Bag the Hun Burma Air War [1]

With the holidays nearly over, I thought it would be a good to finish off my usual ramblings with the final project that I'm planning for the next twelve months or so. I've been thinking of another Bag the Hun project, having completed Operation Bodenplatte to a workable point, so have been considering the options. There were two real front runners, one being mid-war RAF v. Luftwaffe, based around the after action reports of No 263 Squadron flying Westland Whirlwinds on ground attack rhubarbs over Brittany:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laurieburley/jeff/index.html

The other was to do the air war over the Dutch East Indies, Burma and Malaya in 1942 and 1943, with a focus on the earlier stages of the campaign, at least to begin with.

I'm still thinking about this but, as a chap at the club has just started his own Midway 1/285th scale project and has painted up some Japanese naval aircraft, the latter option is looking like a real possibility. I already have a collection of 1/285th scale Japanese planes so would focus my efforts on the Imperial Japanese Army, using Museum Miniatures Ki43 Oscars and Ki27 Nates, but having an opponent would mean that I won't have to paint up as much as usual.

The Allies would initially be equipped with four Raiden Brewster Buffaloes that came with a winter war starter pack that I bought ages ago. I really like the idea of painting these up as Dutch East Indies aircraft, complete with their distinctive orange triangle insignia. Some Scotia Martin B10 bombers would be really cool as well! I also have some Raiden Curtiss P40B Tomahawks that were destined for the Western Desert but could now be used for Chennault's Flying Tigers, although I'd rather stick with the RAF and RAAF.

 I'm trying to avoid painting up more Trop Hurricanes after having done twelve of them for No185 Squadron over Malta, but I may well do a few more, this time using the Museum Miniatures models for a change. To finish things off, I can also add some Museum Miniatures Blenheims, which are lovely models if a bit useless for anything other than cannon fodder. I may even squeeze in some cannon armed Hurricane IIc's to even things up a bit for the RAAF and RAF.

This is all a bit theoretical at the moment but I have invested in a shedload of reference material as usual, which should give me a much better idea of the sort of thing that is feasible. It's a great opportunity to do some scenario development for a start, although the mini-campaign in the CY6 rulebook could provide a lot of the scenario options, converted over to a Bag The Hun 2 format. Anyway, loads of reading to be done and lots to think about.

Good stuff!