The New Gaming Mat

I have to say from the start, I am highly disappointed in Deep Cut Studio's service - they had spoiled me so much with my first three mats all arriving within a week to a week and a half that I expect ALL custom mat orders made in Lithuania and should arrive in the United States in the same timeframe. For this most recent order the company, and how dare they, decided to take SEVENTEEN DAYS to make and ship my latest addition to the mat collection. Cheeky bastards! 😜

Of course the proceeding is written completely in jest, although they have spoiled me with my previous orders with their fast turnaround time! The mat was well worth the wait! Let's show some pictures, shall we?

The SPAD, at TAL 4 and Speed 5, gets a deflection shot against a Fokker D.VII which is at TAL 3 and Speed 4

What I received was a beautiful aerial fields mat (with the clouds option) with 1.75 inch hexes to use with both my existing Check Your 6! and Check Your 6! Jet Age collections, while also serving as the playing surface for my Check Your 6! Great War 1/200 scale projects (more about the hex size determination HERE and the planes HERE and HERE). I went with the cloth option as it looked to me like the best fit for World War One gaming in the skies over France and Belgium, plus the cloth mats are lighter, easier to store, and cheaper to ship than the PVC or mousepad versions.

A different attack angle. Planes by Table Top Flights, bases and pegs are 3D prints from a friend

As you can see, the color is rich and the hexes are noticeable without being too intrusive. One can have hexes added to the mat in a wide variety of sizes, colors and thicknesses. 

I probably could have went with a thinner and slightly lighter color of hex lines, but I am pleased with this look

All joking aside, I am highly pleased, once again, by the service and quality offered by Deep Cut Studio. If you are hesitating to order from them based on their Lithuanian location, don't - I have had a great experience every time I have ordered from Deep Cut, and I am fairly certain you will as well.

Slovak-Hungarian War Planes Have Arrived

The combatants

This is a project that has taken a bit of time to come to fruition, but man oh man it was worth the wait! My interest in this pre-Second World War conflict started over a year ago as I started collecting some research materials and then miniatures (check out all the Slovak-Hungarian War posts HERE for additional information). I commissioned Miscellaneous Miniatures to do the painting on this project, and Kevin at MM, yet again, has created some beautiful gaming pieces.

The Hungarian Ju 86

The Slovakian Letov

The CR.32s are from Table Top Flights, the Avia B.534s and Junkers Ju 86s are from Flight Deck Decals, while the Letovs are old Heroics & Ros castings, and one can readily see the quality gap between those older metal miniatures and today's cutting edge 3D prints offered by Table Top and Flight Deck. Kevin did a great job not only with painting this eclectic mix of planes, but also in building the finicky Letovs as they are cast in several pieces. The sixteen planes cost an average of $8.40 each to have painted and shipped, but bear in mind that ten of the planes are biplanes and the other six medium bombers, and add in the fact that the Hungarians are all in a three tone camouflage scheme, the price to me is a very fair price point.

A flurry of Fiats will face a foe of...

...Avia adversaries

The other posts detail reading material for this conflict include a pair of scenarios I have created. I am working on two additional scenarios as well, that will feature the Hungarians bombing Spišská Nová Ves (a Slovak airfield) with the potential of Slovak fighters intervening, and the other an encounter between Hungarian recon aircraft and Slovak Avias. My goal is to offer the four scenarios, along with background information, as a pdf download for CY6! players to ease into a rather obscure period.

1950s Jet Age - Progress

Nothing overly mind blowing in this post, but just a quick picture of my painting progress for my 1950s jet project. Thus far I have the basic paint schemes applied to the planes. 

I used Vallejo Aluminium for the J 29 Tunnans and Vallejo Silver for the MiGs, although it is not that noticeable of a color difference between the two. I also used Vallejo on the FJ-4s, going with Light Gull Gray for the upper surfaces and Insignia White for the undersides. The Tunnans have a band of Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue (Shade 73A as the base and then coat of Shade 73C) around the intake.

