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!!!