I had to pick up the other half this afternoon so had some time to kill in town. I haven't been to the Oxfam bookshop for ages so popped in for a look. I was chuffed to find a hardback copy of this book, which I've heard on the grapevine is very good, for the bargain price of £3.50. I had a quick skim read while waiting in the car park and there's loads of fascinating detail to be mined for Flames Above the Falklands, Air War: C21, Target Locked On et al. Brilliant!
The Angolan and South African 1/600th decals from Dan at Flight Deck arrived yesterday, so I can now get started on my Angolan Air Force aircraft for the Border War Wings at War project. This will include MiG-23's, MiG-21's, Su 22's, Mi-8's and Mi-25's. I'm also thinking of including some more up to date aircraft, specifically the Su-27 and Su-25, so that I can do some modern 'What If?" games as well. No rush as I have plenty of other things to do!
I finally got round to finishing off the 1/600th aircraft for Flames Above the Falklands that I started way back before the summer holidays. I'd been putting this off due to the fiddly decals but it wasn't actually that difficult to do, mainly due to the quality of the Flight Deck Decals transfers. The paint work isn't that great but they are definitely useable, if not for a whole game then for some dogfighting. That's another one of my 'to do' projects done, so time to move on to something else on the list.
I've made some progress with the Falklands aircraft today, completing the base coats and giving them all an ink wash. I mistakenly started painting the GR3's instead of the Sea Harriers, so decided I might as well crack on and paint both! I blame my ever deteriorating eyesight. Anyway, they all look a bit mushy at the moment but should scrub up well, once I've done some tidying up and detailing.
The baseline fuel allowance for most aircraft is twenty points but I am going to bump this up to thirty, while larger aircraft with a fuel allowance of thirty points will be bumped up to forty. Of course, an aircraft can also carry extra fuel with drop tanks, so this track also factors that in, with space for an additional ten points of fuel on top of the base load of thirty points.
I think this will make for slightly longer games and fix the 'no fuel to duel' issue. I'll also have a look at the aircraft data generation rules and tweak those to make it possible to factor in the uprated fuel point allowance when calculating an aircraft's statistics and performance. It's a minor tweak but I'm hoping it will make a difference to game duration and add to the playability of the rules.
While I sort out the decals on the FAA fighter bombers, I've based and undercoated six A-4Q Skyhawks and two Super Etendards for the CANA or Argentinian Naval Air Force. I've also decided to paint the remaining four Sea Harriers in a later war low visibility scheme, as the Royal Navy is starting to look a little bit outnumbered! I'll get started on these this week and, in the meantime, finish off the decals on the air force Daggers and Skyhawks.
The FAA fighter bombers are now finished apart from the decals and a final varnish, so I'll be on to the naval Skyhawks and Super Etendards next. The Mirage III's and Canberras will be the last of the Argentinian aircraft I'll be doing for this project, which I'll hopefully wrap up by the end of the month, so that I can play some games over the summer break.
You can't really do the air war over the Falklands without some warships, so I have ordered some 1/2400th scale Royal Navy targets from the Seawulf Range that is sold by QRF. These aren't great and are showing their age a bit, but they do have a bit more heft than the other option, which is to use Navwar 1/3000th scale models. The latter are cheaper but not as good as the larger, more detailed 1/2400th scale Seawulf models, especially for the likes of HMS Fearless and Atlantic Conveyor. I'll see how well they paint up and, if they don't look right, I'll just revert to the Navwar tiddly ships.
To get the most mileage out of the aircraft I'm painting for Flames Above the Falklands, I'm going to use them with Air War C21, which is a set of rules I've had for years but have never tried out. There's a very handy Falklands War scenario supplement for the rules which will be great for starters, with the added advantage that it's a hex less system, so I can use my sea cloth, which I'll be taking with me on holiday for naval wargaming. I'm really looking forward to test driving the rules once I've finished the models and sorted out some bases.
I've started on the camouflage for the Argentinian Air Force planes today, with an overall basecoat in either Tan Earth or Reflective Green. This will be over-painted with the rest of the camouflage shades, from dark to light, so it's really just a key for the main pattern. I will crack on with that tomorrow, as it's a bit more fiddly and will take time to get right. It's surprising how long a simple base coat takes to apply but you have to get this bit right otherwise there are numerous headaches later on!
I haven't had much time over the last couple of days for any wargaming pursuits, primarily due to an unplanned round trip down to Plymouth and back in my day off, so the Falklands Air War project is temporarily on hold until the weekend. To make up for this, I'm expanding my Argentinian Air Force line up to include the eight A-4B/C Skyhawks that I have already prepared, as well as magnet basing and undercoating six A-4Q Skyhawks for the Argentinian navy which arrived in the post from Tumbling Dice a few days ago. I do like a Skyhawk!
Here's the next lot of 1/600 aircraft for the Falklands Air War project, in the shape of four IAI Dagger fighter bombers and six Mirage IIIEA interceptors of the Fuerza Aerea Argentina. The latter should really have wing tanks but they are not supplied with the model and I am not too bothered to go to all the faff of adding them. The Skyhawks will follow later, both for the army and navy once I've cleaned up and magnet based a few more. I'm hoping to get this lot painted over the next week or so, time and work permitting.
