kaufschtick said:

Ick -- _Saganami Island Tactical Simulator_ was a bad-enough time-grinder; now they're trying to expand it? :P

csadn said:

Not sure what that Saganami Island deal is all about?

Birds of Prey is currently drawing some pretty good reviews, although I know nothing about it myself. Looks interesting enough to take a look into though. Anyone know anything about this one?

BoP looks interesting, those guys in the photo look like they are gaming in about 1/285, gosh there are so many 1/144 prepaints on Ebay for the modern era its such a pity they would probably be a bit too big, all the same there are plenty smaller scaled gaming miniatures to choose from.

I've nearly finished my last batch of Jasta 15 DVII's, I'll have six by the end of tonight, just waiting for Doms Decals to finish the 4 AFC Snipe set and I'll be set to play a campaign soon.

Haven't made up any more WW2 planes in a while, I figured I'd got enough, I am waiting for some nice twin engined bombers to come out, some Blenhiems, Beuforts & Beufighters would be handy, the later two as RAAF for Pacific theatre.

What do you think about the1/196 scale stuff coming out? Going to bother? I thought I may pick a set to be compatable with other players at clubs but my heart will always stay with the wider variety of 1/144 models on offer.

kaufschtick said:

Ad Astra also makes _SITS_ -- based on David Weber's _Honor Harrington_ novels. I tried playing it at the recent local gaming con; it took forever to make even a basic move, and the stands were vulnerable to collapse if someone so much as looked at the table, much less lean on it. _WoW_ minis, even when at "max altitude", are not that prone to, well, becoming Prone. :)

Now it appears they're trying to apply the same system to a jet-combat game. I know it's prejudicial, but if it's essentially the same system, I'm staying as far away from it as possible. I'll wait for a Jet-Age edition of _WoW_. :)

Roger Wilco said:

There sure are a boatload of 1/144 scale jets out there, and pre painted too.  I'll be keeping an eye out for a decent "jet" aircombat game.  Doesn't sound like BoP is quite what I'm looking for. Definately something more along the lines of WoW.

Did you grab some of those pre painted D VIIs off EBay? What were they, like F-Toys? I just decided to snag a couple of the French Spad VIIs. I saw them on EBay at only $2.99 each, although they were listed as "Spud" VIIs, so who knows, maybe I just bought a couple of French potatoes?

Wow, it sounds like you are assembling squadrons of the WWI birds! That's pretty cool if you are, pictures? I just have one each of the WWI planes. I'll most likely get the WWII planes, but at the rate they are releasing the  stuff, I'll continue on with the 1/144 scale. I'm actually having a blast building the non pre painted ones. It just took a little time to get adjusted to the smaller size, and how to work them a little easier.  It's a good combination of two of my hobbies, wargaming and modelling.

Doms Decals...I'll have to check that out. I got some 1/144 scale decals from True North at a convention here in Columbus last year. They have some reasonable prices online as well. I'll have to give Doms a look see though, you can never have enough decals!

I'd love to see some more twin engine planes in 1/144 scale myself, as you mention. But to be honest, I'm fairly suprised at all I've found in 1/144 up to now. I had no idea there was as much as there is, and the pre painted stuff is fantastic. I'm more interested in seeing some Russian WWII stuff in 1/144 scale though. I'm real tempted to try my hand at the metal stuff that I've seen from True North. They have  the PE-2, LA 5s & 7s, and Yak-9s in particular. I also saw Douglas Devastators there!

I'm still looking to buy Superfortresses, Typhoons, P-47s, Lancasters and a couple others in the WWII 1/144 range yet.

The F-Toys DIII's are nice, there are three if you pay a little extra for the "special". I bought a swag of RFC SPAD's from the series and they are pretty good two. Because the DIII's are pre assembled barring the horizontal stabiliser, one of mine was assembled very crooked and as usual the glued joint is far stronger than the surrounding plastic, so it is a bit of a right off. I have since bought another and I will use the dodgy one as part of a crash landing diorama or as acrash marker.

There are some brilliant F-Toy  Lancasters available and they are excellent, (better than the B17's). FoW make the Tyhpoon's, but i would wait and see what gets released this year from Japans vending machines

As for Sabres and Mig15's, I found the Trumpeter Sabre to be a pretty good model even though the panel lines are a bit exagerated in depth and the ATTACK Mig15 is a nice kit too (have to do a german Ebay search for those) I have also heard the OZ Models (Australia) Mig15 range is fairly respecable too. They make Grumman Panthers and various other period kits

I once read an old paperback novel by J E McDonald about RAAF Meteor pilots flying in Korea but the last pages were missing from the book so i don't know how it all turned out, I think it was called "Mig Meat" I was 11 at the time and I didn't even know about the Korean War until I read this book, then the penny dropped and I went "Ah! is that what the Bridges of Toko Ri is about and that other film about the preacher that flew Mustangs (it was always raining and dark in that film) Anyway plenty of  good stauff about for getting one inspired to branch forth.

just look at this :

Serie 1 DoWWII miniatures !!!

Merlin DEX

nice

nice

Vacation was busy, fun busy, but busy. I'm in the finishing stages of three B-25Js at the moment.  I'll get some pics up soon, I'd like to do my Ju-87 Stukas next,  and have them included in with the pics. I didn't have near the time I imagined on vaca to model. I did, however get to finish up 2 more Ju-88s and another B-26, for three of each of those two. And like I said, I'm round third and headed for home on 3 B-25Js.

