Progress on the Project Gun-Val Front

As I have but little left to do on the Slovakian-Hungarian War scenario booklet, I thought I would start work on another self-published booklet, this one on the Project Gun-Val F-86F-2 Sabre used during the Korean War in 1953. I have fourteen scenarios in the can for this one, ranging in size from four to fourteen planes on the table, with two to seven players. This project should be ready for publishing within a couple of weeks as I go through and update the formatting for the scenarios.

There are a few special rules in this one, mostly dealing with the gun system on the Gun-Val Sabre, but also some changes I felt that were needed for the MiG-15. I have read a slew of first person accounts, and I believe the weapons system on the MiG needs a little tweaking (you can read about my thoughts on this topic HERE).

This will make two scenario books that will be ready for the Check Your 6! gaming crowd, with more forthcoming!

Oh Canada!

111 Squadron Kittyhawk Mk IA of Kenneth Boomer

Going back to a bit of an Aleutian theme with this post, as I wanted to delve deeper into the Canadian involvement in the Aleutian Campaign, and I have to say there wasn't much of one from a front line perspective. After seeing numerous photos in The Aleutian Warriors - A History of the 11th Air Force & Fleet Air Wing 4 by John H. Cloe, I was hoping to locate more information on the Canadian participation in active duty against the Japanese, but have been a bit disappointed in that aspect. That is not to take away the importance of the RCAF and their Bristol Bolingbrokes (license built versions of the Blenheim Mk IV) and Curtiss Kittyhawks in filling a support function, there is but one mission in which 111 Squadron took an active part. 

By late summer 1942, Allied forces initiated the "Kiska Blitz." On September 25, a massive joint US-Canadian strike force took advantage of a break in the fog to hammer the occupied island. The operation was immense by Aleutian standards, with nine Consolidated B-24 Liberators, twelve Bell P-39 Airacobras, and twenty Curtiss P-40 Warhawks/Kittyhawks taking part. To bolster the overstretched 11th Air Force, the RCAF deployed four pilots from 111 Squadron, under the command of Squadron Leader Kenneth A. Boomer, a veteran with service in England. The flight from 111 Squadron was assigned to fly close and high cover in company with the USAAF 11th Fighter Squadron's P-40s. The Japanese 452nd Kokutai managed to scramble airborne resistance, but the severe weather and relentless bombing meant they only had two A6M2-N Rufes in flight-ready condition.

After protecting the bombers, the Allied fighters dropped down to strafe the harbor. In the ensuing low-altitude skirmish, Squadron Leader Boomer engaged the floatplanes and successfully shot down one of the Rufes, marking the only recorded RCAF air-to-air kill over North American soil during the Second World War.

Of course, this led to the creation of a scenario, starting with the Canadians after they completed the bomber escort portion of their mission. Next will be to buy even more P-40E models from Flight Deck Decals (need to buy more anyway to use with my Blue Falcon Hobbies 49th Fighter Group decals). Here is the single Canadian combat during the Aleutian Campaign:

Oh Canada!

My Take on Operation Vengeance

I know this scenario exists already, I believe in a file obtainable from the Check Your 6! discussion group, but I wanted to delve into the mission to shoot down Yamamoto on my own, without reviewing the existing scenario. I am pretty pleased by the result, after consulting various books and YouTube videos about the event. Then I used a little AI to mix the parts together, providing direction in terms of Check Your 6! formatting, and then did some adjusting, and now I have a pretty good scenario for Operation Vengeance. One could of course add in the other eight P-38s but that would make a huge scenario, and historically it was the "Killer Flight" that saw all the action (which begs the question, just where were the covering flights?).

Without further ado, Operation Vengeance.

Progress on the Slovakian Front

The draft front cover

I have been reformatting the Slovak-Hungarian War scenario booklet (at twenty pages and eight scenarios, I can't bring myself to call it a book), getting all the scenarios "cleaned up" as the scenario template found on the discussion group is a bit janky. I also have had three vendors send over ads to include in the guide, provided gratis as all three entities have been gracious to me in the past through our communications and dealings. I am still awaiting one more advert, and then once the formatting has been completed I will see if the self-publishing portal I have used in the past for some Civil War projects can also do a smaller page count project (lulu.com). 