Next will be to add a thin red band around the jet intake of the Furys, and then decals (which are on their way from Flight Deck) which are mostly national insignia, but also lettering (MARINES) for the American fighters and numbers for the MiGs.

I might try to source some sort of squadron markings for the Furys, even though it would not be the correct squadron, but as this project is hypothetical anyway, I guess that does not really matter much!

The Italians for Check Your 6!

Ahhh, the Italians for Check Your 6! - reminds me of a joke about Italian tires, which I will not offend anyone by repeating here. Italy is an oft overlooked power during the Second World War and in many players minds the Italian armed forces are the butt of many jokes. Italian fighters are similar in many aspects to their ally Japan - lightly armed, lightly armored (if at all), yet maneuverable. Their bombers suffered from a lack of robustness as well as light armament. If one reviews the ratings for Italian aircraft in the various Check Your 6! sources (and a complete list is available as a download on the Downloads page here on the blog), one might become discouraged from the Italian experience - in one game I had one of the best opportunities in my now many games of CY6! - a Fiat G.50 in the tail arc of the enemy at point blank range. Hitting was no issue (I think I needed a 3+ to hit after modifiers), but the damage dice failed me - with only a pair of heavy machineguns on the G.50 I happened to roll boxcars, resulting in zero damage! So frustrating, as gaming the Italians can be. However, if one can latch onto the tail of an opponent, one usually has the advantage in maneuverability and can peck away for a few turns, which might be enough to obtain a kill.

The Miniatures

I have scoured the interwebs to create a list of Italian aircraft available in 1/285 or 1/300 scales, listing only the preferred model (in my opinion, humble or otherwise) for each plane. My quality rankings are as follows (best to least desirable): Flight Deck Decals>Table Top Flights>Raiden Miniatures>MSD Games>Heroics & Ros>PT Dockyard. There are thirty (UPDATE: thirty-five - thanks to slugbalancer on The Miniatures Page) different models/types of planes available for the Italians (and if you know of any other planes in either scale not appearing on the following list, please leave a comment). 

The Scenarios

There are three excellent sources for scenarios that I know of that are Check Your 6! ready. The first is the SkirmishCampaigns publication entitled Falcon of the Duce, written by C. B. Stevens, while the second is The Falcon and the Gladiator: The Air War Over the Western Desert, 1940-February 1941, written by Chris Stoesen and available as a pdf download on Wargame Vault. The third is Battles Above 2, written by Brian Dewitt and available via I-94 Enterprises. Falcon of the Duce contains sixteen scenarios featuring Italian ace Franco Lucchini along with background and aircraft information. The Stoesen effort offers thirty-six scenarios, many that feature the CR.42 and Gloster Gladiator (hence the name) along with much background and historical information. Battles Above 2 yields another twenty-six scenarios. The size of the scenarios range from two to thirty-seven aircraft, so there is plenty of choices, ranging from smaller games to massive numbers of miniatures swarming the tabletop. One can download the scenario listing, which includes plane counts, from the Downloads page.

The Stats

I have also cobbled together the stats for Italian aircraft that I could locate from various sources. However, while I have been able to discover thirty-five Italian aircraft available in miniature form, I could only source statistics for twenty. The stats file can also be found on the Downloads page.

Aircrew Quality

Italian fighter pilots, in the early period of the war, were fairly experienced due to their involving in the Spanish Civil War. Contrary to one source, the Italians offered more gunnery training than their British opponents, while overall training time was less. Players may consider rating Italian fighter aircrews as overall skilled, but with a +1 firing modifier through 1940. Also, due to the aerobatic training Italian fighter pilots received, they may take all maneuver aircrew checks at one level higher than their aircrew quality.

When rating any pilots for Check Your 6! I use the following methodology:

Expert (+4) - forty or more victories

Ace (+3) - twenty to thirty-nine victories

Veteran (+2) - five to nineteen victories and/or long service

Skilled (+1) - highly trained and/or one to four victories

Green (+0) - standard training, no victories, and/or little active service

Poor (-1) - little to no training

Conversely, one might consider randomizing pilot skill using the following tables.

