Stukas and Stringbags

Now that I've got quite a few ships done, I thought it was time to add some aircraft. The aircraft in Ghukek's Wargaming 3d catalog are FREE!, which is cool. They are scaled at 1:900 to go with the 1:1800 ships. He does the smaller fighters and carrier aircraft as singles and flights of three, joined at the tails or with overlapping wings. Large bombers, scout planes etc are all singles. 

Some he modeled with tiny propellers, which are weird. I cut them off where present.

Picture from Ghukek catalog of Bristol Beaufighters. Note individual model and flight of three model

The flights of three is how the Mad Padre printed my aircraft for the 1:2400 project a couple of years back.

Dauntless SBDs (joined wing tip to tail) and F4F Hellcats (joined at the wing tips) fly over a CVE early in the project.

It was easy enough to paint them. Clip off the peg on the post, glue the flight on, brush prime and paint.

Except, due to some casual storage, my flights of aircraft have taken some damage. Flights of three reduced to two, or even one, model with shortened wings.

The SBDs (far left and far right) if you look closely are in rather poor shape.

Don printed me the single models, not the flights. So I had six of each aircraft. These were going to be a bugger to paint and how to base them? And after all that effort, how to keep them from breakage? So solutions needed to be found.

For painting I hit on the idea to superglue them to some sprue. Easy to just pop them off the plastic, right? RIGHT???!!

Painting in progress

Wrong. A lot of wings and tails snapped as I tried to gently pop them off the sprue, even after I put a bunch in the freezer for 24 hours.

Carnage!

Some I was able to repair, because the breaks were simple, clean, and I could find the errant piece.

But many airframes were a complete write off. 2 out of 5 Do17s survived. I managed to repair the damaged Ju88s, so I got all six in service. Of the Me110s and Ju87s I only saved half, 3 each. The rest were unsalvageable.

Do17s attacking HMS Cleopatra off Crete

Two flights of Ju88s make a bombing run

Swordfish from HMS Illustrious attack the Armando Diaz off North Africa

For the British I only lost one each of the Swordfish and the Beaufighters, so I made a flight of three and a flight of two for each.

The British have 4 flights of attack aircraft. The Axis have five flights. One of Me110 fighters, two of Ju88s, and one each of Do17s and Ju87s. The Axis will have to wait until I get some Italian aircraft before they get torpedo bombers.

Me110s

For the flights of three, I cut a triangle of clear plastic from a food packaging clam shell and punched a hole behind where the lead aircraft would go. Flights of two got a rectangle with a hole punched in the center.

The aircraft were then hot glued into position. I left some overlap so the plastic would protect the wings.

Ju87 Stukas!

Beaufighters attacking a convoy in the North Sea, or maybe the Mediterranean.

I think with the next round of aircraft I'll hot glue the models to a popsicle stick, or a wooden skewer. They might be easier to pop free from the hot glue. Painting the bottoms isn't really needed. You don't see them.

The bases wobble a bit on the stands, but they come free to lay flat for storage. The angles also add a bit of drama to the scene as well, and helps you imagine attacking aircraft swooping around, dodging flak, as they pounce on their target.

First Flights

With the test ships from the Mad Padre came some aircraft. 

Teeny tiny aircraft.

As I said last post, the .stls for aircraft are free from Ghukek's Miniatures. Carrier aircraft are in flights of three, joined at the wing tips. Bombers, scout planes and larger aircraft are singles.

Wildcats and Zeros dogfight while SBDs attack the Special Vanguard Force

The bombers are light enough that with the aid of some superglue accelerator I made them into flights with a nylon broom bristle glued under the wings.

As I said, these things are tiny! I decided to not mess about with magnets like my Bag the Hun aircraft. They are light enough that a dab of superglue has them stuck on the top of flight stands. The join is robust enough to hold for painting.

Flight of F4F Wildcats

Painting is kept simple. The Americans are getting a medium blue and the Japanese a medium green. Canopies are a light grey blue. I'm not daft enough to try markings. Japanese might be doable, but not US stars!

