Deep Cut Mat!

The latest addition to my growing collection of gaming mats for Check You 6! - another fine effort from Deep Cut Studio. I placed my order on July 14th, and it arrived from Lithuania on July 27th - thirteen days - which I feel is a pretty good turnaround for a custom mat. I needed (wanted) a desert/arid looking mat, and as I have been super happy with my previous orders from Deep Cut, I decided to go with their aerial desert offering, with an overlay of 1.75" hexes in dark brown. This mat will see service for my Darwin and 1948 Arab-Israeli games - while probably a little too arid for the Australian terrain, this now should be - I say partially knowing it might not be true - the last mat I will need.

A couple of pictures from a recent Darwin game:

1948 Arab-Israeli Scenarios

The First (1948-49) Arab-Israeli War saw a fair amount of activity in the skies over the Middle East. Rob Wubbenhorst created a set of six scenarios for Check Your 6! that appeared in Wargames Illustrated (#310) and a pdf download on the WI website. In collecting books, reading same, and doing some research of my own, I have taken Rob's "original six" (hockey reference) and have expanded the number of scenarios to twenty-three, which does include one hypothetical scenario. The 1948-49 War is ideal for smaller games when one has a few players available, and features a wide range of aircraft types (American, British, Czech, and Italian) and nationalities - Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Great Britain. I hope one day to work up a 1948-49 scenario book, but in the meantime I have re-purchased the planes necessary to game twenty-one of these scenarios, replacing the metal castings with the crisp 3D prints from Flight Deck Decals and Table Top Flights (see HERE). Like the metal planes, which are mostly Raiden, the 3D prints will be painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

On the chart that follows, Rob's scenarios are named in black, the ones I have added are titled in green. In the chart itself appears red numbers for Egyptian Spitfires which means I do not have the data to indicate if the Spitfires used for those particular scenarios were Mark LF.IXc or Mark Vc (most likely the latter). I hope with the future release of a series of books from Helion & Company more information will come to light. 

I look forward to getting these scenarios fleshed out and play tested.

Back to the 'Nam

After hosting (and getting to play as well) a Check Your 6! Jet Age game the other night, it has me thinking about getting into another jet age period, but something later than the 1950s things I have. I do have a decent collection of miniatures for the Second India-Pakistan War, but missiles and radar are rather limited in scope for that conflict, and I would like to "master" the more advanced rules and the aircraft that use them. I created some roughly framed scenarios for early Vietnam, and about a dozen for the 1982 Lebanon War, so there are plenty of opportunities and possibilities to get into an era that would require the understanding of radar lock-ons, ECW, and advanced missiles. I also have several outlined scenarios for the Second Taiwan Crisis, but that is basically the Korean War with some crappy missiles. 

Other guys in our group have 1956, 1967, and 1973 Arab-Israeli collections, so I do not want to duplicate efforts there. The Falklands are fairly covered as well. I am pretty certain no one is doing the Lebanon War, so that would bring something new to the table. But even in 1/300 scale, those beautiful Flight Deck Decals planes run four to five dollars each, and then there is the painting of advanced camouflage schemes. While my painting skills are improving of late, not certain if a lot of camo is in my future.

VF-211 Crusader. Later VF-211 served on the USS Bon Homme Richard

I keep heading back to Vietnam, although what I am looking at are early war years featuring the F-8 Crusader and MiG-17s and MiG-21s. The missiles are crappy, but radar starts to become a thing. Planes are easy - for the sixteen scenarios that feature just the F-8 I would only need four Crusaders, five MiG-17s, and four MiG-21s (if one does not mind using one model to cover the same basic airframe). If I add in four Skyhawks I increase the number of scenarios I could game to twenty.

Skyhawk from VA-76, USS Bon Homme Richard

I can handle painting Navy aircraft with the dull gray and insignia white scheme. Decals are covered by Miscellaneous Miniatures for specific Crusader and Skyhawk squadrons. Actually, that might be the hold up as those decal sheets mean adding something like a dozen or more decals to each plane! However, with the need for only four F-8s and four A-4s, I guess I could suffer adding a slew of decals. The MiGs are more decal friendly with just the North Vietnam national insignia and a BORT number needed. Painting them, however, would be a bit more of a challenge - early in the war many were simply in their natural metal, but then camo schemes started to appear. But I think the simple all metal versions might be the direction I take.

So, here on Christmas Day, I have ordered the planes and decals needed to eventually game these scenarios:

GHQ Decals

While I do not use GHQ Models for my miniatures due to their crazy price point, I have picked up some of their ironically affordable decals. Finding their decal offerings can be a bit of a chore as the decals are mixed in with the aircraft listings, but gamers looking for another source for decals can find some very useful items from GHQ. 

