Merlin Dex said:

Ah Ha! I hope we now have an "inside" source here on these boards!?!

Sheppard1972 said:

I'm heading out to Dayton tomorrow with a copy of AA50 for a drinking buddy of mine. Wednesday will be a day long "wargame-fest" and "beer-fest"! I can't wait.

Then, my vaca starts this coming Sunday (15th), and I hope to get the chance to try cranking out more planes. I have some (3) Ki-43 Oscars & (3) P-40Ns that I'm dying to get to. First, I have 2 more Ju-88s, and a third Martin B-26 currently underway.

I just ordered a Japanese Type 2 Flying Boat (Emily) from Hobby Link Japan tonight for a thousand Yen, and another 680 for shipping (about $19.00 USD in all). i can't wait to get that one! I have a Japanese "Mavis" , four engined flying boat on hand already I hope to get to it next week as well.

I also got super lucky, and won a 1/144 scale Chance Vought F4U-1 Corsair off of EBay, that came in the mail today! Waa-Hoo! It's a build it yourself kit. Those suckers are hard to find anywhere, especially for $14.88 shipping included, delivered to my door! Now to get one more for a pair...

Dam it to hell and back, I just love the WWII airplanes waaayyy too much. It must have been all of those trips to the Air Force Meseum in Dayton with my Dad and Grandfather when I was in my younger days! And it was Rodger_Wilco from the old boards here that got me started on this 1/144 scale stuff; now I can't quit buying and building it!

I'll get some pics up next week for sure! Those two Me-110Cs came out super fantastic. I can't wait to show them off. That's another hard one to find in 1/144 scale.

kaufschtick said:

I am leary to get into building and painting the 1/144 stuff myself. Its so small! I can do a decent job on 1/72 but I can still do better, especially if I get an airbrush that I have more control over (expensive!) and putty that I can get to cooperate with me. I really seem to have a hard time filling and sanding the putty to the point where its seemless. Using the Squadron red putty.

The pics I saw on BBG I think it was, look pretty good. I won't have a problem mixing the scales in this game. The base is the important part playing with mini's anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your pics Kaufy, your planes look **** nice too.

How many inches would you say the wingspan on a 2 and 4 engine bomber is in this scale? I'm figuring no more than 6 inches...

Do you have experience with the Sweet kits? I was looking at picking some of those up to try the scale, considering you get 2 planes per package and they are pretty well reviewed. I have a I just finished a 1/72 F6 Hellcat, and still have to build a KI-43, F-86, and Tiger Tank (going to try to branch into new fields from WW2) so I'd probably have to hide any more from the wife.

I did pick up a 3/32 tube and a 1/16 wire to try to make my own pegs instead of the solid ones from Litko. the 3/32 tube is too small for the 1/4 inch hole in the Litko base so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get that nice and straight. I have epoxy but then how to I keep the bottom flat after that? The other problem I'm going to have is that the wire fits in perfectly, but its not snug. So again throw some superglue or epoxy on the end to make the peg, but then people will have to move the plane by the base, If you pick up by the plane it just won't hold the weight from peg to peg. I'd also have to epoxy in some of the wire to the holes I already drilled in the bottom of the planes...live and learn. On the plus side, I figure I can make about 30 1 inch pegs for 3.50. Thats not bad. Any fix ideas for these problems guys?

Khayman7 said:

I just ordered a Japanese Emily Flying Boat from Hobby Link Japan...here's what they have to say about the wingspan.

"A very nice kit of Japan's biggest flying boat, the H8K Emily. Even in this tiny scale, this is a good-sized model, about 19.5 cm (7.7 inches) long and with a 26.4 cm (10.4 inch) wingspan. That's bigger than some 1/72 fighters! Surface detail consists of fine recessed panel lines, and a rudimentary cockpit is included along with beaching gear, underwing bombs and torpedos. A good basic kit right from the box, or go crazy superdetailing her!"

The B-26 Marauders I have are right about 5 and 3/4 inch wingspan. The B-17Fs are 8 and 1/2 inch wingspans.

I absolutely love the Sweet Kits! Great fit, detail and decales. I've built the F4F Wildcats and the Mk.I Hurricanes so far. I have the Me-109Gs on hand, still unbuilt. I'm probably going to order the P-51B Mustang kit with the Malcom Hood canopy here before long. I wish they did F4U Corsairs!

There is a company called Platz that does P-47Ds and Fw-190Ds among a few others. They are every bit as good as the Sweet kits, and come 2 per kit as well.

