The Commissioned Projects - Part VII

And now for something completely different....

The Cold War of the 1950s, other than the Korean Conflict, really is not an era I have studied. However, that has changed a bit with this next project, and a visit last year to the National Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida (see this POST). The museum has an FJ-4 Fury, done up in Marine livery, which I found to be a beautiful bird, and one that takes its beginnings from the F-86 Sabre. Add to that a recent eBay purchase of the Profile Publications booklet on the Fury, and I started to become hooked.

Let's add another recent Profile Publications purchase, that on the Saab J 29 Tunnan, or Flying Barrel, which has some ties to the Focke-Wulf Ta 183 (featured in this POST). The Tunnan is both sleek and ugly, which is right up my (MiG) alley. The search was on to find out more on both the Tunnan and the Fury.

The Saab J 29 Tunnan

A little internet research yielded some interesting results. The Fury FJ-4 was delivered to operational units in early 1955, while the Tunnan came onboard in the early 1950s. What would be the suitable opponents for a clash over Scandinavian skies? The MiG-15 was still the primary fighter for the Soviet Union, with the MiG-17 introduced in the early 1950s. These four aircraft types were operational during the same era - brilliant! 

One always needs MiG-15s!

Now readers of this blog do know that I prefer 1/285 for my Check Your 6! gaming, but I was willing to start this little Cold War project in 1/300 just The next step was to find miniatures in 1/285 or 1/300 scale. Fortunately, Flight Deck Decals makes both the Fury and the Tunnan in 1/300 scale, so the Allies were covered. And knowing that if Flight Deck made these two more obscure aircraft they would certainly also carry both MiG models. A quick check on the Russian Modern Jets yielded positive results. Now I was set!

The Sabre-like FJ-4 Fury

Here is where great customer service kicks in. Dan at Flight Deck knows I prefer 1/285 scale as I have had him custom print 1/285 scale aircraft for me in the past. I placed my order for four J 29s, two FJ-4s, four MiG-15s, and a pair of MiG-17s, expecting to receive them in 1/300 scale. But no, Dan knocked it out of the hanger and custom scaled the jets for me in 1/285! Talk about knowing your customer base...good show, Dan!

The MiG-17

Ratings for the Tunnan and the Fury will be the next challenge. The Fury is "basically" an advanced F-86, so perhaps using the later ratings will suffice. Speed and climb rates are close for the Fury and the F-86F, and wing area is nearly identical, while the heavier Fury has the advantage in thrust. For the J 29, I have looked at other jet data, so here is my take on the planes for this "what-if" project:

Thoughts on CincyCon

Heading to Israel, albeit slowly

I have only been to a couple of CincyCons in the past, a fairly large and well organized convention in greater Cincinnati. It has moved locations a few times over the years, but for the last last several editions has found a consistent home at the Butler County Fairgrounds in nearby Hamilton. The facility is large, with plenty of parking, and good lighting for gaming. This is also a wide variety of vendors and a flea market. The historical pickings are a little thin, but I-94 made it to the convention, and I know a few of us spent some shekels with them. Having plenty of unpainted planes already I only picked up a scenario book (the well done Under Southern Skies). My other money was spent on some food, which is also another nice aspect of CincyCon - there is a kitchen and so food can be purchased onsite as reasonable prices.

There were plenty of historical games going on, but seemingly not enough gamers to fill them - I might suggest they reduce the number of historical games a tad so as to allow the remaining ones to fill. But that is a concern that is beyond my purview - although as a gamemaster I would want a good amount of gamers in my event.

This year saw at least five Check Your 6! games - including one I hosted and two others in which I was a participant. Alas, I did not take many pictures. I planned on waiting to see how many gamers I had play before putting together a scenario, having brought all my 1948 Arab-Israeli aircraft. Since we had four of us, including myself we just selected an aircraft, and so in the first game (we had time to play twice) I took a C-47 escorted by a Hawker Fury to bomb an Israeli airfield. Flying a C-47 is an exercise in the mundane, but I was able to get to the airfield and make a bomb run, which failed to hit. I took an engine hit while moving to the field. The turn following I purposely made an extreme turn, and caused myself go out of control, at Surface Low CAB and TAL 2! My plan was to crash into the field, but I passed the aircrew check and recovered. Yikes. At that point we called the game.

