More modern air support

 As a follow up to the last post, Peter and I also went halves on some NATO aircraft sets. As part of my SH/MSH air support replacement program I got the following.

Front left to right Gazelle, Lynx and Harrier, back PAH-1, UH-1 and an out of focus Saab Draken (Danes). My Brits have never actually had any air support so I'm sure it will be apreciated.

Next up the Russians and more Helicopters.

 

L to R Mi-4 Hound, Mi-8 Hip and Mi-6 Hook with a Hind in the back to scale. Now I knew that the Mi-6 was big but this is just enormous. In teamYankee you would not be able to fire the length of the cargo bay. Oh and a Mig 21's as well.

Finally I could not resist his set after my reading on the air war over North Vietnam. A complete SA-2 battery complete wth the "Spoon Rest" early warning radar and "Fan Song" fire control radar.

 The "Spoon Rest" radar array is printed on acetate (though possibly a bit thicker might be nice). The "Fan Song" looks like it was invented by a mad scientist on a wild weekend bender. I'd hate to see it change direction quickly.

"It won't track the target".

" Then stick more radar dishes on it!"

On decals

In the comments to the last post Luke commented that he had brought some Russian decal with a register missmatch which was visibly horrible.

I'd like to present the SF decals ( from I-94 enterprises ) that seem to be far better. They are for 1:300 scale so I've had to use the smallest ones on the sheet.

I've just noticed that one of the P-47s has the star upside down. The vents on the rear fusalage preclude the addition of decals on the sides though I might still have a crack at it.

Picoarmour and Flight Deck Decals do a wide range of 1:600 scale decals. The real problem is that SH/SH only require a few stands of aircraft and theres no point building up vast air fleets (not that I'll let it stop me). Helicopters however are another thing entirely....

Getting to the bottom of the lead pile

Looking round for things taht I could use and have yet to paint.
I did a bit of thinking about the Picoarmour aircraft that I purchased last year. The main problem was that they seemed to be made of titanium based on the number of drill bits that I've gone through trying to put holes in them. so the simple plan was to give up and try somethingelse. I folded up a support at the end of a piece of brass wire and then superglued the model on top.
First up were some Hind-D's.

The basing fits the TOE where a Russian diviosn in MSH gets 2 stands of Hinds based on a total of 6. However since my use of large numbers of aircraft on stands has been somewhat cotroversial I though I would see what everyones opinion is on 3 Hinds per base. I'll point out that I don't use rotor disks as I feel that they are just a pain in the butt, gather dust and don't look right.

A couple of weeks on

Interesting times indeed. The world slowly closes down as the borders shut and internationl transport slows to a halt. At work, airfreight prices are going through the roof. A shipment that normally costs $3000 to transport was quoted at $12000 on Monday. "you must be mad" was the reply. On Wednesday it was $15000 and was taken without blinking.
So I've stopped ordering figures for the moment and its time to work through the lead pile and old projects. Having said that, heres one of the last new ones for a while.

For In Her majesties Name 4 automatons and a nice walker from Ironclad minatures. The walker had a machinegun, but the furture of steampunk demands arc weapons (and steam power..nevermind). I soldered this up while being reminded that plastic rod gets floppy when hot. The man in stripy pants is there for scale.
I'm also reaching the end of the current batch of Baccus Napoleonics. Theres just 3 divisions of Austrian infantry left to paint. So the collection currently looks like..

Left row French and Bavarians, center is the British and right Austrians and Saxons. Theres enough for 3000 pts of the a major ones plus 800 pts of the Saxons and Bavarians.
We are hoping to get a game of IHMN in this weekend. I need to check the levels of supplies to build some 28mm terrain and I'm pondering a theatre or museam. It might be the theatre as a museam would need a large whale skeleton hanging from the roof.

Air support update

As a further update to the last post I've maanged to paint and base the first of the models.
I'm an old time fan of the Thunderbolt so these were the first bases I completed.
The smaller size of the 1:600 allows you to get more than one model per stand. I got out the soldering iron to join the pre-glued brass wires together.

A10's in the European Lizard scheme

 The models come up quite nice and the pre-cast underwing ordanance is not that hard to paint.

So how do they scale?

Bbbbrrrraaaapppp

For the original Thunderbolt with a bit of imagination (and some skilled soldering) I managed to get 4 to a base.

I managed to solder this with no burnt fingers.

 And again, with targets.

I'm quite liking it

An update from the bench

Last post, Ski commented

You're right about the very hard metal. I've given up on trying to drill it and instead use small magnets glued to the planes and the flight stands to keep the two together during games. 

 While I've read the story's over the years about how hard the Oddzial Osmy metal is, I've just put it down to pampered wargamers not being able to deal with anything outside lead or plastic. In another life as a railway modeler I've dealt with all sorts of metals. Hell, I've even managed to work with cast bronze, and that's a metal that's best when someone else works with it for you. So, I now report my scientific investigations this afternoon on the properties of the meta.

-It is not melted by a soldering iron (this was quite an eyeopener)
-It won't take solder (even more of an eyeopener as I've managed to solder piano wire before)
-It is tarnished by phosphoric acid (no idea what this means, I only really do Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen in my day job).
-My mini drill doesn't seen to do small diameter drills, nore does there seem to be a chuck available locally to do the job. (not a scientific observation, just a frustrating one. back to the hand tools).
-The metal is indeed quite hard. I made up a jig with a couple of bits of wood to hold everything steady-ish while I used my hardcore twist drill to make a hole.



