Gladiator vs CR.42 Falco

 

I've got a fair few relevant books for my East Africa Bag the Hun project but thought this might be useful. It sums up the campaign very well, as these two aircraft were at the forefront of many aerial dogfights, with the CR.32 and Hurricane the other principal fighters deployed in the theatre. I'm hoping it will have some useful after action report details that I can cross reference with my notes for that additional layer of accuracy and authenticity. 

East Africa Scenario Research

 

I took a break from painting today and started some scenario research for the Bag the Hun East Africa project. This far I have identified eight potential scenarios, at least three of which would make interesting games, and I have quite a few more to go. Many of the potential scenarios involve the Gloster Gladiators of No1 Squadron SAAF, including that of Captain 'Piggy' Doyle, pictured above, although I'm aiming to have some variety in the mix. The good thing about all of these is that they only involve a handful of aircraft, so the investment of time and effort is at a minimum. 

General Papi Mpongo

 

I set up a little competition for fun on the AK47 Facebook group. The task is to photo your army commander and post the pictures on the group page, so here is my entry, General Mpongo and his bodyguard in all three poses. Long live Mbote!

AK47 Painting Progress

 

I've made some decent progress today on the AK47 professional mercenary unit, with the vehicles almost finished and the S/A infantry bases blocked in. The jeep ended up a right mess, so I will replace it with a landover at a later date.  I'm going to try to get the infantry finished tomorrow if I can and also wrap up the AFVs. It reminds me how much I hate painting figures rather than planes and ships!

AK47 Professionals

 

I was looking for some painting inspiration for the AK47 professional mercenary small arms bases when I remembered these colour photos of British patrols in Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation. I like the colour combinations of jungle green and light brown fatigues, so will have a go at replicating something similar for the four S/A infantry bases. 

Bag the Hun East Africa

 

One of the other Bag the Hun scenario themes I'm looking at is the air war in East Africa. This has a lot going for it including a wide range of obsolete and not-so-obsolete interwar aircraft, a relatively small model count, some ground attack and bombing missions as well as dogfights, and some excellent source material to dip into. The number of models required means that it could be tackled in 1/285th scale, which has some appeal as a change from tiddly 1/600th scale painting, but there are a few obstacles to deal with too. 

The biggest pain in the bum is the availability of some of the more obscure types that were a significant feature of the conflict, most notably the Vickers Wellesley and Caproni Ca.133 in 1/600th scale, although the former is available in 1/285th from Raiden Miniatures and Collectair. This is not too much of a deal breaker, however, as the 3D printing option looks hopeful. So, I'm going to carry on my background research and hope to identify at least six scenarios with enough variety to make them interesting and enjoyable.

Royal Navy Third Rates

 

I thought I might as well include the 1/2400th third rates in my painting schedule for the Napoleonic Royal Navy fleet, so have undercoated them and blocked in the bases in Vallejo Prussian Blue. Here we have six 74's - HMS Ajax, HMS Mars, HMS Thunderer, HMS Goliath and HMS Minotaur - together with an 80 - HMS Foudroyant. I may add a couple more but this will be enough for a game or two, alongside the flagship HMS Glory.

Mission Creep....again.

 

I have had a think and have realized that I'm getting ahead of myself at the moment^, so have to cut back on my four (and counting) projects on the workbench, in order to actually have a chance of finishing some of them. So...for the moment, the 2mm English Civil War One Hour Wargames project has been shelved, ready to pick up at a later date, with the focus now being to finish the AK47 professional unit, to paint the Royal Navy Napoleonic fleet and to start on a test unit for Red Actions! Having said all that, I am itching to paint some more pre-dreadnoughts and 1/3000th WW2 ships for the early war Norwegian campaign, but I will do my best to resist!

(* this happens every year when I get back from my holidays and reality kicks in...why am I surprised!)