An Avia S-199

And the rarely used Beaufighter

Closing in to bomb the airfield...get that Avia away from me!

Engine hit taken, bombs released, time to get out!

The second go 'round saw a pair of Israeli Spits against a Hawker Fury and a Macchi C.205. The Egyptians soon made sheep stew out of the Spitfires, while having lower quality pilots the superior agility of the Fury and the Macchi helped negate the difference in crew quality.

One Spitfire downed, and the second in my sights...

I played an unsuccessful 1956 Arab-Israeli game, commanding a pair of MiG-15s for a few turns before getting blown out of the sky. In the evening game (Foxtrot 4 from the Check Your 6! Jet Age book) I had a pair of Skyhawks. One took a Sidewinder in the arse, but the other dropped its bombs and became basically a fighter, shooting down a veteran Harrier. Alas, the Brits still won the game on points.

Skyhawks over the Falklands

Overall, I would return to CincyCon as a GM - the $30.00 weekend fee being too rich for me to game with the same guys I can game with for free at the local game stores (which is also probably why many gamers did not attend). Offering a Saturday only fee might be a way to generate more attendance. Also, perhaps offer a $5.00 shopping badge to help get some money to the vendors. Also, I think putting all the Check Your 6! games on a pair of tables in front of the I-94 booth would be a good way to promote the game while also helping I-94 sell their products. Regardless, this is a well organized convention and the location works well, so consider making it to CincyCon next year!

The Commissioned Projects - Part VI

From the Wardrawings site

Next up, completing the Burma project. I recently received an order from Table Top Flights that will allow me (once the planes have been painted)  to host six different scenarios from a variety of sources (the core rules, Battles Above 3, and one additional scenario found on the Check Your 6! discussion group). Focusing solely on fighters as the prospect of having a dozen bombers on the tabletop does not excite me.

I am adding three Ki-44 Shoki (Devil Queller), two Curtiss Hawk Model 81 (known to most of us as the P-40B/C), six Ki-27, two Hurricanes, and three P-40E models. This will provide, along with the existing planes I have already for Burma, all the aircraft needed for the following scenarios:

With these planes getting ready to ship off, once completed they will give me all the Burma I need!

The Peregrine Falcon

We know the plane by its American callsign, "Oscar," but the Nakajima Ki-43, to the Japanese Empire, was called the Hayabusa, or Peregrine Falcon. It is one of the most common of Japanese aircraft, but the Mitsubishi A6M series is far better known, and more often used by Check Your 6! gamers. However, the Hayabusa racked up half of all Japanese fighter victories during World War II, seeing action across the empire.

Often mistakenly called "Zero" in Allied reports, the Japanese Army's first retractable gear fighter was manufactured from 1939 until 1945, in three main types. The Hayabusa was to be the replacement for the beloved Nakajima Ki-27 (later known to Allied forces as the Nate). The Ki-43 prototype was not favored by military test pilots, but design improvements led to a favorable response by the Japanese Army, albeit at the sacrifice of strength and protection. The Ki-43-I was initially armed with just two Type 89 7.7mm machineguns, progressed to one Type 89 and one Ho-103 12.7mm machinegun (the most common gun arrangement on the Ki-43-Ib), then completed its run with two Ho-103 machinegun (the Ho-103 was classified as a cannon by the Japanese as it used an explosive shell). Speed for the Hayabusa was just over 300 miles per hour.

