Normandy Trip [2]

 

 

 

 

On Thursday morning we were looking for something interesting to do, so picked up some leaflets in the local tourist office. The result was a trip to the Chateau de Landal near Dol de Betagne, which has recently been opened to the public and is in the process of being restored by a heritage trust. They have a website here:

 

http://www.chateaudelandal.com/

 

In the UK this place would have been tidied up by English Heritage or the national Trust but in France it has been left pretty much untouched, with goats in the moat, overgrown walls and crumbling masonry. The atmosphere is very low key and we could wander around pretty much as we wanted, with no health and safety warnings to be seen.

 

It's a fantastic place and made all the more enjoyable for the kids by a wide selection of games that are distributed around the site for anyone to pick up and play. I spent most of the time taking photos of the architecture, which is great as inspiration for terrain scratch-building and as a source of ideas for scenarios, from the Hundred Years War to the Three Musketeers.

Normandy Trip [1]

We had a great time camping for a few days in Normandy. The campsite was excellent and situated within walking distance of Mont St Michel, which we visited (again) in the rain on Tuesday. On Tuesday we visited the nearby German Military Cemetery at Huisnes sur Mer followed by the American Cemetery and Memorial at St James.

 

The contrast between the two is obvious but both are set in very beautiful countryside and are very peaceful. At the American Cemetery I found a row of headstones with the same date and unit, which I think are the crew of a single B17, which was probably shot down over St Nazaire, Lorient or Brest. I'll have to do some research to find out what happened to the aircraft and crew involved.

Off to Normandy

The invasion of the relatives is almost over and it's scuppered my painting plans for the week, as we ended up with nine of them instead of the expected three. Anyway, to give us a bit of a breather we're off to Normandy for a few days camping. I may not have made any progress with the SAGA Norman's but I'm hoping to visit a castle or two to make up for it! 

When we get back I'll try to salvage something from the Summer wargaming schedule but this may end up being a few based up pirates rather than the full SAGA warband that I promised myself I'd complete. I really have to re-think the whole Summer project thing, as I invariably fail to achieve very much, despite my best intentions.

Perhaps I should focus on playing some of my collection of board wargames or writing scenarios, rather than trying to get figures painted with all the hassle of lugging paint, brushes and lead across the Channel? It's a wasted opportunity if I don't get anything done, so this might be a possible way to achieve something in the time I'm away from the workbench.

The best army of WW2?

A bit of a daft question to start with but the current special edition of Ligne de Front is a comparison of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the French, Japanese, Soviet, US and German armed forces. Not surprisingly, the Germans come out on top for most things, with the British being fairly average all round. I was surprised that British artillery was ranked below that of the US, but there you go. Crap tanks, average commanders and dodgy logistics maybe...but artillery, I think not.

1/144th Westland Whirlwind?

I was pondering the Bag the Hun 2 scale options again today.

 

With both 1/600th and 1285th / 1/300th covered by Tumbling Dice and Raiden / Scotia Micromodels, it would be very easy to cater for the scenarios that I'm devising for Bag the Hun. In fact, in retrospect, I wish I'd gone for 1/600th scale to start with, as I'd have a much more extensive selection of aircraft to play around with than my current 1/285th scale set up can offer.

 

Anyway, at the other end of the spectrum, there's a plethora of 1/144th scale plastic kits now on the market, thanks to Zvezda, Revell and Takara, so it's a possible option if you wanted to scale up your aerial wargaming to an impressive size. There are a few expensive resin kits of the Whirlwind in 1/144th but, thanks to the wonders of Shapeways, you can now get a rather nice 3D printed model:

 

http://www.shapeways.com/model/649209/1-144-westland-whirlwind-x2.html

 

You'd need a pretty large hex(on) map to play out a typical game but, otherwise, it's not entirely bonkers to think of 1/144th as an aerial wargaming scale, assuming the numbers are manageable?

