Capt Rabbitman Flying High

It was awfully nice of the RCAF to arrange a flight on a C130J Hercules for me on my birthday weekend. OK, there were about 1200 Air Cadets from all over the region in attendance too, but still, we know it was all about me.

As a way to get the "air" into Air Cadets after two years of no gliders, virtual training and restricted summer training, Regional HQ got a couple of C130Js from 436 Transport Squadron in Trenton to log some training hours flying cadets around. Public Affairs got some visibility for the program with press from local and national outlets covering the day as well.

Gratuitous breakfast shot. Starting the weekend right and fortifying myself for the day head.

It was a much different experience form the last familiarization flight I went on. Everything went much smoother. Bus left just after lunch. Our driver was an alumnus of the Squadron and remembered doing famil flights in C119 Flying Boxcars back in the 60s!. We arrived around 1330. Checked in with our manifests and then waited for maybe half an hour, got our safety briefing, then loaded onto the Herc.

The hold was much more crowded than the Globemaster, seats not as comfortable, but still OK. I think I'd be ok in them for a transatlantic flight if I had too. It was a lot noisier and much bumpier. One of my cadets had to use the motion sickness bags provided. As the Loadmaster said in his Safety Briefing: "this plane is designed to make you vomit. I've see big tough infantry guys lose their lunch." The takeoff and landing seemed much more aggressive than the Globemaster too.

After a 25 minute flight down to Port Stanley on Lake Ontario it was back on the bus and home by 1630, half an hour ahead of schedule!

Ready to go!

Flying with the ramp down

My 2i/c took this shot from the other end of the hold. You can see me way at the back near the door to the flight deck.

Only about 7 of the 18 cadets in my group were in the program for the Globemaster flight, so this will be a great engagement for the junior cadets who have only had 2 years of Google Classes and Zoom meetings.

Cold War Gone Hot Game

My good friend, Scott, works shifts and a lot of overtime,  so we only manage to get together to play a couple of times a year.

Last night Scott was free and wanted to get out some of the 15mm Cold War Gone Hot kit he got last year with a game of Seven Days to the River Rhine. Available from Great Escape Games.

Had to take a classic REFORGER Ex pic; Canadian track in front of a gasthaus. "So like, we're having a brew eh, bud? It's beauty."

I laid out some rolling south German countryside and took the opportunity to get my Faller HO railroad buildings on the table. I've had them since the mid-80s too.

Also using the new grain fields I picked up at Hot Lead. 

Scott bought his WarPac and West German troops used on line, but built the Canadians to supplement NATO with Battlefront models. So last night was 4CMBG vs a Soviet Armoured Regiment

Canadian infantry hiding in a tree line

TOW track scans for Soviet armour

Leopard 1s wait

T64s

Soviet armour ready to advance 

First blood! Spectacular brew ups cause morale hits on nearby units.

Airstrike kills a Leopard 

This Hind was a nuisance. Killed a Leopard. Used a lot of command chits trying to shoot it down with Manpads 

Killing a lot of Soviet tanks though

Stalking one of the remaining Soviet tanks

Got a reinforcement Leopard which dodged the Hind to reinforce my burning left and stop the Soviet thrust up the road.

Seven Days delivers a fast moving, tense game which isn't bogged down by crunchy technical details. There are some cards that add some unknowns. I got a pregame barrage that put some morale hits on a bunch of Scott's units which added negative DRM to his activation rolls. I also got a Reinforcement card which gave me an extra Leopard which came in handy in the endgame. I used a Free Move card to help get it undercover before the Hind attacked it too. Scott's cards included the Airstrike on my left flank. They're fun, add some unpredictable elements but don't seem to unbalance things too much.

You'll notice chits near the units which are Command Activation chits and are the heart of the game as you manage these to activate units, react to enemy moves and maintain pressure without exhausting yourself and leaving yourself chitless to respond to enemy moves. Every chit adds a further negative DRM to a unit's activation roll, so you have to think about where you are pushing things too far and risk loosing the initiative.