Notice the off-centered blue on the American sheet left of center

Most of the packs come two sheets per pack, at $3.50 per sheet, and now I know why - they are made by I-94! The first sheet I grabbed was British WWII roundels for southeast Pacific. While I have no current aircraft that would feature these decals, I do plan to use some for Australian aircraft featured in the Under Southern Skies scenario book. Very cool mix of Hudson, P-40, and Beaufighter squadrons on this offering, along with roundels and aircraft numbers.

Next up are American Pacific and Europe national insignia that feature the red outlined star and bar and the yellow outlined star, the former that will be used on some future Hellcat purchases and the latter being ideal for Operation Torch. One sheet in the pack was perfect, the other sheet was off printed and is completely unusable. Now we will see how GHQ's customer service might be! UPDATE - It has been six days since I contacted GHQ about the decal sheet...my two messages have gone without a reply. UPDATE TWO - Still no reply. Shite service for certain! UPDATE THREE (10.21.25) - Dave at I-94 reached out and is replacing the sheet, even though it is on GHQ to make it right. Dave has great customer service!

I also ordered what I thought would be a large sheet of mixed American stars and stars and bars, a mix of blue and red outlined insignia, but it was one small sheet, for twice the price of the other sheets, and the outlines are fairly thin. Yikes! Won't order the $7.50 sheets again.

I needed some additional Soviet stars, so ordered a sheet that has both plain red as well as yellow outlined red stars. These will find use for both WWII and jet age projects. Add to that a sheet of white and red Soviet aircraft numbers that will find the same use. Both of these were nicely done.

The last sheet I ordered was a mixed sheet of Egyptian, Syrian, and Iraqi national insignia. I picked these up mainly for the Iraqi markings to use for some 1948 Arab-Israeli War Gloster Gladiators, but I might find some use for the others in later period Arab-Israeli conflicts. There are both versions of the Syrian roundel in this pack.

In some cases the sheets do not offer very many of any one particular size, which limits their usefulness somewhat. And now that I know these affordable decal sheets come from I-94, I'll just order from them in the future.

Storing the Collection

I can easily make out what era is in a tin

For years I have used a variety of plastic storage bins, like the ones found at places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels, to store my Check Your 6! planes. When I host a game, I pull out the bins to find the planes needed, and place the planes for the upcoming game into tin boxes used for mints (think Altoids) for transport to the hobby shop. The tins work well enough as the planes stay in place due to the magnet on the bottom of the plane. However, I was not happy with trying to access the various sized plastic bins from my rather full and narrow closet, which does not have a light and the plastic bins are not transparent enough to see what each one held. I got to thinking, "someone has to make larger tins" and sure enough, some searching on Amazon yielded numerous styles of tins, with a hinged lid, and in a wide choice of sizes. I decided to go with THESE as they are larger than the Altoid boxes (which do not handle larger aircraft very well) and this version comes with a window in the lid, allowing me to easily see what planes are held within. I ordered 48 tins (four sets) and have converted nearly all my current CY6! collection into them. I can fit about eight fighters, or a medium bomber and four or five fighters, into each tin.

More space than an Altoids tin yet still small enough to transport to the hobby shop for a game

I spent part of a weekend cleaning out the closet as a lot of items needed to go, and placed a small table to hold the tins. There is a second use for these tins in that I also no longer need the Altoid boxes when I host a game, and the wife is happy that the closet is looking much better, which also resulted in a tidier den. Another benefit, because of the magnets a stack of tins does not readily tip over since the tin above is magnetized a bit to the tin below. Brilliant!

Peekaboo! 1948 Arab-Israeli War planes beautifully painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures

I might pick up a few of the larger sizes as I have a couple of four-engine monsters that will not fit in these particular tins and I want to utilize the same storage and transportation method.

New Toys Ordered Part I - 1948 AIW

P-51D Mustang in Israeli Service

I have gone on a recent spate of ordering new planes. Some are to be used for future projects, others for expanding existing projects, while others will be to replace existing metal planes with higher quality 3D prints and more accurate paint schemes.

I have been gathering information leading to several more scenarios Check Your 6! for the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and hence have ordered aircraft from Flight Deck Decals and Table Top Flights to cover all the events I can document, while also replacing some planes that are not quite right. Adding the below to some previous purchases is going to complete the 1948 project, once I have Miscellaneous Miniatures paint them all!