The best ones, IMHO, are the pre painted kits by F-Toys, Wing Club, Cafe Rio and others that you can find on E-bay. They feature pre painted canopies, and are just out of this world fantastic kits to build.

Edward makes Ju-87 Stukas, I have 5 of them, but I haven't had the opportunity to build any just yet. They appear to just as good as the Sweet & Platz kits.

Howdy kaufschtick and others. Just had a short hiatus from gaming and thought I'd just barnstorm my way back with a small fanfair.

So here it is TA- DAH!

Well thank god thats over and we can get on with the business of talking shop.

Agenda item #1. Kaufschticks obsession with 1/144 scale plastic kits.

OK man if you are going to hold me responsible for getting you addicted then its up to me to get you cleaned up. So here goes.... KAUFY STOP BUYING 1/144 SCALE KITS! YOU HAVE ENOUGH NOW! If you don't stop soon your wife is going to take out a fatwa on me and I'll have to go into hiding with Mr Salman Rushdi.

Just joking mate!

The collection is looking pretty good and the scenario options you have now are just limitless, I wish I could just drop over and play a few games with you.

Have you seen that F-Toys have a new series out called early jets, includes some Me262's, Meteor's, Mig 15's and I think He163. Opens up some interesting late war and "1946" options for the game.

Also I have a 1/144 Revell F4U I found ages ago you can have if you want, send me your home address again via the other email account, (sorry I lost it yet again when the old PC bought the farm), I'll also send those gimbles I made you and have been just sitting around waiting to be mailed.

Thats all for the mo'

Over and out!

Roger Wilco said:

HE"S BACK!!!!

YESSS!!!

Glad to see ya on the boards! I'm going to be putting up some pics this week of what I have, that is WoW ready. Remember those Me-110Cs I mentioned having purchased way back when, well I have them finished after quite a bit of work, but they were well worth it.

I just won another P-40N today on Ebay, which will give me 4 total. Now I can do up 2 of them as the US 80th Fighter Group (Giant White Skulls painted on the front of the planes), and the other 2 can now be done up as either No. 75 Squadron or No. 80 Squadron, RAAF. I was thinking of sending you a pair of planes that I actually built, as opposed to the Louis IV I bought from 21st Century. I was thinking that my "wheels down" version of building them wouldn't fare to well on the trip, although I believe you prefer the "wheels up" look, which would travel better.

I've got my hat in the ring on a pair of RAF Mossies as well, one European and one British Far East. Ever since seeing Cliff Robertson in 633 Squadron as a kid, the Mossie has been my favorite British plane of WWII. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed, this is the first stab I've taken at a pair of Mossies on EBay.

Speaking of jets, have you seen the new jet combat game on board Game Geek, Birds of Prey?

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18606

Ever since you mentioned F-86s and Mig-15s...

I keep thinking about all of the jets that are available in 1/144 scale...

I mean, I've got the WWI, the WWII...

And I'm running out of WWII stuff to buy, so...jets maybe?

Well, all kidding around aside, glad to see you on these boards again! I've got to get off here as I've an early morning running running a few errands tomorrow morning, then to the kitchen table to finish building Ju-88 #'s 2 & 3, along with B-26 # 3. I have the good fortune to be on vacation this week, and I've got some planes to get busy on! I think the 3 B-25s may be next up, Doolittle Raiders maybe.

I'll be back tomorrow!

kaufschtick said:

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

csadn said:

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

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.

kaufschtick said:

It's a J -- the H had the T13 75mm cannon in a solid nose....

kaufschtick said:

The B had twin 0.50s in dorsal and ventral turrets only -- no tail or waist guns. The Bs Doolittle used had the ventral turrets removed to save weight.

kaufschtick said:

Rules for using the 75mm cannon in _WoW_:

1) Draw an A chit (two if at short range).

2) If the chit has a non-zero number on it, remove the target aircraft from the game board....

>

I have been using these now for some time with the card decks, they are made by EZ Build cost about $5 in Hobby Lobby, they are pre painted to a very nice level of detail, although they are 1:100 they still work perfectly for the game.

http://shopdans.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=346333

After making up the models I added a little bit of sprig to the underneath, by drilling a small hold and then cutting sprig from the excess plastic model frame, and then glued into the hole.

I then use the WWI stands..

They look very nice... can show photos if interested.

Dr Zesty said:

Yes please!