Dauntless SBDs on left. Huge TBF Avengers in rear. F4F Wildcats on right

A6M Zeros in foreground. Kates in the back.

G4M Bettys make a run at a USN Battleship!

Wildcats and SBDs flyover their carrier

PBY flying boat flies over USN battleships

They aren't super detailed naturally, but they're more aesthetically pleasing than paper counters. The Japanese are getting some Val dive bombers and some float plane fighters to launch from the Ise, and the Americans are getting some Corsairs and B26 bombers. Plus both sides are getting more flights of the models already shown.

Games, Donuts and Beer!

Now that people are getting fully vaccinated, I have had a slow return to pre-pandemic hobby socializing. 

The Mad Padre looks on as Scott activates some of his Austrians

This weekend the Mad Padre and his son, John, visiting from BC, came for some long anticipated, much needed face to face gaming therapy. 

I had prepared and quickly set up a small game of Bag the Hun to introduce the rules. Because it's August, a Battle of Britain scenario seemed appropriate. 2 flights of Spitfires intercepting a schwarm of 4 Me109s and 2 Me110s. Fun was had. John shot down one of my Me110s. 

Then Scott arrived with some of his French and Austrians. They joined my Bavarians and Russians for a big 4 player game of Sharp Practice. I ran my Bavarians, facing off against the Mad Padre running my Russians, while Scott led his Austrians against John playing the French. Each command was identical for ease of set up and instructional purposes. 

My shiny new Chevauxleger take a hit from Russian artillery

Brand new Formation of Grenadiers march onto the table

A few of Scott's Austrians

I don't have any Russian cavalry (yet), so they got my Prussian dragoons who charged into my advancing Bavarians. Bavarians lost by 2 and evaporated. But we rolled low on Bad Things Happen.

An early run of cards got me and Scott on, then the cards shifted so the Bavarians and Russians settled into exchanging long range musketry while the French and Austrians tore into each other! When we called it, the Franco-Bavarian force was still ahead on Force Morale, but the French had lost a couple of Big Men and were going to collapse soon.

The next morning at Second Breakfast (a few liters of tea and donuts) we had our traditional Big Dragon Rampant/Lord of the Rings game. 115 points per side divided into 3 commands. Mike and I played Evil with a mix of his and mine figures. John played Good using his dad's Elves, Rohirrim and Men of Gondor. 

My wolf riders

3 packs of Wolves running through the forest

Lots of wolf riders! Mike's chunkier Oathmark wolf riders are heavy cavalry. My Vendel are classed as light.

Mike tries out his new Nazgul on Fell Beast, which is about to destroy the elves on the road

Wargs in an epic fight with the Great Bear!

After a slow start the tide of Darkness got going. Mike's scarey Nazgûl on a Fell Beast destroyed a unit of elves in one attack. My right wing composed entirely of wolves (Lesser Warbeasts), wolf riders (light and heavy riders) and wargs (Greater Warbeast) swarmed John's flank, eventually pulling down his giant bear, driving off his ent and tearing apart two companies of the Men of Gondor. 

"Let's just play one more turn" says John, dice in hand, thinking he might pull something off. Rolls a '2' on his first activation. "Ok, how about lunch?" I suggested.

So lead was pushed. Dice were rolled. Beers quaffed and donuts munched. Three games in two days. A good way to hide form the heat wave.

Fighter Sweep Over the Pacific

After the last couple of rather complicated games of Bag the Hun, I wanted to try a straight up dog fight to work on my grasp of the maneuvering subtleties. I mean honestly, I really should have done a few games like this before trying to dive bomb ships.

But mistakes were made. 

The Zeros have been coming off rather badly and I was pretty sure it was a combination of tactics on my part and me missing something, not bad game design. 

There were a few moments like this as I reread sections of the rules 

So, two opposing 12 aircraft formations. The Zeros are in four 3 aircraft Chotais. The Wildcats are in 2 six aircraft divisions, each division flying in 3 pairs. I deployed them in the A-B-C Formation. 

Prowling for the enemy. The Japanese are looser and more spread out 

Americans mind their ABCs and try to stick together. 

