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I’d be curious to hear what patterns (if any) others follow when building a collection of model planes.
I tend to prefer to collect fighters in identically painted sets of 3 (for planes that flew in vics) or 4 (planes that flew in schwarm/finger four). I like each plane to have something unique (serial numbers at least, nose art if possible), but I also like each player’s group of planes to look a bit different from each other player’s group. This assists move plotting and other game activities during play in CY6.
The 1/144 Gashopon planes often come in strikingly different paint patterns, so it can be pretty easy to collect them in sets. For instance, I have 3 sets of Ki-61 Tonys: olive green, forest green, and silver. OTOH, it can be difficult to get unique serial numbers on a full set of 3-4. The manufacturers tend to provide insignia for one plane and serial numbers/nose art for 1-2 options, so I am ever seeking sources of more letters and numbers to uniquify F-Toys and Bandai models.
My first two sets of AIM fighters were Wildcats and A6M2 Zeroes, so they all got painted in the standard 1942 colors (blue-gray top/gray bottom on the Wildcats, gray-green overall on the Zeroes). The Zeroes will get striped in sets of 3 as different carrier groups to help identify each player’s personal flight; with the Wildcats I’ll have to get more creative (maybe red/white rudder stripes, black/white serial numbers, etc.). When I get to painting Pacific War planes that flew in ’43 and ’44, I can branch into the tricolor and overall dark blue schemes to help make player-groupings look unique.
For bombers, so far I don’t really care if the entire group of 9-12 looks identical. In CY6 they are pretty much non-player automata anyway, targets to shoot down or protect, so there hasn’t yet been a real need to assist players in identifying them by group.
– Ix
My naval gaming site: http://admiralty.ixtraneous.net
My land gaming site: http://stavka.ixtraneous.net
South Bay Aces (CY6 group): https://sites.google.com/site/southbayaces/