Flight Deck Spitfire Mk.Vc, Sea Fury, Macchi C.205, and Spitfire Mk.IX

The recent purchases include the following:

Flight Deck Decals

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc - 5 (replaces metal versions)

Gloster Gladiator Mk.II - 2 (to use for the Iraqis)

Macchi C.205 Veltro - 4 (replacing a pair of metal castings and adding two for scenarios)

Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk. IX - 2 (replacing metal castings and adding two for scenarios)

C-47 Dakota - 2 (replacing metal as they are TOO heavy for CY6! official stands)

Table Top Flights

Avia S-199 - 3 (replacing metal versions)

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIV (to use as Mk.XVIII) - 4 (replacing metal versions with more accurate 3D prints)

Thoughts on CincyCon

Heading to Israel, albeit slowly

I have only been to a couple of CincyCons in the past, which is a fairly large and very well organized convention in greater Cincinnati. It has moved locations a few times over the years, but for the last last several editions has found a consistent location at the Butler County Fairgrounds in nearby Hamilton. The facility is large, with plenty of parking, and good lighting for gaming. This is also a wide variety of vendors and a flea market. The historical pickings are a little thin, but I-94 made it to the convention, and I know a few of us spent some shekels with them. Having plenty of unpainted planes already I only picked up a scenario book (the well done Under Southern Skies). My other money was spent on some food, which is also another nice aspect of CincyCon - there is a kitchen in the main gaming hall and so food can be purchased onsite at very reasonable prices.

There were plenty of historical games going on, but seemingly not enough gamers to fill them - I might suggest they reduce the number of historical games a tad so as to allow the remaining ones to fill. But that is a concern that is beyond my purview - although as a gamemaster I would want a good amount of gamers in my event.

This year saw at least five Check Your 6! games - including one I hosted and two others in which I was a participant. Alas, I did not take many pictures. I planned on waiting to see how many gamers I had play before putting together a scenario, having brought all my 1948 Arab-Israeli aircraft. Since we had four of us, including myself we just selected an aircraft, and so in the first game (we had time to play twice) I took a C-47 escorted by a Hawker Fury to bomb an Israeli airfield. Flying a C-47 is an exercise in the mundane, but I was able to get to the airfield and make a bomb run, which failed to hit. I took an engine hit while moving to the field. The turn following I purposely made an extreme turn, and caused myself go out of control, at Surface Low CAB and TAL 2! My plan was to crash into the field, but I passed the aircrew check and recovered. Yikes. At that point we called the game.

An Avia S-199

And the rarely used Beaufighter

Closing in to bomb the airfield...get that Avia away from me!

Engine hit taken, bombs released, time to get out!

The second go 'round saw a pair of Israeli Spits against a Hawker Fury and a Macchi C.205. The Egyptians soon made sheep stew out of the Spitfires, while having lower quality pilots the superior agility of the Fury and the Macchi helped negate the difference in crew quality.

One Spitfire downed, and the second in my sights...

I played an unsuccessful 1956 Arab-Israeli game, commanding a pair of MiG-15s for a few turns before getting blown out of the sky. In the evening game (Foxtrot 4 from the Check Your 6! Jet Age book) I had a pair of Skyhawks. One took a Sidewinder in the arse, but the other jettisoned its bombs and became basically a fighter, shooting down a veteran Harrier. Alas, the Brits still won the game on points.

Skyhawks over the Falklands

Overall, I would return to CincyCon as a GM - the $30.00 weekend fee being too rich for me to game with the same guys I can game with for free at the local game stores (which is also probably why many gamers I know did not attend). Offering a Saturday only fee might be a way to generate more attendance. Also, perhaps offer a $5.00 shopping badge to help get some money to the vendors. Also, I think putting all the Check Your 6! games on a pair of tables in front of the I-94 booth would be a good way to promote the game while also helping I-94 sell their products. Regardless, this is a well organized convention and the location works well, so consider making it to CincyCon next year!

Shipping Planes for Painting!

Today I mailed off a few Raiden planes to have painted by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures. Kevin had contacted me via the Wings of Glory Aerodrome to let me know that he was doing commission work once again, and so of course I was ecstatic to hear that great news. Kevin has painted some beautiful planes for me in the past, including my 1948 Arab-Israeli War collection.

Today's shipment included two projects - Burma and Pearl Harbor - for the former Ki-27s, Hawk 81s, Brewster Buffalos, and Hawker Hurricanes, and for the latter P-40s and P-36s. With what I am having painted for Burma I will be able to host three scenarios and for the Pearl project I will be able to do the Second Strike scenario with my friend Matt (he is handling the Japanese side of things).