I used the 1942 table to generate pilot quality. I now roll a handful of dice equal to the number of pilots. Best roll is the Squadron Leader. Next best are flight leaders, then section leaders and so on, until the worst rolls go to the wingmen. This eliminates crappy pilots leading flights and splits the sprogs up around the formation, which looks more realistic to me. The Japanese got 3 Junior Aces, assigned to lead 3 of the Chotai. They also got 5 Sprogs (Sprogs get a -1 for shooting, defense, tailing, and maneuver tests). The USN didn't get any aces, and 5 Sprogs. Aces get extra cards to activate and +1 (JuniorAce) or +2 (Top Ace) for shooting,  defense,  tailing and maneuver tests. So the Japanese having the more experienced pilots should be telling. 

Blue dice indicate relative altitude 

Both sides tried to maneuver to concentrate against one half of the enemy formation causing a few turns of bloodless swirling. I also wanted to try the historical diving attack, so everyone also kept climbing to get above and behind a target. Often aircraft would get in position to attack and then the targets would slip away, often with the use of a Formation or Ace bonus card. This helped the Japanese escape the heavier American firepower a lot.

Turn 4 someone finally gets a shot! IJN Red Leader causes wing damage on USN Red Leader 

Who circles out of danger, but then Green Chotai closes in

USN Blue Division is all over the place dueling with blue and yellow Chotai 

The Wildcats are in position to roll over into a diving attack on the Zeros below them

 

Positioned for a "boom and zoom"

Success! Fuel line hit on the Zero 

IJN ace kills a Sprog

Red Leader has some wing damage but shoots down the IJN Ace 

The game has divided into two separate fights. USN Red division vs. IJN Red and Green at the left. USN Blue Division vs IJN yellow and blue center and right.

US Blue1 performs an Immelman and gets above and behind a Zero, but his wingman doesn't follow and flies off

WTF? Moment as a Rush Hour in the Sky develops. It's all going to turn on who's card comes up first next turn. IJN Red get to shoot wounding both pilots (-2 on shooting now and limit maneuvering). USN Red division is in rough shape, 2x wounded, 2 aircraft damaged, 1 shot down. Only 1 Sprog untouched. 

Back to US Blue1 which gets a Flight Leader card and does a diving attack 

Boom! Another Zero killed. 

The Wildcats dive through IJN Green to escape, .50 cals blazing, destroying one. But the Zeros don't lose their tail.

The rest of USN Red division breaks their tails on IJN Green to help out the others 

To good effect! One Zero vaporizes and the other is severely damage 

Ace IJN B1, leaking fuel sneaks up behind the Sprog causing some damage. But Blue 3 &4 are in  perfect position to roll into a diving attack on him

Which they do. IJN B1 explodes after 2 sets of .50 cal bullets tear into his aircraft 

IJN Green dives through USN Red doing minor damage,  but this puts them in front of a flight of angry Wildcats. 

USN Blue Division breaks off. B1 goes to rejoin his wounded and damaged novice wingman 

The Wildcats of Red flight pounce!

IJN Green 1 explodes giving USN Red Leader his 2nd kill and the US Sprog sends IJN Red2 spinning into the waves!

I called it there. The Japanese losing 3 aircraft in the last turn was pretty devastating. The ruggedness of the Wildcats really helped the Americans I think. Of course, the Japanese wounded 3 of the American pilots and those could have easily become kills if I'd rolled a 4+ instead of a 2 each time.

VF-19 returns to the carrier with 3 pilots wounded,  3 aircraft damaged and 1 lost, but 7 kills to their credit. 

Keeping formations, or at least pairs, for as long as possible, even if it limited firing opportunities, paid off in the long run I think. It was certainly a different experience not having bombers affecting tactics. 

I almost set the game in late '43 and took my 6 Hellcats. With robustness of 3, to the Zero's 1, that would have been ugly!

Maybe I should try the Wildcats as proxies for Brewster Buffaloes for a true early war experience? Or repeat the scenario but set it over England?