From BenF: 6mm NATO Fast Air 1984 (20 pts)

So the last two and a half weeks have been a whirlwind. At 8.22pm on the 15th of January, our baby daughter Evelyn May was born. After a spell in the special care nursery where she got a chance to sunbake under the lights to get rid of some jaundice, we were all back home and starting to work out our new routines, which as far as Evie was concerned did not necessarily include sleep.

While I've not exactly had a surplus of sleep over the last fortnight, I have managed to get an hour of painting in here and there, and I've surprised myself by actually managing to get some stuff completed! Here's a picture of our little one.

These are a few 6mm aircraft for my Cold War 1984 project. The four RAF planes are for a mate, while the others are for my own collection.

First off, a pair of Super Etendards of the French Marine. I love the sleek look of some of these French aircraft, and these are going to be support for my French force based around the Force d'Action Rapide. These are Scotia aircraft with stores leftover from some GHQ aircraft.

Next, here is a lone Sea Harrier FRS.1, painted up as from 800 Squadron NAS, which saw action over the Falklands in '82. I've got the bare bones of a British force based around 1 (UK) Infantry Brigade, which was slated as reinforcement for Denmark and Norway, and this little guy will be support for them, when I get around to painting them up. The aircraft is Heroics and Ros, with stores from GHQ.

As no Cold War NATO force is complete without a Warthog, I painted up this little A-10A Thunderbolt II from GHQ. He will serve as air support for any of my NATO forces, and with a brace of Maverick missiles and the 30mm GAU gatling gun, he is certain to cut through any Warsaw Pact armour like a hot knife through butter.

Now, on the the RAF. My mate and regular gaming buddy Steve has a huge BAOR force, and when he asked me to paint up some RAF aircraft I was happy to oblige. First off are two Jaguar GR.1s from Heroics and Ros. I actually have another two in French airforce colours on the painting desk at the moment. These are painted up from 16 Squadron, based on some source photographs I found of a Jaguar at a Belgian airshow in 1986.

Next off, two Harrier GR.3s These are Raiden FRS.1s which have had a fair amount of modification. As with the other aircraft, GHQ stores have been added, but I've also filed down the nose to get the 'snoopy nose' look of the GR.3, and an antenna was added with fine gauge brass wire. Steve was pretty happy with this lot.

 I've also got a brace of Tornados and Phantoms to finish off, so expect those in the not so distant future. I managed to get a game in last night, and as with all freshly painted kit, the Jaguars were chased off by loitering MiGs before even reaching the battlefield.

This is the first of two updates this week, the next will be aircraft again, but some Soviets from the early Great Patriotic War. I'm also racing to get my entry to the Mercenary round complete, but we'll see how that goes. It depends how accomodating Evelyn will be :)

As far as points go, seven (admittedly quite large) 6mm aircraft are by my reckoning 14 points.

Gorgeous work, yet again. Very swooshable! Are the markings decals, or painted, or a mix? Your panel lines and cockpits would be the envy of a 1:144 modeller. Because planes are bigger than tanks, I'll throw in a few bonus points, plus a rounding newborn bonus, to give 20 points.

Barks