WARBIRDS IN MINIATURE

Recently, the group has been playing a lot of Aerial games, WW1, WW2, and soon, Sci-Fi. We enjoy them because they're rather easy to learn, set up, and play.
Recently we've been playing with 'Warbirds in Miniature', a WW2 miniatures adaptation of 'Blue Max'.

WBIM is an interesting game, with some features that make it a little more "realistic" than, say, Aerodrome. One of the features appreciated by many is the fact that fire isn't pre-plotted, as in other games, which feels a bit more realistic for WW2 combat (though I actually think the pre-plotted fire adds to the feeling of attempting to lead your target correctly, but that's just me).

At any rate, here are a few shots from a recent game of WBIM, featuring a P-40 Kittyhawk and a Spitfire Mk1 against two BF-109Es (well, one of them was actually a BF-109T, but the stats are essentially the same... the T is a carrier variant). As is typical with my camera phone, I took about a dozen photos and three of them came out properly. Hopefully the situation will improve next time.

Here we have the typical scene throughout the game from my vantage point. Early on, my BF109-T was given a very nasty critical hit by Dave's P-40, significantly reducing maneuverability by blasting off some important wing surfaces (mainly the rudder..heh..). I spent most of the game making wide arcs, trying to tack around enough to target the enemy. In the shot here, Mike's Spitfire has taken advantage of this, and is locking me in for the kill.

Later on, of course, despite some good flying, we got our revenge on Dave and his blasted P-40. Rob hit him head on, causing a fire, which Dave spent the better part of the rest of the game trying to put out. Amazingly he managed to pull himself out of a spin just before being completely snuffed, and recovered in time to withdraw half intact, but it was a very close run

thing.

The smoke you see here is stuffing from a dog bed that my Dingo, Claudius, decided to rip to shreds . It really does the job and looks like smoke, as it's slightly tinged grey and clings very well to many surfaces. Need to find a way to get more of that stuff!

The flight stand is produced by Top Gun Marketing (you can find Top Gun Marketing on Ebay). Top Gun makes an excellent range of flight stands with a variety of options, allowing banking, turning, changes in altitude, etc... without worry of the airplanes falling off their mounts, which are afforded via the clever use of rare earth magnets. I highly recommend the product, and suggest you give it a look if you're even remotely interested in air gaming of any kind. (He also carries a great range of aircraft minis in a variety of scales, by the way).

Here we have what I consider to be the most iconic shot from the game, though of course it came out terribly. My BF109T dives in an attempt to hit a banking Spitfire Mk1 flown by Mike, while Dave's P-40 has recovered from its fire, and is stabilizing itself dangerously close to me. Looks like something right out of a Hollywood movie...

All in all, WBIM is an interesting game, and I hope to have more photos soon - hopefully in better quantity and quality.

-A.