A Waffer Thin Mint

2nd Lt.Tervo's Hawk 75A-6

MiG-3

I have some spare time today, so thought I might squeeze in just one more scenario for the Lard Mag. This one will feature 2nd Lt.Kalevi Tervo, the top scoring ace of LeLv32 with 14.25 kills to his name.  This was one of his last actions in November 1942, before he transferred to the elite LeLv 34 in February 1943, flying the Bf-109G;

'Two days later, whilst reconnoitring Lotinanpelto, 1Lt Tervo’s schwarm from 2/LeLv 32 intercepted a single Pe-2 from 119 RAE (Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron) and shot it down. The schwarm also bounced a section of MiG-3s and claimed two of them destroyed shortly after downing the Pe-2. Tervo was in action again on the 11th when he led his section against a formation of six MiG-3s over the Olonets Isthmus, sending one down in Vonozero area" 

(from P-36 Hawk Aces of the Second World War)

The last of these dogfights on 11th November looks the most promising, so I'll have a crack at that. I'll give Tervo a Top Ace rating for this but probably down rate at least one of the Finnish pilots in order to balance the scenario. The Soviets will also get a couple of Junior Aces to give them a fighting chance.

Carry on Sweetheart

                

Time for a rest after all that typing

I've now finished the introduction to the scenarios I've written for the Lard Mag, so to all intents and purposes, the Bag the Hun Continuation War project is done.* I just need to send it off to Nick Skinner so he can add it to the pile of stuff he's wading through for this edition, although there's no guarantee my bit will make it into the final cut. If you're wondering about the title, I settled on 'Carry on Sweetheart', in a nod to the Continuation War and to the Finnish pilot's nickname for the Curtiss Hawk 75. Tally Ho!

(*Apart from painting the models and running some scenarios at the club, of course)

Finnish Aces - Kalevi Tervo

I've started writing up the introductory article to accompany the Bag the Hun Continuation War scenarios, as part of which I was doing some research on Finnish Aces when I found this profile of 2nd Lt.Kalevi Tervo. It's all in Czech but easily translated into English using Google translate or similar:

https://www.valka.cz/15680-V-Curtissu-proti-rudym-hvezdam-Por-Allto-Kalevi-Tervo

Well worth a read and pretty impressive stuff, considering a lot of his initial victories were achieved flying the Curtiss Hawk-75A with Lentolaivue 32, no mean feat.

Finnish Hawk-75 Film Footage

A short but sweet clip of a LLv 32 Curtiss Hawk-75 flight, most probably filmed in October 1943. This film footage is often used as a source of still images in books and online websites but it's really cool to see the original moving images. It's just a shame it's not in colour!

Bag the Hun Scenarios Ready for Take Off

I've now added corrections, page references and a few tweaks to the Continuation War scenarios, so will be sending them on their way to Nick Skinner over on Lard Island, wherever that may be. In the end there are seven scenarios plus an alternative one that can be swapped in or out as required. I just need to write a brief introductory article to set the scene and to explain some of the theatre specific rules that are built into the scenarios themselves. Tally Ho!

Sunday Painting

After various DIY diversions this afternoon I settled down to some time at the work bench, focussed on blocking in the canopies of the Soviet aircraft using Vallejo Andrea Blue, a really good shade for this job. I now have to add some highlights in Vallejo Sky Blue, perhaps with a touch of Cold White as a final glint, before moving on to the final details. 

Korean War F-86A Sabres

I took my daughter to an Open Day at Reading University yesterday and we had a hour or so to kill before taking the train back home, so popped into Waterstones for a bit. Unlike most branches of this bookseller, they had a well stocked carousel of Osprey Publishing titles, one of which was this book in the dogfight series which I didn't yet own.

It's an excellent little book and has lots of potential scenarios for Bag the MiG or similar rules, with a breakdown of tactics and manoeuvres accompanied by full colour diagrams. It has inspired me to have a crack at some early war 4th FIW F-86A Sabres, complete with the D-Day style invasion stripes. My existing 1/600th scale Sabres are all the later F-86E version with the yellow bands, so I have a gap in my Bag the MiG and MiG Alley line up that needs to be filled. I already have twelve Tumbling Dice Sabre models in the leadpile, so it won't take long to paint up enough for some early war games. 

I've also decided to have a go at some 1/300th scale F-86A Sabres and MiG-15 fighters, using the Scotia Collectair models, a couple of which I ordered a few weeks ago just to check out. I thought they were really nifty, so have ordered some more to make up matching flights of four, along with some decals from Dan at Flight Deck Decals for the North Korean MiG's and from Scale Specialities for the 4th FIW Sabres.

Red Rocketeers

Another Special Pilot Characteristic to be included in the last of the Continuation War scenarios I drafted recently is this one:

'Red Rocketeer' - This pilot is highly proficient in air to air use of the RS-82 rocket projectile system (roll an additional 1D6 for air to air rocket attacks)

The I-153 is loaded with eight rockets and the I-16 six rockets, fired in pairs. Each pair rolls 2D6 against targets < SIZ 4 or 3D6 for targets that are larger. 

In the 'They Shall Not Pass" scenario I've written the two I-153's pilots concerned are firing against fighter rather than bomber aircraft, so would roll 3D6, requiring pairs to hit i.e. two 5's, two 6's etc. The extra D6 gives them a greater chance of a successful hit or near miss, but not so much that it makes it too easy.

Finnish Bogeys

I needed some bogey markers for the Continuation War project so popped off an order to Warbases, my go to source for acrylic tokens and nick nacks. I have red Soviet markers already from the Red Star Rampant project, so I chose a nice shade of translucent ice blue for the Finnish ones, with the text in Impact as usual. Very nice and very inexpensive.

Finnish Tactical Fighter Formations

I found a really interesting thread on an online forum today, explaining the tactical formations developed by the Finnish air force in the 1930's, one of the key factors in the success they had when fighting the Soviets in the Winter War. I always assumed that they copied the German schwarm as a tactical model, but I was clearly wrong:

'The Finnish Air Force adopted the revolutionary and very flexible two plane formation called Patrol [Partio] in the 1930's. 

Other formations were four plane Swarm [Parvi] (two patrols) and six or eight plane Flight [Lentue]. Swarm was especially efficient when patrols were staggered in height. 

The topmost fighter pair was called "top patrol" [lakipartio] and its task was to protect other fighters from surprises and help them in troubles. 

This I think was a Finnish "invention" which surprised Soviets. They too started using similar protection during the Winter War but in not so good success because their top patrol was tied to a formation it protected unlike the Finnish one which had free hands to operate. Additionally Soviet Polikarpov fighters had poor diving characteristics which made them unsuitable for effective protection.'

(I'll have to back track to identify the author but he's Finnish, so I guess knows what he's talking about)

I'm going to use these terms in my Bag the Hun scenarios and also write an explanation in the accompanying article, perhaps with a nifty diagram illustrate how they worked.