Progress on the Wake Island Front

And for my next trick....

I've had this scenario booklet nearly ready for some time, dealing with the Japanese attempt to capture Wake Atoll in December 1941. Several scenarios are built, mostly historical ones, with a few what ifs as well, such as what if the USS Saratoga reinforced Wake with the Brewster Buffaloes that were tasked to increase the American fighter presence - that sort of thing. While I have thirteen scenarios created I decided to drop what I had into Gemini and let AI take a look. It wound up creating a few more encounters and making suggestions to my existing ones, but as always with AI one must double check the work as I think the new offerings might be duplicates of scenarios I already have in the booklet. But if not, the booklet will be expanded a bit.

Currently the booklet, like the other two previously mentioned, comes in a hair above twenty pages, Using lulu.com as my print on demand service, with premium color and 80# coated paper, the price points on these booklets are about $12.50 USD, which I have added in a slight margin for my time. If I go to standard color and normal weight paper, it shaves maybe a dollar. My goal is certainly not to make money, but to offer more scenarios for Check Your 6! and Check Your 6! Jet Age gamers, and I have had other works printed with the better quality options ad really like how they have turned out.

I still plan to create more scenario booklets that feature specific topics, like the 99th Fighter Squadron flying P-40s (over twenty-five scenarios), the 49th Pursuit Group near Darwin, a dozen scenarios oddly enough also featuring P-40s, and a Taiwan crisis booklet that would feature the P-47N model for the early scenarios and the later 1958 conflict that features the Sabre. This would see over forty scenarios if all make the cut.

Color Choices - Part III

The third part of an irregular series that provides the base colors used on a variety of projects.

Wake Atoll

• F4F Wildcat/F2A Buffalo - For the Wildcats and Buffaloes (the Wake Atoll project) - I used Faded Photo Reconnaissance Unit (P. R. U.) Blue (71.109) on the upper surfaces, with Light Grey (71.298) for the lower. I really like this color combination.

Darwin

• A6M2 - To reproduce the ame-iro color used on shipborne Japanese naval aircraft I went with Imperial Japanese Navy Ash Gray (71.311). It seems to capture the gray, green, and tan hues well. NATO Black (71.251) on the cowling. These Zekes will also see time over Wake.
• P-40E - Typical early war United States Army scheme of Dark Olive Drab 41 (71.316) over Neutral Gray N43 (71.051). 

 Second India-Pakistan War (1965)

• F-86 - The primary Pakistan aircraft received an overall scheme of Aluminium (71.062). 
• Folland Gnat - Another plane that had a natural metal finish, so once again I used Aluminium.
• Mystère - Why yes, I'm glad you asked - Aluminium was indeed the color of choice.

Rating the Finns - Part II

A war weary Model 75A. The white rings indicate repaired bullet holes.

In a previous post I discussed my thoughts about the low aircrew quality ratings given to the Finns in the Battles Above 4 scenario book. This is not a post to disparage the author of that excellent scenario book in any way, but it is simply my thoughts on how I think the Finns should be rated in terms of Aircrew quality.

I have now gathered several titles on the Finns, in some cases titles in which the author(s) have sourced Soviet records to compare reported losses, and this research has convinced me that the Finns did have some of the highest kill ratios of any nation during World War II, usually flying outdated aircraft, and more often than not outnumbered in the various encounters with the Soviets.

What I first thought was an anomaly, that being the overwhelming kill ratio of Lentolaivue 24, flying Brewster F2As before receiving Messerschmitt Bf 109Gs later in the war, was not the exception, but instead the exceptional example of multiple successful Finnish squadrons. As outlined in another post, Lentolaivue 32, flying the Curtiss Model 75As for three years, also had an impressive kill ratio. But it does not stop there. With Morane-Saulnier 406s and Fiat G.50s other squadrons also inflicted far more casualties on the Soviets than was received in return. So we need to address the question - how were the Finns able to have such success?

"It's the man, not the machine" - and while I mostly agree with this premise, the tools of war can often provide an edge, but not so with the Finns. With aircraft of comparable performance in many cases, with armament on the lighter side, and with machines that were typically no more robust than the enemy, the Finns made up for a lack of quality equipment by the superior quality of their pilots. However, as mentioned in the previous post, the scenarios in Battles Above 4 do not give much distinction in aircrew quality between the Finns and the Soviets. While I usually like the aircrew ratings found in the Battle Above series, and the methodology that the author uses to determine ace and veteran aircrew quality, I believe that same methodology does not "work" during the Continuation War. How do we address this?

