Any scatch builders?

[Riot]

Hey All.

Any scratch builders here?
Back when I heavily gaming away at other strategy board games "scratch building" troops was a fun and challenging side pursuit for those who:
a: shuddered at spending more money on more toys
b: wanted their own custom looking gear or the pleasure of playing with things they had made themselves.
c: to make "proxy" miniatures that visually resemble the real thing in order to play test with more of a visual feel :-) before heading out to get the right bits the first time you open your wallet.
d: all of the above.

Im slowly trying my hand at scratch building some bases n planes from perspex and whatever is handy. So that i can get my mates more interested in playing. By handing them a fleet of 6 identical planes from each various armys for a real in your face introduction to the game would be far more up there alley (and allow for the odd beverage). To try an introduction to WW2 WOW by having the real models would be outrageously expensive, yet fielding just cards would ruin the FEEL for the game (IMO), lastly fielding just one or two planes each of varying types i feel would just confuse them instead of it hopefully flowing along in a quick fun yet aggressively male fashion (hopefully).

Jeff

[leadpusher]

You could scale down to 1/300 or 1/600. There is a wide variety of aircraft and decal available a fairly large armada could be built fairly inexpensively.

Jim

[Riot]

Thats a cool idea Jim. Just goes to show that fresh input is invaluable :-)
At this stage I would prefer to keep bits in the same scale as manufactured as im after getting the lads hooked into buying the game and with my friends being typical Aussie louts, bigger and lots of pieces to move about is far more fun :-)
Ive almost put together a nasty scratch built fleet to backup the four craft from the deluxe box.....currently up to 9 planes, bases and stands, ill send up some pic as soon as ive got them mounted and base coated. Ive gone for planes roughly at 1/200 scale and visually fighter shaped. ill ultimately finish them off in varying colors for different army's and some decals for style :-)

Off topic: the thought of 1/600 models has just made my brain go -click- and dreamed up monster "battles" of multiple squadrons vs squadrons scenarios of full on madness.....

[Roger Wilco]

You could look at Fiddlersgreen, they make inexpensive but nice paper models of aircraft of all eras, you just have to work out the scale ratios on your printer to get them to the right size. If playing with paper models is not your cuppa then they could also be used as patterns to make them out of plasticard.
http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/

[Riot]

Cheers Roger wilco. Ive always liked the challenge of the paper models, mind you at 1/200 i think it sure would be a challenge. I also got a thing for plasticard, awesome stuff isnt it, light yet uber string. Knocked up a couple of tanks for a Warhammer 40K years ago as a teen, they turned out rather nicely and about whole tons cheaper n the whole experience pleasurable overall.