Recent Purchases – World War II

I have been on a bit of a buying tear, and I really need to slow down! My first order from The Miniatures Marketplace consisted of four Vultee Vengeance attack aircraft, six Rogožarski IK-3 (or IKZ) fighters, a pair of Messerschmitt Bf 109D models to use for Swiss, and a single Mitsubishi Ki-15 “Babs” for a Darwin scenario. The Miniatures Marketplace has a large offering of planes (444 as of this posting), and can print most of them in numerous scales (which can vary from plane to plane, but 1/285 seems to be available for all). The interwar list contains thirty-six aircraft and helps fill in some of the Spanish Civil War and Sino-Japanese War planes that are not readily available from other companies. Pricing is on the high side, with single seat fighters running $4.50 to nearly $5.00, but one can receive price breaks when ordering in quantity. Bombers are very costly, with a B-24G running a whopping $21.17 (compared to $8.00 from Table Top Flights and $10.71 on the Flight Deck site). Also, one will find planes listed under the 18th and 19th Century lists - an obvious error.

A pretty good Vultee Vengeance

The Ki-15, known in Japanese Navy service as the Mitsubishi C5M

The Messerschmitt Bf 109D, known to the Swiss as the Me 109 Jumo

Compared to a Raiden Bf 109E

The least detailed print of the bunch, the Rogožarski IKZ

And compared to a Leading Edge version - I prefer the Leading Edge model

As one can see, the detail on these 3D prints is decent. The quality of the material is between Flight Deck Decals and Table Top Flights - fairly soft, pliable, with good detail (but the details are not as evident as they are on FDD). 

Take a look at The Miniatures Marketplace for those odd planes that the others do not print, but be aware of the costs, particularly when it comes to larger aircraft.

Swiss Pictures

A couple of weekends ago I hosted a pair of games featuring the Swiss defending their airspace. Both scenarios are based on historical events. While I am not able to piece together enough details to make an after action report, here are the pictures from both games.

In both games the tail gun from the German bombers was able to cause damage on an attacking fighter with a paltry 1 result on a single die. And in both games a fighter went out of control for several turns. I had not experienced that sort of strange commonality in games before. Also, you will notice some blue tokens - I have decided to use a rule in which a plane that climbs may only fire at same or higher TAL while one that dives may only fire at same or lower TAL. The tokens are from a Litko set, and I had them make just "climbed" and "dived" tokens.

I also used a different ratings for the various models of Messerschmitts. The E-1, E-3, and E-4 were all being used by the Germans at this time so I use a random roll to determine the model for each Bf 109. In both games the German player wound up with one E-1 and one E-4 model. 

The first game featured a Dornier Do 17 on a recon mission. Jumped by a pair of Swiss Me 109 DBs, and then a pair of German Bf 109Es come to the rescue.

A recon Dornier is not where he should be

And the Swiss react

The Swiss fighters were painted by Chris at I-94

Stung by a lone LMG, the Swiss player failed the robustness roll

The Dornier finally goes down

To the rescue, perhaps a tad too late

Hoobestank lyric "I'm going out of control" comes to mind - I think it was five or six turns of failing!

Passing Messerschmitts

Still out of control...maybe that player should stop plotting F1 moves UNTIL he recovers?

And as soon as he regains control, Emil is there to mop up!

The second game saw a pair of French Dewoitine 520s chasing after a crippled Heinkel. A pair of Swiss Me 109s are guarding their border, while a pair of German Messerschmitts arrive to even things up. Had the French player crossed the Swiss border, the Swiss fighters were free to engage. The French player wisely choose not to violate Swiss airspace.

Don't get too close!

The cavalry is on its way

I told you not to get too close!

A fighter furball

Out of control? Really?

Planes - Raiden

Stands and tokens - Litko

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

Additional Sources for Miniatures

In an effort to track down 1/285 scale Great War aircraft, I have come across a couple of companies offering 3D prints. Paint and Glue Miniatures, which I had come across before when looking about for 1/144 scale aircraft for Wings of Glory, also provides the same Great War aircraft in 1/285 (seventy-nine different planes). I have placed an order and will post pictures of the printed product once it arrives as I am eager to do the Werner Voss fight in 1/285, using my Check Your 6! Great War modifications. 

The second shop is The Miniatures Marketplace, which has 444 aircraft of various periods available in a slew of scales. While many of these prints can be found at other retailers, The Miniatures Marketplace also has many prints that others do not offer, like the Rogozarski IK-3 and the Messerschmitt Bf-109D for example. Price points are a bit high compared to Flight Deck Decals or Table Top Flights, with medium and heavy bombers at stupid costs, but for smaller aircraft, ones that others do not have, they make a good alternative. They also offer price breaks when ordering larger amounts of aircraft along with free shipping so that does help offset the higher costs per plane. I am placing a small order and will also post pictures to provide some ideas of their print quality.