-Drills snap quite easily if you are not overly careful about bending them while drilling. 
-drills snap off flush in hard metals (fortunately I could dig it out, so I didn't lose the P-47)

So, after all that, I must confess that I know not what the metal is. I had thought it would be some sort of pewter, but I'm now leaning towards a Zamak (zinc alloy, possibly with aluminum. I'd have to toss some of the flash into some strong acid at work to see if it fizzes).

The result of the afternoon. The IL-2 was a sacrificial model that I tried a few things out on as I could live with loosing one.

Its review time.

I've looked at 3mm models for a while now. More of a "I'd have to be mad" than "cripes that's a good idea". What normally stops me is the sunken cost of the 6mm pile and my eyesight not being what it once was. That and the website photo's were not that great.

Last weekend I was shown a bag from the Page strategic lead pile which contained a bundle of 3mm aircraft from Pico armor and Tumbling dice. These looked good in the flesh and it gave form to an idea that had been wandering round the back blocks of my brain for a couple of years. I sent off the order and 8 days later...

Size comparison with GHQ P47D

Side on

Top and bottom detail

Typhoons compared with GHQ

I also brought some IL-2's but don't have a size comparison for those.
The typhoons and IL-2's have bombs cast on, with nothing on the P-47's.

In the order I also purchased some modern aircraft. Pico armour do NATO and WARPAC ground support packs where you get 2 each of 3 different models. Much more useful than 8 models. The underwing ordanance is cast on, which saves me having to glue stuff on.

A10 compared to an old Kiwimodels A10

F16, A10 and F4

Su25, Mig 27 and Su17. The Mig 23 is cast in 2 parts.

 I also brought some helicopters. Hind D, AH-1 and OH-58D. The rotor discs and also supplied.

So, the plan is to use the models for air support in SH and MSH. I should be able to get at least 2 planes to a stand, and possibly more. The models come in packs of 4-8 (depending o the size) for US$4.25. Postage is a standard $16 so it pays to get a bigger order together.

The metal is rather hard, so it will be interesting to see how hard it is to drill holes it it. There are starter marks in the bottom of the aircraft so hopefully its just a question of more power. I picked up several packets of decals (other companies do a wider range) to save me trying to paint small stars on the damn things.

The old and the new

Dr U-S asked for a comparison picture of the old US strip vs the new strip.
Here it is.

The new ones are far better fed than the old models, but are the about the same height (6mm vs 6-6.5 mm). This surprised me so much that I measured them 3 times before I was convinced.

New Toys Review.

The care package that delivered my Dutch, also had a few of the new 1980's infantry strips.
These were so nice that I gave them a coat of white followed by a smoke wash to try to bring out the detail.

New US strip

New German strip

New Denmark strip. I think that they have camoflage on the helmets.

 These are getting up towards GHQ in quality, and H&R is far more user friendly to order from.
( And while I understand the use of the larger feeder sprues which increase the sharpness of the casting, the Scottish in me feels that I should collect to off cuts and post them back to Andy...)

The new YPR 765 PRAT (the schoolboy in me always giggles when I see this). This is a new sculpt and not the old Skytrex model. The detail on the hammerhead is very nice too. I suspect this vehicle will be more stable than the US M901.

 Now I just have to get painting my Dutch

Finally a bit of modeling. I've had the ZSU57-2's for a while. I've just added figures from the old standing artillery crew strip.  This strip is great for adding crews to open topped AFV's as they are really thin.

I'm still not keen on the bendy gun barrels and I might yet replace them with hard wire.

More lead

Well, its probably not cast in lead any more (health and safety and all that) but I'm an old school kind of guy who's still alive despite the crap I have worked with over the years.

Arriving this week fresh from Reading some new releases to the range.
First up, for the Austrians, some M47's. These tanks served in many theatres in World War 2 in the German army (if Hollywood is to be believed...) and in the 1950's were a main tank for NATO, serving with a few armies. The lasted into the 1980's with Austria and Spain.
So onto the photographs. The HMG is a separate part which is crisply cast and fits easily into its mounting hole.

 And a shot of the model painted (in Khaki drab rather than Olive drab as it seemed to look more correct for Austrians)

  I am being awfully cruel blowing it up this large. For me it has captured the M47 quite nicely

Better news is that the Old centurion model has been replaced with a new sculpt as well, and again a great leap in detail.this is  mk5/2 I think, as the Centurion marks were all rather confusing (and the British defence industry seemed to making things up on the fly on the production lines)

 There is also another version with an updated turret with all the 1980's mod cons (searchlights etc)

And with some paint on, it looks much better.

I've been considering how to do a 1980's army with Centurions. Its a toss up between the Dutch (AMX 13's in the AT coys and the YP408) and the Danes (with a similar paint job to the British army).
The Danes would also be an opponent for a Polish amphibious 'defence' division.
last, but possibly the most useful, a wheeled 120mm mortar hot off the press (I'm not even sure what the code is). Many modern armies used towed 120mm mortars and they really all look the same.

Again a nice wee model with crew, and something I shall buy more of to replace my current Warpac 120mm mortars.