WWI Air Wargaming
in Miniature
Part II

Modeling and Painting the Miniatures

1/300th Scale

by Bill Rutherford

The first thing you'll notice, without exception, are the blocks that connect a plane's upper wing(s) and landing gear to the fuselage (OK: Navwar has separate landing gear struts). On the better miniatures, the fuselage-to-wing struts are raised detail on this block; on the cruder miniatures, the block itself somewhat resembles a blob of putty. It's possible to cut away this block, fill any crater in the upper fuselage, and add your own struts from brass wire (thin and strong), but for normal gaming purposes, with normal player handling, this is asking for trouble. A much simpler solution is to simply paint the block sky blue, paint the struts in whatever your strut color is, and "will" the block out of existence. You pay a price in appearance but get a much more durable model. Some cleanup with a flat file will do wonders for the appearance of some of the cruder models' blocks.

You'll next likely notice that there aren't, in many cases, any outer wing struts. I use stiff brass wire (the thinnest I can get - down around .005" or smaller) secured with cyanoacrylate glue. I typically cut the struts a bit long and get them to fit by trial and cut. If I've managed to mount the upper wing reasonably straight, I can make one side's struts and then cut the other side's to match. If you find brass wire difficult to work with, copper wire (taken, perhaps from the armature of an old motor you've got laying around) is much softer and more forgiving.

As the struts are much more cosmetic than structural, their decreased durability isn't much of a problem. I've applied struts both before and after painting - with a bit of practice, applying the struts to painted wings isn't really a problem - you've already cut the things so you just need a steady hand to apply them. The problem is that they're glued to paint, not metal, so the bond is weaker. Applying the struts prior to painting makes for a sturdier model, but, especially with, say a late war German lozenge pattern on the wings, painting can get quite painful. It's really a matter of using the method best suited to your planned paint scheme. If you want more durability with your wing struts, drill strut holes in the wings. With careful measuring, you can be sure everything will line up. Attach the upper wing to the fuselage (the lower wing, in most cases, comes pre-attached). Slide the wire struts into the strut holes, glue, and nip off the excess (above upper and below lower wings). File the scar smooth, filling if necessary, and you've got, for some extra effort, very durable struts!

Finally, many of the available models haven't propellers. This is a matter of taste - some think the models look better without them, or with clear plastic disks instead. If you want propellers and can't scrounge enough from, say, your C in C planes (which often come with one or two extra), a .005" thick piece of styrene, about 4 - 5mm long and .5mm wide, will do nicely. Simply twist the plastic at the center to give the impression of two distinct blades and glue to the front of the plane. After painting, it's surprisingly presentable.

Scratchbuilding

That's a bad word that brings to mind all sorts of torments. In 1/300th scale it's not so bad. Get a drawing of the plane you want to build (see the bibliography for some suggested sources). Many published drawings are in more-or-less standard scales, such as 1/72nd. Photocopy the drawing, reducing it by an appropriate percentage: reduce to 25% for 1/72nd scale drawings; to 50% for 1/144th scale drawings; and to 16% for 1/48th scale drawings.

Get yourself a sheet of .01" styrene from any hobby shop. Using a sharp razor knife and straightedge, cut out wings to match the plans. File the edges a bit and you'll wind up with passable wings - they may not match C in C's for quality (at first) but they'll certainly match some of the other makers' wares.

Remember the whittling projects you used to do in summer camp? That's what you'll do to make the fuselage. Either laminate several pieces of styrene sheet with liquid cement (use rubber bands or clamps to hold them together) or go through your kid's toybox to find a suitably thick piece of plastic. You could, of course, use a piece of hardwood of some sort but I don't, mainly because I'm a lousy wood-whittler. Cut the fuselage out in profile, matching it against the plan's side view. This isn't as hard as it looks because the whole thing's reasonably small and the amounts you need to cut aren't very large. When you have a profile of the fuselage cut out, compare what you have to the plan view (that's top view). Again, cut your chunk of plastic or wood to match. Now you've got a fuselage that matches the general outlines of your plan, but has none of the proper angles.

Examine the plans closely to get an idea of the general fuselage cross-section. Some, like the Albatrii and SPADs, were oval or round. Some, like the SE5A and the Nieuports, were squarish. What you're about to do is file and whittle and file your fuselage until it is appropriately round, or square, or whatever. Again, this sounds much worse than it is. Your first try or two may not much resemble a fuselage (after my fourth failure using wood doweling, I gave up and went back to plastic!) but persevere -you will succeed... Once you've done one fuselage, you'll find the rest much easier.

You can make cockpit openings using a round file (get a set of micro files...). Machine guns are bits of wire. Rudder and tail plane are cut out the same way your wings were. A twist drill with some small bits will be useful because that's how you'll bore mounting holes for your struts. This time, I strongly recommend brass wire (If you can get it, stainless steel suture thread is dandy!) for struts because they will need a bit of strength to hold the wings and things together. You can cut wheels with your motor tool from brass rod or steal them from a C in C wreck.

This all probably sounds like a bit more than you'll want to do. Remember that everything's small - as a result, cutting and whittling all goes very quickly. Cyanoacrylate glue and a steady hand will do a nice job of assembling everything because, being so small, nothing has much mass to worry about.

Obviously, if something's commercially available (and looks OK), don't spend valuable time scratch-building unless it's simply for the thrill of it. On the other hand, if you want a particular plane and there's not one available, go for it!

More WWI Air Wargaming

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