The cover, pictured left, is looking decent. The booklet will have color aircraft profiles, color photos of games, a listing of where to obtain miniatures for the war as well as a bit of a background to the conflict. Six of the scenarios have their roots in historical events, meaning they are, as much as I could make possible, based on the real deal. One scenario is purely hypothetical, and the final scenario is based on an event that almost took place had the orders not be rescinded due to the cease fire that ended the shooting war.

I hope to have the scenarios all reformatted in a few days, then the process of uploading to the self-publishing site might take a day, then it will be ready for sale if the price points make it affordable for gamers. Profit margins will be minimal as I simply want to get this, the first of what might turn into a few Check You 6! scenario books, available to gamers.

UPDATE: I realized that the cover art is indeed art, and as I cannot make out the artist's signature to locate the artist to obtain permission to use the cover, I instead "cheated" and will be going with this as the cover art.

Arrows Over Bavaria

I know I have an addiction for Check Your 6! when I drop coin on painted planes that had very little service during Worlds War Two - in this case the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil (Arrow). Miscellaneous Miniatures had a schwarm of Arrows painted and ready to go, and after looking at them several times on the Misc. Minis website, I pulled the trigger. Oh, I have zero use for them, but I have been dealing with a little tension and anxiety of late, probably mixed in with a little depression, due to my father. The amount of tasks and chores I have to handle is rather overwhelming, and his house needs much attention in preparation for an auction for the goods in the house, and then readying for sale - and his place is a solid forty-five minute drive from the condo. Thank God that my wife has been fantastic throughout. Anyway, not a post for complaint, but I find myself buying more books and other things for gaming of late, a sure sign of compensation.

Because they were there

Back on track - I have worked up outlines for scenarios that feature the Dornier in action over Bavaria in mid to late 1945. The first scenario has been created, although it is rather sparse in detail (I'll work on that). It features the Lockheed F-80 vs. the Pfeil is a straightforward shoot 'em up.

Jet Age Dawning

First East African Scenario

And like that, I have four scenarios created already for East Africa. Here is one of the largest actions to have occurred during the campaign, featuring all bi-planes!

The Fall of Kassala

East Africa!

Vickers Wellesley by John Young

I have been working on the outlines for several scenarios for the Italian vs. British Commonwealth campaign in East Africa, 1940-41. These are, by the very nature of the campaign and the small numbers of aircraft deployed to the region, smallish in nature, some being one player per side. But it is an interesting campaign, featuring some odd aircraft such as the Junkers 86, Vickers Wellesley, and even the Hawker Hartbeest. It gives players the chance to use more biplanes as the Italians featured the CR.42 and CR.32, while the Commonwealth forces had the Gladiator and Hawker Fury. Later scenarios saw the introduction of the Hurricane and the FIAT G.50.

I have started reading a rather dry account concerning the air war (Air War in East Africa 1940-41: The RAF Versus the Italian Air Force by Cantwell and Sutherland) - dry in that it gives the dates and number of planes in the encounters, but does not use any first person accounts, nor details of how each action evolved. Granted, I am only a bit into the book, and it is well written, but the details on the actions are a bit slim. Luckily AI has been able to create scenario parameters for these missing details.

Here are the plane counts for the twenty-two scenarios I will be putting into Check Your 6! format:

Blue Falcon Hobbies Decals

While designed for the FJ-3 Fury, these will be used to enhance my FJ-4s

Yowsa! Yet another company making some high quality decals for our toys! I placed an order with Blue Falcon recently - only having heard of them from a post on the Check Your 6! discussion group - and I must say the decals look spectacular. 

This sheet will save me from having to paint the wingtip and rudder markings!

