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.
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| 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.