Arctic Eagles Mission Update

 

After some interesting chat on the Bag the Hun Facebook Group about scenarios, I'm thinking about re-booting my scenario writing project that I began to work on a few months ago. This was a series of scenarios based on the actions fought by Jagdgeschwader 5 'Eismeer' in Norther Norway between 1942 and 1944. I have made some preliminary notes from which I can probably squeeze about half a dozen scenarios, with enough variety between then to make it an interesting and worthwhile project. At this stage, I'm not planning to paint any aircraft but design and develop the scenarios for playtesting later on. The scenarios will include some bomber interceptions, dive bomber escort missions, anti-shipping strikes and fighter vs fighter dogfights, amongst other things, with some unusual twists due to the location and climate. 

La Royale for Nimitz

 

If it all goes according to plan it looks like I may have some games of Nimitz lined up at the club in a few weeks time. This would be with a fellow naval wargaming enthusiast, Geoff, who has had a few play test games already, so I'm going to print off some of the cards for my French, Italian and German early war fleets, ready to catch up. Luckily, the French ship cards have just recently been added to the download page on the website, otherwise I'd have to do them myself. I better get reading the rules!

AK47 AFV Painting Update

Progress has been a bit snail like on the AK47 professional vehicles but the tedious tyre painting has been done and I'm starting on the detailed bits, including the headlights, stowage, guns and crew. You'll notice that the wheel hubs on the Saracens and Saladin are too small, due to the very ropey castings and lack of a rim, but they don't look too off to be noticeable I think. I need to shift these along and then I can get started on the S/A groups, which I'll need for the game in a couple of weeks.

2mm ECW One Hour Wargames Tweaks

 

I've been fiddling about with this set of variant rules for the English Civil War based on the One Hour Wargames system. These are designed for 6mm so I will be halving the ranges and using centimetres instead of inches for starters. I'm also going to re badge the Parliamentarian cavalry as "trotters' to represent early war 'lobster' type horse, while the Royalist cavalry will be 'Gallopers'. A more contentious change will be to get rid of the bonus for road movement, on the basis that roads were probably more of an obstacle than an advantage, having read accounts of the war in Cornwall, while also being auqward to use with my regiment sized bases. 

Gallopers' and Trotters

An addition to the rules will be a 'random events' roll that I wil bolt on to the turn sequence, with both positive and negative outcomes, at least some of which may be a bit tongue in cheek. I may use cards for this, as I really like card based things and it makes the system flexible. Finally, I'm thinking of some sort of command bonus add on, with particular commanders being able to boost or hamper their units abilities, along with some sort of basic campaign mechanism to allow for linked scenarios. Phew!

PSC Weekend Sale

 

There's a 30% discount on Plastic Soldier Company products this weekend, which is very generous in the current financial climate, making it a good time to top up an old project. This is an  I Ain't Been Shot Mum campaign in Brittany in 1944-45, all in 15mm using Flames of War and Plastic Soldier Company figures. I have the PSC Fallschirmjager infantry for this but not the heavy weapons, so my sale purchase is just that, ready to support the paras in the defence of Hill 103, for example. The sale saved me about five quid but when or even if I get round to doing this...who knows?

AK47 Patrol Jeep

 

I was looking for something else when I found a Peter Pig WW2 British para jeep, so I have modified it to be a patrol vehicle for my AK-47 mercenary unit. This involved replacing the cast on drum fed K gun with a .30 cal, adding a pintle mounted .30 cal. and doing some head grafting from three spare bush hat cavalry figures. I quite like it but it'll be a right pain to paint with all those fiddly bits, nooks and crannies!

Air War East Africa

 

A couple of second hand hardback books this weekend, one from the local charity shop and the other from eBay, destined for a potential Bag the Hun scenario writing effort. I actually have six Blenheim IV bombers painted in No14 Squadron markings, so that's a good excuse to do something with them, although I have written a couple of North Africa scenarios before. 

AK47 Small Arms Bases

 

I've had a change of plan for the AK47 mercenary unit with regard to the figures. I was going to use some bareheaded SAS types for this but have switched over to the 'old" bush hat wearing professionals. I have a whole army of these based up for a Colonial Settler set up, so the plan is to start out using a core of bases and vehicles for the mercenaries, then expand to a full settler army later on, using the same paint scheme for the figures and for the British equipment and vehicles. It kills two birds with one stone and will also be a pretty useful force once it's all done  

AK47 Puma Transport Helo

 

It was chucking down yesterday and I didn't fancy painting after getting soaked walking the dog, so built this old Heller kit of an Aerospatiale SA330 Puma instead. It's destined to be a transport help for my professional mercenary unit but I'm not sure if I'll paint it right away, perhaps leaving it for another rainy day?

