New Check Your 6! Projects

Ah, the latest batch of toys have arrived from Chris Geisert of I-94. I have three World War Two projects with this grouping - a hypothetical Operation Torch threeway battle, a late war "what if" featuring the Ryan Fireball, and a Swiss/German encounter, based on an actual battle in 1940. The turnaround time for the planes to be painted was less than two weeks from the time I shipped them until the time they returned back to my door. I went with Chris as he did all my Korean War planes so I knew he would do a nice job. The schemes were taken from various plates found on Wings Palette. The tones are a bit dark in the pictures, but look very nice in person. All I need to do is to get magnets on them and they are ready of the tabletop!

To start us off we have German Bf.110s vs. Swiss Bf.109s.  

MSD Games Bf.110 and a Raiden Bf.109. Cool Swiss markings, yes?

Then off to North Africa for a three sided affair.

Raiden De.520, Raiden F4F Wildcat, and MSD Games He.112

And finally to the Pacific for some very late war what could have been.

MSD Games Ryan Fireball and a Raiden Ki.100

I pretty much have the scenarios for all three projects worked out. Time for some playtesting!

Wake (Not Woke) Island

Not sure of the artist on this one...cool work though!

Well, I am probably safe to say that anyone who is "woke" probably doesn't know Wake, but as for me, time to get another little Check Your 6! project knocked out! And this time, I am going...small! I ordered a few 1/600 scale aircraft from Pico Armor because I did not want to buy a slew of bombers in 1/285th for a one off sort of project. While I picked up Wildcats and Nells, the Nells were only part of the earliest air attacks on Wake...pretty much every other attack on the atoll was delivered by Mavis flying boats. I have a list of dates, types of planes, and numbers, and was hoping to run a small campaign, but I really do not want to buy a bunch of Mavis's because even at 1/600 scale they are still three bucks a piece.

Listing of potential scenarios:

December 8th

36 Mitsubishi G3M3 Nells vs. 12 F4F-3 Wildcats

December 12th

2 Kawanishi H6K Mavis’s vs. 4 Wildcats

December ??

5 (10) Mavis’s vs. 4 Wildcats

December 15th

6 (7) Mavis’s vs. 4 Wildcats

December 18th

8 Mavis’s vs. 4 Wildcats

Once these little birds arrive I will be sending them off to Chris Geisert of I-94 for painting, along with several 1/285th selections. Kevin Hammond of Miscellaneous Miniatures simply does not have the time to paint commission projects any longer, which is a shame because I've enjoyed using his services, but I am very glad he completed the 1948 Arab-Israeli project for me.  Chris does nice work as well...all my Korean War aircraft are done by him.

As always, more on this in a future post!

Cat and Mouse Over Wake - Artwork by Marc Stewart

Changing Scales?

Picture from Pico Armor site

Recently I have been giving some thought to doing more Vietnam air gaming, using Check Your 6! I have some nicely painted 1/285th Raiden aircraft (painted by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures...damn fine work he does), for a few scenarios from Crusaders Over 'Nam, but I recently picked up Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, which adds a slew of opportunities for gaming with a variety of aircraft. However, a slew of opportunities means a slew of aircraft to purchase and while 1/285th fighter aircraft are around $3.00 to $4.00 each, needing larger bombers and such precludes a deep dive into trying to purchase and have painted all the aircraft needed for both scenario books. A possible solution is diving down to a smaller scale of aircraft (see what I did there?).

There are two companies making 1/600th scale aircraft in metal that I know of, those being Tumbling Dice and Osmial Osmy (Pico Armor in the United States). The former seems to offer more modern aircraft, but apparently have some issues in scaling and looking a bit more "cartoonish." The latter do not offer quite all the aircraft needed, but apparently are more to scale and more realistic in appearance. Check this blog post from sixtwentyeight to see some excellent comparison pictures.

Detailing on this size of aircraft in terms of painting and details offers a perhaps more simplistic approach. That is not to say I have not seen some amazing work in this scale, but some of the detailing (gun panels on F-86s for example) is not as necessary to paint.

I might have to place a small order with Pico to see if the quality of the planes, and the assembly of same, are both within my expectations. And then I also need to see if I can have them painted!

Sea Mat

Buying a gaming mat these days leads to quite a few rabbit holes, due to the vast amount of options currently available. Used to be one bought some felt at the local fabric store, then that permeated into buying Geohex mats, then Geohex terrain pieces, and that covered the gaming needs for a number of years. But more recently one can buy mats on fleece or mousepad material or PVC, beautifully printed. One could also use various sign making companies and upload an image for the company then to produce a mat printed on banner material. Then, does one want hexes or no? All sorts of decisions to be made.

To use with my Figurehead Great War ships, mounted on Warbases custom bases, for the Coronel and Falklands scenarios, I spent a few hours weighing options at various online retailers. Cost would be a primary factor as I did not want to spend too much on a mat, but still wanted to have a nice looking and functional surface. To that end I went with a PVC mat from Deep Cut Studio.  

I placed my order on a Sunday afternoon (U.S. time). The website is easy to use. Find the mat you want, pick a material, pick a size, add to cart, and checkout with PayPal or a credit card. My 6' by 4' mat was $72.00 which included included overseas shipping.

I received my mat on January 24th, the Friday following my order. During the process I received updates about shipping with a FedEx tracking number. A Sunday to Friday turnaround time is really amazingly fast from Europe to the United States! The mat came in a long tube, which I should be able to use when the mat is being stored.

I am very happy with how the mat looks with my Warbases custom blue bases. Now, time to determine rules and to host this game at a local shop!

Coronel and Falklands Ships - Based and Ready

Using tacky glue I have been able to base the various ships for the Coronel and Falklands battles. I am just waiting for my Deep Cut Studio mat to arrive to see how well these blue tinted bases from Warbases will look on the gaming table. I am really looking forward to running some games with these little beauties!

Basing

It is time to get these Figurehead ships for Coronel and the Falklands (picked up from Tiny Tin Troops) on their newly acquired bases! I recently received my custom bases from Warbases, each base etched with the name of the ship. Should make it easy for players to know which ship is which, while not being as intrusive as a print out of the name. The blue color of the base will blend nicely with the gaming mat as well. 

Now, next quest, to find a glue that will not cause any hazing or smoking of the base itself, just in case I get a little glue beyond the miniature itself!

And the other next quest, a nice sea mat to game on!

UPDATE - Per the suggestion of some on a gaming forum, I've tried some tacky glue on the Scharnhorst to see if it will hold decently enough for game play. Checking it after a night of drying, the ship is firmly in place. Thus, the basing glue conundrum has been solved.