The Sky's The Limit

Today, I was reading Matt H's excellent battle report for INWARD 2019 on his Shell Splash blog, based on the Battle of Pacocha in 1877, which features some lovely Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale ships, not to mention some very professional ship record cards for Dahlgren and Colombiad. However, the thing that caught my eye was his very effective coastal terrain and, in particular, the clever use of a sky background to add some atmosphere and perspective:

http://shellsplash.blogspot.com/2019/08/inward-2019-battle-of-pacocha-1877.html

I hadn't thought of this before but it reminded me of the model railway sky backscene paper strips that you see being used on layouts for the same purpose. A quick Google and I discovered that you can now get photorealistic sky sheets in 5' long by 15'' tall sections, supplied in packs of two, one of which would provide all the sky you could need in 1/2400th scale. They also come in different themes of overcast, clear sky and with clouds, so you can even represent the weather conditions. I may well give them a try?

https://www.modelscenerysupplies.co.uk/backscenes/Sky-Backscenes

Tumbling Dice Third Rates

I've been on holiday a week now but have yet to start on the 1/2400th scale Napoleonic naval assembly project, so it's about time I got on with it. I'm going to get cracking over the next few days with the core of the project, the 74's and 80's that will form the backbone of the French and British line of battle. I'm hoping to be able to run a bit of an assembly line to get as many of them built and based as I can, assuming I can work out which bits go where?

Winter War Reinforcements

I just managed to grab the last nine Raiden Miniatures I-15bis fighter models from the Magister Militum web shop thing, which means I have enough of these little biplanes to kit out the scenarios that I'm working on for the Lard Day. I already have some Navwar I-15's but these came without undercarriage parts, so will be better used as I-153's, which were more often encountered during the Winter War anyway. 

When I get back from my holiday at the end of the month I will start assembling and basing the aircraft for both the Finnish and Soviet forces, which will enable me to play test the scenarios, once I've written them of course. I'm aiming for three potential games, at least one of which will be a bomber interception, so that I can paint up and use my lovely Raiden SB-2's and Scotia Collectair DB-3's. 

Hardwired

I spotted this over on Wargames Vault and thought it looked interesting. I used to play a bit of the original Cyberpunk RPG back when I was at university and was a big fan of William Gibson's books, so that made it stand out after reading the blurb and a few sample pages. I also have some 15mm GZG sci-fi police figures that would be perfect as H-SEC and some 15mm Corporate Suits from The Scene as a potential team of Agents. I like the idea of 15mm for this, as it would cut down the table space required and thus the amount of terrain and buildings. I'll think I'll download a copy and take a closer look.

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/278824/Hardwired-Cyberpunk-Espionage-and-Mayhem

Fokkers and Ischaks

After locating at least one potential scenario for the Winter War from a Finnish perspective, I thought I'd have a look at the problem from the other way round, once again using Hakan's Biplane Fighter Aces from the Second World War site (which really is an excellent resource for this sort of thing). The Soviets were notorious for overclaiming and making multiple claims that don't match the actual Finnish losses, so it's a bit of a minefield. 

However, this dogfight could the basis of an interesting scenario if I filled in all of the blanks with some educated guesswork. It features a number of named Soviet pilots making it much easier to flesh out the pilot ratings and formations, and it also has the Fokker DXXI's in action for the Finns and I-16's for the Russians, which is great as I have quite a lot of these in the lead pile and they're both pretty nifty models. Anyway, here's the relevant bit snipped from Hakans Aviation page:

Starshii Leitenant Kozachenko served in 38 IAP at the start of the Winter War. During the Winter War in 1939-40, Kozachenko shot down four Finnish aircraft, flying Polikarpov I-153s in the Karelian area and emerged as one of the more successful Soviet pilots in this conflict.

Kozachenko was posted from 38 IAP to 4./25 IAP on 21 January 1940 to set up the eskadrilia with Polikarov I-153s. This unit operated over the Karelian Isthmus. 

Between 16:15-17:15 on 2 February 1940, ten I-16s and three I-153s from 25 IAP led by assistant CO Bushev fought with 18 Finnish aircraft over Imatra. The returning Soviet pilots claimed eleven Fokker D.XXIs and one two-seated fighter shot down without losses! 

Participating (and claiming) Soviet pilots were Kapitan Bushev, Mladshii Leitenant Polupan, Starshii Leitenant Yakov A. Antonov, Starshii Politruk Aleksandr A. Ivashkin, Major Aleksandr Ketov (I-16), Leitenant Smirnov, Denisov, Starshii Leitenant Smiryagin, Starshii Leitenant Sviridenko and Starshii Leitenant Kozachenko (I-153; it seems that he claimed the two-seat fighter and a Fokker). 

The only claim in this combat that can be verified is that the Danish volunteer Luutnantti Fritz Rasmussen of LLv 24 was shot down and killed in Fokker D.XXI FR-81 over Rauha.

Of course, another option would be to move the action forward to the Continuation War in 1941, when all sorts of interesting aircraft would be available for both sides, but for the moment I'll keep my sights fixed firmly on the earlier 1939-40 conflict.

