I've now shortlisted about six potential Bag the Hun dogfight scenarios for the Khalkin Gol / Nonomhan incident, most of which involve Ki-27's against a combination of I-15bis, I-16's and I-153's. To add some variety to the scenarios, which cover the entire conflict from May 1939 to September 1939, I'm also going to include at least one that features the obsolete Kawasaki Ki-10 Type 95 'Perry' biplane fighters of the 33rd Sentai, 2nd Chutai, which were sent to the front in September to make up for losses in the Ki-27 equipped units.
There are two possible scenarios for this, one on the 2nd September when three Type 95's clashed with a whole squadron of I-16's of the 22nd IAP, with two of the Japanese fighters shot down for no loss. This is a bit one sided, so I'll probably use the next day as the basis of the scenario, when seven Type 95's of the same unit took on twenty to thirty Soviet aircraft in a mass dogfight, which I will scale back to seven I-153's of the 70th IAP, as they have been clearly identified in at least one source as the aircraft involved. This will be a more balanced set up but the Japanese will still struggle against the Chaikas!
In other news, I'm about to get a package from Tumbling Dice with some top up packs of I-152's and the aformentioned Ki-10's, as well as some extra Ki-27's, so that I can add them to my existing lead pile of models for this project. I am going to start painting the planes when the modern Chinese PLAN ships are out of the way, ready for some scenario writing and playtesting over the summer. I'll be playtesting the scenarios solo for a change, which should be a challenge as I usually get the chaps at the club to do it for me while I umpire and make notes, but I'm sure it will work out okay.
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