Blue Falcon produces over one hundred decal sheets, most based on specific squadrons, from World War Two up to the modern era. The print quality is crisp, and I believe that each decal is a separate decal (think Beacon from I-94 or Scale Specialties from same), which means not a lot of trimming around the decal has to be done I'll will update this post once I actually apply some of these decals).

Yeah, I got a thing for those Hellcats of VF-27.

Ordering was a breeze on the Blue Falcon website. Service was good as well - about a week from date of order to date of receipt. However, I also reached out to them about some custom sheets I would like to have completed, and to date, no response had been forthcoming.

A very useful sheet for Korea.

Regardless of my pending inquiries with Blue Falcon, I am rushing back to their site to buy more decals, and some of their paints! You should head there, too! Blue Falcon Hobbies

More Generosity

A couple weekends ago, while gaming with friends at DayCon, I was chatting with one who does 1/600 scale (heathen!) as I was complimenting him on his Battle of Britain planes that he had painted up and used for another event a few years before. For some reason I misremembered them as being 1/600 when he corrected me and stated that they were indeed the Chosen Scale of 1/285. He also mentioned that he needed to figure out what to do with them since he now games in that tinier scale. A few days later I mentioned to him that I would be interested in the planes if he decided to part with them.

Yesterday he brought the planes to me and told me to keep them. Bear in mind these are beautifully painted planes, twenty-eight in sum, and he did not want anything for them! (little does he know I have a cunning plan to repay his kindness) So now I have another theater for World War Two, and what he bequeathed to me can cover a half dozen scenarios from the various scenario books (Over the Channel, Days of Glory, and Battles Above 1)

A Bit More on the Fireball

I have been working on a few additional hypothetical scenarios that feature the Ryan FR-1 Fireball - a piston and jet engined fighter that went into production a bit too late to see service during the Second World War. With the recent purchase at DayCon of a pair of MSD Games F8F Bearcats, nicely painted by Chris at I-94, I wanted to get both the Bearcats and the Fireballs on the table together. 

There is a not a lot of ink on the Fireball - oh, one can easily find numerous images online, but it is a relatively sparse plate in finding printed materials. There are two that I know of that specifically deal with the FR-1 - a Squadron Signal Mini in Action (1995) and a title in the Naval Fighters series by Steve Ginter (Ryan FR-1 Fireball And XF2R-1 Darkshark, also 1995). The Fireball also receives a few pages in the Detail & Scale book U.S. Navy and Marine Carrier-Based Aircraft of World War II (2018). So really the Mini in Action and the Ginter books are the best source books still available today. However, they do not always agree in their facts (mostly when it comes to VF-66 personnel and the number of kills they had prior to joining the squadron).

YouTube has numerous videos on the Fireball - unfortunately a few of them really besmirch the plane as opposed to looking at why it was designed versus the issues with using jet powered aircraft on carriers.  

What I have done, with the use of AI, is to create five "what-if" scenarios featuring the FR-1 and/or the F8F, going up against some of the few late war Japanese aircraft I have (the Ki-100 and J2M3 Raiden). Those five scenarios are now uploaded on the Downloads page, under the "World War II - Pacific (If the War Continued)" section.

P-40 Stats

P-40E of the 11st Fighter Squadron

One of the most iconic and commonly used aircraft during World War II was the Curtiss P-40. I keep coming across various iterations in the scenarios I am designing, whether set in the Aleutians, Pacific, Burma, or North Africa. To that end I have tried to come up with the stats for every commonly used model during the war:

Swiss Scenarios

From early May into early June, the Swiss Flugwaffe was engaged in several encounters with the German Luftwaffe as the latter consistently violated Swiss airspace, mostly as a result of raids against France. I have been able to cobble together ten scenarios for this period, and while most are rather small, they could make good introductory games for players new to the Check Your 6! system, or for times when only a couple of players can get together for a game.

The ten scenarios are are uploaded and can be found on the Downloads page. While they are mostly vetted, there may be some gaps in the information, so feedback is welcome!

Here are the plane counts. Numbers appearing in red represent aircraft in the Variable Rules.