I have a few ideas around aircrew ratings for the Finns. The first takes an approach that any Finnish pilot that has five or more kills is an ace (+3). This is different than Battles Above, in which the author uses twenty kills or more before applying ace status. I would make a Finnish pilot with one to four kills a veteran (+2) aircrew, and any other pilot who has zero kills is rated as skilled (+1). Green (+0) aircrews should be extremely rare for the Finns. By taking this approach and applying against the scenarios in Battles Above 4, it will make most Finnish aircrew ratings improve, if one knows what pilots were involved in each scenario. As most of the scenarios only have a pilot or two named, this process would not ideally work, although any green aircrew would be bumped to skilled regardless, at least in my mind.

Another approach is to lower the aircrew ratings for each Soviets by one level, and utilizing the poor (-1) aircrew rating offered in the Korean War scenario book for green pilots, green for skilled, and so on. This potentially would balance the scenarios more towards the Finns, which makes sense to me, as in most of the scenarios they are outnumbered. This might be the easiest adjustment that can be made based on historical performance and the lack of information when it comes to knowing which Finnish pilots were present for each scenario.

A more extreme approach is to use both the aforementioned methods. Based on kill ratios, this actually might result in more historical outcomes but less than ideal balance for the Soviet players. However, in most of the scenarios the Soviet have the numerical advantage. Of course, being a dice game, results can always vary widely game to game so it would take several playthroughs of one scenario to see if any of the methods above provide a more historical outcome.

Here is a look at all three methods, using one scenario from Battles Above 4 in which the Finns are outnumbered. This scenario (65 to 0) had on the Finnish side the following known pilots and the number of confirmed kills each had obtained before this engagement - Aulis Bremer (6.33), Eino Koskinen (7.5), Kalevi Tervo (6.0), Pauli Salminen (3), and Yrjö Pallasvuo (5). 

Using my suggestions for Finnish aircrew quality above, giving ace status to these pilots with  five or more kills, really shows the imbalance, particularly if increasing the Finns and decreasing the Soviets. However, the historical event played out with the Finns claiming eleven kills (there were also present, but not in the scenario, Soviet bombers) to zero losses. The alternate version of this fight (Finland's Hawks, Stalin's Falcons) has the Finns at a greater numerical disadvantage with eighteen Soviet fighters and six Soviet bombers. I cannot imagine playing out this scenario and seeing the Finns so outnumbered and still managing to inflict such losses on the Soviets without making, at the very minimum, a dramatic increase in the Finnish aircrew quality.

It will be interesting to play through the scenarios with some measure of adjustments in place...but first I need to collect and paint planes!

Lentolaivue 32

Model 75A of Lentolaivue 32 in the later scheme of olive green and black over light blue

For those who have interest in the Continuation War, you probably know of the exploits of Lentolaivue 24 and their amazing successes while using the Brewster Model 239 against the numerically superior Soviets. However, the Finns fielded other squadrons that also delivered impressive kill ratios from mid-1941 until the Finns signed an armistice with the Soviets in mid-1944. One of those squadrons, flying another outmoded American fighter, was Lentolaivue 32. This squadron, which started the war flying Fokker XXIs, supported by a flight of Hawker Hurricanes, transitioned to the Curtiss Model 75A a few weeks into the war. The Sussu (Sweetheart), as the Model 75 was known in Finnish service, served in LLv 32 for three years and chalked up an impressive kill ratio over their Soviet counterparts. I have covered the Curtiss in Finnish service previously (found HERE) so I will not rehash those details. This post focuses on Lentolaivue 32 and its impressive string of victories, even when flying against advance Soviet fighters later in the war.

The squadron received its first victory on June 25, 1941 when Veikko Evinen, flying a Fokker XXI, shot down a pair of Tupolev SB-2. Evinen would obtain four victories in LLv 32, all in 1941. He would later transfer to LLv 34 and obtain ace status before being killed. LLv 32 would obtain 7.5 victories while flying the Fokker. LLv 32's first aces would be Paavo Berg and Kyösti Karhila, both obtaining their fifth kill on September 19, 1941, both victorious over MiG-3s.