I ordered some US decales from True North that are US Torch insignia, with the yellow band around the star and all, but I'm leaning real heavy toward marking these B-25s up kinda like Doolittle, even though these are B-25Js, with the top turret forward. Doolittles B-25s had the top turret back toward the tial, can't recall the model right off hand...hold on, I'll check here. I just happen to have a Squadron B-25 publication right here (sips beer)...I guess those were B-25Bs. No waist guns either. The kits I built of the B-25Js have waist guns, and the waist guns themselves kinda blister out a bit on the sides, I guess to make more room inside.

Anyway, these are Minicraft kits, and I believe they are a new print run. They were out of stock everywhere, then they just kinda "popped" up everywhere all at once. At least, they are dated 2008 inside on the instructions.  You can do them glass nosed bomber version, or solid nose gunship version. I went with the glass noses, and thought about ordering another three and doing them as the gunship ones.

Then I thought, to make them more realistic as far as doing them as Doolittle B-25Bs, I could have very easily, at least I think I may be able to,  modify the model to move the top turret aft and fill in the waist guns to make them more like the B model. I'd also have to file and sand off the gun blisters up front under the cockpit too. A bit of extra effort, but they would look cool.

Maybe I'll wait for those "Torch" decales to arrive, and do this batch up as North African B-25s. Yosarian and Milo might like that!

Been a while since I've seen Catch-22, good flick. Quite a bit of star power in that movie too, for its time.

Even longer since I've read it...

Too late tonight to fool around with taking pictures. I just finished up the three B-25s, went  ahead with the "Doolittle" markings and color scheme. My next day off is this coming Wednesday, I think I'll make a serious effort to do the pics then. 

I recieved my first RAF Mosquito this past Friday, by F-Toys. An absolutely gorgeous looking plane. That one was always my favorite British aircraft. I'm still waiting on a second like it to arrive. I wound up with the British Far East (silver) ones, and I'm kinda glad I got those now. I thought I would much rather have the Mossies in the European camo, but those turned out to be the glass nosed bomber versions, as well as requiring "mucho dinero" off E Bay. There is one on there now, in the buy it now section, and the asking price is like $54.99, not including shipping!  I snagged mine for a little over $20.00 each, including shipping.

Rodger_Wilco is who I blame for my inability to stop buying in this scale off E-Bay! He's responsible for creating the "monster", as my wife now claims me to be!

Let's see, right now I'm still waiting on the following to arrive, all in various states of shipping...

3 x Fairy Swordfish (Sea Gray & Green camo)

3 x B-17G (To add to the 3 B-17Fs already on hand!)

1 x F4U Corsair

8 x P-40..(?) Ns, or if I'm real lucky, possibly C/Bs (Bandai)

2 x Spad VII (French Colors, for WoW)

1 x Mossie

1 x Emily ( From HLJ)

2 x RAF Typhoons (European Colors)

Ah man, I sure do love those crazy WWII warbirds. I sat down tonight finishing up the B-25s while watching "The Cactus Airforce" episode of "Dogfights" on the history channel. No beer while modeling...

Time to hit the rack now.

Hmmph!

Its not my fault. I just said," Try it, you'll like the weird things it does to your brain". How was I to you know you would like it so much you would turn out to be an addict? Where I come from its called "Plastic Krak".

Just admit it Kaufy  its not really the buying of plastic planes thats the addiction, itsreally the hit you get from the smell of the glue fumes, are we using straight MEK from the bottle or are you injecting Revell Poly straight into the veins via a sharpened applicator tube

Test...

Hi all,

The best place for news on 1/144 is at Bluedonkey's site:

http://www.kampfgruppe144.blogspot.com/

I make some resin planes, mostly floatplanes and flying boats but some other planes as well. See;

www.petersplanes.com

I generally play WW1 WoW but have just bought the Dow box. Are not the 1/144 miniatures a little big unless you have quite a large playing area due to their speed and therefore distance covered?

regards

Peter

Mudgee

Australia

kaufschtick said:

It worked. Tho' the pedant in me would point out that the blister guns for the B-25 didn't arrive until long after the US insignia shown was taken out of service. :)

Yeah, these are B-25 H/Js. I just decided to do the color scheme like the Doolittle Raiders cause I thought those were cool. That and there are no B-25Bs that I know of in 1/144 scale...at least when I built these!

I recently saw a preview of, I think it was Wing Club, or one of those companies that do the pre-painted, semi assembled kits, that they are going to have a new set coming out this summer, and one of the planes is the B-25B (2 versions, Doolittle & Desert). The B also had the top turret farther back aft, as opposed to being right up behind the cockpit. The B also did not have the .50 cal gun blisters under the cockpit either.  As far as the waist guns, I don't even think that the B had any waist guns at all, let alone with the blisters.

I was thinking after I had nearly completed these B-25s that I could have probably moved the top turret back, filled in the waist gun positions, and sanded off the .50 cal gun blisters to more accurately portray the Doolittle planes...but I'm just wargaming with them. Maybe next time around.

The kit I built here also had the option to make them with the solid nose, gunship version, the one with the 75mm gun in the nose! That's the same size gun that was used on Sherman tanks! If I run across any more of these kits, I may just grab one or two more to make the gunship version.