The Messerschmitt ME 109 DB was the Swiss designation for the Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3. DB stood for Daimler-Benz, which is the engine the E-3 used. If you ever see Messerschmitt ME 109 Jumo, that is the D model, again named for the engine.

99th Fighter Squadron Scenarios

Ohhhh, it was bad, very bad. Spending too much time at the I-94 Enterprises booth during DayCon led to several different purchases. Poor Chris, he probably thought I was being an inconsiderate chap by not combining all my purchases into one transaction, but being under the influence (of others, not alcohol) I kept going back and sniping items. The first trip was a pair of painted Bearcats and the Star and Pyramid scenario book. Then the second drive by was to grab the Over the Channel and Days of Glory scenario books. The final stop yielded six Packard Merlin-powered P-40F models - which for some reason I had no idea I-94 even made - for some fun gaming in either the southwest Pacific or in the Med. 

An olive drab P-40L

In doing a little more research into the uses of the P-40F, I could go a few different ways. While some did see service in the Pacific, seemingly they were more prevalent in North Africa. Some were used by the 99th Fighter Squadron (which would later form part of the 332nd Fighter Group, known later as the Tuskegee Airmen), along with P-40L models, the differences being mostly in armament and a bit of a reduction in some armor on the L model. Plus, color schemes on the 99th's Warhawks varied between the British Dark Earth/Middle Stone/Azure Blue and the American Olive Drab 41/Light Grey 43. So within this squadron I can use a mix of plane colors and two models of P-40s at the same time.

Decals! Oh no, no one makes decals for the 99th - but I have sent off a request to Blue Falcon Hobbies to see if a sheet could be generated. Heck, prior to this week I did not even know of the existence of this firm, which makes a variety of products, most notably a slew of decals for World War II and modern squadrons in various scales, including 1/300. Fingers crossed for a positive response!

Of course the next step was to check AI to see what scenarios could be generated. There are already a few in the Battles Above scenario book, but I always want more. AI stepped up and provided several air to air and air to ground scenarios. Some of course will need to be scaled for playability purposes. There is also a lot of flak, as there probably should be. While one does not want flak to dominate what is mostly an air to air combat game, I do not believe we use nearly enough anti-aircraft as we should. AA can always be handled by the referee/game host if one is being used.

Stats for some of the various P-40 models

One area I am having difficulty in determining is what model of P-40 was being used for any given scenario. Some sources indicate that both the F and L models were being used, with the L being predominant. However, sources indicate only a "handful" or "small number" of F models were present. To handle this, every scenario will utilize a random die roll to determine the model of P-40. 

I will be providing scenarios for the above over the next several weeks. One already makes its appearance on the Downloads page.

Spanish Civil War - Scenarios

Galland in his Heinkel He 51

It's back! The interest in the Spanish Civil War, as yet another obscure gaming project, has made a return. Part of the reason is I started playing, albeit very poorly, War Thunder, and have been using a Heinkel He 51. Yes, long time followers of this blog might have noticed that several years ago I had posted some wonderfully painted Spanish Civil War planes, but I had traded that collection for some Korean War aircraft (and yes, regret is a rearward looking trait) and sold off my research materials. But now, the urge, the itch as it were, has returned and Amazon is winging four books my way, and AI has helped me create a slew of potential scenario outlines featuring the Legion Condor.

Granted, several of the scenarios on the chart are HUGE, and I will need to scale them down significantly for gaming purposes. I will also be creating what I hope to be a very complete and accurate listing of aircraft data for Check Your 6! Most likely I will scale the speeds as SCW aircraft, for the most part, are slow and slow aircraft have a tendency to accumulate in about a one foot square of gaming surface.

For now, I have created one scenario featuring Adolf Galland, entitled Galland's Carpet, found on the Downloads page. 

DayCon

This weekend I attended my first DayCon - a multi-gaming convention held in Dayton, Ohio. I usually avoid conventions - it is daft for me to pay a fee to play games with the same guys I can game with for free at local shops - but I decided to give DayCon a try and by hosting a game I received a reduced fee badge (yes, I am a frugal git). Plus, I knew that I-94 would be present and having that sort of access to their wares might lead to a few impulse purchases.