In 1942 the Ki-43-II was introduced with such improvements as light armor for the pilot and a crude form of self-sealing fuel tanks. Other improvements included a reflector gunsight, a taller canopy, and a three-blade propeller. Equipped with a more powerful engine, performance was enhanced, but speed and the rather weak armament were still detriments to the Hayabusa's ability to cope with more powerful Allied aircraft.

In game terms we have the following:

In 1/285 and 1/300 scales we have a few quality choices for the Hayabusa. Flight Deck Decals offers both the Type I and Type II models, while Raiden has one Oscar available (from the pictures on their website it is difficult to determine which type). Table Top Flights also provides both a Type I and Type II model. There are other companies that produce the Hayabusa, but the three aforementioned are my preferred ranges.

One can obtain some double duty in purchasing the Hayabusa. Compiling the various scenarios that feature the American Volunteer Group, from both the core rulebook and Battles Above 3, and adding in the Dutch East Indies scenarios from Battles Above 3, one needs a dozen Oscars. 

This highly maneuverable and successful aircraft deserves a bit more attention from Check Your 6! gamers.

The Commissioned Projects - Part V

The next project being commissioned is a Rumanian-Soviet scenario featuring the obscure Heinkel He 112, perhaps an equally obscure I.A.R.80, facing off against Soviet I-16s. The scenario, entitled Romanian Barbarossa Redux, can be found in the Downloads section to the left. It is a modification of a scenario found on the Check Your 6! discussion forum.

The Flight Deck Decals Heinkels will be painted in an aluminum finish, with theater yellow distinctions, while the Table Top Flights I.A.R.s will be completed in a brown and green scheme, again with theater markings. 

The Soviets, a half dozen castings from Raiden, will be in the basic early war dark green upper surfaces with light blue undersides. This way I can also use them for facing off against the Finns (yet another project).

Korea - Not a Good Day for the MiGs

Alas, I only remembered to snap a couple of pictures....

This past weekend I hosted a Korean War game, the scenario being The Fighting Fourth from the Air War Korea scenario book. We used the limited firing arc, which I find to be more a bit more realistic. It was a rough go for the Soviet players, with eight MiGs facing off against six Sabres, the Americans having two aces to contend with. 

One factor the Soviets did not seem to grasp was the scenario condition that if Soviet planes were shot down in certain areas the victory points for the Americans would be halved. Instead we engaged the Americans immediately instead of using our altitude advantage to race quickly to that area before taking on the Sabres. 

Soon four MiGs were destroyed. We had lined up some excellent shooting aspects, but the robustness rolls on the American side were off the charts when in most cases the amount of damage from the MiGs' cannons would have turned them into chaff. I finally was able to jump on the tail oe one skilled American and the resulting damage rolls were too much for the imperialist to overcome. In the same turn however, I lost that MiG, and with only three MiGs remaining against five F-86s (one having left due to a lack of ammunition) the Soviet players called it a game. 

I want to run this scenario again, and have the Soviets make an effort to get to the reduced victory point areas.

Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals

From the Gaeten Marie website

In my quest to recreate a few aircraft from the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana I stumbled across a decal company based in Germany - actually I think someone might have recommended them on the Check Your 6! Facebook group. This company, Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals, make a variety of decals in 1/200 scale. However I sent a message to them to see if they could scale sheets to 1/285 and received a timely and favorable reply. 

My plan is to have a few Macchi C.205s painted up, mainly for a scenario from Battles Above 1 entitled Protecting Them All. This scenario features three P-51s from the 332nd Fighter Group (the Tuskegee Airmen) protecting a damaged B-24 from a pair of ANR Macchis. In doing a little more research, the historical account indicates that there were four Mustangs, so I placed an order for a fourth Mustang (and a slew of other planes) with Flight Deck Decals to fill in the missing Mustang. I am using a combination of Leading Edge Miniatures and Flight Deck Decals for the Macchis, and will be having a total of six Italian fighters painted, even though the scenario just calls for two. Anyway, back to the decals.

