I blame this whole thing on Covid-19. If I hadn't been locked down I would never have gotten around to building those old 1/72 scale Interwar aircraft models and this would never have happened! But that aside I have long held an interest in the fighter aircraft of the period 1930-40. It was an era of very rapid development with significant improvements coming on an almost daily basis. And, to be honest, I just like the look of aircraft with fixed landing gear.
It took a lot longer than I thought but it was still much faster than building them one at a time. I'm finally out of I-16s to build and paint! Two in Chinese colors, one in Republican Spanish and five in Soviet colors. Now I have to tackle the biplanes; two I-15s, and one each of I-152, I-153 and I-3 (I'm still tracking down an I-5 at a reasonable price)., The Claude got included with these guys because I had started it a while back and it had been waiting for decals for a long time. After the last of the Russians I will get started on the Japanese and Chinese (anybody got a KI-10 -or two- in 1/72 scale that they want to get rid of?).
If I really keep banging away I might have the Russians and Japanese ready in time for a Khalkihn Gol game at Pro Or Con on October 2nd!
I tried to get them done today but the gloss was taking forever to dry and I only got as far as setting the decals. Tomorrow morning they get a blast of matte spray and I can get down to business on the biplanes. In the end I opted for two Soviet planes, one Nationalist Chinese and one Republican Spanish. Having no decals for the Spanish I was forced to hand-paint the colors which was a bit tedious but I think it turned out pretty well.
Having painted some minis I gave myself permission to go back to building airplanes for the Labor Day holiday weekend. Tired of the serial builds; one of this, one of that I decided that I would build all of my remaining Polikarpov I-16 Ratas in one go. Three of the kits were the classic Revell kit and the last was an IMC kit that was much newer. I knocked together the Revell kits in about 90 minutes (having built several in the past year they were dead-easy) but the IMC kit suffered from a bizarre pattern of sectioning of the parts combined with tons of flash and more than normal parts warping. This one kit took longer that the others to build and required a fair amount of filler and sanding. Be that as it may, I plugged along and got them all assembled, filled and sanded (as well as adding a steel slug in the fuselage to allow for the use of magnetic stands)
Now I have to decide what colors I should give them. One will be in Nationalist Chinese, at least one more will bear the red star of the Soviet Union, and I am pretty sure that one will be set up for the Spanish Civil War. The fourth could go either Russian, or Spanish, or maybe even Finnish.....not sure, not sure. As I wait for the paint to dry on these I will try to be working on the I-15 series; two I-15s, and one each of an I-152 and I-153. I have no idea what color these will carry.
Having added the Warlord Games Engineers Working Party to the "completed" list jogged a synapse in my old brain and I remembered that I had other miners and sappers types somewhere in the Pile Of Shame. A bit of digging about soon produced some (Dixon, I think, judging from the enormous hands) figures of early Lace Wars Pioneers. Looking at these I remembered that I had also converted some old Wargames Factory infantry into sappers as well. Another dive into the Pile (on the shallow end because there are only a few thousand unpainted plastics) rescued these lads from obscurity. This motley lot soon made their way onto the painting bench and, in a burst of painting unseen in many years, I got them finished in a couple of days. It seems that I will have to concoct a siege-related scenario to give them a sense of purpose.
Bastion Gaming Center will be hosting the Second Day at Gettysburg this Saturday, September 4th starting at 1p.m.. The game will be played with Fire & Fury rules and use 15mm figures. All are welcome to drop by and try their hand at capturing Little Round Top or the Peach Orchard.
I sat myself down and gave myself a pep-talk, "Plaids have never killed anyone! Get yourself to the bench and don't work on ANYTHING else until these lads are battle-ready!" Well, here we are, fourteen hours of chanting "Plaids can't hurt me" over and over again and they are finally table ready. I rather like the way that they turned out but seeing them in photos I realize they will need another coat of matte finish before they are truly completed
Game at my place Saturday 28AUG21 at 7pm
We will be taking another go at my WW2 airplane rules (probably)
I'm looking to beat the late-Summer doldrums with a road trip. In past years I have gone to Michigan's "Up North" but time and gas prices preclude a trip to Copper Country so I have set my sights on something closer; Historic Fort Wayne. Located, oddly enough, in Fort Wayne Indiana, it is just a three hour jaunt from home. This would tick off another box on my checklist of forts this side of the Mississippi. My Silverado comfortably seats four full-grown humans so if you are interested in joining me on a day-trip to see the fort give me a holler. I'm thinking a weekday would be best and will be checking with the fort staff to ensure there aren't any scheduling issues.
Having steeled my nerves and put aside the Castillo de San Anton model that R.U.P. gave me last week I was promptly distracted by yet another temptation. I came into possession of a group of very old, badly battered and horribly painted Scots figures from the early 1970's. Lead rot had taken as full third of them and the rest looked almost ready to go into the smelter. Of course, I promptly fell in love with this ragged band of rubbish (to be honest some of the figures are truly terrible). I resolved to spruce them up and give them decent looking bases. A very long afternoon later they were finished. Frankly, they still look rather rough, but they will soon join the forces of Boozonia in my Thirty Years War Imaginations campaign. Given their age I might just rate them as grizzled veterans!
But, finally, after basing and varnishing them I was free to address my new Scots. A few hours of work got some basic colors on the minis but I fear that I am a long way from done.
Ages past a good friend of mine, Jon Williams, painted simply mountains of 15mm Medieval figures. We spent many happy hours gaming with them over the years. About ten years ago Jon passed away leaving me his collection of figures. Each year, around his birthday, I try to ensure that his figures get out and get used in a big battle. This year's game reflected an English Chevauchee gone awry and being cornered by a bevy of angry Frenchmen. Things didn't go so well for the English........Shakespeare won't be writing a play about Henry the Fifth, it seems.
Here's to you "Little Jon"! We miss you.
