A few days ago I posted on “Dogfight over Stalingrad” and towards the end I showed some screenshots of the 1/48th scale planes that Drew from the Australian Wargames Holiday Centre had used for the game.

As with all good (?) gamers, as soon as I arrived home. I was on the eBay site and purchased a lot of my own.

The planes just clicked together (I have not used glue on any of them), and come pre-painted. Some are hideous pinks bright orange etc., but all I needed for these models was to paint over was the slogan “fighter” pictured above. It would have made sense if it was “kampfer” but English writing on a German fighter – I don’t think so.

The planes are hardly modelling standard, but all I needed was something suitable for wargaming, with the detail and accuracy rated a far second to cost.

These were clicked together and painted in under two hours.

They even came with the decals on them.

I will purchase some of the “Inspection Telescopic Mirrors” below from Bunnings to use as stands. See the post “Dogfight over Stalingrad” to see how they can be used to vary height, tilt up and down and bank. At AU$5.99 each they are a steal.

The Bf 109 was arguably the best fighter in the world in 1940. It was faster than the Spitfire at high altitude, could dive more rapidly and carried a more effective armament of two cannon and two machine guns.

The 109 could also climb a lot faster and it could be thrown into steep dives thanks to its fuel-injected engine.

Sadly the one thing the models lack is a pilot, but you have to look closely to notice they are flying remotely. Weird War anyone?

For $27.50 for five planes pre-painted I am more than happy.

I have some Spitfires and P51 Mustangs to use for my Australians. Alas the sellers do not have any Japanese WW2 planes at all.