7 Questions with Josh Boyle of the Modern Aircraft Playing Cards

The Modern Aircraft Playing Cards is the 2nd edition of the Military Series by the team at Buyworthy. The deck features a snap-shot of airpower from 40 countries, each carefully considered based on their ability to project airpower in 2018.

The top 4 countries are represented by the court cards and ace across the suits. Aircraft numbers and technology made up the main criteria in selecting each combat aircraft, some strategic bombers were also selected since they allow for more effective stand-off weapons versus aircraft carriers and larger bombing runs on enemy airfields.

We managed to have a quick chat with Josh Boyle from Buyworthy about the company, designing Modern Aircraft Playing Cards and his plans for the future.

For those of us who don’t know, tell us a little about yourself and Buyworthy?
I started our family business with my wife back in 2007, in those days we were selling electronics and PC games, gaining our feet as a small business; it’s a little funny because we actually stumbled upon playing cards a few years back and out of curiosity thought we’d import some Bicycle and COPAG cards. Since then we’ve never looked back and both become passionate collectors and more importantly, we realized there were so few card retailers who offered a good range of playing cards in Australia, so we set out to fix that and now cards and related products are all we sell. Our dream is to one day stock everything and anything that’s from the card community that’s released each year.

Can you describe the Modern Aircraft Playing Cards and why you’re passionate about it?
The Military Series was born from my desire to create my own custom deck of cards, at first I really didn’t know what to design, but focusing on what I’m interested in I decided to do something related to the armed forces, this was a good fit for me considering I’m a serving member of my country’s military and have a lot of experience in military platforms, ships, aircraft and ground forces.

Talk to us a bit about going from the first draft to the final version. How did you get to this finished product?
Since this is my second deck, things were smooth design-wise, of course, there are always final tweaks at the end of a design phase, but for me, the research took up the most effort. Making sure the cards were a true and accurate historical snap-shot of military aircraft was not an easy undertaking and involved a lot of analysis. Top-4, sure that’s not too hard, but what country is ranked 27th, yeah, things start to get a lot harder, but it was worth it, and I think I’ve made a comprehensive package. I’m also providing anyone viewing my project access to my working document, a free PDF download so you can see for yourself at a basic level how and why each country ranked where it is in the deck.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
That would have to be when I finally decided what the back cards design was going to represent; it was hard trying to find commonalities across so many different countries, 40 in total. I soon realized from my research that nearly a third of countries were operating the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and not to mention the United States alone operated over 900 F-16’s, so that was a deciding point. Plus, the F-16 represents one of the modern worlds most highly proliferated combat aircraft, so a good fit.

With so many playing card projects competing for funding, why should potential backers choose your deck?
A fair question; personally, I believe because there are so few military-themed cards produced these days, so for anyone who likes this stuff it’s a great choice, and I’ve tried my best to keep costs as low as possible. In addition, the series is not a simple collage of pictures and some random wiki search for country rankings. Each country and platform has been carefully analyzed to give a historical snapshot of the 21st century from countries around the world, an exact cut from 2018. I could easily see myself producing a Version two in 10 years’ time to reflect on all the changes across the world. Also, for aircraft enthusiasts, I’m creating the Modern Aircraft booklet as a guide to learn more about all the aircraft featured in the deck. Specifications, user countries and my own take on what makes each aircraft unique will be part of the booklet.

Modern Warship and now Modern Aircraft… What’s next? Can we expect more decks from Buyworthy in the future?
Well, the original plan was for a series of 4 decks, Warships, Aircraft, Armor, and Armies; but I’d like to make it a 3-part set and maybe produce the Armies deck as a special edition at the end. This way the main domains are covered first, Sea, Air, and Land.

As for the next deck, Modern Armor will also feature 40 countries and their best Tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers (APC’s), SAM’s and more. Hoping to release that deck later this year, maybe even during this campaign if funding goes well.

Finally, what are your favorite playing cards? 
There are so many to choose from… If I had to choose two, I’d say the Planets Series by Vanda which promises to be outstanding and for a vintage older deck the Anne Stokes Fantasy Art deck, I love the artwork on that, and it’s so rare now, it’s a real thing to cherish.

Thank you for your time, Josh. At the time of writing, the project is 32% funded with 29 days to go. If you want to support Modern Aircraft Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here!


Pledge starts from AUD$15 (~USD$11.50) on Kickstarter and the deck will be printed by United States Playing Card Co. on their diamond finish card stock. Also, companion booklet and uncut sheets are available as an add-on.