Block 1: Star and Pyramid - The 6 Day War - Part 1

The first block of the 2012 Build is based on the CY6! book Star and Pyramid - The 6 Day War.

For this I have the following list as a guideline, 39 aircraft:
4 MiG-19
4 Mirage IIICJ - 2 with droptanks
1 Piper Cub - Use L5 Stinson
6 MiG-17
2 MiG-21 PFM
4 MiG-21 F-13
4 Super Mystere
4 Ouragan
2 S-58
1 IL-14 - Not made, need to scratchbuild one
3 IL-28
4 Su-7b

The items in red are not in my TD box so I've put out an order with Doms Decals, they should be here about halfway into January (I hope). 

I've started work on cleaning up what I do have, adding either magnets or nail heads to the underside of the aircraft so they stick to the magnets on their flight stands, and started to tackle the biggest conversion of this block, the IL-14.

It bears a big resemblance overall to the DC-3, but it has differences in wingshape, engines and length:

This means for me just painting a DC-3 as is won't do. So out comes the juwellers saw:

And then some pinning wire and superglue to get to the basic shape of what is to become my Il-14:

I'll need to hit it with putty and/or green stuff next to get the sape and details I want.

For this block I will need to paint 39 aircraft in 60 days. That is 8 fridays (friday being my preferred day to Blog) so 5 aircraft to paint per week. I can do that :)

Big Build 2012

Right, the Big Build 2012. Another Guild build, but not 3 weeks or 3 months as usual, but 11 months spread over 5 blocks of 2 months with the final block being 3 months. The idea is to pick a theme and complete items every 2 months for that theme. As it stands you can either just state the theme (members with no balls), state the theme and what category per block (members with balls) and state the theme, category and a fixed number of items to complete per block (members with Krupp steel balls).

If I have one problem that hinders me more in this hobby then anything else it's my inability to stick to a given theme for more then a few months unless there is a game coming up or a prize involved (hence I love Group Builds), but a year long build is going to require quite a bit of effort from me.

Even so, I've decided to go fro some Krupp steel, and with the following:

Theme: Air War 1/600th (Check Your 6!)

Block 1: Star and Pyramid - The 6 Day War - 39
Block 2: Star and Pyramid - The War of Attrition - 37
Block 3: The Falklands + Danger Zone - 40
Block 4: Breaking the Luftwaffe - Into the Reich - 46
Block 5: Breaking the Luftwaffe - Big Week - 66

For the ones that dont know Check Your 6!, this is a rulesset for air wargaming. I've based my entries on their books that I own, just stripped out the aircraft lists and taking those as a guide for the build. I'll be using Tumbling Dice aircraft and propably the occasional Odzial Osmy ground vehicle.

Oh, did I mention failure to meet the required number before the deadlines means you are removed from the competition? No pressure :)