I was going to try and mix and match some paint shades for the Spanish Civil War Republican aircraft models but found this set of base paints to experiment with instead. I've used AK paints before and found them a little thin, so you need more than one coat for effective coverage, but it will save me some time trying to work out alternatives. They should arrive fairly soon and I'm going to get started when the postie drops them off.
The 1/600th scale models for the Spanish Republican air force have now been assessed and just need magnet basing. This is the line up based on mid to late war:
12 x I-16 Mosca
9 x I-15 Chatos
6 x I-15bis Super Chato
9 x SB-2 Katyushka
3 x MB 200
1 x Polikarpov R-5 Natasha
On to the painting!
I tried out Algy's Dastardly Dogfight Mission Generator today and came up with this scenario. Here's the process step by step.
I decided on April 1917 as my time slot, picking Sopwith Triplanes for the RNAS, as they were not flown by the RFC, and Albatros DIII scouts for the Luftstreitkrafte.
The RNAS rolled up a Flight of 2 aircraft and the Germans rolled up a Kette of 4.
The RNAS Squadron roll was 2 + 4 so I added the numbers to get No.6 Squadron. The Germans rolled 5 + 1 so I combined them to get Jasta 15.
The RNAS rolled up a flight leader Captain (Regular) and a Lieutenant (Regular). The Germans rolled up a kette fuhrer Hauptmann (Regular), an Oberleutnant (Junior Ace), a Leutnant (Sprog) and a Leutnant (Regular). I switched the RFC ranks for RNAS ones just to be historically accurate.
The starting Altitude for the RNAS rolled up as 11 and for the Germans 10.
The RNAS rolled up an entry point to the West and the Germans to the North East.
Finally, the Sun Position was rolled as due South.
This all seemed to work out well, apart from a lingering feeling that the ranks need to be bumped down a bit, which would be easy to build in if NCO pilots were included. The RNAS are going to have a fight on their hands due to being outnumbered and less experienced, but that fits 'Bloody April' to a tee, so I'm happy with the outcome.
For game play I've named the pilots after beers...why not?!
Flight Commander Greene-King
Flight Lieutenant Boddington
Hauptmann Bitberger
Oberleutnant Becks
Leutnant Warsteiner
Leutnant Rothaus
Cheers! / Prost!
I fancied a break from assembling tiny metal aeroplanes in a freezing garage today, so set up a play through of We Dive At Dawn, the roll and write game of WW2 submarine warfare that David Manley sent my way the other day. It was good fun, even if my fictional submarine HMS Stonefish, didn't achieve much on her first war patrol. I didn't write up a detailed after sortie report but you can read more about it on my other blog, where I keep all my solo board game stuff:
A long afternoon spent at the workbench and I'm nearly finished with assembling the 1/600th scale aircraft for the Bag the Hun Spanish Republican air force. I got sidetracked into converting a Mitsubishi torpedo bomber into an R-5 Natasha, but apart from that I've stuck to the plan. I have six I-152 Super Chato fighters to glue together, then I will be ready to add the magnets and start painting things.
The land based wargaming project on the workbench is a solo Winter War platoon level scheme using 6mm figures on a three foot square terrain board. The original idea was to use the 6mm Heroics and Ros range of Finnish and Russian figures, tanks and artillery. This is still Plan A but having received a Peter Pig voucher for my birthday, I was also of doing the Soviet forces using WW2 Russians in greatcoats with head swaps. I have a stash of figures, so would just need to budenovka and early war helmet head packs to convert them for 1939. The Finns are a different question but the WW2 German ski troops are a possible option. In the meantime, I'll stick with the 6mm Soviet figures, guns and vehicles which I have got ready to base and paint.
I discovered a fantastic range of 3D printed aircraft for interwar and early war scenarios yesterday, as usual while looking for something completely unrelated. These are available in three different scales including 1/300th, from Bayonets and Brushes and are intended to be used for the Spanish Civil War, Dutch East Indies and Blitzkrieg. However, they incidentally cover just about everything you could need for the Winter War, Khalkhin Gol and East African campaign, which ticks all of the boxes for my Bag the Hun Lard Mag articles, and then some! I'm sorely tempted to order a few to fill the gaps in the East Africa stash for Bag the Bok but can't really justify spending pocket money on more stuff at the moment.
David Manley of Long Face Games was kind enough to send me earlier this week, a pre-release copy of his new solitaire pen and dice rules for Royal Navy submarine sorties in the Mediterranean. This is a system not unlike Corvette Command or Nightfighter Command, which I have played a lot and did some of the play testing for a few years ago, but it uses different mechanics. I haven't had any time this week to try it out but hope to give it a go this weekend. As usual, I'll be posting a report over on my other very occasional blog, which is dedicated to solo board wargames and print and play rules:
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I eventually found my stash of Peter Pig WW1 British infantry, after a long and frustrating search in the garage, shifting loads of boxes of lead about and dropping one on my foot. The figures were in the last box, of course, but at least I tracked them down.
I've sorted them out and I'm pretty sure I have all that I need for the text book platoon from the training manual scenarios in the Stout Hearts, Iron Troopers supplement. I'll use the bayonet armed figures for most of the sections, with the Lewis gunners, rifle grenade launchers and grenade throwing figures alongside.
The figures without bayonets will be used as scouts and snipers., while the 'novelty' sportsmen figures will be converted into runners and ammunition carriers. An officer figure will be included for the platoon lieutenant and I'll put together a single Vickers machine gun and team for defensive scenarios or as objectives for the sturmtruppen to knock out.
....this is looking like a very feasible project!
