Dawn Patrol 2016

Every year on 4th of July we have a dawn patrol aircraft game in the morning in the backyard.  This is garden wargaming at it's best.  The game has been played in a variety of genre but has settled mostly on WWI aircraft and is called "Boxkites".  Rules written by Ken Van Pelt.

And for your viewing pleasure here is a "yuuu-huge"  photo dump.

The German planes are tasked with getting photographic reconnaissance behind an allied barrage balloon barricade.

The flying circus.

French barrage balloons.

Go little weasel, go!

Smoke effects by Carlos Pyrotechnics.

Terry getting shot down.

taka taka taka.......

The Asp taking extreme damage.

Taunting the enemy by landing at their base and taking a selfie.

The barrier.

"This is the area we need reconnaissance."

The Asp is shot down.

Thanks for looking in...

World War I Aircraft Made from Clothespins

This craft is very popular and I would like to be able to send the plans for this to your email as a PDF.  If you want a copy of the plans for both of these aircraft please email: kenneth_vanpelt AT comcast.net This offer is valid as of 2016.
I am charging a nominal fee to help with the purchase of more craft sticks. If you use paypal to send me $6.00 I will send you a PDF or power-point that shows detailed instructions with all measurements and materials list for the WWI aircraft below.

Ready for action. The planes are made from clothespins. Two different styles - square pin and round. Wings are made from large flat Popsicle sticks cut to pattern. Machine-guns are from dowel.


Pilot is a plastic bead glued to a card-stock hole-punch. Decals are made from mailing label and some art copied off of the internet.

All aircraft were glued together quickly with a hot glue gun and the whole batch was built at one sitting.

My flying rules are in the image and you can see the simplicity of the game if you enlarge.

Enjoy.