Summary

There you have it - about everything Italian in one location. The Italian aircraft are some of the most interesting of the war - colorful camouflage schemes, some sleek designs, lightly armed and lightly armored, and aircrew quality that can range from very good to very mediocre.

1950s Jet Age

One of the projects I was planning to send to Miscellaneous Miniatures to paint was a mid-1950s what-if scenario set over the Baltic Sea, featuring Soviets vs. Swedes and United States Marine aircraft (you can see that post HERE). However, with my increased confidence in my ability to paint 1/285 scale aircraft, I have decided to work on this project myself, and have changed the scenario setting a bit, swapping out the Soviets and bringing in East Germans in their place, while changing the location of the fight - I think the East German national insignia showing on natural metal MiGs would look distinctive, and really, how many of us game the East German air force?

A very simple scheme for this East German MiG-15bis

The project involves four of the Swedish designed and manufactured Saab J 29, known as the Tunnan, or Flying Barrel, facing off against four MiG-15s and a pair of MiG-17s. The scenario I have created, and created it is as the event is hypothetical, adds in a pair of U. S. Marine FJ-4s racing onto the board in to even the odds. 

The planes are all available from Flight Deck Decals, as are the decals I plan to use for both sides. Along with the national markings for the Swedes and East Germans (I have plenty of U. S. national insignia from a Dom's Decals sheet), Flight Deck also has Marine lettering and aircraft numbers. The one thing I potentially need are letter codes for the J 29s, but I am not going to fuss other that. Numbers for the MiGs will be from the World War Two Russian range - not a perfect font fit, but close enough.

The P-66 Vanguard

What could have been a frontline fighter for Sweden turned into a castoff destined to see limited service in China - the Vultee P-66 Vanguard.

Designed in 1938, what would become the P-66 first flew just seven days after the German invasion of Poland. It was a part of a concept of a series of aircraft designed to perform different roles, but keeping the same wing and fuselage structure - fighter, combat role, basic trainer, and advanced trainer. The fighter was the Model 48C, and 144 of the fighter version were ordered by Sweden in early 1940, to be known as the V-48C in Swedish service. This model had a different engine that enhanced high altitude performance along with an armament layout of four .30 caliber machineguns in the wings and a pair of .50 caliber machineguns firing through the propeller arc. However, Sweden did not receive any of the V-48C due to exporting bans put in place by the United States.

Great Britain took possession of one hundred Vanguards to use as advanced trainers. However, after trialing the Vanguard, it was decided to send these aircraft to the Republic of China. They were to be used to form a third American Volunteer Group, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the forming of additional groups was scratched.

The Vanguards sent to China were assembled in India in late 1942. Twelve of the P-66s were assigned to the 74th Fighter Squadron (part of the 23rd Fighter Group), but were not involved in any significant actions while equipped with the P-66. However, two Chinese squadrons utilized the Vanguard, starting in August, 1943. These Chinese Vanguards were initially received in the standard United States Army Air Corps scheme of olive drab upper surfaces and neutral gray undersurfaces, but the olive drab was soon covered by Chinese olive green and given Chinese insignia. 

The Chinese P-66 was involved in at least two combats. The first, taking place on August 23, 1943, saw twenty-nine Chinese fighters (ten P-40s, eight P-43s, and eleven P-66s) scrambling to intercept a Japanese attack Chungking. The Japanese forces consisted of thirty-one Oscars and twenty-one Sallys. The bombers ranged in at 23,000 feet, but some the Chinese fighters (mostly the P-43 Lancers), having sufficient warning, had climbed above the Japanese formation and was able to attack the bombers with a height advantage. One Sally was shot down and several others were damaged, however the Chinese lost a pair of P-66s, one P-40, and one P-43, due to the Oscars' intervention.

On November 21, Enshi airfield was attacked, and three P-40s, one P-43, and four P-66s rose to defend the airfield. While one Japanese fighter was shot down and three others were listed as probables, three P-66 pilots were lost in this action.

