"WWI 1/350 Scale tabletop air combat." Topic

Hi there. I am new to this forum but has been lurking for a while.

I just want to share some info on ourr hombrew air combat game -In Clouds of Glory. We will publish the rules as a pdf. Probably during 2011.

link

All planes on the pics are hand build from styrene rods and sheets in 1/350 scale. We are looking into making enough models to sell them as kits made from 3d printed fuselages and laser cut wings. 1/300 white metal (Skytrex and others) can also be used but as they are heavier than styrene the carbon fibre mounting poles needs to be a bit lower.

The game is very well researched (both designers being wwi air buffs and one a pilot) – And with good help from written souces and from the good people at theaerodrome.com

Some AARs
link

link

link

Note that the game is full 3d. The planes has the altitude they are mounted at and they can be slided up and down the poles.

- Gilmore

WOW! That'a a great looking table and beautiful models!
Please keep posting on the TMP about your progress with the game/models.
I'm guessing a heavy base for the flight rods will work if you don't have a foam table-top to stick the poles into?

Thanks for sharing.
-Steve

Hi Steve

I will probably crosspost updates on BGG to this forum. And i also plan to post a update on this forum on how we make the models and the boards. It is not that complicated and the models are much more precise than the, unfortunately, not very good white metal models i have seen. I will post some pictures of our ned Albatros D.IIIs soon and new Albatros D.Va soon afterwards along with new Camels, F2b's and Spad S.XIIIs. Then we have models of all major types (single + two seaters)and some minor types used at the west front from january 1917(From Niu.11, Halberstadt D.II, FE2b and DH-2s to the end of the war (Snipes, Fokker D.VIIIs, SSW D.IV,etc) as well as some specials(Junkers J.I, a Zeppelin, Gothas, HP 0/400 etc).

The first couple of years we used heavy bases to move the planes on an ordinary table. But to build simple foamboars is not that difficult. The boards are 120cm x 60cm (46x23 inch)and 2 cm thick (1 inch). We have 4 base boards and two frontline boards that can be combined indefinetely so that you can make a rolling band by taking the rear board and move it in front of the combat in case of a running type of mission (bomber formation, zeppelin etc. The 4 base boards can be combined in this manner without the front. The front boards doubling the same connecting hill contours ad one of the base boards and can thus substitute it.

It would be very easy to make a small card model to work out how the hills and roads are to be connected and then make the hills from 1/2 inch foamboard with a bread knife. The a quiick layer of green paint, some dark green for forrest som brown for roads and the front. With time you then can start adding flocking, trees, houses and etch the frontline and shell craters with a paintbrush and some thinner (mind your brain).

I would think that 2 friends in one day could builld 6 base boards fine for playing, paint them in 3 earth colours and then later add details a little by little.

- Gilmore

Plane building in styrene 101:

Here is a short description on how to build small scale planes in styrene.

Materials needed:

- Styrene (rods, strips, Sheets) evergreenscalemodels.com
- Sharp scalpel
- Sanding paper, fine modelling files (rounded, curved)
- Paints, modelling glue and thin filler (for example Vallejo.
- Decals in 1/300 or 1/285 scale
- Removable adhesive (re-mount sprayglue or glue stick – For glueing profil templates onto styrene and be able to remove again)
- Small drill 0,70 mm (for mounting hole in the nose and for holes for struts and landing gear
- 0,75mm piano wire (for nose mount)
- Tweezers
- Vernier caliper (for taking and transferring precise measurements from scale drawing to the model).

1. Scale drawing
Find a good ressource on the model you want to build. You will need a good 3-view line drawing, preferably as a file. If in a physical book You will need to scan.

1.1 In a drawing program (Adobe Illustrator or the like) use the 3-view drawing as a background layer and make a line draving on a top layer. Scale the drawing so it will print in the desired scale. Put in measurements on critical measures. Check the measurementson the drawing after printing!

