Check your Six!

I love the air combat game Check Your 6! and have wanted to get much more into the war in the Pacific.  Here are my Japanese and American air forces so far, in 1/600 scale by Oddzial Osmy and Tumbling Dice, and my flight stands.

I don't go too crazy with getting exact historical accuracy with rondels, tail markings, etc. I search around for ones I think look cool and then paint up pairs or 4's of aircraft accordingly. 

Japanese fighters: Oscars, Zeroes, and Tonys

P-40s and Cobras

My flight stands: Each has 5 components, the stand itself (washers and hex nuts); the altitude rods (brass tube and rod, in 1-alt, 2-alt, and 3-alt lengths to represent the 6 levels available in Check your 6); and the topper (brass rod and tube and an acorn nut).  The planes connect to them via magnet.  I have made about 25 of these. I think I’ll make some simplified versions for big bomber formations; they will need fewer pieces since large bombers in CY6 rarely change altitude.

Kenney’s Killers: B-25s and Lightnings

Some nose art

Bombers galore: Dauntlesses, Vals, and Betty’s

What I have to paint next: Corsairs, more P-40s and P-39s, Wildcats, Kates, Bettys, Liberators, Tonys, and Oscars.  More oddball planes for the South Pacific will come later (Japanese Nicks, US float planes, Australian/British stuff). After that I think I’ll do some stuff for Burma before moving to the European theater.

1/600 planes are a breeze to paint.  The flight stands are time consuming to make, but work well and are cheap (I can't remember the unit cost, but it is markedly lower than the commercial options).