First post - Sabres and MiGs and Mustangs, oh my!

Greetings, and welcome to Crusading Alone! This a blog that exists for my encouragement and your enjoyment, as a spur to get me painting miniatures and wargaming with them!

As an inaugural post, I thought I'd share some models that I painted up recently, as my first ever foray into air wargaming - a pair of F86 Sabres and a pair of MiG-15's, ready to do battle in the contested skies! These are 1/600 aircraft miniatures by Tumbling Dice.

The MiG-15's (left) were a doddle to paint; after using The Army Painter's brush-on grey primer, I painted the whole model with Citadel Leadbelcher, picking out the red areas with Citadel Wild Rider Red. Then the whole model was washed with a thin coating of "Marine Wash" (a humdrum of nearly-empty brown & sepia washes that I mixed together), before highlighting the edges of the metalwork & red in their respective colours. The cockpit was painted initially with Citadel Calgar Blue, then with a 1:1 Calgar Blue & White mix, before being washed with a little "Seagreen Wash" (like my Marine Wash, but with leftover green & blue washes!). After that, the Calgar Blue & White mix was reapplied to the raised areas, before a final light touch of white was stippled along the highest points.

The F-86 Sabres were a little more complicated, but not greatly so; they were primed with the same brush-on primer from The Army Painter, and the undersides and cockpits were painted exactly the same as the cockpits of the MiG-15's. The tops of the Sabres were painted with Citadel Orruk Flesh, with the details being picked out with Leadbelcher. Again, Marine Wash was used on the green & metallic areas, before being highlighted with the original colours. Overall, I'm very pleased with how these aircraft came out.

You may have noticed that neither the Sabres or MiGs are painted to a historical colour scheme - this is because I am using them to represent the aircraft of two Atomic-Age ImagiNations (that is, fictional countries for the sake of wargaming a la Henry Hyde). The F-86 Sabres are being flown on behalf of the Sovereignty of Calebernia (which I see as a kind of agglomeration of all the Celtic Nations under a single monarch), and the MiG-15's are recent purchases by the Abnegard Commonwealth League (something akin to a fusion of the United States and the Nordic countries... ignore the fact they're using Soviet kit!). These two will likely be coming into conflict over recently discovered natural resources, such as minerals, gas or oil, in an island chain just off the coast of Abnegard known as the Isles of Smoke.

As tensions rise, I imagine that flights of jet aircraft will be patrolling the area to assert control over the above resources. It is only a matter of time until these patrols encounter one another and come to blows. I'll be using the "Wings At War: MiG Alley!" rules, also by Tumbling Dice to solo wargame this conflict - I just need to find my blue cloth for some sea to fly and fight over!

Above are a few more planes that are currently in progress - various shades of P-51 Mustang, both in Calebernian (green) and Abnegard (blue) employ. I imagine the countries in my world to be fairly cash-strapped, and willing to do battle with whatever they can afford (or can loot off their enemies!), much like real countries in the Interwar & Postcolonial eras. That way I can give each country a selection of whatever mid-20th century aircraft I think are cool!

Anyway, this was my first proper post at Crusading Alone. I hope you enjoyed it; when my schedule opens up a little more I intend to finish these planes and get on with some air combat.

God bless, speak to you soon!

Edit - I have been informed by an eagle-eyed jet enthusiast that I have the planes the wrong way round! The silver planes are, in fact, the F86 Sabres, and the Green planes are MiG15s. It would appear that Abnegard is getting American kit after all - I told you I was new to this!