An example of a drawing for some up-coming DH-4 bombers:
picture
On the pic- NOTE the top 4 sets of plane components. Use thos to build the plane as follows (the bottom parts of the drawing are measurements and reference):

1.1.1 make 3 sets of prints:
use one as a building reference.
Use another for making the wings and tails
Use the third for the fuselages

Wings:
1.2.1 From the printed drawing: Cut out the entire area with the wings and tail units from the print.
1.2.2 Use the re-mount removable spray glue to mount the wing/tail cut out on a 0,3mm sheet of styrene.
1.2.3 Cut the wing profiles along the outer edges with at fine point scalpel. Do the same with the tail units.
1.2.4 Drill holes through the wings for struts at the marked points using the 0.70 mm drill. This can be done by holding the drill in the hand and spinning it with your fingers. Remove grates and sharp edges with very fine sanding paper

Fuselage
1.3 Cut the side view outline minus tail and landing gear out from the drawing.
1.3.1 Use the spraymount to mount the cut.out outline to a piece of strip styrene of a sufficient (but not much more than that) width (http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Strips.htm#Dimensional%20Strips)
1.3.2 Use the knife to form the fuselage in the right shape. Scrape off the paper outline from the body. Make corrections by estimation and by taking measurements from the reference drawing with the Vernier caliper and transfer the to the model. Gradually remove material, first with the knife, then with files and sanding paper.
1.3.3 Top down view. Start removing material senn from the top. At times placing the fuselage on the scale drawing for reference and also by measurements with the caliper. And off course -Use your judgement.
1.3.4 Make a notch in the bottom of the fuselage for recessing the bottom wings if nessesary. Make a recces or notch for the elevator if neccesary.
1.3.5 Drill a 0.7mm hole in the nose for the nosemount

Mounting the wings:
1.4 Glue the bottom wing to the fuselage. Check the angle from above and adjust.
1.4.1 Make a small block for monting the top wing on the fuselage. Make shure that the area on the fuselage for mountin is flat. Check height. Glue the block to the fuselage. This looks OK when the wing is mounted close to the fuselage. If the wing is mounted high it looks betre to make ALL the struts. But it is slow going.
1.4.2 If the wings have dihedral – Bend them gently into shape
1.4.3 rougly cut out pieces for the struts from very fine strip styrene. (or heat streched sprues from a model kit)
1.4.4 Glue the struts to the under wing. It is OK to have excess length. This can be cut later.
Mount the top wing by guiding the stuts through the holes and glue the center of the wing to the block.
1.4.5 When the glue is completely dry: Cut off excess struts that rise above the wing.
1.4.6 Mount the tail units

Undercarriage
1.5 This is the hard part.
1.5.1 Make 2 small V's by gluing 2x2 fine pieces of strip styrene.
1.5.2 When dry. Cut the excess length to the rigth measurements.
1.5.3 Glue the V's to the fuselage
1.5.4 Before the glue dries cut out the axle beam in the rigth length (I often get this too long, having to remove it to avoid the plane getting a squatting appearance). Glue the axle to the inside of the pointy ends of the V's
1.5.5 Make slices of a styrene rod for wheels. If you dont have the rigth size you can gently heat stretch the rod over a candle.

Now you (perhaps after a couple of tries) should have something like this:http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic682790.jpg

Use the thin filler to even out different rough areas.

The if you want you can add details: Machine guns etc.
Don´t go overboard with detailing. It is a game piece after all. This one went a it too far (all the cylinders of the rotary is there) link

For planes with rotary engines we make the front end of the fuselage with a round rod and the rear with a beam. The seam is covered with filler.

Then add a nice paint sceme and decals:
picture

- Gilmore

Thank you very much for the tutorial. When I was a teenager I made some WW1 planes out of wooden pegs and paper. This are much nicer! I use these sites for plans and drawings: link
airwar.ru/other/draw_1w.html

What decals do you use?

Hello,

What diametre are the carbon fibre mounting poles? I found Vinylester-Carbon is as light as carbon-fibre but cheaper:
link

Hi Kingscarbine

It looks like the same type of rods.

1.5 mm Ø, and 85-90 cm long. And then you need to sharpen them at one end.

You could also consider a small pellet (for example a 6mm plastic BB bullet, drill a 1,5mm hole and gluet it to the top) at the top to avoid eye damage if you play on a low table – Not fun to bend down and get the pole in the eye! On a high table the top of the poles would be above eye level. The pellet could also carry the plane number for quick identification.

- Gilmore

Thanks. Found a shop with paks of 5 rods at a good price.
I'll try to make a couple of planes to see how it goes. This guy also made some nice 1/300 aircraft with cardboard, plastic and wire: link