A Flight of Falcos

I recently finished up six Raiden Italian CR-42 Falcos. The planes are a fairly new addition to the Raiden line and there weren't any photos of them on the I-94 website. I've had trouble assembling other World War II biplanes and since there weren't any photos on the website, I was a little wary of getting the planes. But they turned out to be pretty easy to assemble. The planes come in 3 parts, the fuselage, the lower wing (with the fixed landing gear and one set of struts) and the upper wing (with more struts). Overall, the assembly work wasn't too bad. So, if you need some 1/285 scale Falcos, I would recommend these.

Four of my six Falcos

The Falcos will be part of the upcoming Malta air campaign and will make some appearances in Western Desert games. The camouflage scheme is a base sand color, with green and brown irregular shapes. I also painted the engine cowling yellow, mainly because I like how it looks.

Overhead shot showing the camouflage a little better

Kevin recently finished his six CR-42s too and while the paint schemes are similar, they are different enough that it will be easy to tell them apart (plus mine have yellow noses).

A closer view of one of the planes

Overall, I was pretty happy with how the planes turned out. I'm finishing up some Gladiators for the game, and I also have some Fiat G-50s and RAF Tomahawks in the works. The last two types are for Western Desert games and won't make an appearance over Malta.

I'm also preparing for International Naval Wargaming Day. But, since it falls on a Monday and I kind of messed up scheduling with others, I'll be doing a solo game again this year. Right now I'm looking at a Spanish - American War scenario where Admiral Cevera's cruiser squadron meets up with the American Flying Squadron (or maybe the North Atlantic Squadron) in the Caribbean. I'm going to use David Manley's Broadside and Salvo pre-dreadnought rules (which are included in his Splendid Little War and White Bear, Red Sun games).