Image from Sieben Schwaben website

I placed my order with Sieben Schwaben Spiele and received the decals about a month later (a longer than normal mail time). The decals are cleanly printed with a blue paper base layer so as to be able to see the white portions. One does need to cut closely around each desired decal as the full sheet is the decal.

The rescaled 1/285 decal sheet

The sheet will produce eight distinctly marked Macchis, with nine number choices. I am eager to see these decals making an appearance on the tabletop.

Jet Flight Stands - Sorted

Lower CAB, TAL 6, Speed 7

I now have a couple of options when it comes to flight stands for Check Your 6! Jet Age - the "official" flight stands with its dials and pointers, and the Litko ones I have assembled that use dice to indicate altitude and speed. The official stands can be a bit fiddly, and the numbers are small and hence more difficult to read (plus the pointers at times can be too loose or too tight, leading to some confusion as to what height or speed a plane truly is). The Litko ones are not as fancy, and suffer from some quality issues (some pegs are slightly warped, some do not fit snugly into the hole on the base, and others have to be sanded to obtain a level surface) but they do have a clear base which allows the gaming mat to be seen. And using a three tray dice holder, I can represent the faster jet speeds. I also understand there might be a dice tray that will hold one six-sided die and one eight-sided die.

Higher CAB, TAL 4, Speed 7

Contemplating the First World War One Project

While I have dozens and dozens of 1/144 scale planes for Wings of Glory, I am going to try a small Check Your 6! Great War project in 1/285 scale, if Table Top Flights can manage to produce resin prints in that scale (the thinness of the struts at such a small scale is a concern). However, Mike at TTF seems to be somewhat optimistic that some planes can be printed, so that means I will need to start thinking about what I want to tackle first.

I have gathered all the planes needed from all three Colorful Skies scenario books, and there is a wide variety, but also some commonality. I also have a scenario book called Billy's Boys, written for a set of rules called Watch Your Six, which focuses on the American experience in 1918 and has sixty-one scenarios within it's spiral bound pages. If I was to focus on the Americans in 1918, then that does narrow down what planes to start with a bit. However, it also means painted French five-color camouflage on the American fighters, which will take some work, but a scheme I feel like I have "mastered" somewhat.

My take on the French five color scheme - 1/144 scale Table Top Flights Nieuport 28s

To get the most "bang for the buck" one needs to look late war. Focusing on those scenarios featuring American squadrons using the Nieuport 28 between Colorful Skies and Billy's Boys yields of large number of possibilities. Let's run some numbers and see how many planes one needs:

There are forty-two (yes, 42!) scenarios utilizing the Nieuport 28, with a maximum of thirteen Nieuports needed. In those forty-two scenarios, one also needs four Pfalz D.IIIa, three Albatros C.VII, fifteen Fokker D.VII, eighteen Albatros D.Va, three Rumpler C.IV, three Breguet XIV, one SPAD XIII, one SPAD VII (German), five Pfalz E.IV (that is not a typo), one Albatros C.V (I would just use the C.VII version), one Airco D.H.9a, one L.V.G. C.V, and one Salmson 2A2. That yields seventy miniatures for those forty-two scenarios. A bit daunting from a painting perspective, so let's winnow it down by removing scenarios in which an aircraft type only appears once. That removed the German SPAD VII, the Pfalz E.IV, the D.H.9a, and the L.V.G. C.V, dropping the plane count to sixty-three, still a large number. I might consider removing the scenarios with the largest numbers of Nieuports, Fokkers, and Albatrosses. That would take the numbers down to eleven N.28s, ten D.VIIs, and seven D.Vas and a total of 40ish planes for well over thirty scenarios. Now that sounds manageable! 

As I obtain more details from Table Top Flights on what planes are printing well in 1/285 I will get an order placed and will start the project properly.

Which Macchi?

