"Tanker War: Air power finished" Topic

I've got some more done on my Tanker War project, having just about finished the aircraft for both sides. I am waiting on a P-3 Orion for the Iranians but they're out of stock at Magister Militum, so I'll have to wait to apply the cool camo scheme on that.

But, I have enough for most of my needs now. Aircraft are 1/1200 CAP Aero with Dom's Decals (the smallest on their 1/600 sheets – still too big and a pig to apply, but worth it). The bases are 0.5mm brass wire, bent and super-glued to a penny, leaving 2" for height, then textured with filler.

The ships are all 1/3000 Navwar.

F-14 Tomcats:

Here a flight of A-6 Intruders overfly the USS Trenton:

An E-3 Sentry out of Bahrain keeps watch over the Straits of Hormuz:

While a carrier-borne E-2 Hawkeye provides close cover:

Strike force – A-7 Corsairs pass over merchant shipping:

Whilst Iranian F-4 Phantoms prowl the 'Silkworm Envelope':

And finally, the classic 'Deployment Shot':

Nick

And what is your gaming mat?

That looks fantastic. What rules are you planning on using?

Looking good!

I second that question. Modern combat can be complex & I am not sure what rules to use.

I'm pretty sure that the mat is upholstery vinyl.

looks like the vinyl "fabric" you can get from the Dunelm Mills chain in the UK. I bought a 2 metre length just this week.
Pretty realistic effect as you can see
Light, flexible, durable, and you can roll or fold it up into a small package without creases.

Thanks for the comments guys; yep the mat is indeed cheap vinyl, bought from Dunelm Mills for about £7.00 GBP a metre, so less than fifteen quid (maybe $18 USD?). I've been meaning to paint up a proper sea board, but I've always been really happy with the mat, especially the light and dark patches, so I've never got round to it.

As far as rules, I've never been happy with any I've tried because the time taken to look up tables and work out results distracts from the tactical situation, so I wrote my own. Shipwreck should work fine, though.

Nick

Are you planning to share your rules?

Did you make your gas/oil platform models yet? I'd be very interested to see those and how you made them. I'm also working on this period (very slowly)

Looking good, Nick. I've been slow to put my own planes (generic plastic types in 1/1200 by Triang Minic) on stands because I wasn't sure what height would work, but 2" looks about right – thanks for the inspiration.

+1 on the rules and gas/oil platforms, too!

I'd love to share the rules, but there's a world of difference between a few notes and a couple of tables and something that people can actually understand! Maybe I'll try and put them in some sort of order.

Not made the gas/oil platforms yet but when I do I'll post some pics.

2" seems to work for the fixed wing, my helos are on 1" wires which also looks about right. I'll be doing a Falklands project at some point in the future but I suspect for that the Argentinean planes will also be on 1" mounts – I remember watching the news every night during the Falklands War when I was a kid and those pilots came in so low!

Ah now that just complicates the whole thing again. I did have in mind that some aircraft perhaps ought to look very low – even sea level – and I wondered about putting the AEW at a much greater height; but then I started wondering whether, if I was going to do that, I should use models of different scales for the look of the thing – 1/3000 at sea level, 1/600 or bigger for the AEW – and it all got a bit silly …

I'd love to share the rules, but there's a world of difference between a few notes and a couple of tables and something that people can actually understand!

Thank you for having standards. A lot of people are selling a few notes and a couple tables, in the form of color glossy books with lots of pages of ambiguity and omission. Hopefully one day you can write them up.