Aerial Wargaming Target Markers and Chaff

[Mako]

I've seen the little chaff blooms before, in some on-line pics of aircraft, and/or naval vessels.  The person making these used metallic silver puffs for them - some larger (slightly smaller than a Ping-Pong ball), and some smaller (about 1/8" in diameter), depending on the scale of the minis in use with them.

For 1/300th and smaller scale aircraft, the small, pipe-cleaner size blooms seem to work best (3mm).  I've also seen gold ones in use too.

I never knew where to get them, so didn't get to do that, since I don't recall seeing them in the stores.

Then, yesterday, I ran across some long, metallic colored, pipecleaners at the local Dollar Store, in the Christmas section.  They had both silver and red.  Sadly, no green though, which I could also use.  Yellow/gold might be nice too.

I guess I could always get some metallic green and spray the silver ones that color, if I can't find them in green, prepainted.

So, today, I finally have some small, metallic red, RAF Target Indicators, or TIs, for my next night bombing raid.  They look simply brilliant, and there are enough little pipecleaners for many, many TI drops, so I can probably add in some secondary and tertiary markers just to add a bit more to the confusion of the games.

(Sorry, no pics yet, but will post some later).

Picked up some of the little silver ones as well too, for more modern games, though of course I guess I can use them as well to represent tight Window bundles too, for the RAF heavies.

Originally, I was planning on using actual, small, Christmas lights for these instead, but the whole electrical cord thing is a pain, especially for "away games" at the local club, or convention.

Found some $1.00, battery powered, LED light sets for Christmas as well, which come with the battery pack (2 x AA batteries), and short wires for 10 x lights.  They're small enough to work for night bomber raids too, I suspect, though the micro lights would be preferable, but still, these are only about 1/8th of an inch in diameter.  The only had yellow, clear/white, and blue.  Sadly, no red or green, but I'm guessing I can paint a clearcoat over the lights to make them red or green, as needed.

Going to give that a try as well, just for grins, and to hide the battery packs under a bomb explosion, or low-level cloud.

At $1.00 each, you can't go wrong, and can buy a bunch to experiment with.

I'm also going to use orange for fires of the burning targets/cities as well - might go with a corded light set for that, with more lights, due to the need for more widespread lighting for them. 

[Ockman]

Sounds like a cool idea, love to see pictures.

[von Lucky]

Good to hear. (Interested in pictures too.)

In Australia it's $2 stores and places like the Reject Shop and Daiso that gets you things like that.

[Mako]

Sorry, haven't had a chance to take pics yet.

Need to find the black sheet I use for tabletop coverage for night games first, to use as a backdrop. 

Did go back to the store today though, and found the much coveted metallic green and gold (yellow) Christmas pipecleaners/stalks, so looks like my Pathfinder Force Mossies and heavy bombers will have a full range of options.

Already have white pipecleaners for missiles, so will use those for the white ground marker flares as well.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy!!!

Now, to get cracking on some bomber painting and decaling.

[Mako]

Here are some pics of the PFF Target Indicator markers I came up with, from "Tinsel Stems / Cure Pipes" (basically, long, metallic colored pipe cleaners), from the local Dollar Tree, in the Christmas ornaments section.  They are available in metallic red, green, gold, and silver, so cover ALL the bases nicely for RAF PFF TI color options.

I originally planned to just cast these on the tabletop, loosely, as needed, but storing them in little plastic bags creates static, so they tend to clump, or jump away from one another a bit.  Might need/want to glue them to a black base instead, to get the proper look and separation.

As you can see from the photos below, for 1/600th scale aircraft, colored glitter is probably a better choice for the TIs, scale-wise, but I think these could work for 1/300th scale aircraft, and would look best with 1/144th scale aircraft, in order to get the proper scale effect.

Off to buy colored glitter, on the next outing.

There's a rare, never before seen, RAF-like action shot in colour (color for you Yanks), of a Mossie dropping its TIs over the target too, just for grins.

[Ockman]

I really like that! Nice pictures!

[Mako]

Thanks, Ockman.

Addendum note - go down the Toy/Craft aisle, and buy the single, multi-pack of these, since all the colors are in a mix, for a single dollar.  Didn't realize they were sold like that, until today, AFTER I bought all the others, of course.

I'll never use all the others, in my lifetime.

Found some glitter there, for the 1/600th TIs.  5 x vials for $1.00.  2 x red, and 1 x each of the green, gold, and silver.

Too dark now to take pics, but will post some of those tomorrow.