On the Horizon

I'm starting painting the 1/600th scale Roland C.II models but have decided to deploy exactly the same paint shades that I used for the Airfix 1/72nd scale equivalent, one of which I painted many years ago for wargaming. The shade of choice is a very old pot of Citadel Horizon Blue, which I bought in The Works after Games Workshop ditched the old range of Warhammer paints, I reckon about twenty years ago. It's still going strong and is the perfect shade of light blue! 

2025 Review - Rolling Dice

I set out at the start of the year with the objective to focus on the First World War and, to be fair to myself, I think I have achieved that goal, albeit only from the air. In fact, the vast majority of the games I've played this year have been solo play testing ones for Algernon Pulls It Off!, which has clearly been my principal focus from very early on. I have played a few club games, one Knights of the Sky WW1 air game, a multiplayer Napoleonic 10mm Waterloo game and a single game of Armoured Storm, but otherwise I've stayed away from the club and stuck to solo wargaming. I did also play a couple of try out games of Fly Fight Win: Honcho, which were good fun, but haven't revisited it since the summer. One big change has been the absence of any naval wargaming but this will return next year for sure, in some firm or other. Overall, I've enjoyed my year of wargaming, despite most of it being solo and limited in scope, so I'll be doing more solo wargaming in 2026.

Algernon and the Battle of the Bathtubs

I have picked out another old Knights of the Sky scenario to convert it for Algernon Pulls It Off!. This one was written for a club game a few years ago and is a bit of a cracker. To set it up for play testing I've added four Tumbling Dice 1/600th Roland C.II two seaters to the painting jig, although painting anything at the moment is a bit difficult as the garage is full of builders clobber!

Junkers J.1 Small Scale Scratch Build

I dug out an old scenario for the club WW1 rules the other day, with a view to converting it for Algernon Pulls It Off!. It involves an observation sortie by a Junkers J.1, escorted by Fokker Dr.1's of Jasta 11, intercepted by the SE5a scouts of No.29 Squadron RFC, although I might fiddle about with the set up. It's set in the latter stages of the Battle of Cambrai and, while not based on actual events it is semi-historical. I don't have a 1/600th scale Junkers J.1, however, so I'm going to have a go at scratch building one in plastic card...a bit of a challenge but worth a try!

Knights of the Sky Club Game

A rare night out at the local club this evening to play in a Knights of the Sky game, the house set of rules for First World War dogfighting. The Roland C.II was deployed in a fighter bomber role, scoring eight victory points for bombing a fuel depot, with some effective damage to enemy Sopwith Strutters by both the observer and pilot. The game was good fun but fizzled out a bit towards the end, which was a shame as I'm rarely around on club nights these days due to other commitments. 

Knights of the Sky Nieuport 16c RFC

Eastern Express Nieuport 16c

 

After checking the parts and assembly instructions (!) for the old Merlin Models Halberstadt DII kit, I decided it was too much trouble to try to build it, at least for the moment. Instead, after another rummage in the loft, I have picked out an old Toko / Eastern Express Nieuport 16c kit, complete with Le Prieur rockets but missing the decals. As the Knights of the Sky game is a balloon busting scenario set in September 1916, this looks like an ideal kit to put together. I only have a couple of weeks to build it before I'm off to France, so time is of the essence. I have built the eastern Express Nieuport 11 kit, which was a few years ago but didn't seem too fiddly, so this shouldn't be a big change and certainly much less stressful than the crude limited edition alternative!

Eduard 1/72nd Fokker DVII (OAW)

I spotted a very good price Eduard /72nd scale Fokker DVII kit on eBay, so have in and ordered it for Knights of the Sky. It's the weekend edition, so no photo etch or other spangly bits, but it does have some cracking decal options, including the Jasta 18 machines flown by ace Ltn.Karl Monnington in late 1918. I already have a fantastic decal sheet by Blue Rider for Jasta 18 but it doesn't include this one, so it's a great addition to the kit pile. Excellent!

'Cat and Mouse' Algy Bonus Scenario

I'm not entirely happy with one of my scenarios for the Jasta 18 project, 'Baer's Really Bad Day', so I'm going to swap it out for a different one. This has already been written and so just needs to be slotted into the sequence in chronological order. It revolves around Ltn.Karl Albert Mendell, shooting down an R.E.8 of No.4 Squadron on 4th June 1918, for his seventh and final victory. 

In this game, the R.E.8 crew of Lt.Maltby and 2nd Lt.Simms must evade and escape from the Jasta 18 ace, using cloud cover to bugger up his chances of shooting them down. I've included a mechanism for cloud deployment and rules to cover popping in and out of clouds, tying in with the blinds system. It's a simple system and so should work well, hopefully enabling the RAF crew to get away relatively unscathed.

It's great that I can have a 'Harry Tate' in at least one of the games, as it's my favourite aircraft and often gets flown in Knights of the Sky games at the club. I also have one painted up in 1/600th scale and have another pair in 1/300th scale 3D printed form, which are going to be a lot of fun to paint up. At any rate, the scenarios are all completed now, so it's on to the play testing phase of the project.

Roden 1/72nd Nieuport 27

As part of my First World War focus this year I'm planning to build some more kits for Knights of the Sky. I have a big stash of models but there's always room for more, especially if they fill a gap. Here's the latest, a Roden Nieuport 27 that will be painted as either an RFC or French machine. The RFC roundels are a bit off centre so I'll probably go for the Aviation Militaire option. The added bonus is that Roden is a Ukrainian company, so I'm very happy to support the Ukrainian economy, even if it's by buying their plastic kits! 

Knights of the Sky Halberstadt DII

On the 25th there's a WW1 Knights of the Sky game at the club, set in 1916. I thought it would be a nice idea to build a kit for the game and have pulled this one out of the kit pile for a challenge. It's a limited run, very basic and fairly crude injection moulded kit of the Halberstadt DII, perhaps the best scout that the Germans deployed in 1916. It's going to be a tricky job to glue together, with lots of sanding, filing, filling and swearing, but if it works I'll be very happy!

2024 Review - Rolling Dice

It's been a very patchy year in terms of playing games, mainly due to six months working full time and a lack of spare time to spend on actual wargaming. Nonetheless, I've had a couple of excellent games of Strength and Honour, despite still not having a proper grasp of the rules, several very enjoyable pre-dreadnought and WW2 naval games, some one off games of old favourites including Saurian Safari, Bag The Hun, Knights of the Sky and Back of Beyond, together with some new things like Blood Red Skies (of which I am not a fan). Not everything has been a success, the MiG Alley introductory game being a good example, but on the whole it's been a rewarding, if less than extensive spread of wargaming over the course of the year. Unfortunately, its also been very inconsistent, with a strong start fizzling out after three or four months, only picking up right at the end. I really need to make more of an effort to get to the club and to pick up my solo efforts at home, when I have time to set up a game, especially to try out new rules and get stuff on the table after I've spent so much time painting it. I have some ideas for 2025 that might help this along in the right direction. 

Ground Loops

It's been a frustrating weekend, partly due to the terrible weather but also as my car has broken down and is now waiting to be repaired, no doubt at an extortionate cost to the wallet. This means that I'm going to miss the Knights of the Sky club game tomorrow, as the other car is being used by the wife all evening and I'm not insured on it anyway. Fortunately, I was able to fore warn the umpire and some replacement pilots have been recruited to fill the ranks. On top of that, I'm now having to get up at 5am to get a lift into work, so I'll be knackered as well. To top if off I have a new mobile phone that's driving me nuts and refuses to let me access my blog, so it's all going a bit tits up at the moment. It could be a lot worse  but it's a bit of a pain in the arse all round!