A bit more progress on the Sabres and Mustangs yesterday, with everything blocked in apart from the canopies. I have added the invasion stripes to one of the Sabres using a 0.1 black fine line pen, just to see what it looks like, as well as painting the canopy at the same time. The rest will have to wait until next weekend as we are off to sunny West Wales for a short break.
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| Polikarpov I-153 'Chaika' |
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| Polikarpov I-16 'Ishak' |
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| Petlyakov Pe-2 |
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| Lavochkin LaGG-3 |
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| Mikoyan MiG-3 |
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| Ilyushin Il-4 |
I've been tarting up some more storage tins for my 1/600th scale model aircraft over the last couple of days. Here's a WW1 German tin to go with the RFC one I did earlier, as well as a second Soviet WW2 tin to use for Khalkhin Gol alongside the Japanese one. Not bad for a bit of a side line and very easy to do.
I've been mulling over ideas for a Wings at War Winter War set of rules lately, based on various elements of the existing rules but designed specifically for this conflict. Here are my initial thoughts:
Table layout would be the usual 6' x 4' divided down the centreline as the front line of the Karelian Front, but with a 40cm wide area of sea on the western end to represent the Gulf of Finland.
Terrain placement would include scattered areas of forest at height level one, using the system in MiG Alley for hills.
Tactical targets would be deployed on both sides of the frontline by both players representing bunkers, trenches, infantry and tanks.
Strategic targets would be deployed on the Finnish side closer to the Finnish baseline representing villages, ammo dumps, railway lines etc. These would be the targets for Soviet bombing raids.
The Finnish would deploy in flights of two aircraft and the Soviets in threes.
The Finns would have more ace pilots and the Soviets more green pilots.
There would be restrictions on the number of specific Finnish aircraft that arrived late or were in limited numbers.
The Soviets would gain VP's for hitting strategic targets with bombers and tactical targets with fighter bombers, They will also get to sow mines in the Finnish half of the sea area. They may get points for shooting down fighters.
The Finns would gain VP's for shooting down bombers, hitting tactical targets with bombers and fighter bombers and for shooting down fighters.
Both sides will also be able to gain VP's for reconnaissance and artillery spotting as in Duel of Aces.
There may also be rules for Taran ramming attacks and air to air rockets for the Soviets.
.... definitely a work in progress.
I but the proverbial bullet today and started applying the decals to the 1/600th scale Soviet aircraft. This is the only aspect of the scale that I don't like, as it's very fiddly and time consuming, especially as you have to squint to actually see the final result. I only managed the Il-4, Pe-2 and MiG-3 models today, so have more to get sorted tomorrow, once I get my eyesight back to normal!
I made these North Korea coastal terrain boards last year sometime then forgot about them. With a game of MiG Alley in a couple of weeks and some USN, USMC and FAA aircraft to deploy, I thought I better finish them off. It's just done with spray paints but I think it looks not half bad.
Now that I have some 1/1200 scale warships for the War of the Pacific, I thought I'd add a few more using those new fangled 3D printed models. These are from David Manley's Long Face Games range via Big Jim Prints, and include HMS Shah, HMS Amethyst, the Peruvian monitor Victoria (which didn't see any action) and the Peruvian monitor Atahualpa, which actually did. I'd really like to get a second model of the Huascar, to represent it under the Chilean flag, but it doesn't seem to be available in this range just yet....
After a long delay due to work and family life, I've set up a four player game of MiG Alley for the 5th November. This will be for players with no prior experience of the rules, so I'm going to keep it user friendly but hope to get in at least two games on the night. I just need to finish off the sea terrain boards that I started on ages ago to complete the set up. Tally Ho!
I had a really nice surprise yesterday at the club, when one of the veteran players who I've known for years but haven't seen for ages, gifted me this box of lovely 1/1200th scale ironclads. These belonged originally to a founder member of the club and true gentleman, David Spender, who tragically died from cancer a few years ago. He was a great naval wargaming enthusiast and was fascinated by obscure conflicts, so very inspirational for me as I returned to wargaming twenty years or more ago. I'm dead chuffed to have inherited these models, a mix of Northhead Miniatures and Red Eagle / Skytrex, so will now be able to play some scenarios on a larger scale, possibly using Iron and Fire for al but more depth and detail. I'll probably revise them and touch up the paint work a bit, but otherwise they're ready for action!
An excellent game of Strength and Honour at the club tonight, made even better by a very narrow but decisive Carthaginian victory. It could have gone either way at one point but the Romans jumped the gun and called Homunculus Est a fraction too soon, followed by the Carthaginians at just the critical point in proceedings. Thanks to Kevin, Gary and Mark for another great gane and, of course, to Mr Backhouse Esq. for a brilliant set of rules.
I didn't get round to the decals for my Soviet air fleet at the weekend, being side tracked by the storage tin thing, but I did magnetise, undercoat and basecoat some additional fighters in white winter camouflage. I've always fancied having a crack at this so six MiG-3 and I-16 fighters are now on the paint table. The MiG's are actually needed for the last scenario I devised set in November 1942, but the I-16's are just for fun, as they're really enjoyable to paint.
I've been storing my magnet based 1/600th scale aircraft in metal geometry set boxes for years but hadn't thought of customising them until today. Here's two I've souped up for the Bag the Hun Continuation War models, with a quick spray in Halfords primer, a top coat in a suitable shade of blue and green, finished off with a spare decal for identification purposes and a brush coat of gloss varnish, having run out of the spray on variety. The finish isn't perfect but I'm quite pleased with the effect overall, so will probably go and sort out something similar for my other sets of aircraft.
I'm thinking about playing some solo games of Bag the MiG in 1/600th scale, using my large collection of models that i have for MiG Alley, the homemade double dice frame flight stands I already have and the old first edition of the rules, which I fancy rebooting. What I don't have are a set of cards, until I remembered that there was a decent deck on the old, long gone TFL Yahoo group. Luckily, these were copied over to Groups.IO, so I downloaded them and printed them out. The first sheet can be edited too, so I can use that as a template for more cards when I play different scenarios.
I finished painting the Soviet aircraft for the Continuation War project this afternoon, so they just need some decals and a matt varnish to be ready for action. I've now swapped the Finnish models over to the painting production line, where I have some extra spaces leftover, so I'm going to add eight Brewsters to the line up, along with four more Blenheim MkI bombers that I've already prepared. Tally Ho!
I haven't been to the club in months due to other commitments on a Tuesday night and a lack of get up and go on my part, but I was invited to join a game of Strength and Honour next week, so have arranged a pass. I enjoy playing this set of rules, even if my grasp of the system is still sketchy to say the least, so it's a good opportunity to get a bit more of a grip. It's a Roman Vs Carthaginian scenario for a change, with two players per side. I'm looking forward to it and hope it will give me some impetus to get another army painted next year, probably Agricola's Imperial Romans, the Numidians or the Caledonian Tribes, but maybe something earlier, who knows?