AK-47 COIN STOL (2)

 

I finished building the old VEB Plasticart kit this morning, adding some underwing guns and rocket pods from the PSC US infantry set. I'm quite pleased with the end result but now have to work out how to paint the blummin' thing! 

AK47 COIN STOL

 

I got home from a long day at work this afternoon and thought I'd unwind with some plastic bashing. This is a very old VEB Plasticart 1/100th scale East German kit of an L-60 Brigadyr STOL light aircraft, very similar in design to the Fiesler Storch. I've had it for years in the kit pile but thought it would be ideal as a lightly armed ground attack COIN aircraft for my AK-47 mercenary unit. The plastic is a bit brittle but, so far it's gone together quite easily. I'll add some gun or rocket pods from the spares box once I've built the model.

AK47 AFV Painting Progress

 

It's been a long day at work but the AK-47 mercenary armour is coming along nicely, with a spot of basic highlighting on the sand and green camouflage pattern. I'm actually thinking of adding a couple of unimog trucks to the convoy, so that I can change the unit points value up and down, making it more flexible. It would also allow me to double the number of infantry groups, adding some heavy weapon or RPG bases. It's either that or sone air power in the form of a COIN light aircraft or transport helicopter. I think I just about have the time to squeeze some extras in to the mix?

AK47 AFV Camouflage

 

Very Bright Green...

..compared to my British APC camo (left)

I bit the bullet and painted a camouflage scheme on to the AFV's this afternoon using Vallejo German Camo Bright Green, I always find this a bit tricky, as it's hard to get a good pattern over the various angles, bumps and sticky outy bits on the models. I'll tidy up later and give the camouflage areas a wash in Citadel Athonian Camoshade. 

Painting Ferrets

 

That looks quite good if a little boring

Much more colourful 

I've base coated my AK-47 armoured cars and carriers in a sand colour, as it just happened to tick my boxes, but I'm now wondering if I should add some camouflage pattern over the top to make them look less 'deserty'. I painted my Sandbox Skirmish armour in a similar way, using a British mid-green shade, but the AK-47 ones need to be a bit more colourful. I'm thinking of a nice bright reflective green or a very dark brown, similar to the images above, so will have a look at my paint shades to find some options.

AK-47 Game Plan

 Professional Mercenary Unit for Hire

Fellow club gamer Gary has just finished a rather splendid AK-47 army, the aptly named Kenko Rebel Army of Putango (KRAP) so a game of AK-47 is in the pipeline. I'm thinking of using my Zubuto Army of the People (ZAP) for this, as I have a couple of new T-64 tanks to take for a test drive. Either that or the Mbote Defence Force will get wheeled out again. If I have time I may well paint up a new unit, some armoured cars of the Zubuto Internal Police (ZIP) or a hired professional mercenary team for Mbote, but I've already got a lot in the workbench at the moment, so I'll have to squeeze it in. Watch this space for imminent propaganda newsflash reports...

Inshore Squadron

 

The Royal Navy Inshore squadron is now assembled, undercoated and ready for painting. I've put away the rest of the 1/2400th models to clear the decks and to focus on painting these over the next couple of weeks, alternating with my 15mm RCW AFSR figures and the 2mm ECW armies for a bit of variety. The aim is to complete the frigates, sloops and brigs by the end of the month, given a fair wind and calm seas!

2mm English Civil War Base Painting

 

I've been working away on the test bases for the 2mm English Civil War project, with the grass now painted and the figures blocked in with Vallejo Matt Black. I wasn't sure about the grass effect, which involved Vallejo Bright Olive Green and Lime Green,  followed by a wash in Citadel Camo Green Ink, but it's growing on me now. I'll be following the Roundwood method to paint the figures, with perhaps a white basecoat followed by nice bright colours to make the units really stand out.