The Yak-9P for Korea

While I have a decent Korean War collection for Check Your 6!, there are some aircraft types I have yet to pick up, such as the Yak-9P used by the North Koreans early in the conflict. The Yak appears in a few scenarios that appear interesting and not overly large, and as the Yaks are not sporting camouflage, I should be able to paint them without sending them off for commission work. 

Over the last few months I have gathered into one spreadsheet as many Korean War scenarios as I could locate, using the Skirmish Campaigns Air War Korea book, Scramble - a Bag the Hun compendium, and finally some scenarios found on the Check Your 6! discussion group. In total that list now comprises of fifty-two scenarios, the Yak-9P making an appearance in eleven. I won't be collecting aircraft for all eleven scenarios as fielding a bunch of B-29s or Il-10s does not appeal to me, but collecting enough to add Yaks to field a few of the North Korean Air Force scenarios.

As portrayed on the Flight Deck website

In 1/285 scale there are of course numerous choices for various models of the Yak-9, but I am going with Flight Deck Decals as their 3D prints are the best thing going, and their price point is extremely good for such a high quality miniature, and they make a Yak-9P. Painting however is less of a certain thing - there is some debate over the basic color of the Yak-9P. Some illustrations show a natural metal, while others show a light blue gray. Most informed folks seem to lean towards the latter, which is the direction I plan to go, using Vallejo's Pale Blue 71.008. It is a bit too dark perhaps, but seems to fit what the pundits push forth.

This version is a little too light on the gray and has no blue hue

This is what I will be shooting for

Decals are easy - Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals makes a set for North Korean Yaks in 1/200 scale, and Bernhard at Sieben Schwaben will rescale to 1/285. 

I am looking forward to tackling these relatively simply planes and adding a bit to my Korean War arsenal.

The Focke-Wulf Ta 183

As some of my gaming friends know, I like the obscure. I also like the look of certain aircraft - the iconic Corsair F4U, the nimble Nieuport 28, the sleek Pfalz D.IIIa and the beautiful Pfalz Dr.I. An aircraft that fits both the obscure and look of cool is the Focke-Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein (from Wilhelm Busch's "Hans Huckebein, the unlucky raven", a cartoon raven that traditionally makes trouble for others, and is often pictured with a decanter of liquor - my kind of bird). 

While the Ta 183 was never built, one can see its influences on 1950s jet fighters such as the MiG-15. The Ta 183 was intended to counter the large bomber formations that devastated Germany late in the war, particularly the threat that far ranging B-29s would be used in Europe. Heavily armed with four 30mm  MK 108 cannon, the Huckebein could also carry four Ruhrstahl X-4 wire guided air to air missiles or 500 kilos of bombs. Top speed was projected to be nearly 600 miles per hour, and climb rate was 4,020 feet per minute. With a ceiling of 46,000 feet, it would have been able to intercept Allied bombers with punch and speed, no matter the altitude.

Art by Marek Rys from the luft46 website

Check Your 6! ratings for the Ta 183 might look as follows: 

Interestingly enough, there are a few companies with miniatures for the Ta 183. Raiden, Table Top Flights, and MSD Games/Scotia Grendel (the Collectair range) are all available. The Table Top Flights version is in 1/200 scale, but can be special ordered in a smaller scale if desired (as pictured below). 

I'll have these two Ta 183s painted up for some 1946 "what if" scenarios against Allied jets and bomber formations.

Air War Korea - Part VII: And Now, Back to the Air

As I get closer to running Check Your 6! events, I realize I need to add a few gaming items in order to do several of the scenarios in the Air War Korea scenario book. As it stands, once I receive my latest batch of planes from Chris G. at I-94, I will be able to recreate sixteen of the thirty-two scenarios published in Air War Korea. Realistically I could opt to do more, but as I am sticking with Raiden for all my miniatures (with a few CinC exceptions) some scenarios are still out of reach as Raiden does not yet produced the needed aircraft, plus I really refuse to buy nine B-29s! In looking in greater detail at some of the scenarios I can host forced me to rush over to the Fight's On! website and place an order for some goodies that I am still missing. I have ordered from Fight's On! one time previously, picking up some damage markers and a parachute marker, thinking that would be enough, but some of the scenarios that I have the full complement of aircraft for call for things like anti-aircraft positions and target markers. This evening I ordered the required items, along with some game markers that weren't needed but perhaps will be handy to use. Once the order comes in I will need to paint up the AA positions and target markers, but those will get knocked out quickly enough.

In the mail today I received a copy of Squadron/Signal's USN/USMC Over Korea. This is a classic work by Squadron/Signal, filled with black and white photographs along with color aircraft profiles. I can't believe I never bought this excellent work prior to now. As the F9F is my favorite Korean War aircraft, and the F4U one of my favorite World War II planes, this title, which of course brings these two and other fine aircraft into one publication, will always be a handy reference. And it was interesting to see the appearance in the Korean War of the TBF Avenger, used to evacuate Marines during the breakout at Chosin.

Air War Korea - Part II: Deciding on Scale and Rules

Scale

MiG-15s - GHQ above, Raiden below

Wow, there certainly are a lot of options when it comes to 1/285th and 1/300th scale aircraft for the Korean War, much more than I had initially expected. That is a grand thing, having a half dozen or so companies to choose from (that variety being the spice of life thing). It also has allowed me to decide that while these two scales are close in size and decently compatible on the table top, I can go with strictly 1/285th aircraft so that my aircraft match perfectly, as opposed to just closely.

Why else am I able to focus on just 1/285th aircraft? There are several reasons. First, the variety of U.S. and Soviet aircraft covered:

B-29 Superfortress - Raiden

F-84F Thunderjet - Raiden

F-86 Sabre - GHQ, Raiden

F4U Corsair - CinC, GHQ, Raiden

F9F-2 Panther - Raiden

MiG-15 - GHQ, Raiden

P-51D - Raiden

Yak-9 - GHQ

F-86s - GHQ Above, Raiden below

Next, the quality of those companies making 1/285th is on the higher end of the quality spectrum of the various companies in both 1/285th and 1/300th. The three companies listed above blend very well together.

Add in ease of ordering.  All of the above companies have online webshops and can also often be found on eBay, Noble Knight Games, and other online discounters.

And, looking over the Check Your 6! Korean War booklet, the above list of aircraft cover nearly every scenario in the book.

So, I am going to push forward with the 1/285th aircraft that are available. To that end I have removed the links for the 1/300th scale companies from both the right sidebar and the Air War page as, for me, they are no longer needed.

Rules

Rules, however, are still a bit of a bane to my existence. Now, Check Your 6! seems to play decently enough, but I have only experienced two games in a span of a decade, and running numerous aircraft isn't quite what I want to do. Most of the CY6 scenarios also call for quite a bit of aircraft, and even splitting the load among multiple players still means controlling several miniatures on the gaming table. On the other hand CY6 is also what my gaming buddies are using, so there are opportunities for continued exposure and experience.

I have given Clash of Sabres the most cursory of read-throughs, but it appears to be a decently written set of rules, and one that a player is more focused on controlling a single aircraft or at most a pair of aircraft. Where CY6 uses hexes for movement with each aircraft having certain maneuvers it can perform based on its historical performance, CoS uses turn templates, and the template used is based on airspeed, not individual aircraft capabilities.