Seven Days to the River Rhine is fun and fast (we were done in about two and a half hours), and I felt real tactics were being rewarded. The vehicle lists go back to the 50s with Centurions, T55s and T34s, so this could be a viable rule set for Arab-Israeli Wars or Mantovia vs Borduria.

This was my third game of the year, so that was rejuvenating on it's own, forcing me to clear off the table and have a chance to roll some dice.

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.

Test Ships

Ghukek's Miniatures on Wargaming 3D makes some of his .stl files free to download, so I did, and sent them to the Mad Padre to test out to see how they printed at my desired 1:2400 scale and how they painted.

His aircraft and submarine files are all free, which is nice. The aircraft are originally scaled at 1:900 to go with his 1:1800 ships. You could easily do up forces in 1:900 scale for Bag the Hun for free really. Coastal Command Beaufighters going after German convoys in the North Sea is now quite economical.

The Mad Padre handed me these at Hot Lead and I'm just getting around to putting some paint on them. I fixed them to nails for handling, then runny black followed by some layers of medium and light grey dry brushing. Brown for the Japanese decks and dark grey for the CVE's deck.

Done. Simples.

The hybrid battleship Ise is an odd-duck. It was part of the Aleutians task force during the Battle of Midway. Afterwards, to replace carrier losses, it's two rear gun turrets were replaced by a flight deck and an air group of 24 aircraft. It could recover it's E16A "Paul" sea plane fighters, but it's D4Y "Judy" dive bombers needed to find a conventional carrier or island airstrip to land on. In this configuration it participated in the Battle of Cape Engano in October 1944.

Ise as hybrid battleship

In it's pure gun version it didn't see much action, but I may get the Padre to print me a second to fill the battleship part of my IJN collection. although it does have a couple more turrets than the more active Kongo class.

Ise before conversion

For the Americans I've got a CVE and a battleship, the USS South Dakota. The Mad Padre gave me two prints of each. I cannot tell the difference from one USN battleship to the next, so the two copies of the South Dakota will be just fine.

There is a Victory at Sea scenario featuring 2 battleships on each side, so these models may actually get used. The escort carriers could see the table in a scenario based on the quite remarkable exploits of "Taffy 3" at the Battle of Samar.

I'm pretty pleased with the detail and ease of painting. Now to go buy the .stls for the destroyers and cruisers.

Trying some cheap shell splashes 

Unrushed Russian Uhlans

It's taken me a month to get this unit of 9 figures done, but I am another step towards completing Phase 3 of my Big Plan.

The double stripes on the trousers were surprisingly easy to do

Here, finally, is a group of 8 troopers with a Big Man from the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment. Like I said, I started these a month ago, but then a war started, depression, anxiety and just getting busier with Hot Lead and cadets sucked all my energy away from painting.

Perry figures via Scott. Nice figures. Easy to paint all the details, even with my crap brushes.

Close up of trumpeter

I know, I know. A cavalry officer on a white horse is a bit of a cliche, but I wanted him to look suitably heroic.

The command pack came with a standard bearer, and while hitting frustration trying to find out info on Russian cavalry flags and the decorative ribbons beneath the finial, I decided it was simpler just to give him a lance instead out of my bits box. Uhlans and hussars apparently didn't carry their flags in the field anyway, which makes sense. Fortunately, the Hussar Command pack has an officer, trumpeter and NCO. No flag pole to worry about. 

The troublesome flag pole

Lance pennons are from GMB Designs. The lance pennons provided by Scott determined which regiment I painted. Although I probably would have picked the Lithuanian uhlans anyway. I have 17 left over in the pack, so if I decide to expand the formation when Perry release the plastic uhlans, I can easily enough.

I used contrast paint for the tunics and trousers. Brown and black ink for horses and leather.

Now my Allied army has a combined (Prusso-Russian) brigade of cavalry for General d'Armee games and the Russians have a group of cavalry for Sharp Practice.