I have cobbled together some speculative Check Your 6! ratings for the P-66:

There is one source, in 1/300 scale, for the Vanguard. PT Dockyard make a few obscure World War Two aircraft, including the Vanguard. They are cast in resin, and are a bit crude compared to today's standards, and need a lot of filing and sanding to get the surfaces smooth and even. But I believe that once painted they will serve the Chinese Air Force well.

Rupees Ten - AAR

I hosted my first Second India-Pakistan War game, featuring the Rupees Ten scenario from the SkirmishCampaigns Crisis in Kashmir scenario book, for five members of the Check Your 6! Southwestern Ohio Group. After obtaining some clarification from the CY6! discussion forum about the initial setup, the Pakistani players find themselves in a bit of a pickle.

The initial setup

The Indian Gnats had the drop on the Pakistani F-86s from the first turn. This resulted in the destruction of a Sabre on the first turn - seven points for the Indian players (the victory point totals in the scenario book are quite different than the standard CY6! victory point determination). Already at a victory point deficit the Pakistani players reversed course to engage the Gnats. One Gnat would suffer a pilot wound lucky hit and be forced to abort, but that plane had just ran out of ammo and was already pointed in the direction of the Indian friendly edge. Another Gnat took an engine hit, while a third also ran out of ammunition, but in the interim the Indian players shot down two additional Sabres. 

Down two Sabres

At 21 to 1 in victory points one Sabre dropped its fuel tanks to obtain an edge in agility, but the result was simply to give the Indian side another victory point as the Sabres could simply not place themselves in a favorable position to kill any of the pesky Gnats. One Sabre player had some difficulty in performing split S and Immelmann maneuvers, which added to the humor between the players (most of us have gamed together for a number of years and the camaraderie is excellent).

We decided to call the game at that point, eleven turns in.

The scenario is tough in many aspects - less than ideal aircrew quality, the advantage for the Indian players in the initial setup, and the Gnats suffering from ammunition issues and limited fuel. 

Miniatures - Raiden

Mat - Hotz Mats

Upgrading My Game - 1965 India-Pakistan War

While the Hunter looks grand, the others do not

I have to be honest, I am not loving my Raiden planes I have for the 1965 Second India-Pakistan War. The various wings and tails have too many bends, and while I have straightened them out as best as I could, the metal, being soft, tends to bend at the slightest touch. The paint work I had commissioned is also not up to the normal levels I used to receive - some sort of sealer was used on the bare metal planes that make them look gray, and I prefer the look of aluminium (intentional spelling) as opposed to whatever effect the sealer is having on changing the coloration.

Image from Flight Deck Decals

To that end, I have decided to redo my 1965 India-Pakistan project, this time using those bee-you-tee-ful 3D prints offered by Flight Deck Decals. I am focusing on just four plane types - F-86 Sabre, BAE Gnat, Hawker Hunter, and Dassault Mystère. This limited mix of planes will still allow me to put on a dozen scenarios from the SkirmishCampaigns Crisis in Kashmir book, the scenarios ranging from three to six players, some including missiles, which is an area of the rules I admittedly struggle with at times. This time around I will be painting the planes myself, as I have started to feel more confident in my skill at painting 1/285 scale aircraft. I do not add the bells and whistles, and will just focus on national insignia and fin flash, letting the quality of the Flight Deck prints stand out with a fairly minimalized approach.

Flight Deck of course delivered excellent customer service - I placed my order on a Sunday evening and had the miniatures by Saturday's post. I also picked up decals for the opposing sides - both national insignia (roundels) and fin flashes. Some pictures of the planes:

Mystère

Sabre

The pesky Gnat and the powerful Hunter

I will spray the planes with a coat of gray primer, then the Sabres, Mystères, and Gnats will be given a coat or two of Vallejo Air Aluminium - I prefer using their Air line as the metallic paints brush on very smoothly, even if a second coat is sometimes needed. The Hunter will be given a green/gray camouflaged upper with aluminum lower surfaces.