"What size hexes for a game mat for 1:300 plane airgames?" Topic

I am working up planes and equipment to do WWII air games such as check-your-six. I have 1:300 aircraft and the fighter versions will be mounted on 1" wide hex bases. There will also be bombers, perhaps also on 1" bases.
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What is a good size for the repeating hex to be printed on the game playing mats? I have seen recommendations that a larger than 1" size be used, with the explanation that bombers may take larger bases as well as the explanation that a larger hex size will be convenient when multiple airplanes share the same hex.
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I intend to make the mats myself, using stencils that are either reverse-honeycomb or some techniques using border-separated honeycomb. (These are used for cake decorating, painted decorations, scrapbooking and quilting). I can likely find 1", 1.5", 2.0", 2.5" and 3" side-to-side pitches, as well as ones are are about 0.2" greater pitch.
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Somehow a 2.5" pitch look okay to me, but I am asking advise from people with actual experience.

I use 1.5" hexes for 1:600 planes, so I'd think 2.5" for 1:300 would work.

With bombers, I prefer a 3" hexes, though some use smaller ones, and really pack them in close.

1.5" for my games. My rules require big bombers to leave a hex between to avoid a collision (in the rules as well as reality) so the 1.5 is perfect.

I suspect you need to keep in mind you might no resist using a Gotha or Ilya Muromets!

Whatever you choose is a compromise.

IMHO, single engine 1/300 planes in formation on 3" hexes look too far apart. My ideal choice for 1/300 gaming would be 2.5" hexes, but I've been using my old naval gaming 2" hex cloths, and they work fine for most single-engine airplanes. Meanwhile, a lot of multi-engine bombers will overflow a 3" hex and the really big bombers (B-17s, B-24s, B-29s) will even look crowded on 4" hexes.

You might also check the rules and/or scenarios you're playing to see if there's a minimum play area you need to deploy, and do the math to figure out if there's a better hex size to use. For example, one advantage I've found to my 2" hex mats is that the entire CY6 45x30 hex grid will fit on a normal 8x5 gaming table, whereas my CY6 campaign group uses 1/144 planes on a 3" hex grid and we have no practical way to get the entire grid onto a real table. Sometimes we have to scroll all the planes over a few hexes to get the edge of a sector in play during a game.

- Ix

Greater than the wingspan of the largest aircraft model.

I use 2" hexes. Mostly because I can buy some of the excellent accessories from Fight's On! – fightsonstore.com

I've been using 2" for fighters and medium two engined bombers but I have gone down to 1" for single engined fighter only games. The smaller hex and the overall mat size is really handy as it'll fit my small dinning room table so saves set-up time.

I learned to use 3" hexes after I spent a lot of money on 2" in the beginning. The issue is some of your bigger bombers will fall over. I use telescoping rods to show altitudes, but if your not going to do that then you should be ok. Otherwise when I telescope the rods out to 6 or 7 the base is big enough that they will not fall over. just my two cents.

corseceng.com

Here is the site I use for telescoping rods and bases.

fullmetal

I use 1.5" mats from Hotz Mats – brilliant and I've had mine for many years. hotzmats.com