I left work early on a Friday afternoon in order to arrive at the convention to play in two Check Your 6! games. The theme for the weekend seemed to be World War II, although there was an Indo-Pak game on Friday evening as well. My first game was set in the Pacific, a scenario from the Road to Rabaul book (Something New). I wasn't expecting to do well, having three early model Oscars, but I did not take a scratch and helped put a few Americans into the jungle.

Not going to end well for the Yanks

The second game moved to Malta, and the British players did not fare well (my sole Gladiator being blasted from the sky).

On Saturday I got into another Pacific game (Stopping the Tokyo Express from Battles Above 2) and once again the Japanese players were overwhelmingly successful. Hot dice from destroyer anti-aircraft guns did the trick.

In the afternoon I hosted my Neutrality Patrol scenario. As with most of the games over the weekend, we always seemed to be a player or two short, so I played in this one, while also reducing the amount of German Bf 110s to adjust to the number of available players. The Swiss Me 109 DBs had some issues with one player losing his rotte early and the other Swiss player having great success. It was the same on the German side with one German player losing his Messerschmitts in rapid succession. We allowed players to bring on additional planes just to get some playing time in, straying away from the scenario parameters. 

Swiss Me 109 DBs

Initial German setup

Strangers passing

A random blue on blue die roll here could have been interesting

This...

...led to this.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Germans putting the squeeze on the Swiss

But then the other pesky pair showed up

I think it's time we said goodbye

DayCon is a good game convention - a movie theater converted to a church with plenty of parking, food options onsite, food and brewery options nearby, large and small gaming rooms (the tabletop minis were usually in the small classrooms which worked great for lighting and noise control). Staffers stopped by several times to make sure the game hosts were good to go. It was a friendly environment overall.

Oh, and yes I spent some dollars with I-94, picking up three scenario books, a pair of painted F8F Bearcats (which I will add to my Balls of Fury scenario), and a half dozen Raiden P-40Fs, which for some reason I had no idea that these Merlin-engined miniatures existed! 

Work in Progress

Have I mentioned the brush and decal work that Kevin at Misc. Minis is exceptional? Here is a work in progress picture of yet another project I am having commissioned.

I would say he is capturing the feel of the 332nd Fighter Group rather well! These planes will be used in my revamped version of "Protecting Them All" from the Battles Above 1 scenario book, which I call "Duel With the Veltro."

I cannot wait to see the work he does on the ANR opponents!

Operation Torch

Over the last few days I've been on a bit of an Operation Torch tear, creating scenarios, drooling over the Flight Deck Decals website, ordering books from Amazon, and updating aircraft stats and various listings needed for the scenarios I will be formatting and uploading. As it stands, I have sixteen scenarios to work up, with a wide variety of aircraft and ranging from two player to massive furballs. Most likely I will scale down the latter, simply as putting more then six or seven players around the gaming surface is not an ideal situation based on my own Check Your 6! gaming experiences. 

Here is the scenario list with plane counts:

Aces of VF-66

VF-66? Unless you have followed this blog for a spell, or enjoy delving into the obscure as  do, you probably have not heard of VF-66, with the squadron name of the "Firebirds." (VF-66 posts HERE) Yet, near the end of the Second World War, this squadron was being formed to fly a new type of plane, a hybrid piston and jet engine fighter known as the Fireball. As this squadron, and its mount, were being worked up rapidly to take on the increasing kamikaze threat, the vast majority of the pilots were being pulled from existing units, and some of these poached pilots were already aces.

The squadron commander, Lieutenant John F. Gray, had served in Task Force 58 (VF-5) as a Hellcat pilot, racking up 8.25 victories (one source, the Squadron/Signal MINI in Action that covers the Fireball, mentions twenty-four kills). Gray was allowed to pull men from his own flight from VF-5, and then also was able to handpick others. New pilots were designated to remain stateside and train for another FR-1 squadron, but this second squadron never came into being as the war ended and the contracts to build additional Fireballs were cancelled.

