Flashpoint Tawan ROCAF Painting Finished

 

I spent a few hours today finishing the paintwork on the Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale ROCAF aircraft, although the bases will have to be done over the week along with the decals. I'm not too pleased with the end result, especially the F-16's as they look a bit 'mushy' and not as crisp as I would have liked, although the F-100 Super Sabres came out looking a bit better. I didn't enjoy painting this lot as much as usual, so that might explain the lack of enthusiasm I have for the end result. I'll get the decals and bases sorted over the week, along with a bit of tidying up and tail stripe painting, then it's on to other more nautical things.

Give Us the Ships Again!

Way back in March, before I was ambushed by What a Tanker! amongst other things, I set out my plans for naval wargaming this year. As is the way with this sort of blatant optimism, none of my four highlighted naval projects have made any progress at all yet, although I did make a promising start on the Fast Attack Craft for Bulldogs Away!

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2018/03/naval-wargames-spring-projects.html

So, it's about time I put that right and actually finished at least one of my nascent projects over the Summer and into the Autumn. I'm going to take one of them off to France this year to actually paint, rather than just assemble, with the 1/2400th scale Broadside and Ram 1864 Schleswig Holstein War project as the most likely option.

This has been hanging around for years, with all the ships and gunboat for both the Prussians and Danes undercoated, ready to be painted. I even have merchant ships and a British ironclad squadron to quite literally go alongside the main protagonists. It's a project that really should be tackled and what better time to do so than the Summer holidays?

I also have some brand new naval wargaming ideas for the rest of the year including a couple of projects that are only just on the drawing board. The front runner of these has just been ordered from Navwar, which might give you a bit of a clue about scale if not the actual focus. Not that I won't also be doing more 1/600th scale air wargaming or 15mm/20mm skirmish stuff, both of which are already on the 'to do' list for the next six months

Flashpoint Taiwan ROCAF Progress

I started the base coating and blocking in on the 1/600th scale Tumbling Dice aircraft for the ROCAF this afternoon, although it's so hot that the paint was drying out faster than I could get it from the brush to the palette. The basic light and mid-grey shades have been wet brushed onto the F-16's and F-5A's, while the F-100's and F-86D's have been given a silver basecoat followed by a Future / Ink wash. I've also blocked in the black on the B-57 and the B-26 Invader night intruders. I'm hoping to continue tomorrow with some white blocking in on the canopies and coloured areas, followed by the blue canopies, the green, red and blue markings and the metallic engine sections.

Gridded Naval Wargames

With International Naval Wargames Day only a month away, I thought I'd have a closer look at Bob Cordery's latest publication, Gridded Naval Wargames, with a view to scratch building some basic ironclad warships for a game on the big day. I like the idea of grid based naval wargaming, as it makes a lot of sense both for movement and gunnery, let alone making hidden movement and underwater submarine operations a lot less complicated than normal. 

I also really like the idea of assembling some home made warship models, which is a perfect activity for the holidays when I'm away from the workbench and don't have access to all my usual tools and paints. There are several sets of rules in the book and full guidelines for constructing suitable model ships out of card and balsa wood, so all I'd need to do is scratch build some ironclads, draw up a grid and get playing. Brilliant!

Tumbling Dice 1/600th French c1939-40

I ordered some Mirage 2000's from Tumbling Dice at the start of the week but, not wanting to pay postage on just one bag of planes, decided to look around for a mini-starter pack from the 1/600th scale range to bulk out the order. I decided to get the one for the French Air Force c1939-40, consisting of the following models:

ISA 320 - Bloch MB-152-1 x6
ISA 321 - Dewoitine D520 x6
ISA 322 - Moraine Saulnier MS406 x6
ISA 323 - Potez 63.11 x4
ISA 323a - Potez 633 x4
ISA 324 - Bloch 200 x3
ISA 325 - Amiot 143 x3
ISA 330 - SNCASE LeO451 x3

These mini-starter packs are good value for money and a bit like a Xmas stocking when you open them, as they contain all sorts of interesting goodies. I can add the French to my existing lead pile of Luftwaffe and RAF planes for the Battle of Britain variant in the Wings at War series, Scramble for Britain and for Bag the Hun. Zut Alors!

Missile Threat: Air Combat 1960-2000

I've had my eye on this set of modern air combat rules for a while but have yet to decide if I'm going to get a copy to try out, having already got at least three and probably more perfectly good rules already. However, they do look interesting and I may be tempted at the end of the week to download a set, if only to compare them with Airwar:C21, Target Locked On! and CY6:Jet Age, amongst the other rules that I have lined up for my modern air war projects. There's a play through of a game here:

Flashpoint Taiwan RoCAF F-16's

I was looking for something else yesterday when I found some 1/600th scale Tumbling Dice F-16 Fighting Falcons in a box of Israeli aircraft that I'd stashed away. I decided to use four of these as Taiwanese F-16's, which will allow me to bring the RoCAF a bit more up to date. I've also ordered a pack of four Mirage 2000's to use alongside the F-16's, although that's it for the modern element of the project, as I far prefer the 1960's Cold War kit.

What's on the Workbench This Week?

Here are the Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale aircraft that I'm painting up over the next week or so, when I can find the time to get some brushwork underway. The idea is to balance out the collection of planes for the PLAAF and ROCAF, so that I can run a series of games set from the mid to late 1950's through to the mid 1970's, changing the line up on both sides as time goes on. Some of these  will be historical whilst others will be 'what if?' clashes, escalating to full bombing raids and interceptions in a Cold War Gone Hot scenario. I'll be using Target Locked On! as the rules of choice but I'm also thinking of using Air War:C21 or similar hex based fast play rules as well.

Target Locked On! - Flashpoint Taiwan

I've only got a couple of weekends and three weeks before the holidays, so thought I'd leave starting the Mexican Revolution skirmish project for the moment and just finish off a few loose ends from earlier in the year. Way back in March I prepared a handful of Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale planes for the Flashpoint Taiwan project, then promptly went off to do other things.

These consist of some F-86D Sabre Dogs, some F5A Freedom Fighters, some F-100 Super Sabres and some assorted 'black ops' reconnaissance aircraft including a Canberra and an A-26 Invader. I think these should be relatively quick to paint up, so ideal as a small task to complete over the next couple of weeks, giving me a decent range of aircraft to use against the PLAAF fighters that I've already completed and the bombers that I still need to finish.

Sturmpanzer IV Finished

I've finished the Esci / Armourfast Sturmpanzer IV for What a Tanker! this morning, although a last minute decal disaster almost threatened to scupper the whole thing. As is the way with this sort of problem, it only happened right at the end when I had done all the hard work, so I wasn't about to chuck in the towel!

I used some decal solution to bed down the insignia but it stripped the white camouflage layer instead. In the end I was able to salvage this by removing a bit more of the camouflage, so that it looked like the insignia from the underlying paint had been left visible, rather then being re-painted on top of the camouflage itself. 

This was often done to save time and effort when tanks were being whitewashed with an extemporised winter camouflage. I had to touch up some of the bigger holes with white, which spoiled the overall effect, but these have now been re-washed to make the white blend in better. It's all done now, so I am free to move on to something else!