Iain's Ill-Advised Wings of Glory Project.

[Iain R]

Well, since this intended side-project seems to have taken flight ( :oops: ) and actually has a gaming purpose, I suppose I'd better catalogue my musings in 1/200 aircraft.

This all started last year with my desire to join in with my mate's Wings of Glory stuff, but lack of desire to pay the prices for the (somewhat toy-like, prepainted) miniatures. Instead, I reckoned I could scour the catalogues for some obscure 1/200 stuff not made by Ares to field alongside my mate's "official" fleet, fudging the stats as I went along.

The first bargains were the obvious Zvezda Blenhiem and Ju-88 for about £4 each, and a pack of Trumpeter TBD-1 Devastators for about £6 for five.

The Blenhiem and 88 went together quite quickly, very basic models with little detail, and an equally workmanlike painjob, before work ground to a halt prior to me sourcing proper flight stands for them. The TBDs were equally quickly assembled, with ideas forming in my head for how to control a flight of five, again prior to the inevitable attack of the Ooh Shinies...

Fast forward a few months, and a chance Pendraken ad on FB for new Litko flight stands in stock, and it was chocks away once more!

Blenheim and 88 now looking much more usable!

The Blenheim was roughly mocked up into a NF variant, with a very crude representation of the gunpack mounted far too far forward...




While my mate has since acquired an official Ju-88, which while frustrating, does at least mean I don't have to fudge my own stats for it.







The discovery that Trumpeter actually do some Wildcats, which I'd never seen before, inspired me to get on with the TBDs. The potential for different colour schemes on the Wildcats got me thinking on the TBDs, and rather than do all 5 in one, Midway-era scheme, I could do a couple in the earlier scheme for Wake. Not only would this probably be easier to play, using smaller groups of aircraft, but it would also keep my interest in the painting, rather than just having 5 clones. After all, part of the joy of WoG is collecting all the obscure variants of the aircraft!

So the first 3 TBDs for Midway have begun...




I'd rather have had a flight of two for Midway, two for Wake, and one oddball, but the curse of the TBD is no other bugger used it! There's not even the usual footnote of most pre-war American monoplanes of "7 were ordered by Belgium/ the Dutch East Indies/ The Vatican" or similar that would let me do something really funky  ::

I've decided to concentrate on Midway for the time being, to keep my monkey brain hopefully on some sort of target. As such, I've pulled the trigger on some more Trumpeter boxes (5 kits per box give great value for money and potential for different liveries) which should let me do the following-

•5 SBD Dauntlesses
(2 for Midway, 2 for Wake and one as a US Army A-24 Banshee for the Solomon Islands campaign)
•5 F-4 Wildcats
(2 for Midway, one for Wake and 2 as FAA Martlets in the North Sea, which will be my next theatre)
•5 Vought Kingfishers
(One for Midway, one for Wake, one RAAF version for the Solomons, and one FAA example for the North Sea)

However (there's always a "however"...) as I have no willpower, I have got distracted into "targets".

First up a Ju-52.



Easy enough choice, and at £2.99 I should really have got more, however, I did a bad thing...



I'd pondered getting ships as targets before, but shied away. This time I couldn't resist (frustratingly the Japanese Auxiliary vessels have since disappeared) and I picked these up. Tiny ships are another thing that's long fascinated me, but I can't quite bring myself to get into. These are considerably smaller scale than the aircraft, but this should work in my favour, as it'll look more convincing when seen from above (this is how scale works, not the other way around as one comonly sees with smaller scale aircraft than ground elements...)

Annoyingly, just has my froth for the hobby has returned, as has the warm weather, so that'll probably curtail productivity more than I'd like for the next wee while...

[flatpack]

Keep up the good work.
Interesting project.

[Hu Rhu]

Very good painting on the Blenheim and JU-88.  Are you on the Wings of Glory aerodrome?  If not I would recommend it, as it has a lot of useful work on WW2 aircraft.

You might want to look at the US firm AIM who do a good range of 1/200 aircraft and possibly Blood Red Skies from Warlord Games, whose offerings are cheap but the models themselves are lacking in details.  I converted some of their dive bombers and torpedo bombers for my Pacific needs. Thread is here: https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?36326-Trumpeter-1-200-USN-Aircraft

and here: https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?11960-Official-Nakajima-B5N2-Kate-thread

and here: https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?22225-Official-Aichi-D3A-Val-Painting-Thread

As to bases, try Rival Sky Games in Australia, who are just about to release a range of custom made bases sanctioned by Ares. They are just waiting the final details before putting them up on their website.

[Iain R]

Thanks chaps!

Not on the Aerodrome yet, but do intend to set up a profile. I'll have a look at those links, too, thanks!

[Iain R]

The Midway airwing begins!

First 3 Trumpeter TBDs done, I'll use the other 2 for an earlier pair out of Wake.







And the first reinforcements arrive!

[flatpack]

Very nice.

[Utgaard]

They are looking fantastic!

[Iain R]

Thanks chaps!

First four off the production line and into the paintshop.

I managed to snap the tail off one of the Wildcats during construction, and have now reattached it for the third time. I can see this becoming a running theme with that particular model...



My efforts to join the aerodrome forum appear to be futile, as it doesn't seem to be keen on mobile users, and going by a curre nt thread over on the WoG FB page, it seems there are other issues as well.

[Iain R]

Top cover inbound, F-4F Wildcats done!






The two Dauntlesses are just about done, but plans to finish them over the next couple of days have been thrown into disarray due to my dad taking ill.

Further reinforcements have also been obtained-



One Blenheim will be done in standard day bomber colours for futile attacks against the Japanese, the other in the Temperate Sea Scheme for mischief in the North Sea...



Slightly put put to discover that the Arado kit doesn't feature a solid transparency for the canopy, but rather just a delicate looking etched brass frame to make the outline without windows. I can see some fevered fettling in my future...

[Iain R]

Got the Dauntlesses done last week!







And also picked up some targets for them!


Possibly a bit unglamourous for fleet aircraft such as those, but perfect targets for the Far East Blenheim when I get that done...

[Hu Rhu]

Wonderful work especially the panel lines. 

Good find on the 1/700 ships.  Will make a perfect target.  I have used Axis and Allies Wat at Sea ships as targets.  There are quite a range especially aircraft carriers which make the perfect target for your Dauntless.

[Iain R]

Thanks, Hu Rhu! Yeah, they should look fun on the board!

[Iain R]

Finally completed the Midway Air Wing with the addition of the Vought Kingfisher, courtesy of Trumpeter again.




The completed wing takes to the sky, in search of Kido Butai!

[HerbertTarkel]

Trumpeter really do some lovely kits, great find on those unusual models.

I never got into the WW2 Wings game, but I was a massive fan of the WW1 version. I had literally every plane made, including some rare gold and silver versions that were tournament promos!