With about twenty pilots in the squadron, 70% had seen combat, and six had shot down five or more aircraft prior to joining the squadron. Those aces serving with VF-66 are as follows.

John T. Gray - 8.25 (VF-5)

Kenneth G. Hippe - 5

Collin Oveland - 5 (VF-24)

LeRoy W. "Rocky" (or Robby) Robinson - 5 (VF-2)

James S. Swope - 9.66

John T. Wolf - 7 (VF-2)

Aircrew quality for hypothetical scenarios would either rate as veteran (+2) or skilled (+1). I like to rate 40+ kills as Experten, 20-39 kills as aces, 5-19 kills as veterans, and 1-4 kills, or well trained pilots, as skilled. 

Updated Italian Stats

I have been trying to fill in the gaps on my Italian Aircraft listing, creating data points for Check Your 6! stats. For now, I offer, what I hope is, the most complete data bank for the Italian aircraft used during World War Two:

Italian Stats

ANR Scenarios

A Montefusco-Bonet Fiat G.55

The Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana facinates me - not certain why, but I have been working on some scenarios involving the ANR. I have utilized some research materials to create a list of aces that served with the ANR. Considering the number of seasoned and veteran pilots that decided to serve in the ANR, one might consider them to be tough opponents and rated "better" than typical Italian pilots. The issue with the ANR units was the lack of serviceable aircraft - at times handfuls of ANR planes would be sent against massed formations of Allied bombers, usually heavily escorted. Therefore scenarios would either be rather one sided, or one can take snippets of the historical events in order to provide a more balanced, and hence playable, game.

As one can see from the following table, the 1° Gruppo Caccia was filled with aces, making the pilots, with 1-4 kills skilled, 5-19 kills veteran, and 20+ kills ace, a formidable foe. Green aircrews should be the exception, not the rule, for the ANR.

Name	ANR Unit	SCW Kills	Pre-ANR WWII Kills	ANR Kills	Total Kills
Adriano Visconti	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	15	11	26
Ugo Drago	1ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	17	3	20
Luigi Gorrini	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	15	4	19
Luigi Morosi	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	15	3	18
Ennio Tarantola	Sq. Complementare "Montefusco-Bonet" / 1° Gr.	1	10	4	15
Mario Bellagambi	5ª Squadriglia "Diavoli Rossi", 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	10	4	14
Mario Veronesi	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	11	2	13
Giovanni Barcaro	7ª Squadriglia, 3° Gruppo Caccia	0	9	4	13
Attilio Sanson	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	5	7	12
Alvaro Querci	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	5	11
Giovanni Bonet	Sq. Complementare "Montefusco-Bonet"	0	8	3	11
Carlo Magnaghi	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	9	2	11
Luigi Mariotti	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	11*	Unknown*	11
Alberto Spigaglia	2° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	4	10
Amedeo Benati	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	8	2	10
Giulio Torresi	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	8	2	10
Giuseppe Biron	Sq. Complementare "Montefusco-Bonet" / 1° Gr.	0	8	2	10
Giuseppe Robetto	1° Gruppo Caccia	0	7	3	10
Vittorino Daffara	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	10*	Unknown*	10
Guido Fibbia	2ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	3	6	0	9
Fausto Fornaci	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	3	9
Walter Omiccioli	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	5	4	9
Nicola Zotti	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	7	2	9
Aurelio Morandi	2ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	4	4	8
Rinaldo Damiani	2ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	2	8
Loris Baldi	1ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	4	3	7
Francesco Cuscunà	1ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	5	2	7

Note on Mariotti and Daffara: The total World War II scores for Luigi Mariotti and Vittorino Daffara are verified at 11 and 10 kills respectively. However, due to the mass destruction of 1° Gruppo Caccia records at the end of the conflict, the exact mathematical split between their Regia Aeronautica service and ANR service remains unconfirmed by aviation historians.

Here is the aircraft mix of the scenarios I have been able to create thus far:

More on the ANR in the future!