Normandy '44

I've been reading this today and have already ploughed through half of it, as it's a page turner, very much akin to the author's Burma '44 book about the Admin Box. Although I've read numerous books on the subject, there's always a new angle or aspect to uncover, and this is no exception. It's also great to have first hand accounts from a variety of perspectives. Very good!

INWARD 2019

This is on again in a couple of days, so I'll be organising a solo game of something while I'm away from home, using card and paper ships in the absence of my ironclad fleets. This year I have two possible options, one being a Napoleonic frigate action using the Fleets in Profile: The Battle of Trafalgar 1805 paper flats and some sort of 'back of a fag packet' rules from somewhere or other. The other option is some ancient naval galley warfare using the top down paper miniatures from Tiny Tin Troops and Long Face Games's fast play Ad Mare Bellum rules, which I left here last time I was over at Easter for just this sort of thing. Time to get cutting out and gluing I think!

Gladiators and Sewing Machines

On the way over on the ferry, I had plenty of time to do some further research for potential Winter War scenarios for the Lard Day. I had another look on the excellent site of Hakan Gustavsson, which I've plundered several times before for scenario ideas:

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/gladiator_finland.htm

This dogfight between Gloster Gladiators of LLv 26 and I-152's of 49 IAP stood out as a potential winner, although there were plenty more to choose from:

In the afternoon on 13 February, lentomestari Lauri Lautamäki (GL-253) and ylikersantti Oiva Tuominen (GL-255) were first scrambled at 14:00 and sent to Matkaselkä. After this there was an alarm - a large Russian bomber formation was approaching! Luutnantti Knut Kalmberg (GL-260) and Kivinen took off first as they were in readiness with running engines. Five others followed so all nine Gladiators of Kivinen's unit were airborne. 

They met nine I-15bis fighters and engaged them. Six Russians tried to form a "Spanish ring"-defensive circle. Kalmberg attacked these Russians, but as he started shooting, three other Russians attacked him and hit his Gladiator. He tried to disengage by diving, but his plane went into a spin and dived into the ground at Havuvaara, killing him. Meanwhile, Kivinen’s Gladiator was hit in the engine. He disengaged with a steep dive and landed at Värtsilä. 

The rest of the Gladiators were now dogfighting with the Russians. In the dogfight Jörn Ulrich was hit and wounded. He made a forced landing with the last of his strength between Kuhilasvaara and Havuvaara. His Gladiator GL-257 was badly damaged and not repaired anymore. In this fight, Ilmari Joensuu (GL-256) claimed one I-15bis at 14:40 while Ulrich was credited for the destruction of two between 14:15 and 15:05. 

Other Finnish pilots in this engagement were Pentti Tevä and lentomestari Niilo ‘Arpinaama’ Artola. Artola was not a pilot of LLv 26 but a Blackburn Ripon pilot of LLv 16. He was on a familiarization flight with a Gladiator when the Soviet fighters appeared. He joined the battle although he was not sure how to operate the guns! However, he managed to fire a bust on an I-15 chasing a Finnish Gladiator. It seems that the I-15bis fighters were from 49 IAP, which lost Starshii Politruk M. A. Kochmala (I-15bis), who was KIA after claiming two Gladiators.

I think this would make an excellent, straightforward dogfight scenario, with plenty of aircraft to go round and lots of scope for pilot ability ratings, special scenario rules and clear objectives. I also have just enough 1/285th Gloster Gladiator models to cover it, with the I-15's sourced from Raiden Miniatures via Magsiter Militum in the UK. I'll have a go at writing it up in the usual style over the next few days.

Chocks away!

Piper Operation Cobra

We arrived in Brittany this afternoon but, on the way over we stopped off with friends in Julloville, which is a short hop up the coast from Avranches in Normandy. It just so happens that there is a weekend of celebrations over the next few days, to commemorate the seventy fifth anniversary of Operation Cobra, and I was lucky enough to catch the start of it last night and this morning.

This included a visit to the vehicle park for the re-enactment yesterday evening, situated in the original SHAEF headquarters at a local manor house, together with a display of a T34/85 and Panther from Saumur, which not that long ago I bumped into a Tankfest. There was also a rather impressive Leclerc provided by the French army, which looked only slightly less incongruous parked outside the town hall.

This morning on the way to Avranches we also ran into a convoy of re-enactors in their various jeeps, beeps, trucks and half tracks, the highlight being a beautiful Harley Davidson motorcycle and an actual M16 SPAA half track. Quite a sight! The MP in charge of traffic control was a really nice chap too but I stopped short of asking him if I could sit on his bike for a photo. I guess I will just have to get one of my own!

We're all going on a...

It's amazing what you can pack into an A4 box!

We're off on holiday to France for a couple of weeks again tomorrow, so I'm taking along some things to do if the weather socks in or if it's too hot to go out in the midday sun, mad dogs not withstanding. I've put together a box of 1/2400th scale naval goodies including the Napoleonics and a handful of late Victorian British and French ironclads, which will extend my project into the 1880's and 1890's. I'm not taking anything to game with, however, as I have some card and paper miniatures already over there if I want to set up something for INWARD 2019, for example, although I could possibly use some of the assembled Tumbling Dice models at a push. Happy days!