Pearl Harbor Project

I have been hesitant to game Pearl Harbor - One reason is the vast amount of aircraft for the Japanese and the handful of American planes that made it into the air to give battle. Another reason is that once one has committed to painting P-40s and P-36s for Pearl, those planes cannot be used for much of anything else due to their distinct paint schemes and markings (and yes, I do like having, as much as possible, correct historic representation on the tabletop). One could also use the Pearl P-40s for the Philippines, but there are few scenarios available for the Philippines. And, I also want to use those P-36s and P-40s for other theaters, like North Africa or Finland for the former and China for the latter. There is only so many planes I am willing to buy! Oh, and let's not forget the mat one would need to show Pearl Harbor and/or some of the various airfields - this project now becomes very specialized and limited in scope.

There is an interesting scenario that was done by one of the chaps on the Check Your 6! group, so I have that as the basis for this potential project. The scenario calls for a smattering of planes (three P-40s, three P-36s, three Kates, three Vals, and six Zeros), and while I do not have any of the Japanese needed, I am canvasing the guys I game with to see if they do (and indeed I have found out that one indeed does).

The mat is something that can be had from Tiny Wargames although it does not include Hickam Field (which is in the scenario).

In speaking with Tiny Wargames, the pricing for a standard Check Your 6 sized mat with a hex grid is something like $100.00, and that is before shipping, yikes! I have been looking for alternatives, like Deep Cut Studio. If I can find a 1940s color aerial of Pearl then I can have them make me a custom mat. I can locate crisp black and white photos, but not period color versions.

But, after some searching I did find this. It is a rendering of the Japanese maps of the period, and then updated by the Prepared by the Joint Intelligence Center. I loaded this image into the Deep Cut Studio custom map maker and have this:

The above should work rather well I believe...but not certain if I should drop coin on such a specialized project.