Bargain Battle of Britain Book

It's one of my son's birthdays tomorrow so we headed into town for a nice lunch and some present, card and balloon shopping, as you do. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to pop into the local Oxfam bookshop, where I found an 'as new' hardback copy of this book on Douglas Bader's Big Wing strategy and how it divided opinion then and even now. It's a fascinating subject and the book covers it all in great detail yet still remains very readable, from my the quick dip into the contents. I'm looking forward to reading it properly but I'm back to work tomorrow and will be pretty tied up with other more tedious things as a result. 

Energy Management Explained

There's often a bit of head scratching over energy management in Wings at War, so here's a simple reminder of how it works. The key thing to remember is it is primarily at the end of a sequence of moves, when action point expenditure equals starting energy, that any energy problems are resolved (apart from stalls, which can occur during a turn as well as at the end)

1. Action Points = Energy at the start of a turn.

2. Don't change your Energy dice during a turn but do keep a separate track of Energy loss / gain (using tokens or counters is a good idea)

3. Aircraft are allowed to exceed their Energy rating during a turn, but....

4. If energy falls below 1 during a turn = STALL (the turn ends after this has been resolved using the stall diagram)*

5. Otherwise, the turn ends when all Action Points have been spent.

6. If Energy at this end point is less than 1 = STALL 

7. If Action Point/s spent for the final manoeuvre in a turn cause Action Point expenditure to be greater than starting energy = SPIN.

8. If Energy at this end point is greater than Energy Rating = AIRCRAFT BREAKS UP.

9. If Energy is equal to or less than starting energy (but obviously greater than 0) = Action Points available for next turn. 

10. Flip the dice to the new Energy level on the model's base at this point.

*Try to avoid making manoeuvres with a random energy modifier (D) as this can cause a significant loss of energy during a turn and is unpredictable. 

Wings at War Air Combat Wargamers

 

The Wings at War Facebook group has taken off really well and now has over sixty members, which isn't bad for a couple of days. There's been some really good content and lots of enthusiasm, with two extra volunteer admins signed up to help me run things, which is a very handy. I'm hoping that the momentum will continue and that, once the word gets out, some new players will get involved too. The link here will direct you straight to the group, so why not join up and see what's going on:

Wings at War Air Combat Wargamers | Facebook

Wings at War 1/600th Wargamers Facebook Group

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/594274438736896

Defiant

 

I'm reading this at the moment and, despite the title and cover image, it's not entirely about the eponymous Bolton Paul Defiant. In fact, it's a really fascinating overview of the development of twin seater fighters, starting with the Bristol Fighter in 1917 and focusing on 141 Squadron, which was eventually equipped with the Defiant twenty plus years later. Interesting stuff and not at all what I was expecting from what looked like a revisionist historical attempt to rehabilitate the Defiant and its role in the Battle of Britain. 

Finest Hour Bomber Blitz

It's back to the Luftwaffe bombers and extra bits for the Finest Hour project now, as a break from 2mm army painting, with the main task being to finish the Heinkel III's and assorted other aircraft. This will involve the tedious but necessary camouflage patterns, then an ink wash and brush up, followed by the canopies and any detailing that needs to be done. It's a bit of a slog but I'll get there in the end! I also need to add the decals to the Bf-109's and Hurricanes, which I may well do a bit of today if I get the time?

Finest Hour Bomber Basecoating

The Luftwaffe aircraft have now had a basecoat of Foundry Storm Green Shade and look terrible, simply because the paint is very greasy despite a good stir and mix with water. I'll give them a second over coat when they are fully dry, which should improve the finish. If not, they'll need stripping back to start all over again!

Finest Hour Painting Progress

It's been a while but I have finally moved on to painting the He111's and assorted extra aircraft for the Finest Hour Project. It is not a lot to write home about but they have now had the undersides blocked in with Vallejo Pale Blue, ready for a second coat to cover all the gaps. After that I can get the basecoat on he upper surfaces and add the camouflage pattern, which is the tedious fiddly bit. I'm hoping to have some time off work soon(ish) so will be able to pick up the pace a bit.

Four Eyes

I've been down to Plymouth to drop of the boy at university and on the way, pop in to my Dad's to exchange Xmas presents, having been away in France over the holidays. For my present, I have now got one of those optical visor things with LED lights and interchangeable lenses, so my painting and modelling will hopefully be a little easier in the stygian gloom of the garage. I'm going to try it out as soon as I have the time, especially as my RAF squadron codes have arrived from Flight Deck Decals for the 1/600th scale Hurricanes and they are very, very small!

Finest Hour He-115

 

As an extra model for the next stage of painting, I've added a single Tumbling Dice He-115 floatplane to use in the reconnaissance role and for minelaying missions, as these were both undertaken during the Battle of Britain by this aircraft. I did fancy building an He-59 for air sea rescue duties but the model has lots of struts that put me off, at least for the moment, so the He-115 will be a good stand in until I can steel myself to tackle the He-59. It's a really nice model too and captures the look of the actual aircraft very well.

Bob's your Heinkel

I scrounged some time today to finally get the twelve He-111 bombers cleaned up, magnet based and undercoated, with the superglue working this time round due to a slightly warmer workbench, although it's still pretty parky. I also added a single Bf-110 as an extra reconnaissance aircraft and as painting practise for when I have to do a whole staffel of the things. I am hoping to get started on the basecoating with all of these over the coming week. 

