The Giants have landed! Unboxing the Staaken and Handley Page 0/400 heavy bombers

The long awaiting heavy bombers from Ares Games Kickstarter campaign have arrived! It was a longer than expected wait...but the goods arrived in today's post. How did they look? Pretty darn good!

Found this large box on the porch today. That's a lot of box for two models!

Opening the box up we find...campaign add on's from the Aerodrome - smoke and flame markers for the bombers and a 'standard' base as well as a deck of 'ace' ability cards.

These were offered as special upgrades with the campaign. If you've used them before, the smoke and flame markers are great visual upgrades to the standard markers. 

 

 

A close up of the smoke and flame markers and the ace ability decks. (Get to the bombers! )

What's this?  A Handley-Page?

Wow - that's some robust packaging!  Let's see what's inside.

It's a Handley-Page bomber model!

And a Staaken R.VI model

 

It's a poster showing all the Great War planes Ares makes. Will look great framed.

Opening up the Staaken box and there's a lot going on. The plane is well protected in it's cradle. The posts for the flgiht stand are in the top center and the maneuver and ace decks are in the upper right.

A close up of the ace abilities deck.

Remioving the plastic cover from the plane. The entire cradle for the plane lifts out...

...revealing the assorted paperwork.

There's assorted paperwork in the box. A Kickstarter certificate, Staaken specific rules, playing surface maps  and another poster!

The rule booklet includes the basics of multi-engine aircraft and the scenarios.

Reaching the bottom of the box, we find the plastic base and the data and management cards.

A close up.

Counter sheets, aircraft card and management cards.

The R.VI on it's flight base.

They did a nice job with these models. A little more detail on the crew would have been nice, but hey - it's a very nice model! Look at the detail on the engine nacelle.

I thought the Caproni had some odd gun placements.

The Handley-Page has the same components as the Staaken. It's a nicely rendered model.

The red and white nacelles give this model some color.

What's the deal with that nose gunner. Standing and waving?

And there you have it.

These are one half of the kickstarter models. Exercising restraint, I do not have the other two models to review. There's another H-P 0/400 with nice tactical markings done up in a night bombing paint scheme and a Staaken with a green lozenge pattern and late war iron crosses that looks quick fetching.

It took a bit of time to deliver, but Ares has delivered. If they contemplate doing similar campaigns for other aircraft (Felixstowe...cough cough), I'll definitely be jumping in.

Queen of the North Sea sky

We often think of the air war in the Great War as one between dueling individuals. “Knights of the Air” atop their aerial steeds sparring in combat over the muddy trenches. It was the origin of the fighter pilot mythology – one man risking it all in battle with a gallant foe. As with many things the reality was much more complicated. The air war over the trenches was fought for specific aims – air photo reconnaissance, artillery observation and bombing. 

But a second, less glamorous air war existed. One that was as important – if not more important – to the ultimate outcome of the war. That was the air war at sea.  While naval aviation had no direct effect in the rare battles between the fleets, aviation was critical in the areas of naval patrol and interdiction. Airships and aircraft of both sides patrolled the North Sea on the hunt for u-boats, enemy aircraft – including airships, light coastal craft, warships and mine layers. In a defensive role, they escorted their own forces through dangerous waters. 

By late 1916 The Felixstowe flying boats were the premier patrol aircraft in the North Sea. Possessing great range, a good bomb load and impressive armament for the day, these aircraft were the Queens of the North Sea sky. 

Overhead view - roundels from Dom's Decals.

Felixstowe F2 early model ready for action. The red lines on the base denote various firing arcs.

Wings of War included the Felixstowe F2 (And Curtiss H-12) in the expansion game “Flight of the Giants”. You thought the Caproni and Gotha were big – think again! The Felixstowe is huge with a broadside of enough machineguns to make any German pilot think twice about engaging in combat. So much so, that the Germans would throw flights of W12 and W29 at a Felixstowe to even the odds a bit.  

Several nice models of the Felixstowe can be had from Shapeways from either Decapod or Colinwe. I ordered mine in the standard White, Strong and Flexible material. The model is an impressive piece of resin. The wingspan actually exceeds the length of the range ruler for the Wings of Glory game.

I didn’t model a specific historical paint scheme for this aircraft. Many of the planes were painted in a dazzle paint scheme. It was not as much camouflage as it was a colorful easily identifiable pattern to help identify a plane. Unfortunately this is something that is beyond my skill set to paint. 

Good port quarter shot of the model.

I went with a fairly bland combination of PC 10 for the fuselage and camel for the wings. It’s a fairly conventional scheme. To make it somewhat unique, I used decals from a variety of sources to put identification marks and symbols on the aircraft hull. 

The flag was scavenged from a set of decals for an Avro CF-105 kit.

Good shot of the magnets joining the model to the flight peg. The grain of the White Strong and Flexible surface is visible here, but when back up to normal game viewing distances the grain fades from view.

A strong rare earth magnet was attached to the bottom of the hull and paired with a magnet on the flight peg. This ensures the plane is not likely to tip over or fall off it’s stand. The magnets came from K&J Magnetics. 

The base ships without color. I had to paint all the lines and text. This is easy - the lines are laser cut and a paper backing protects the surface of the base while you paint. In hindsight - white is a better color choice for the altitude numbers on the acrylic base. The black numbers fade into the playing mat when not on the straw colored field,

The custom base is a product of the Aerodrome store. 

I know - I can't paint a straight line. 

Now to get this beast onto a table for a game!