985, so I have no use for it in my 1981 scenario. 

In the WarPac, only the Soviets and the Poles operated the Hook, so I've done one of each. The Polish one:

The majority of Soviet Hooks seem to have been in overall light grey:

which didn't really suit me. However, some poking around the Internet did turn up an example in green:

The same aircraft before and after restoration. Of course, museum examples can't really be relied on for historical accuracy, but I won't quibble, as I prefer the green:

The models are big enough that I could get legible aircraft numbers on them, but I decided not to. For me, the aircraft are a secondary concern on the wargaming table. They are merely graphic representations of air strikes and fast moving enough that they really aren't on the table long enough to bother with going into minute detail on them. 

More in the next post!

Let slip the dogs of war

Or in this case, the Hounds:

The Mil Mi-4 Hound was the WarPac's primary troop transport and medium lift cargo helicopter from its introduction in 1953 until the Mi-8 Hip entered service in 1967, though it actually soldiered on long afterwards, production not being halted until 1979. The Hound was also the WarPac's first gunship platform to enter service, many being armed with unguided rocket pods and a forward-firing gun in the belly. The Mi-4 was steadily phased out of frontline service through the 1970s and by the early 80s, the Soviets had completely retired it, however the other eastern bloc armies were still using it for cargo transport and medivac duties and their navies for ASW and maritime patrol.   

This weekend, I've been tinkering with East German and Polish versions:

Thankfully, they're big enough to get decals on them.

And as long as I was at it, I also finished the Polish Hoplite I've had sitting around.

As with the East German Hoplite in an earlier post, it's too small for even my smallest Polish insignia, so it will have to go without:

That winds up this weekend. Many more things are approaching the finishing stages, so more posts in the offing. 

The last Starfighter(s)

Remember that god-awful 1984 movie?

How it gets 3.5 stars out of 5 on IMDB is beyond me. The only saving grace was Dan O'Herlihy, who I always liked. It's a shame that they had to make him up like a turtle. Anyway, moving right along....

I guess the title of this post should actually be "The last West German Starfighters", as I'll still need to do a couple of Belgian ones after this. The Belgians were one of the few other European countries that were foolish enough to use a high-altitude, high-speed bomber interceptor as a ground attack aircraft. 

This weekend, I've finished off my two long-delayed Luftwaffe F-104s and I've given them the Norm 72 camouflage that's appropriate for 1981:

I've worked on a couple of other things this weekend, but neither of them are to the posting stage yet. More from me next time!

Easing my storage woes

Over the past several months, I've been finishing quite a few 1/600 aircraft, both rotary and fixed wing, and they're progressively eating up my very limited hobby storage space, as well as increasingly provoking Mrs. History PhD's ire. That being the case, I resolved to address this problem during today's semi-monthly visit to Walmart. 

While Mrs. History PhD went in search of the various and sundry household items that she was in need/want of, I struck off on my own. I was looking for some sort of storage container that was at least 6" deep internally, but not too much deeper than that. After rejecting a variety of cake/cupcake transporters as being too shallow, I came to the household "storage solutions" section. Lo and behold, what should I stumble across for $6.00?

My hand is in there to give you some idea of scale. It's one of those small storage containers that stack on top of each other or slide under your bed. 

I buy 8"x10" 30mil adhesive magnetic sheets to line my GHQ Bunker Boxes, which is how I store all of my 3mm platoon stands (all of which are on steel bases). So it was an easy matter to stick a magnetic sheet to the bottom of my new container:

And this is what I now have in the way of aircraft storage:

I'm sure I needn't say that this is not so secure and sturdy that one could throw it down the stairs and expect to retrieve it unscathed at the bottom, however it is much more than adequate for the (hopefully) mild bumping and jostling around that can be expected during moves to and from gaming venues, moving house, and just general long-term storage.

And here it is, proudly perched atop the wargaming bookcase:

A job well done!! Mrs. History PhD says it's not very attractive, but as long as it frees up much-needed space, she's an ardent supporter. I'll soon need to make it a twin, as I still have a considerable number of aircraft yet to be finished. 

More from me next time!

Su-25 Frogfoot

This weekend, I've finished off a couple of Soviet Frogfoots... Frogfeet.. no... umm... wait...

I'm confused....

Anyway, the Su-25 Frogfoot was the Soviet Union's main close-support ground attack aircraft throughout the 1980s and indeed it still is for Russia today. The prototypes were tested in actual combat in Afghanistan beginning in mid-1980 and the main production models went into service in the summer of 1981. 

There was (and still is) a two-seat trainer version that is distinguishable from the standard Su-25 by it's much more "humpbacked" look. Even though it's a trainer, it is fully capable of carrying out combat missions. 

And here are mine:

I should've used a smaller star on the tail, but these little guys benefit from something larger and more easily noticed. 

Given that my LANDJUT scenario begins on March 30, 1981, I don't think it's too much of a mental stretch to think that the Soviets would've had their new ground attack aircraft in service 3-4 months earlier than was historically the case, i.e. in time for the beginning of hostilities.

That's it for this time. More next post!