Changing Scales?

Picture from Pico Armor site

Recently I have been giving some thought to doing more Vietnam air gaming, using Check Your 6! I have some nicely painted 1/285th Raiden aircraft (painted by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures...damn fine work he does), for a few scenarios from Crusaders Over 'Nam, but I recently picked up Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, which adds a slew of opportunities for gaming with a variety of aircraft. However, a slew of opportunities means a slew of aircraft to purchase and while 1/285th fighter aircraft are around $3.00 to $4.00 each, needing larger bombers and such precludes a deep dive into trying to purchase and have painted all the aircraft needed for both scenario books. A possible solution is diving down to a smaller scale of aircraft (see what I did there?).

There are two companies making 1/600th scale aircraft in metal that I know of, those being Tumbling Dice and Osmial Osmy (Pico Armor in the United States). The former seems to offer more modern aircraft, but apparently have some issues in scaling and looking a bit more "cartoonish." The latter do not offer quite all the aircraft needed, but apparently are more to scale and more realistic in appearance. Check this blog post from sixtwentyeight to see some excellent comparison pictures.

Detailing on this size of aircraft in terms of painting and details offers a perhaps more simplistic approach. That is not to say I have not seen some amazing work in this scale, but some of the detailing (gun panels on F-86s for example) is not as necessary to paint.

I might have to place a small order with Pico to see if the quality of the planes, and the assembly of same, are both within my expectations. And then I also need to see if I can have them painted!

Sea Mat

Buying a gaming mat these days leads to quite a few rabbit holes, due to the vast amount of options currently available. Used to be one bought some felt at the local fabric store, then that permeated into buying Geohex mats, then Geohex terrain pieces, and that covered the gaming needs for a number of years. But more recently one can buy mats on fleece or mousepad material or PVC, beautifully printed. One could also use various sign making companies and upload an image for the company then to produce a mat printed on banner material. Then, does one want hexes or no? All sorts of decisions to be made.

To use with my Figurehead Great War ships, mounted on Warbases custom bases, for the Coronel and Falklands scenarios, I spent a few hours weighing options at various online retailers. Cost would be a primary factor as I did not want to spend too much on a mat, but still wanted to have a nice looking and functional surface. To that end I went with a PVC mat from Deep Cut Studio.  

I placed my order on a Sunday afternoon (U.S. time). The website is easy to use. Find the mat you want, pick a material, pick a size, add to cart, and checkout with PayPal or a credit card. My 6' by 4' mat was $72.00 which included included overseas shipping.

I received my mat on January 24th, the Friday following my order. During the process I received updates about shipping with a FedEx tracking number. A Sunday to Friday turnaround time is really amazingly fast from Europe to the United States! The mat came in a long tube, which I should be able to use when the mat is being stored.

I am very happy with how the mat looks with my Warbases custom blue bases. Now, time to determine rules and to host this game at a local shop!

Coronel and Falklands Ships - Based and Ready

Using tacky glue I have been able to base the various ships for the Coronel and Falklands battles. I am just waiting for my Deep Cut Studio mat to arrive to see how well these blue tinted bases from Warbases will look on the gaming table. I am really looking forward to running some games with these little beauties! Now I need to sort out a simple set of rules!