Changing Scales?

Picture from Pico Armor site

Recently I have been giving some thought to doing more Vietnam air gaming, using Check Your 6! I have some nicely painted 1/285th Raiden aircraft (painted by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures...damn fine work he does), for a few scenarios from Crusaders Over 'Nam, but I recently picked up Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, which adds a slew of opportunities for gaming with a variety of aircraft. However, a slew of opportunities means a slew of aircraft to purchase and while 1/285th fighter aircraft are around $3.00 to $4.00 each, needing larger bombers and such precludes a deep dive into trying to purchase and have painted all the aircraft needed for both scenario books. A possible solution is diving down to a smaller scale of aircraft (see what I did there?).

There are two companies making 1/600th scale aircraft in metal that I know of, those being Tumbling Dice and Osmial Osmy (Pico Armor in the United States). The former seems to offer more modern aircraft, but apparently have some issues in scaling and looking a bit more "cartoonish." The latter do not offer quite all the aircraft needed, but apparently are more to scale and more realistic in appearance. Check this blog post from sixtwentyeight to see some excellent comparison pictures.

Detailing on this size of aircraft in terms of painting and details offers a perhaps more simplistic approach. That is not to say I have not seen some amazing work in this scale, but some of the detailing (gun panels on F-86s for example) is not as necessary to paint.

I might have to place a small order with Pico to see if the quality of the planes, and the assembly of same, are both within my expectations. And then I also need to see if I can have them painted!