When I first got into the game, it was going through the Nexus-to-Ares transition and the only planes that I could find at the time were a bit... mismatched. Shortly afterwards I was able to pick up a collection of planes on eBay for a reasonable price, and thus now had an even more random collection! This was compounded by the fact that at that early stage I hadn't even worked out what country or period I'd want to focus on. It's now a couple of years later, and I'm looking through my collection and trying to sort out what I'm going to focus on, and wondering what to do with the planes I have that don't really fit. This is still a bit of a work-in-progress, so forgive me if I ramble as I go!
I'm probably going to focus on British planes (RFC/RNAS/RAF without particular favour at the moment). The early period interests me as well as the late-war period, so this seems a good choice. Obviously some German opponents will be necessary too, so I'm quite happy with a hangar of German aircraft too (and since my better half seems to prefer the German designs, this works nicely).
I'm likely going to drop my initial ideas of building up an Eastern Front force, and a Near East/Palestine/Arabia force, as the planes seem very unlikely to be available as mainstream models, and finding opponents will be even harder than Western Front opponents! I don't want to get heavily into the Shapeways planes, partly through expense, partly through lack of time to paint, and partly because my painting isn't as good as it used to be when I painted figures a lot. Shame as I rather fancied a Sikorsky Ilya Muromets - that would have made the O/400 and Staaken sit up and take notice!
So, from my haphazard collection, I'm interested in the best options regarding the planes that don't really fit in with this concept. Sell, trade or repaint? Obviously I'm mindful that if there's a hard-to-find miniature that hasn't been re-issued, I wouldn't want to repaint it and turn it into a 'normal' plane when someone might be desperately looking for it!
These are the ones that I'm wondering about at the moment, and suggestions are welcomed!
Breguet 14 B2 (US, Browning & Duke) - WW23i, still boxed.
Lovely plane, but not flown by an air force that I'm going to be working on. Not re-issued yet, so possibly desirable to the right person.
Morane-Saulnier Type N (France, Navarre) - WGF107A, still boxed
Morane-Saulnier Type N (France, Gilbert) - WGF107B, still boxed
I had a mind to repaint these as Russian planes, but probably won't be working on the Eastern Front idea.
Spad XIII (US, Frank Luke Jr)
I think these were only issued in the Duel Packs. One option is to repaint as a 23 Sqn RFC plane - but is it more desirable to US-force collectors in its current colours?
Sopwith Camel (Belgium, Olieslagers)
Quite an early Nexus release I think, and not since reprinted. Repaint as a RFC/RAF Camel? Or is it more desirable to a Belgium-force collector?
RAF SE5a (US, Boudwin x 2)
Two of these, one of which had a minor paintjob by the previous owner to differentiate it. Obviously the SE5a hasn't had a reprint yet. Repaint as two RFC/RAF planes (to join the single RFC 85 Sqn version that I have)? Or what?
Spad VII (France, Guynemer x 2)
I also have two F-Toys 1/144 Spad VII in the French airforce scheme of Guynemer's plane that I bought before the Series 7 release, with the intent of repainting as Russian. They would obviously need a base, but the miniatures themselves are rather lovely, and perhaps slightly more detailed than the official ones (see pics below). Repaint as RFC 23 Sqn planes (to match the official Ares WGF113C release)?
Thoughts and recommendations received with interest!
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