Finest Hour Decal Delivery

 

I was despairing of ever getting my hands on the Miscellaneous Miniatures decals I ordered for the Finest Hour project, when I decided to have a rummage through the bank statements stacked up on the hall table. Lo and behold, the envelope containing the RAF and Luftwaffe decals had been shoved between some similarly innocuous envelopes by the hand of fate, or by the other half who had mistaken it for a bill of some sort. In the interim I have also ordered some sheets of insignia from Dan at Flight Deck Decals, so I will now have all that I need to finish off the aircraft I've painted and most of the ones in the painting schedule. Huzzah!

Finest Hour Freeze Up

It's literally freezing in the garage where my workbench is located, so progress on the Luftwaffe has been a bit slower than I'd like over the weekend. I've magnet based and matt white spray undercoated the four Bf-109e fighters for the stabschwarm, so they are now ready for painting. However, only one rather lonely looking Heinkel 111 has made it to the magnet basing stage, the rest piling up on the cutting mat while I wait for the temperature to get back to something less Arctic and the superglue to behave itself. I suppose I could decamp to the kitchen table but that's not much warmer either, so I'll just have to wrap up warm and crack on regardless. On a positive note, it has got me thinking again about a Russian Front or Winter War variant of the Wings at War rules, using my bases from MiG Alley...now there's an idea!

Jim's Wargames Workbench: Wings at War Winter War Aircraft Ratings (jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com)

Finest Hour Gruppe StaBschwarm

I've just finished cleaning up and magnet basing four Bf-109e Emil fighters for my Finest Hour Gruppe command flight, so I thought it would be fun to roll up the pilots for the staff schwarm using the pilot generation system in the supplement. I rolled a D10 and have allocated the pilot skill ratings as follows:

Gruppe Kommandeur (CO) - Top Ace

Gruppe Adjutant (2nd i/c) - Junior Ace

Gruppe Technischer Offizier (Technical Officer) - Veteran

Gruppe Beim StaB (Chief of Staff) - Veteran

This lot will give the RAF a nasty surprise if they turn up, although as I have it organised at the moment they would only appear occasionally and with a full staffel to back them up. I won't be adding any character background to the Luftwaffe side of the equation but it's easy to see how this would be quite a historically accurate make up for a staff flight, with some Spanish Civil War Condor Legion 'experten' making up the core, supported by two battle tested veterans of the Blitzkrieg campaigns.

Finest Hour Refocus

I had a closer look at the Tumbling Dice Stukas this evening and realised that I will need to attach twelve pairs of tiny individual undercarriage legs and the magnets before I can start painting. This will take me quite a long time, not to mention a lot of potential frustration, so I've opted for the iconic Heinkell 111's instead, as they are just as likely to pop up in the scenario generation tables as the Ju-87"s and are larger aircraft, thus making painting the things less of a pain in the bum. Tally Ho! 

Finest Hour Ju-87 Stukas

The next phase of the Finest Hour project will be to assemble and paint twelve 1/600th scale Ju-87 Stukas, once again from Tumbling Dice. These are really nice models that really capture the look of the actual aircraft but are a bit of a fiddle to assemble due to the undercarriage, which glues onto two pads under each wing rather than fixing into a slot like other models in the Tumbling Dice range. It's going to take me a little longer to get them glued together and magnet based, but I'm planning to have them ready to paint by mid-week. These will be painted as dive bombers of 3/StG 1 using the decal sheet from Miscellaneous Miniatures that should be arriving in the post fairly soon.

Finest Hour Gruppe Stabschwarm

I am moving on to some Ju-87 Stukas next for the Finest Hour project but I'll also be adding three or four more Bf-109's to the painting table, to represent the stabschwarm for the gruppe that my staffel of Bf-109's is attached to. All that teutonic alphabetty spaghetti just means that I will be able to attach a command schwarm to my squadron of twelve fighters, piloted by some highly experienced veterans and aces. To fit this in with the scenario set up, I've added a Staffel and Stabschwarm bit to the Luftwaffe Fighters column on the random roll up table, which I've already tweaked to reduce the number of bombers I have to paint to sensible figures.

Finest Hour Luftwaffe Fighters Painted

I finished the paintwork on the Bf109's today, along with the reconnaissance Do-17 and Ju-88, so now have to wait for the 1/600th scale decals to arrive before they can be completed and matt varnished, although I do have some basic ones I could apply now. In the meantime, it's on to the Stukas! 

Finest Hour Luftwaffe Fighters Detailing

I've future and ink washed the Bf109's and recon aircraft, then tidied up the camouflage patterns and under surfaces, so I'm now moving on to the detailing, starting with blocking in the canopies. These will get a highlight, before I do the prop bosses, tails, exhausts and any of the other tiddly bits, so there is still some way to go before they're finished. The good news is that my decals are now in the post from the USA, so by the time I finish the paintwork they should be here?

The Few

 

I'm re-reading this at the moment, as a break from all that Bomber Command stuff that I've been reading over the holidays, and it hasn't disappointed, although I have read it already a long time ago. It's a real 'seat of your pants' account of the experiences of some famous and not so famous pilots, both RAF and Luftwaffe throughout the battle from the early days in June and July, through to September and October when it came to an end. Excellent!