"Recommendation on the best 6mm WW1 aircraft for the money. " Topic

I am considering doing WW1 6mm air battles, and would like to know what would be the best deal or bargain for good WW1 aircraft. Any images or info would be great. Future thanks.

I think the only real choice in metal is H&R. They also have the old Skytrex models as well.
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Unfortunately I've only got WW2 models so can't comment on accuracy etc.

Wings of War via eBay. Ready to play on the spot.

Wings of War are NOT 6mm but are VERY nice. If you are not positive you need 6mm you should definitely consider them

I would agree that H&Rs WWI are probably best for gaming in selection, durability and scale. Skytrex and C in C are slightly nicer 6mm sculpts but more delicate. Fiddly to assemble and somewhat delicate for gaming.

I have several of the CinC aircraft, beautiful castings. Also, it appears the old Goblin Tooth aircraft are available again, as are the Hostile Aircraft rules. There was a posting about the return of Goblin Tooth and the rules here on TMP.

I have to 2nd Goblintooth miniatures and Hostile Aircraft rule set. Models are durable for gaming, easy to build, and paint up nicely! The rules are the most comprehensive I have seen and easy to learn once you get used to thinking in 3 dimensions. MSD Games I believe hold the license now.

I forgot to mention that Shapeways has a handful of modelers who offer a very nice range of 6mm(1/285,1/288,1/300) that is continually grows. Check out Reduced Aircraft Factory, Kampflieger, and Decapod Models. I have a selection from all three and they are very nice. Only downside is that being 3D printed models I had the "toughen" them up for gaming-replace wing struts and landing gear with brass rod. More to scale than Goblintooth but not quite game ready out of the box. My 2 cents!

I have a decently complete Excel list of 1/285th and 1/288th Great War planes (but not 1/300th) from all the manufacturers I could find, including those on Shapeways. Shoot me an email (preds81.ds at gmail) and I will send it to anyone interested.

I would say the best quality aircraft might be CinC, but there are some really nice Shapeways offerings. CinC has a limited range, and can feel like assembling a model at times.

The CinC/PFC. minis are beautiful, but are more fragile than the much more robust offerings from Goblintooth and others.

The Goblintooth minis are quite robust, but not quite as nicely shaped as the aforementioned CinC ones.

In my opinion, the CinC ones are probably best for displays, or for gaming with friends you can trust to not touch them, and to take care during gameplay.

Haven't seen the H&R ones, but suspect they are probably similar to those from Goblintooth.

Thank you everybody for the recommendations. I appreciate your views. One question, are Goblintooth or MSD WW1 aircraft bigger or smaller than Heroics and Ros WW1 planes? Have a good day.

I'd say Goblintooth's are smaller, more like 1/285 rather than 1/300 (H&R).

I agree with a lot of the above, if Goblintooth had been readily available for the last decade, I would have gone with them, but as it was I've gone with H&R and filled in with Goblintooth, CinC, Skytrex, Shapeways, and Irregular.

Brief comments on each:

H&R is a bit more fiddly than Goblintooth because of the way they do their struts. Otherwise pretty robust and lots of types are available. Also decently priced.

Goblintooth is sturdy, and they compromise a bit on the struts (being solid), but easy to put together and paint. Ok selection available again but you'll need to fill in with others still.

Skytrex – decent and sturdy but a bit less detailed IMHO.

CinC – as others have mentioned, super fiddly and most of mine are permanently mounted on flying bases, rather than being on magnets that I can move back and forth from storage bases to gaming ones, as I don't think they can handle constant handling (they're ok if you always grab them by their bases).

Shapeways – a great way to fill in some oddities or those not made by others (Sikorsky S-16!). I wouldn't necessarily go with them for everything though. I've bought from RAF and Kampflieger.

Irregular – originally I used them for a couple of fillers no one else made, but I'm sure those are available via Shapeways now.

Edit – forgot to add, here's a CinC Halberstadt CL.IV and Goblintooth (Goblinteeth?) Camel and Dr.I: link

CinC Hanriots: link

Bear in mind that 1/285th are larger, not smaller, than 1/300th, if the planes are scaled correctly.

If you would consider going slightly smaller, Tumbling dice do a wide variety of 1/600 aircraft. Very cheap too. I bought 100 aircraft for around $100 USD US

link

Hello NKL AeroTom, is Tumbling Dice still business? Do have any photos of the WW1 planes you received? Looking for unpainted photos of their WW1 2seaters, Do you have any? Thank you for letting me know of an alternate scale.

Right Darryl, got my math turned around on that one!

I asked the same thing a few months back. I went with H&R. For those types that they don't do (and there are a couple of common types missing like the DFW CV and the Vickers Gunbus) there is Shapeways expensive but lots of choice.

The H&R planes go together well. I replace the struts with copper wire wherever possible. They are robust enough for most purposes.