I am really looking forward to seeing how these planes will turn out, as well as finally getting some scenarios for Burma on the table as I have had the unpainted castings sitting in a box for a few years now!

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

A Little 1948 AIW After Action

Initial Egyptian Setup

I have these lovely painted planes for the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, but the Rob W. scenarios I have from Wargames Illustrated are all rather small in scope, which prevents me from hosting moderately sized games at the local store. So I decided to just throw a dogfight together to allow me to get these birds on the table. Of course, I also wanted to show off my new gaming mat, so here we have AIW over Pearl Harbor!

And the Israeli deployment

The planes I decided to use, so nicely painted by Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures, were four Spitfire Mark Vs and two Macchi M.205s for the Egyptians, facing off against two Spitfire Mk.IXs and two Avia S.199s for the Israelis. I had each player roll randomly for aircrew quality, the Arabs having a one in four chance for a skilled pilot, and the remaining pilots as green. For the Israelis, there was a one in four chance for a veteran, the rest defaulting to skilled. The results? Six green Egyptians against one veteran S.199, and the remaining Israelis skilled. I was thinking this might not be a good day for the Egyptians.

The Israelis sweep in from the Egyptian ten o'clock

Each side closed in, but early in the fight an S.199 was shot down, odds increasing to 2:1 for the Egyptians. For several turns to follow, a lot of dancing around occurred, and even a conga line was formed at one point. The veteran Israeli, flying the S.199, lined up an Egyptian Spitfire at close range, hitting the Spit. This occurred three times with the same antagonists, but the Arab's dice were "lucky" as all three times double sixes were rolled, fighting off engine or airframe damage, but resulting in lucky hits. In every case the lucky hits (two engine fire chances, two panics, and one chance for a fuel tank leak) were ably handled by the Egyptian. From now on, that plane will be given a veteran aircrew!

The skilled Avia S.199 takes the sole engine hit of the game

Two Egyptian Spitfires were lost, one which had declared a shot at an approaching plane, and rolled the dice. The plane happened to be one of the Egyptian Macchis! Fortunately the shot was a miss, but that player will always be reminded of that faux pax. 

The Israeli Spitfire heading for home before calling it a night

The veteran Avia, having rolled many doubles himself, was down to heavy machineguns. One of the two Israeli Spitfires was downed, and the other one ran out of ammo. At this point it was one against four as the Israeli Spit that had no ammunition left to engage dove for the deck. The game was called at this point. Both sides lost two aircraft, but points leaned towards the Egyptians, and certainly a moral victory for the Arabs.

Planes are Raiden, mat is Deep Cut Studio.

Getting Planes on the Table

One of my other interests is Great War air combat. I've been hooked ever since I started playing Richthofen's War by Avalon Hill. Today I game the Great War with miniatures, the 1/144 Wings of Glory range, using the rules of the same name. The rules are okay (to be honest I would prefer using Check Your 6!), but it is what the gaming group uses. We meet every second Saturday in Dayton at noon, break for a meal around 3:00 or 4:00, then some will hang around and do a boardgame. In an effort to actually get my Check Your 6! planes on the table, I have decided to start bringing a scenario for those who might be interested in gaming CY6. First up will be Strange Encounter from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War using my wonderfully painted planes by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures. I've hosted this one a couple of times before, so hoping I can guide players through the rules as it has been some time since I've done any CY6 gaming. First go is this coming Saturday!

Wake (Not Woke) Island

Cool artwork by John Shaw!

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...other attacks on the atoll were delivered by Mavis flying boats and carrier based aircraft. 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.

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

Target

One of the scenarios for the Check Your 6 1948 Arab-Israeli War published in Rob Wubbenhorst's article in Wargames Illustrated calls for a vessel, the Eqyptian Amir Faruq. This happens to be a sloop similar in appearance to a Flower-class sloop, and so I decided to take advantage of the Topside Minis cheap prices and buy one of their Flower-class 1/1800 scale offerings. These are two dimensional renderings on self adhesive paper, that then is affixed to a base. For those interested in getting started in naval gaming but find the pricing of some ranges overwhelming, or the thought of painting is just too much to bear, Topside is an affordable way to give naval gaming a try...or in this case a target for Check Your 6.

Growing the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Collection

A couple of weeks ago I received my most recent commission work from Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures, some oddball planes needed to complete the remaining scenarios published at Wargames Illustrated, written by Rob Wubbenhorst. Kevin isn't really doing commission work any longer, but as I have used him in the past and was very vocal on various forums about my utter satisfaction with his painting, he graciously offered to keep doing small jobs for me as needed. 

