Wake Island Atoll - Trying a New Scale

In 1/285 scale, this could get expensive

Many Check Your 6! scenarios call for a lot of bombers, which is not something I am really into, from both a price and playing perspective. Bombers can be expensive (price perspective) and most players do not want to push around a bunch of bombers (playing perspective). However, for the Wake Island scenario booklet I am working on, several G3M Nell bombers, even in reduced numbers to enhance play balance, figure into several scenarios. Therefore a couple of years ago I dipped my toe into 1/600 by buying dozen Nells, eight Wildcats, and eight Buffaloes from Pico Armor (Oddzial Osmy). And for the last couple of years those 1/600 planes had been sitting idle. Recently I got them out of the gaming closet, cleaned up the castings by cutting off the extra metal bits, and primed them in preparation for painting. 

One thing about 1/600 miniature aircraft, whether they are from Pico Armor or Tumbling Dice, is that they are very affordable. Pico has Nells at $1.50 each, while their American fighters come in at seventy-five cents per miniature. Tumbling Dice are even more cost efficient at $1.00 for the Nells and fifty cents for the Wildcats and Buffaloes. The latter castings are not as detailed or as properly scaled as the offerings from Pico Armor, but the price point, before shipping from Old Blighty, is better, and Tumbling Dice has a more comprehensive offering of aircraft.

Image from Pico Armor website

Image from Tumbling Dice website

Wildcat, Nell, and Buffalo, primed and awaiting a paint order to arrive

As for painting - normally I send off my planes to Miscellaneous Miniatures or I-94 for painting. They both do fine work at an affordable price. But, as the planes I am working on for Wake Atoll are fairly simple in paint scheme, and I should be able to handle the chore of applying national insignia decals, I will be taking a stab at painting the Wake Atoll planes myself. I seem to do decently well with my 1/144 World War One projects, so tackling 1/600 should be workable. I foresee a couple of issues - one is the small nature of the planes which might be a fiddly aspect when trying to paint, and the other is applying a magnet that won't overwhelm the miniature to those tiny fuselage bottoms.

Once the paints have arrived, I will paint up the Americans first, just to see how the planes look in their early war scheme, and to see if I enjoy painting such a tiny scale. More to come!