Bag The Hun North Africa [20]

I spent some time this afternoon adding the fuselage roundels to the Hurricanes, using the I-94 two stage decals. This is a fiddly business at the best of times but I had twelve of the buggers to do, so ended up with decal fatigue by the time I had finished. Rather than tackle the whole lot with fin flashes and codes, I decided to maintain some semblance of sanity by finishing them off one section at a time.

Here, as a result, is the first installment of Red Section No73 squadron sometime around May 1941. 

If I was being picky, they'd be in temperate 'A' pattern green and brown camouflage, with sand and spaghetti all over the leading edges and engine cowling. However, I think they look better in the slightly less accurate mid stone and light earth desert camouflage, with a characteristic absence of squadron codes, both of which make my life a lot easier when it comes to painting and decals.

I'll tackle another section or two tomorrow and, hopefully, paint up the bases as well.

(I'm still not happy with the sloppy canopies so may have a go at cleaning them up if I get the time...)

Bag The Hun North Africa [19]

I started on the decals this evening, with the upper wing roundels on the Hurricanes and the trial run Blenheim fully marked out with roundels, fin flashes and fuselage codes. The decals are from the I-94 range with the insignia from a sheet of 1/72nd scale WW1 RFC lettering by Blue Rider. I'm not happy with the cockpit glazing bars on the Blenheim, but I've bought some new 000 brushes to make the rest of the painting a little more precise.

Battle of Britain Books

I'm whacked this weekend due to a cold that I can't shift and too much to do at work. However, I have added yet more books to the aviation collection with a distinct focus on the Battle of Britain, inspired in part by last week's Channel Dash game and by my long term interest in the subject. In fact, I'm thinking of running a mini-campaign for Bag The Hun 2 using the Finest Hour supplement at some point in the New Year. More about that later....

Luftwaffe III/JG51 Combat Report

The dashing pilots of III Staffeln / JG51 have submitted their combat reports following the recent action over Das Kanal. In the interest of fair play, I'll let the somewhat inexperienced but valiant Leutnant Beens take up the story...

Lt Heinz Beens reports:

Flying in formation with our Top Ace, Oblt Trautloft, we surprised a flight of Spitfires head on. A short burst of my cannons put one wingman into panic as parts of his cockpit burst into the sky and he quickly dove for the sea and turned for home.

My wingman, Lt Gruber, was hit as we chased the British flight leader. Without being able to fire his little gun but using the skills he had learnt from me, he was able to bring his damaged plane back to base.

Meanwhile I joined our leader in pursuing and taking out another Spitfire, causing it to spiral into the sea after a longer burst from my cannon.

The third Spitfire was also damaged and ran for the coast, but we were unable to pursue as the second flight was suffering badly against a flight of Hurricanes, so we turned to offer them aid.

Those damned Hurricanes are tough. but we drove them off before heading home.

...clearly, Lt Beens would benefit from some additional aircraft recognition lectures from the Intelligence Section of III/JG51, although you can't fault his enthusiasm!

:O)

No14 Squadron Blenheim IV

I've been working out the decal options for the Bag the Hun North Africa Hurricanes and Blenheims and have decided to mark up the latter as machiens from No14 Squadron RAF. This was one of the principal light bomber units in North Africa and was operating at the time of the Tobruk siege in the Spring and Summer of 1941. The Hurricanes are still up in the air but with probably end up as 73 squadron machines, which had a flight entirely composed of Free French pilots.

Anyway, I found a cracking website with photographs of the Blenheim IV's in their distinctive squadron markings, which consisted of a prominent horizontal white or light grey bar adjacent to the fuselage roundel and accompanied by a single letter to identify each aircraft. I have some Blue Rider 1/72nd scale WW1 lettering decals that would be perfect for this, so I'm hoping to try them out on the single model that I've finished painting, with the other five following over the weekend.

http://www.14sqn-association.org.uk/14_Squadron_Association/Photo_Galleries.html

RAF No56 Squadron B Flight Combat Report

I was going to write up an after action report of the Bag the Hun 2 game but Paul, taking the role of F/Sgt 'Taffy' Higginson of B Flight, No56 Squadron, has done such a cracking job, that I'll let him take do the de-brief...

"Flight Sergeant Whitehead and myself were leading our sections to intercept a number of German bombers that had been picked up on radar, but unfortunately we missed them on the climb. Instead we were bounced by a couple of ME109 sections, not what we were expecting for a sunny afternoon, the Hun really do not play cricket properly!

