A buddy of mine and I are getting into WoW and are buying up the sets and boosters. While having a blast fighting with the sets as is, we are kicking around the idea of playing at 1/72 scale.

We have found the plastic model kits and are thinking about what it would take to play at that scale.

Has anyone already done this and how did it go?

Any links would be appreciated.

I see where your coming from. There is a much bigger range of models available in the 1:72 scale kits, the only thing wrong is that the movement cards you get with the with the WOW box sets wont match up with the scale of the planes. It would almost look like the aircraft are turning on the spot.

The club i play with use's 1:144 scale (Probable due to the WW1 WOW minis being that scale and there being a fair selection of WW2 1:144 scale stuff available out there) and when we are using the B17 bombers (with approx 25cm/10inch wing span) it looks like the plane turns on a sixpence/dime, and kinda looks stupid.

I beleave the WOW WW2 minis are going to be about 1:185 scale to compensate for this, but at the end of the day, its your game, so you can do what ever you like. One option is, you could scan/photocopy the movement decks and increase the size by 100%. That should work for 1:72 scale, although, you may need a bigger playing area.

Actually, we were considering just that, doubling the size of the manuever cards. I am also checking into getting some scrap plastic sheet to make the bases which would be double sized also.

It will be a bit of work, it's just something we were kicking around and thought would be fun to do.

The play area we decided would need to be 60"x60" which isn't too big of a deal at our local game shop. I'm considering making 2 - 30x60 boards painted like sky we can clamp together and store fairly easily.

aarondpjames said:

im not trying to be an a$$ or anything but i think the WW2 minis are going to be 1/196 scale. just a friendly correction

The idea of a 1:72 scale game sounds great. It would take a lot of work to get all the of cards, bases, flying pegs ect doubled in size, but with some really well painted models, you could really get involved with the game. Let us know how it works out!!

yes please do

I have a selection of 1/72 ww1 planes already based and mounted on arials (canvas eagles days).Wings of war realy intrested me for its simplicity of play,am thinking of using manouvre cards for programing then making a few modular templates for executing them.

I think the main issue would be one of space. You'd need a much bigger area to play.

Making double-scale cards would be easy, and it would look fantastic!

I toyed with the idea briefly, but space was just to big a factor for me. 1/72 has a fantastic variety of models available, and there are some really great looking pre-painted kits out there too. My Dad has a collection of 1/72 scale planes that goes from the Wright Flyer on up to modern day Stealth fighters. It's about 800 in all, and it is absolutely amazing. It's been in the making for over the last 40 years. If there is a kit in 1/72 scale, he has one or more. He has about 200 armored fighting vehicles from early on, up to modern, and a small 1/72 scale fleet of about 10-12 PT & E-Boat sized boats, with the crown jewel being a 1/72 scale German U-Boat! Several landing craft boats as well, of various sizes. I can't remeber if the B-52 or the B-36 is the biggest, although some of the modern Soviet bombers are pretty big too.

1/144 scale are easier to cranck out, production style for me, as I'm going for 3 each on the bombers, pairs on the fighters, and singles on planes like the Japanese Emily & Mavis, and the US PBY Catalina. I have 188 kits on hand already, with about 125-130 completed and ready for play. About 50 or so I still need to build, 10 being shipped to me. You can play at this scale on a decent sized kitchen table. Plus, they are much easier to transport and store. I do my 1/144 scale planes in "wheels down" fashion, which makes them easier to display or look at, but in "wheels up" mode, there is less to risk being broken, and they look super on the stands!

Amazingly though, I think the cost factor for 1/72 scale doesn't seem to be too much more than 1/144 scale! At least from what I've been seeing in the local hobby shops and on E-Bay. If you get into some of the bombers though, you're going to pay more in 72 scale. I grabbed 3 x B-17Gs in 1/144 scale for $5.95 apiece, pre built and pre-painted, they look fantastic. I got 3 x B-17Fs for the same price. That's going to be hard to match in 72 scale. I have 1 x B-17C/D, 1 x B-17F and 1 x B-17G in 72 scale (all unbuilt), and I paid on average about $19-$20 USD for them in local hobby shops, some time ago. I'm off work tomorrow, and I'll be going down to my favorite local hobby shop tomorrow to get some paints; I'll check out the local market for prices. I know I've seen the 72 scale pre-assembled, pre-painted fighters at around $10 USD in both hobby shops, and in toy stores here in C-Bus, OH. 21st Century has some super ones, as well as some other toy company, that I can't recall off the top of my head right at the moment.

I've got a few 1/72 scale kits still around that I have't "loaned" to my boys, and about 45 or so unbuilt still; I may have to keep tabs on this thread...

Your absolutely right about the size issue,think i'm getting a bit carried away with the prospect of 1/72 figures for the trenches and artillery

for AA. I've been known to put so much stuff on the table you can't move without crushing or knocking everything over.Still i might be able to find

a compromise.Gonna have to get the 1/144's as well cos they look cool!