Jagdgeschwader 2 'Richtofen'

 

As a side line to the scenario research that I've been doing for No263 Squadron and it's mid-war 'Whirlibomber' operations, I've been looking for some decent dogfights as a basis for one or two separate scenarios. These are far and few between, as the Whirlwind was relegated to a fighter -bomber role very early in its operational history, being provided with extensive fighter escort cover by Spitfires from 1941 onwards.

 

However, there are one or two Whirlwind dogfights both before and after it became the 'Whirlibomber'. One in particular grabbed my attention, as it involved a flight of four No263 Squadron Whirlwind MkI's against no less than 12-20 Bf109E-7's of  the training wing of JG2 'Richtofen' in August 1941. I'll post more about that one later but it's a very interesting action, which supposedly proved the Whirlwind 'more than capable' against the 'Emil'.

 

Anyway, Jagdgeschwader 2 were the resident cross channel opposition for No263 Squadron, with an area of operations stretching all the way from Brest to Le Havre, so I thought I'd add some relevant reading material to the project in the form of the relevant Osprey. This should help me fill in some gaps and provide the colour profiles that I can use for painting up yet more Bf109's and FW190's. It has a whole chapter on operations c1941-43, so it should be pretty useful.

Summer SAGA [6]

 

I finally made a start on the Normans today with a simple dry brush of Citadel Bolt Gun Metal over the chain mail, helmets and other metallic bits. This is a quick (err..yeah right?) paint and dip project, so I'm not going to be too fussy about the details. I'll paint in the flesh next so that they start to look more human and less like shiny lumps of barbecue charcoal.

263 Squadron Whirlwind Missions [4]

This is a scenario writing project that I began this year but didn't get round to finishing, although I did identify at least two potential scenarios for Bag the Hun. I've now had time to sift through my various sources including the ORB and AAR for 263 Squadron from late 1942 to late 1943, together with several good books on Whirlwind operations.

After looking at all the possibilities, I've narrowed down my search to a long list of a dozen operations including a couple of small dogfights with FW190's, a selection of anti-convoy attacks both by day and night, a number of Roadsteads against enemy shipping, a Rhubarb raid on a flak protected railway train and even a dive bombing Ramrod attack on a V2 site. They all have potential as scenarios to a greater or lesser extent.

I now need to shake out a shortlist of half a dozen scenarios to write up in greater detail, ready for playtesting in the Autumn at the club. These need to be both practicable in terms of numbers of aircraft and targets, but also interesting and varied enough not to be repetitive, which is less straightforward than you might think, given the role of the Whirlwind as a dedicated ground attack and anti-shipping aircraft. 

I'll sort this out over the next week or two, with the  longer term aim of writing up a variety of scenarios and a covering article for the TFL Christmas Special, assuming Nick and Richard think it's worth publishing! I may also submit either the Catch the Pigeon scenario or A Costly Strike, both of which have already been play tested by the usual suspects. 

The Burma Air Campaign

This is the latest book on the holiday reading list, with some Bag the Hun scenarios firmly in mind. This reminds me that I have a couple of finished scenarios on the hard drive that I really should send off to the Toofatlardies for the next special, and several more that I have enough material to write up for a club playtest. The foremost of these are the Whirlwind themed scenarios that I sketched out way back in January. It's about time I actually got them sorted!

SAGA Summer [5]

 

If you were wondering what has happened to the Normans over the last couple of weeks, the answer is nothing, as I've been far too busy with all the holiday activities to get them started. However, I have now undercoated and sorted out the first lot for painting, the two units of mounted knights and two units of dismounted knights, together with the mounted and dismounted warlord and hero.

 

Things should slow down a bit next week as the boys have sailing lessons Monday to Friday, which means we don't have to go out on various trips and visits in the afternoon. We have some relatives staying with us from Tuesday onwards, however, but this shouldn't get in the way of painting too much. I'm looking forward to cracking on with the SAGA project as a result.