I was fortunate enough to break left and get behind the leading Hun section, but poor Whitehead was hit by their dastardly leader - I recognised his plane as I flashed by, I am sure he is one of their top aces!

Anyway, Whitehead and his chaps got involved in a horrible dogfight with the leading section. I saw one of the Germans limping home, but poor Whitehead and one of his chaps had to bail out. I was pleased to find out, when I returned to base later, that Whitehead had got out ok and was picked up by a local fisherman, but the other poor chap's parachute failed to open....The third chap limped home as well so poor Whitehead's section was decimated.

It really was very bad luck that he came up against one of the Hun's top men!

As I mentioned, I was fortunate enough to slip past the first German section and was soon engaged with the second one. One of them got on my tail and fired a long burst, but miraculously I only received minor damage, a few holes in my left wing. The good 'ol Hurry did me right again! It was enough to break our formation though and we were soon engaged in as fierce a dogfight as Whitehead.

Lady luck then intervened, I managed to come out of the sun on one of the Hun and he was soon bailing out. My other two chaps also did me proud, managing to shoot down 2 of the other 3 Germans (I am sure one of them exploded, but I was looking into the sun at the time).

Just as I thought we were safe I was surprised by a couple of the Germans that had hit Whitehead coming up behind me, plus the surviving one from the section I had faced coming from the right. Two of them got long bursts at me and I thought I was a gonner.......I shut my eyes momentarily, waiting for the explosion......

When I opened them I saw the Germans heading for home and I was, again, miraculously unscathed! I therefore report that my section had 3 confirmed kills for no losses, although how the latter happened I will never know......"

 

Thanks Paul!

 

Incidentally, the real 'Taffy' Higginson was a genuine fighter ace and ended up as a Wing Commander by the end of the war.

 

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-11734164

 

Let Us Not Forget.

Empress Miniatures Drivers

These have just been released by Empress Miniatures and are perfect for both my VBCW forces and for the Back of Beyond, where I could use them for the American Dinosaur Hunters or for a British Indian armoured car force, should I ever get round to putting one together, or even for the Arab Revolt for which I have some figures. They're good value as well as being excellent sculpts, so I've ordered a pack for use in the not too distant future.

Tally Ho!

The Battle of Britain Bag The Hun 2 introductory game this evening was a real success and was well received by all of the players involved. In the end, I ended up with slightly fewer participants so decided to run a simple fighter v. fighter game, using the cards that I'd laminated up but leaving out the bombers to keep things simple.

I'll do a write up of the whole thing later on, after I've had some feedback from the flight and schwarm commanders, but it was a narrow RAF victory. This was a bit of a turnaround for the plucky players concerned due to a bit of a sticky wicket in the opening turns. However, the collective stiff upper lip didn't wobble and things turned out tickety boo by the close of play.

Well done chaps!

Incidentally, everyone was duly impressed by the turn cards which Duncan very kindly provided for the game. As you can see in the photos, they are rather good and add a definite quality to the game, especially the Bale Out! card, which was employed on at least four occasions towards the climax of the proceedings.

Tally Ho!

Bag the Hun 2 Channel Dash Game

I've spent most of the evening laminating the turn cards for the Bag the Hun 2 Channel Dash game that I'll be running tomorrow night at the club. The cards have been blown up to just under A6 size so that I can use some plastic laminating pockets that I found in WHSmiths at half price a couple of weeks ago.

They're a big larger than I'd like but will work well for a multiplayer game, where bigger is definately better. It took me quite a while to shove them through the laminating gizmo and even longer to trim them down to size but I have no doubt that they'll be worth it.

Thanks once again to Duncan Hamilton for the excellent cards, which I'm sure will add much to the game and make it all the more enjoyable for everyone involved!

Iron Cow CDSU Task Force

The extra CDSU packs that I ordered in the Brigade Models 6mm sale arrived yesterday and I've been sorting them into units for my projected East African campaign. I have a company of tanks, a company of infantry in APC's, a battery of rocket launchers and SPG's, with a couple of AAA missile carriers in support, together with half a dozen HQ command APC's. It's not a lot in game terms but should be a potent enough force for a few try out games with the Iron Cow rules.

These are now in the painitng queue but, if I follow the quick spray and wash method that I used on the British battlegroup, they won't take long to complete, whenever I get round to them. I've also had an idea to base the infantry, using the Renedra plastic bases wih countersunk holes as before, but with some of the new Citadel texture paint to blend them in. It might work but I'll have to do some experimentation on some test bases before I tackle the infantry en masse.