World War 2 at sea
Air Units
With my Fleet Carrier finished, I need to create some air units to use in battle. For that I built my first four flight stands from scratch: The base is a small LEGO-dish with the stud removed. The vertical rod is .75mm fiberoptic cable, and the vertical arms are made using .5mm fiberoptic cable. I carefully drilled a .5mm notch into the .75mm fiberoptic into which I then glued the .5mm part.
I then prepared 3 aircraft miniatures for each stand from the collection I already used on the flight deck of the USS Lexington by drilling a tiny hole into the underside of each, which helped me with mounting the aircraft onto the flight stands using a tiny drop of superglue. Each stand has three aircraft of the same type to represent a squadron of that aircraft type.
To the left three Helldiver divebombers, moving to attack, and to the right three Avenger torpedo bombers coming in low, the one on the outer right has released its payload and is already pulling up:
Two squadrons of Hellcat fighters – the left flying in formation on patrol or looking for enemy surface units, and the one on the right breaking formation to engage enemy units in air combat:
I want to paint all of these next, because I want them to be finished until the six Fletcher-class destroyers arrive, which already have been shipped.
F6F Hellcat fighters and USS Lexington … a deadly combination. Just ask LtJg Alex Vraciu, one of the highest scoring American aces of the war:
And good call on the Fletchers. These battleships and carriers need an escort, after all! 😀
The above is a slide from our Sitrep Podcast episode on Carrier Operations in the Pacific War, offered in case it might prove interesting or useful re: background or ideas …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYblyPSf2Go
Neat! Thanks for the link – I will have a listen tomorrow while I’m painting.