Rat(a)-attack on the Ocean Wave

The famous Polikarpov I-16 in Chinese service. Once repainted these will look very different from the above.

Today has been a good day. As a result of a few disposals on eBay I was able to acquire some new toys for the man cave - the first of which is pictures above, the famous Polikarpov I-16 single seat fighter - the 'Rata'. The models pictured above are from the Axis and Allies Angels 20 range of 1/100th scale aircraft and these will soon be joining the four 109Es currently being repainted.

I have taken the decision that I shall be using the Angels 20 aircraft repainted to serve in the Fezian and Rusland air forces and so as well as thinking about the back story for the navies I will also have to consider the aerial dimension. Again, I want to have demonstrably different capabilities between the two forces so that they assume a personality all of their own. As far as crew quality is concerned I will be rating the Rusland as the historical Soviets whilst the Fezians are currently an unknown quantity. Once I have worked out the back story for the Fezian air force I will have a clearer idea.

The other piece of really good news is that as the result of a frenzied email exchange and a couple of pleading phone calls (not to mention some reinforcements for his collection of Angels 20 aircraft) I shall be taking delivery from that very nice Mr. Fox ALL of his 1/2400th scale WW1 Stonewall Figures warships! This is absolutely brilliant news for me although it does present me with the nicest of dilemmas. I am planning on using this scale to furnish the fleets for both Fezia and Rusland - obviously this is part of the 1905 to 1920 tranche of the project - and so this is a very timely transaction indeed. I will post up some pictures once I have taken delivery.

The dilemma I obliquely referred to is of course the usual wargames stand by of the grand design. With this collection, incomplete though it is, I would have the basis for tackling the kind of project that separates the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff, the cheese from the onion or indeed, any other combination you could think of. I am of course referring to Jutland. Yes, Jutland, Yes, THAT Jutland....the 1916 dreadnought slugfest.

Calm down, I'm only kidding, I couldn't possibly consider tackling the battle in 1/2400th....could I?

Nahh....never gonna happen! I will stick with imminent naval arms race across the dark waters of the Fezian Sea....for the time being anyway.