Delving Into 1/200 - Bases and Gaming Surface

Now that the planes are fairly sorted, I can also plan a bit with the bases and gaming mat I will need for gaming Check Your 6! Great War. The bases are custom 3D prints designed and printed by my gaming buddy Bob. He has been tinkering around with getting a Check Your 6! style base configured to use with the Wings of Glory planes. To that end, he is using (I think) a 1.75" hex base with a 2" hex gaming mat. Works well with 1/144 I must say, but I like smaller scales, and while planes can be had in 1/285, sourcing those are more of a hassle, plus adding a post at the bottom of the plane that will synch with a Wings of Glory sized peg is not practical. 

The compromise is a 1.75" hex, Wings of Glory sized pegs, and having the planes printed in 1/200 scale with a post that will align with the pegs. The hex size works well  - it is in between the official Check Your 6! 1.5" hex, which yields a hex grid of 30 by 45 hexes, and the larger 2" hexes used by some of my gaming companions. Going to the 1.75" hex still gives enough space to adapt the Colorful Skies scenarios with less fudge factor than using a 2" hex. Now I just need to convince my friend to print a few dozen bases and a slew of clear and translucent blue pegs!

Example of a Deep Cut Studio custom mat using a 1.75" hex - red used for illustration purposes

Back to the gaming space - with a 1.75" hex grid, the six feet by four feet gaming mat still provides a playing surface of 31 by 40 hexes, meaning very little fudge has to be factored in when using various published scenarios. The size of the hexes also work well with the size of the 1/200 scale planes. If I went to a two inch hex size, the hex grid would be 27 by 36, which, at least on the long measurement, is a quite a large variance, and would increase the fudge factor proportionately. While it allows more room for planes when they are in adjacent hexes, using the pegs to represent varying TALs should mitigate most overlap that one might have with 1.75" hexes.

Off to place an order with Deep Cut Studio!