Friday 1 December 2017

PSC Battle of Britain

What ho, Squiffy! Bally Jerry, pranged his kite right in the how's-your-father; hairy blighter, dicky-birded, feathered back on his sammy, took a waspy, flipped over on his Betty Harpers and caught his can in the Bertie.

Translated from banter:

PSC shot themselves in the foot during their crowdfunding campaign to re-release Richard Borg's Battle of Britain game. After significant delays in the Chinese factories, the miniatures released did not meet some consumer's expectations due to a softer plastic resulting in significant warping. Here are some of my 1:300 planes:





This one is the only moulding failure
Warping is common to any soft plastic boardgame miniature, and quickly settles with the hot water treatment. I fixed mine in about 20 minutes and am very happy with how they turned out. I like the contrast between the cheerful RAF and the utilitarian Luftwaffe camouflage patterns. I handpainted all the markings- the crosses and swastikas were a bit of a headache, and I'd consider decals despite the artisanal charm. On the table, I think they look great.
Spitfires

Hawker Hurricanes

Bristol Blenheim

Gloster Gladiator

Boulton Paul Defiant
Heinkel 111. Love the canopies!

Junkers 87 Stuka

Messerschmitt Bf 109. These are the smallest planes, and the markings were harder.

Junkers 88

Messerschmitt Bf 110

Dornier 17

Unfortunately, combined with some poor communication, PSC caved to pressure and has announced they will send out hard plastic planes to everyone. They're already quite fine miniatures, and a snapped tailfin will result in more wailing and gnashing of teeth than some easily correctable warping.

I got a game in of the first 4-round scenario. The RAF cracked out a win, but it would be interesting to see how they fare against attrition by the late campaign.
Game set-up

Cabbage crates coming over the briny

Pevensey radar station takes a hit!

It's grim up north

22 comments:

  1. You've done well with those, I was worried when I saw the first photographs.

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  2. You've done a great job on those. Looks like a treat to have on the table.

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    1. Cheers, Prufrock, it is a nice looking game.

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  3. An amazing transformation mate. That Stuka looks more like a pterodactyl!

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  4. Look great - played the game four times so far - 2 wins apiece

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    1. Did the game have a different feel as the campaign progressed?

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  5. Nice "bring back to normal specs" of the models. Great paint jobs: makes the board almost come alive...IMHO.

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  6. Silk purse out of a sow's ear. Cracking paint jobs.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  7. Great work on the models. Good to see you got such fine results. Game looks good. It is the only kickstarter I regret not joining.

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  8. They have come up great. Although I have to say that the original "squiffy" models had some weird charm to them, but would certainly not do on the table top. I'm glad you captured the before pics.

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    1. I don’t want to be a scare campaign, more of an awareness of how easy these were to fix and paint to a good tabletop standard.

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  9. Nice save.. I was so tempted by this one. but I remembered I already have a thousand 1/450 hard plastic models in a bag somewhere in Oz... now if the rules ..

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    1. A thousand planes! I’d love to see that!

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  10. Just opened mine and yes, the extra planes were just loose in a small ziplock bag thrown in as a sort of afterthought. Having extra planes means of course there aren't enough flight stands to mount them permanently, and the fit is so poor, if you get them on at all, they fall off right away if you don't. I hope the new replacement models that are supposed to arrive sometime next year will fix this. The models themselves aren't as good as the original set (which I still have) but if the warping can be fixed, they should paint up nicely.

    Quality control seems to be a PSC problem: I bought their Great War ks set and was so disappointed at the figures which were so brittle, several broke up while being painted on the sprue, that I sold the game for a heavy loss at a convention flea market. As the bonus for this one was a set of tanks for The Great War, I messaged PSC and arranged to have the large vinyl(?) play map instead. This arrived separately yesterday and looks impressive, but woefully thin especially compared to Wings of Glory mats, more like coated paper. I have to wonder how long it will last with heavy use.

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    1. Sorry your experience has been below expectations. I do hope PSC is able to pick up their game.

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  11. I’ve just bought this from PSC as it’s on a mega offer at the moment (uk only) at £14.99! They do stipulate that the aircraft are the softer variant though. Despite being a modeller with some experience, I was still apprehensive about getting these looking straight using the hot water method but your post shows how well it can be done! Your paint job looks fantastic! Nice job 👍 I’m gonna have to fire up the airbrush and get busy….

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    1. That's a great price! They're perfectly fine little planes- happy painting!

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