Here we have some Raiden additions for the British, Israelis, and Egyptians in the form of Spitfires, Macchis, a Beaufighter, and a proxy Hawker Sea Fury (really a Tempest with a radial engine). The planes I selected for this period are not 100% spot on, but are pretty close, and used some planes I had picked up from Dom's Decals a few years ago for a really amazing price. Magnets have been added, so now I just need a few convoy vehicles and a ship and I will have all the toys necessary to complete all six scenarios.

As for the scenarios, most are small in terms of player count, so I will be combining a few to be able to host medium-sized games.

More 1948 Planes Being Painted

This morning I sent off six more 1948 Arab-Israeli War planes to Miscellaneous Miniatures for painting. Once these have been completed this will allow me to do all the scenarios that appeared in Wargames Illustrated, written by Rob Wubbenhorst. Two Macchi C.205s, two Spitfires (Late model for the Brits), a Beaufighter, and a Hawker Sea Fury will grace the gaming table in a few months. Kevin at Miscellaneous really isn't doing planes any longer, but since I have been an established customers he has agreed to keep doing some small projects for me, which will include American Volunteer Group and some Swiss, and then perhaps some 1967 Arab-Israeli and Pakistan-India War. Then I should be pretty much "done" with Check Your 6! projects.

Back to '48, I was also able to pick up a few painted planes in a trade. Two are painted for Syria, and are types the Syrians never used, but are still pretty cool so I am going to use at least the Lavochkin La-7 for some flavor. The other two planes are Bf 109s (Avia S.199), but not quite correct for Israel (should have gunpods and blue stripes), but they will also see some table time.

It feels good to get these projects worked on and putting some planes on the table!

Check Your 6! - New Projects

After another great Game Day I have decided to expand my Check Your 6! collection a bit. I am selling off my Spanish Civil War planes so that I can start a few oddball projects that I have more interest in.

At Game Day I picked up the remaining aircraft that I needed to complete all the 1948 Arab-Israeli scenarios I have collected, written by Rob Wubbenhorst and published in Wargames Illustrated. I also picked up a few P-40B/Cs to start either a Pearl Harbor or Flying Tiger project. As I already have some P-36s doing a Pearl Harbor scenario might be fun, but I also now have, via a trade, a few Ki-27 Nates, so I might hold off on Pearl as that involves buying all the Japanese forces as well.  

I haven't purchased the planes yet, but the 100 Hour War (known incorrectly as the Football War) saw Corsairs and Mustangs used in Central America, and I have the workings of a scenario in mind.  

I also have an idea for Swiss/German fighting during World War II that could be interesting, and have completed a bit of research to create a scenario for that. I am getting some Bf.109s in a trade as part of the Spanish Civil War selloff.

Check Your 6! Annual Game Day Recap

Israeli S-199s and Egyptian Spitfires dance over Israel.

Just a short post about the annual Check Your 6! game day event held each year in Dayton, Ohio. I was able to attend the entire day, including hosting a 1948 Arab-Israeli War game and playing in an interesting no-plot game, and watching a Vietnam game during the evening session. There were plenty of historical eras covered, from the Great War through Vietnam, and a good turnout as well for some Wings of Glory Great War combat. I-94 was there selling there wares, and so I picked up a few oddball planes to complete my 1948 collection, and a few P-40 B/Cs to start either a Pearl Harbor or American Volunteer Group project.

Attendance seemed to be very good for the morning and early afternoon, but the evening session only had two games going. One thing I'd like to help work on is promoting the event a bit more to help increase awareness and hence numbers present. There is certainly space to hold more games and accommodate more gamers, so no concerns there. And there are a few fast food joints close by to satiate the gamer appetite. The location also has a kitchen, so that means potential to sell some gamer food right onsite.

If you have an hankering for air combat, makes plans to attend next June. The National Museum of the United States Air Force is only minutes away, so one could make a nice weekend that includes gaming miniature aircraft and see the real thing up close.

These are 1/600 scale...check out those paint jobs!

1948 Arab-Israeli War

Nice, a long planned project finally coming to fruition....

I picked up some greatly reduced Raiden aircraft from Dom at Dom's Decals some time ago, for the most part planes that would be correct for use in the '48 Arab-Israeli War.  Using Check Your 6! and a '48 War article (and supplement download) that appeared in Wargames Illustrated (#310) and written by Rob Wubbenhorst, I gathered planes to tackle a few small scenarios from that article. Sending the planes off a few months ago to Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures, I received them a few weeks ago, and am really impressed by Kevin's work (again). All I need to do is glue on some magnets and fill out some aircraft sheets and they are ready for Check Your 6! Game Day in June!