Some time ago, I posted a few articles on work I was doing on collecting Axis and Allies Angles High airplanes for use as FOW air support options. I like the A&A planes, as they are very rugged (being made of plastic) and come painted.
One of the issues I was struggling with is the basing. I do not like the S&A bases and wanted to convert them to use FOW flight stands. The mounting hole on the A&A planes is way too large to work, so I would have to try something else. First I figured I would try metal ball bearings in the planes and magnets on the flight stands. That did not work out….
First, it took three tries to get the right bearings from Amazon, then the curve would not hold the plane in place. I needed something with more contact. I thought about donut magnets, but these were all way too big. So, back to basics. I found some larger magnets and inserted them into the planes. That fit the bill, so I went back and started mounting the magnets into all my planes.
Well, I had a few planes done, but I have a lot more still that need pimping up! So, to break up the basing work I am currently doing with my Napoleonics, I pulled out a couple planes and worked them in between.
I started with some Soviet P-39s, as these seemed to need very little work. As it was, I still did a highlight on the green, red and on some of the white. The bottom needed a gray wet bush. I blacked out the guns and all vent openings and added some pin washes to all the control surfaces. I then painted the glass contrast blue and cleaned up the cage work on the cockpit with some US olive drab (same as highlight color). I hit the plane with a krylon mat finish that gives a slight satin finish. I finished up with hand painting gloss coat on the cockpit glass. With that, I am off to my next pair of planes!
- Manteuffel.