The Commissioned Projects - Part IV

Another Check Your 6! project, that has the potential for expansion, is an Aleutian scenario from Battles Above 3 - Strike on Kiska. This scenario pits three B-25s and a pair of P-40Es against five A6M2-N Rufes. With the addition to the library of two reference books (Into the Endless Mist I & II, published by Helion), which has more of a focus from the Japanese perspective, I can see the Aleutians becoming a larger project. For now the focus is to get this unique scenario on the table top. Planes are all resin prints by Table Top Flights.

The B-25s will be painted in olive drab over neutral gray, with roundels of a white star on a blue field, representing the 77th Bombardment Squadron. The P-40s will be from the 11th Fighter Squadron, with their distinctive Aleutian Tiger motif (if Miscellaneous Miniatures can do that), again in olive drab and neutral gray with the same style of roundels.

The Rufes are a bit more complex, or maybe I just need to make a decision on how I want them to look. The initial batch in the Aleutians seemed to have the dark green over light gray scheme, but I believe later ones were painted overall ame-iro (the light caramel gray that was common on early war Japanese naval aircraft). It is a cool color, but being a bit of a historian I do like having accuracy whenever possible. Of course I could also do a mix of schemes. I most likely will settle on the dark green scheme.

From Into the Endless Mist

From the Bravo Bravo website

The Aleutians offer a mix of aircraft types from the Allied side, including Canadian P-40Ks in the standard British green and brown over gray. As always, more on all this in a future post!

The Commissioned Projects - Part III

One of the most enjoyable Check Your 6! games I have hosted was my hypothetical three way scenario set during Operation Torch (after action report HERE). This scenario pits four French Dewoitine D.520s vs. four American F4Fs vs. four Spanish He 112s, with each faction having one of each aircrew type (ace, veteran, skilled, and green). I also want to do a few historical Torch scenarios, which I am slowly working on creating. To properly cover the Vichy French in the American area of operations one must have Curtiss Model 75s, and so this project is simply adding four Hawks to the collection. The Model 75s will be painted as above, with the Indian head motif of Groupe de Chasse II/5, and adding in the Vichy red and yellow strips, as below.

The planes I have for this project are custom scaled Flight Deck Decals. The quality is top notch as evidenced by the photos that follow.

Check Your 6! - A Different Basing Solution

For years I have been using the "official" flight stands/bases for Check Your 6!, mostly purchased through I-94 or gathered from my departed friend's collection. And for years, knowing that both Bob and myself had some polarity issues when it came to the magnets on the bases and planes, I've had to play "match the plane to the base" when organization planes for a scenario. Recently some suggestions had been made during a gaming session to glue washers on the pegs (posts) of the stands so as to negate the polarity issue with the magnet on the plane. Brilliant! But, later seeing some overly large washers in action, and seeing how the planes were not really that secure on the stand, I decided to go a slightly different direction to solve the polarity issue.

At the same time, I wanted to represent altitude a little more realistically on the tabletop, something that the small pegs for the Wings of Glory system captures fairly well. Since the planes I use are 1/285 or 1/300, finding telescoping stands that were small enough to not overshadow the planes, while short enough to avoid too many knock overs, was an issue. My friend Bill uses clear Litko bases with dice trays, the dice used to denote speed and altitude, something that the official bases do well, except that the pointers on the dials can have problems - too loose or too tight, and also a bit too small to easily discern on the game table. While I do not necessarily like having dice on the stand from an aesthetic perspective, the clear base looks better and the dice are easier to read and use. Also, Litko makes the peg in a few different sizes, and as many of the scenarios I use have two altitude bands (CAB), using a shorter peg stand at the lower CAB and swapping for a taller base at the higher CAB seems to be a decent compromise (and I can get rid of the distracting red poker chip I use to mark a higher CAB). I ordered fifty flight bases to go with twenty-five 2" fight pegs and twenty-five 3" fight pegs, as well as several dice holders.

I have affixed several dice holders to the base, at first using little dabs of super glue, but since switching to acrylic glue. The Litko pegs, or maybe it is the holes in the bases, are a tad too loose in some cases, but adding the dice holder seems to help prevent leaning pegs. So from a base perspective, I think I have a decent solution. While the dice are a tad distracting, they are easier for gamers to use and easier for aging eyes to see. Now, how to attach the planes.

As mentioned, I was not enamored with the practical application of the washer solution, so I dig some searching on the interwebs and came up with something that might work. A company called Total Element (also called Element Magnets Inc.), which focuses mostly on magnets, also make small steel blank metal strike plates in varying sizes. The size I selected was 1/4 inch diameter and one millimeter thick. Ideally I wanted to find a 3/16 inch diameter piece to match the magnet diameter I use, but could not source those. I placed an order for three hundred of the discs, and they arrived in a few days. No, I do not need three hundred of them, but that was the quantity offered, and I can give the extras to fellow gamers.

I've glued a couple of the discs to the Litko flight pegs and overall I am pleased with the look. Here are some comparison shots showing the two basing systems.

The Macchi is on the new system, while the Spitfire is on the official stand. 

Both now on the new system, showing the two different flight pegs to denote two different CABS