Despite the half term holiday week of extra time, I've hit square bang, front and centre that perennial wargamers afliction, the dreaded painters block. I've tried to sit down at the workbench to get stuff shifted but just can't seem to focus and end up wandering off to walk the dog or cook a curry, anything rather than pick up a brush and get painting. I need to shift myself past this obstacle, so will be taking a few days off to recharge my painting mojo.
One of the (few) advantages of living in a fairly affluent, middle class town, with a lot of well educated professionals and quite a large elderly population, is that the local charity shops are full of very good second hand but immaculate hardback books. I often pop into the one at my local shops and yesterday found a copy of this for £2.99. It's had very good reviews but I have been disappointed by some of the author's earlier books, so I'll reserve judgment until I've read it. Either way, it's a fascinating subject and he does write well, so another one for the summer holidays.
I'm kicking off my summer project next month with an initial squadron of P47B 'Razorback' Thunderbolts, from the excellent Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale Vapour Trails range. The idea is to use these as a template for the rest of the USAAF squadrons for paint shades. I've also knocked together a new painting jig for the purpose while I was sorting out the models. In the meantime, I'll be getting on with the Napoleonic naval painting, which I've had to neglect for a few days due to the dreaded DIY jobs I've been lumped with over the half term holiday.
An enjoyable but very crowded game of Knights of the Sky at the club this evening, with a massive pile on by the Germans to shoot down an HP 100 RAF bomber before it could drop its payload on a rail yard. I was flying my Bristol Fighter as escort and managed to score a few hits on a couple of enemy machines, although not to any decisive effect. All a bit too messy but good fun nonetheless.
There's a Knights of the Sky WW1 multiplayer air game at the club tonight, so I've packed a good mix of late war types to give me some options, depending on which side I end up flying on. It's late 1918 so lots of very nippy and manoeuvrabke aircraft, most packing at least two machine guns. Tally Ho!
I did a stock check of the 1/600th lead pile of aeronautical shame today, with Fire in the Sky in mind. The balance sheet rev.ealed that I have a very good starting point for a new Summer holiday project, so I've decided to bite the bullet and go for it. The downside is that I've had to wipe out any terrestrial wargaming projects for this year in order to make way for a second air wargaming one, with the remaining stuff being very much all at sea.
I lost my painting mojo a bit this weekend so, rather than get nothing done I've started on recycling some old DIY hex bases for Bag the Hun. These were a nice shade of sky blue but I'm refurbishing them to use with the green hex mat I got for my birthday. They're not ideal as they only have one dice frame but better than having to make a whole new lot of them and more environmentally friendly! The plan will be to use some of them for a quick solo game over Khlakin Gol at some point later in the week.
I downloaded a copy of Fire in the Sky yesterday, having watched the YouTube videos and some excellent games played on the Storm of Steel FB group pages:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/9ssUJQCQKrHj3TK8/
I've been looking for something like this for years, a set of rules that uses formations rather than individual aircraft, very much like Bag the Hun but without the detail or buckets of dice, so I was encouraged by the things I've seen so far online.
On first impressions, this system looks really good for a number of reasons, specifically the use of formations, the swift resolution of movement and combat, and the clear focus on historical tactics. I like the multiple basing and use of a grid, as well as the way that aircraft types are given performance ratings that reflect their particular quirks. I also like the way that altitude is represented and reckon my tried and tested panel pin, MDF and magnet method of cheapo basing would work well and keep costs to a minimum.
On the downside, the number of models required is pretty hefty, with most of the scenarios and the campaign using upwards of three or four squadrons a side, as well as bomber formations of three squadrons. As each squadron can consist of up to three flights of four aircraft, each one would need two packs of Tumbling Dice models for starters. So even my crap maths makes a typical game total upwards of fifty to sixty models for the USAAF and perhaps forty or so for the Luftwaffe. That's an awful lot of painting even if I already have quite a lot of the models in the 'I'll do that one day' box.
I need to give this some more thought but I do like the system and think it could be a new direction in which to take my air wargaming. I think it would also go down well as a club game, especially for those players for whom Bag the Hun is too restrictive and Wings at War too crunchy or confusing. It's also got potential for other theatres like the Pacific and the Battle of Britain, which I believe are planned by the author for later editions?
I've printed, cut out and laminated the cards and tokens for Arena of Blood, ready to try out the rules when I get some time this weekend. It's an unusual system that records a gladiators attacks and defence using a card for each figure and tokens that are placed on top. I'm still not sure how this will play out in practice but it will be fun to give it a go.