The Macchi C.205V Veltro is the definitive wartime fighter brought into production by Macchi factory. Introduced in early 1943, it wads not made in large enough numbers to impact the war as by that time Italy was on its last legs. However, after the capitulation, the Germans seized several Italian fighters, including the C.205V, before finally agreeing to allow the socialist Italian government to form its own armed forces. The Macchi was still being manufactured as most of the aircraft production facilities, being based in northern Italy, had not been targeted by Allied bombers. The new-formed Italian air force (Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana) fought mostly to protect those factories. There are a few miniatures companies making the C.205V, and what follows is my thoughts on three of them (one being defunct).

Left to right: Leading Edge Miniatures, Flight Deck Decals, and Raiden Miniatures

Flight Deck Decals

From a quality perspective, while all three companies mentioned here offer a good product, Flight Deck Decals has the most appeal. Cleanly printed with high quality material, it is a wonderful miniature. However, there are no barrels for the wing-mounted cannons. The print is fully detailed, including the under surfaces. Cost is a little over two dollars per Macchi. Keep in mind that FDD does not list many 1/285th aircraft on their site, but will do custom work with a minimum dollar order. If I was to go with just one choice, Flight Deck would be it.

Leading Edge Miniatures

While this company is no longer available, I was able to pick up a few castings recently from Noble Knight Games. For an older metal casting, the Leading Edge range is rather good, and their Macchi is no exception, however there is some slight metal potting/pitting on the wing surfaces and the casting needs a bit of cleanup. Having purchased a slew of Leading Edge Miniatures of late, I can say this seems to be a bit of a problem as I see this potting on a few of the planes I picked up, while others were perfect. The Leading Edge casting does have the wing cannons present. Details on the undersides of the Leading Edge range are nonexistent. 

Raiden Miniatures

While Raiden usually offers a nice quality product, their Macchi casting suffers a bit, at least the pair I have are showing some concerns. There is a decent of prep work needed to bring the plane into a paint ready stage, with extra metal bits here and there (see pictures). There are also some roughness issues on the wing edges, and the lack of detail on the undersides is a bit of a bummer. Overall the Raiden range is very good, so I am thinking there might be a bit of a mold issue with the Macchi. From a customer service perspective, I-94, the owners of the Raiden range, is the best.

All three aircraft are scaled rather well, with the Leading Edge having a slightly larger wingspan (about one millimeter) and a slightly "heftier" fuselage. The Flight Deck and Raiden offerings match very well, with no noticeable size differences. I would not hesitate to use all three companies on the same tabletop.

Check Your 6! for the Great War

Like many older gamers, years ago I used to play the Blue Max board game (the GDW version), but using CinC 1/285 scale miniatures on a hex mat instead of counters. From what I can gather from my feeble memory, I enjoyed the system for the most part, but seemingly there was a part of the rules that seemed "off" - that might have been the ease in which certain parts of the plane became damaged, or was it a random chit pull and I seemed to draw the worst results more frequently than I cared for? Regardless of my own hangups, the group seemed to move away from Blue Max for whatever reason.

For the last few years I have used Wings of Glory for my Great War gaming fix. However, while there are elements I enjoy, there are several gaps in the rules, and trying to get the local group to adopt house rule changes has been tough. Also, the haughtiness of a reply I received to a post on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome has turned me off a bit.

Check Your 6! has its roots in Blue Max, at least from a turn and maneuver perspective. And the concepts of Blue Max have been expanded into Canvas Eagles, still available as a free download. Add to that the Check Your 6! modifications from Brian DeWitt and his series of three Colorful Skies scenario books, and one has a couple of Check Your 6! style options for gaming the fight in the skies during the Great War.