I did make a Blue max game in 1/72 and it looked great but Wow is kinda harder since you need to make your own movement cards. But I guess you can scan the cards and enlarge them, print them out and glue them on cardboard to get things right.

As for the guy who said that there is more models in 1/72, that is not true. There are a lot of planes in1/144 if you both count the Wow planes, the Red eagle models and Revirescos models.

There are 2 more scales you can play Wow in, Micro (1/300 and 1/285, they can you play with the original Wow cards and the are a lot cheaper than the regular Wow planes but they don't look as good.

Red eagles Gotha bomber 1/144

At the start of the year I told myself I could study fulltime and work fulltime no problems, what was I thinking!. In between semesters I managed to modify and host a WoW 1/72 games night and thought I would let you know how it went. The models I used were mounted on aerials with pivots on top and based on 75mm plastic hexes. The bases are actualy furniture rests (used to stop them marking the floors) - they are recessed about 6mm and have some high density foam/rubber glued inside. Once that is ripped out it leaves ample room for gluing a 70mm diameter by 3mm thick washer to give stability to the stand.The game board was made by printing out an aerial photo of rural England, this I found on a forum on boardgame geek. When printed on photo paper and each section of the photo printed as a poster it gave a 1.2M by 1.6M game board. There was no need to upsize the maneouver cards I found them quite suitable. The aircraft bases had sections of the map with firing arcs and movement marks glued to them. I also made some clear perspex disks with firing arcs marked on them to make it easier to work out hits when the aircraft were at different altitudes, placed on top of the aircraft and lined up with the fuselage saved having to fiddle about under the models.Ten players were involved, the first game was a straight up dog fight 5 on 5; the second was an allied bombing run behind the trenches. The germans won both times. All involved had a great time and are looking forward to the next engagement. All i have to do now is make some observation balloons out of polystyrene and mount them to aerials then let the sausage hunt begin. Nearly forgot, i increased the size of the measuring rulers to 320mm and divided them in half, can't exactly remember how I came to this size increase but it worked well with the scale.

The FFG site states the WWII mini's will be 1/200 scale! Not sure I am excited about that... I understand they were bigger birds, but then they should be bigger birds...

LewdDude said:

I am sort of a scale freak myself, but it since the maneuver cards are the same size for the WWI and the WWII games, it makes sense that the WWII planes would have to be in a smaller scale since they are so much faster.

Additionally, I believe that the decision to make the WWII planes in 1/200 was also influenced by the cost of production and materials. A 1/144 plane would cost more to produce.

bsmith13 said:

I really don't like 1/200. Micro (1/300) would be better if they plan to use big planes like the B-17 while 1/144 still is the best for combat between fighters like Me109 and Spitfire.

One of the reasons I don't like 1/200 is of course that I never seen any other products in it. In the classic Wow I can get models for almost all planes used in WW1, the fact that some planes still don't have cards is the problem there. Planes with just 50 in production like Fokker DVI are possible to find in 1/144 even though Wow will most likely never make a model for it.

In 1/200 you must get the official models and can't get any other planes involved in your game. And I like odd planes like the Me 163...

No, I think 1/300 would be a lot cheaper scale also, then you could buy the fighters in a 3 pack. They would actually work better with the size of the cards because WW2 planes were a lot faster than WW1, not just 1.5 times.

Still I like to see the planes in question before making my final judgement. And if you really hate the 1/200 you can buy planes in a scale you like better instead. Still I am not sure I am so interested anyways, I like WW1 combat a lot better

There are some 1/200 scale wwii minis out there, some of the later war planes iirc. Not too bad a day searching for them, if you have the time.

Air200 and ScotiaGrendel are what I've found so far. There are a few diecast 1/200 larger planes like airliners but they do have some bombers floating around.

I'm just hoping that with the wwii minis coming out, this creates a resurgence in the market that gets more planes out there.

E

ejacobs said:

Well, I did find a few when I looked through all my usual stores, www.skytrex.com/ have some (highly reccomend them, nice fellows). 13 german models, 16 british, 4 american and 2 russian.

But you can find almost any WW1 plane that was used in combat in the scale 1/144 (I havn't found any Fokker EIV however and modded one from a Fokker EIII to have as an early war plane. It flies like a rock but it have really nice firepower and when you get the enemy in your sight, nothing else matters).

1/200 only seems to have very few planes. In 1/300 have Skytrex (since they have both scales) 16 german planes, 15 british, 14 american, 3 japanese, 7 russian and 6 itialian. Thats 35 1/200 and 61 1/300.

1/200 is still better than some scale we never seen before of course but I just think it is too small for fighters and too large for bombers. Also in 1/300 you can easily add stuff like ak-ak, bombing targets and so on because you can find everything in the scale.

No, I would still prefer in Wow WW2 were 1/144 even though the B-17 would be huge.

Boggs said:

Lonewolf have, he talks about it earlier in this thread. I did host a blue max game in the scale many years ago, I used antennas to show the planes height, looked very nice.

The planes is actually a lot cheaper in 1/72 than 1/144 and it works well for WW1 planes, 'cept maybe the Gotha bomber.