One concept I have is to take the maneuver charts of Canvas Eagles and use them in place of the standard maneuver charts offered in Check Your 6! that Colorful Skies utilizes. Seemingly the Canvas Eagles maneuver charts reflect the historical performance of the widely varying aircraft of the Great War more accurately than the standard charts, but also add a great deal of depth when it comes to climbing and diving. For example, we have the chart for the ubiquitous Fokker Dr.I:

The speed bands are there, and taking, say maneuver 4S3 (in Speed Band 3), one can stay at level, can dive, or can setup into a restricted maneuver the following turn. That equates fairly well with Check Your 6! in which one, using a forward maneuver, can stay level or dive at varying changes in altitude, but can also climb with a possible detriment to speed the following turn. Simple enough, but what about a maneuver like 9R2? A fierce right turn, but one that allows a dive in the current turn, or a required dive in the following turn. The E Chart in Colorful Skies does have a similar maneuver, R14, which is an extreme turn. It does not require a dive, but can allow a climb, level flight, or a dive, depending on current speed. There are some maneuvers available on the chart above that do not exist on Chart E, such as 11R2 or 11L2, so there are some differences between the charts, and these differences add a different element to aircraft performance.

There is also a question of what miniatures to use - I have a slew of the Wings of Glory and Reduced Aircraft Factory color printed aircraft, in 1/144 scale. Within my collection I also have a few planes I have painted from Shapeways and Table Top Flights. However, the standard Check Your 6! playing surface is 1.5" hexes on a six by four feet mat, and I already have three gaming mats with these parameters. The stands for the Wings of Glory planes are a little over 2.5". This leaves a bit of a conundrum. Do I use the 1/144 planes on a mat with 2.5" hexes with a larger mat? If so, to use the scenarios in Colorful Skies, the mat would have to be ten by seven feet! That is going to be problematic - Deep Cut Studio, where I go for custom mats, doesn't make a mat of that size (and if they did, it would be cost prohibitive). Second, finding tables at the local game stores for that size is most likely not happening. 

Of course, I could start collecting aircraft in a smaller scale which solves the mat issue. Table Top Flights make both 1/200 and 1/285 scale aircraft for the Great War, however, in speaking with Mike at Table Top Flights, the smaller scale leads to some quality concerns - the frailty of some of the struts at that scale causes breakage. Mike is going to run some test prints for me on certain aircraft to see how they turn out. 

Going to 1/200 would be a possible option as most WWI planes are smaller than their WWII counterparts. I could still use the mats and the flight stands I currently use for the other Check Your 6! eras I game. Here are a couple of shots of a 1/200 scale Roland D.II (I buggered up the nose a bit when I removed the propeller blades).

The quality is quite good, regardless of how a digital camera captures the tiniest of details.

Decals can be an issue in 1/200 - there are some available, but mostly as part of 1/285 or 1/144 sheets, and very little squadron or personal markings in that scale. In 1/285 there are much better options, using 1/300 as well. And of course, if I do go to a different scale, then I am going to have a lot of painting in my future! World War One aircraft can be very colorful, an I cannot imagine trying to paint German lozenge on such tiny planes. I have some decisions to make....

The Commissioned Projects - Part IV

Another Check Your 6! project, that has the potential for expansion, is an Aleutian scenario from Battles Above 3 - Strike on Kiska. This scenario pits three B-25s and a pair of P-40Es against five A6M2-N Rufes. With the addition to the library of two reference books (Into the Endless Mist I & II, published by Helion), which has more of a focus from the Japanese perspective, I can see the Aleutians becoming a larger project. For now the focus is to get this unique scenario on the table top. Planes are all resin prints by Table Top Flights.

The B-25s will be painted in olive drab over neutral gray, with roundels of a white star on a blue field, representing the 77th Bombardment Squadron. The P-40s will be from the 11th Fighter Squadron, with their distinctive Aleutian Tiger motif (if Miscellaneous Miniatures can do that), again in olive drab and neutral gray with the same style of roundels.

The Rufes are a bit more complex, or maybe I just need to make a decision on how I want them to look. The initial batch in the Aleutians seemed to have the dark green over light gray scheme, but I believe later ones were painted overall ame-iro (the light caramel gray that was common on early war Japanese naval aircraft). It is a cool color, but being a bit of a historian I do like having accuracy whenever possible. Of course I could also do a mix of schemes. I most likely will settle on the dark green scheme.

From Into the Endless Mist

From the Bravo Bravo website

The Aleutians offer a mix of aircraft types from the Allied side, including Canadian P-40Ks in the standard British green and brown over gray. As always, more on all this in a future post!

The Commissioned Projects - Part III

One of the most enjoyable Check Your 6! games I have hosted was my hypothetical three way scenario set during Operation Torch (after action report HERE). This scenario pits four French Dewoitine D.520s vs. four American F4Fs vs. four Spanish He 112s, with each faction having one of each aircrew type (ace, veteran, skilled, and green). I also want to do a few historical Torch scenarios, which I am slowly working on creating. To properly cover the Vichy French in the American area of operations one must have Curtiss Model 75s, and so this project is simply adding four Hawks to the collection. The Model 75s will be painted as above, with the Indian head motif of Groupe de Chasse II/5, and adding in the Vichy red and yellow strips, as below.

The planes I have for this project are custom scaled Flight Deck Decals. The quality is top notch as evidenced by the photos that follow.

Check Your 6! - A Different Basing Solution

For years I have been using the "official" flight stands/bases for Check Your 6!, mostly purchased through I-94 or gathered from my departed friend's collection. And for years, knowing that both Bob and myself had some polarity issues when it came to the magnets on the bases and planes, I've had to play "match the plane to the base" when organization planes for a scenario. Recently some suggestions had been made during a gaming session to glue washers on the pegs (posts) of the stands so as to negate the polarity issue with the magnet on the plane. Brilliant! But, later seeing some overly large washers in action, and seeing how the planes were not really that secure on the stand, I decided to go a slightly different direction to solve the polarity issue.

At the same time, I wanted to represent altitude a little more realistically on the tabletop, something that the small pegs for the Wings of Glory system captures fairly well. Since the planes I use are 1/285 or 1/300, finding telescoping stands that were small enough to not overshadow the planes, while short enough to avoid too many knock overs, was an issue. My friend Bill uses clear Litko bases with dice trays, the dice used to denote speed and altitude, something that the official bases do well, except that the pointers on the dials can have problems - too loose or too tight, and also a bit too small to easily discern on the game table. While I do not necessarily like having dice on the stand from an aesthetic perspective, the clear base looks better and the dice are easier to read and use. Also, Litko makes the peg in a few different sizes, and as many of the scenarios I use have two altitude bands (CAB), using a shorter peg stand at the lower CAB and swapping for a taller base at the higher CAB seems to be a decent compromise (and I can get rid of the distracting red poker chip I use to mark a higher CAB). I ordered fifty flight bases to go with twenty-five 2" fight pegs and twenty-five 3" fight pegs, as well as several dice holders.

I have affixed several dice holders to the base, at first using little dabs of super glue, but since switching to acrylic glue. The Litko pegs, or maybe it is the holes in the bases, are a tad too loose in some cases, but adding the dice holder seems to help prevent leaning pegs. So from a base perspective, I think I have a decent solution. While the dice are a tad distracting, they are easier for gamers to use and easier for aging eyes to see. Now, how to attach the planes.

As mentioned, I was not enamored with the practical application of the washer solution, so I dig some searching on the interwebs and came up with something that might work. A company called Total Element (also called Element Magnets Inc.), which focuses mostly on magnets, also make small steel blank metal strike plates in varying sizes. The size I selected was 1/4 inch diameter and one millimeter thick. Ideally I wanted to find a 3/16 inch diameter piece to match the magnet diameter I use, but could not source those. I placed an order for three hundred of the discs, and they arrived in a few days. No, I do not need three hundred of them, but that was the quantity offered, and I can give the extras to fellow gamers.

I've glued a couple of the discs to the Litko flight pegs and overall I am pleased with the look. Here are some comparison shots showing the two basing systems.

The Macchi is on the new system, while the Spitfire is on the official stand. 

Both now on the new system, showing the two different flight pegs to denote two different CABS