A schwarm of Sussus

The following list shows the claims of the squadron, most of the claims verified against Russian archival sources. Note: FR = Fokker XXI, HC = Hurricane, CU = Curtiss, and MT - Messerschmitt.

Let's look at Lentolaivue 32 by the overall numbers. The squadron racked up 206 victories against nineteen losses for a ratio of nearly 11:1. Of the losses, six planes were lost due to anti-aircraft fire, three were lost due to Soviet airstrikes on Finnish airfields, while only ten were lost in combat, yielding a ratio of almost 21:1 when only counting combat losses. Ten LLv 32 pilots were killed, two wounded, and one was made a prisoner of war. Sixty-three of the squadron's pilots had at least a half kill and sixteen pilots made ace status. These numbers are even more impressive when taking into consideration that the squadron was rarely anywhere near full strength.

As seen on the following chart, the squadron was very successful against early war Soviet fighters, but also racked up numerous kills against the superior LaGG-3s and La-5s, again demonstrating the quality edge the Finnish pilots possessed as late as mid-1944.

I will discuss my final thoughts on rating the Finns in a future entry as a follow up to my previous post on Finnish aircrew quality.

Works in Progress

As I become older I find that painting is actually becoming a bit of a calming release for me. Oh sure, my wife will tell you that on occasion she hears me spout out an expletive from the den as I fiddle with getting a decal in place or paint canopy frames, but overall I am starting to enjoy painting my own planes. Now, that being said, I am only working on simple schemes - more complex brushwork will still be sent off to Miscellaneous Miniatures or I-94, but of late, after having some success with 1/144 Great War planes last year, I have been working on a few 1/285 scale aircraft with some success and not a lot of swearing.

Before I forget, I do have an update from Kevin at MiscMinis on some commissioned work he is doing for me - here are the nearly finished Americans for an Aleutians scenario. 

Okay, now here are a few I have been working on.

The above are all Flight Deck prints. At the bottom are a Curtiss Hawk III and a P-26 (known as the Model 281 in Chinese service), painted in the base color for China in 1937. They need another coat of green, and I will need to add details such as tires, engine, and the tail stripes (the white is in place but needs another coat before adding the blue), and then Chinese roundels.

In the middle are the beginnings of my Wake Atoll collection. I decided that 1/600 is just too fiddly for my fingers to handle, so have transitioned into 1/285. The Wildcats and Buffaloes are complete, other than decals. Then I will need to start collecting a variety of Japanese aircraft. 

The top row are gap fillers. While I have a decent Korean War collection and can host numerous scenarios, I needed to buy more planes to run games involving the Yak-9P and the Shooting Star. The blue on the Yak is probably a hair too dark, but I like how it will stand out on the tabletop. The F-80, after priming, has a base coat of Vallejo aluminium which really looks great. Both of these types need details painted in, and then decals. 

Wake Island Atoll - Trying a New Scale

In 1/285 scale, this could get expensive

Many Check Your 6! scenarios call for a lot of bombers, which is not something I am really into, from both a price and playing perspective. Bombers can be expensive (price perspective) and most players do not want to push around a bunch of bombers (playing perspective). However, for the Wake Island scenario booklet I am working on, several G3M Nell bombers, even in reduced numbers to enhance play balance, figure into several scenarios. Therefore a couple of years ago I dipped my toe into 1/600 by buying dozen Nells, eight Wildcats, and eight Buffaloes from Pico Armor (Oddzial Osmy). And for the last couple of years those 1/600 planes had been sitting idle. Recently I got them out of the gaming closet, cleaned up the castings by cutting off the extra metal bits, and primed them in preparation for painting. 

One thing about 1/600 miniature aircraft, whether they are from Pico Armor or Tumbling Dice, is that they are very affordable. Pico has Nells at $1.50 each, while their American fighters come in at seventy-five cents per miniature. Tumbling Dice are even more cost efficient at $1.00 for the Nells and fifty cents for the Wildcats and Buffaloes. The latter castings are not as detailed or as properly scaled as the offerings from Pico Armor, but the price point, before shipping from Old Blighty, is better, and Tumbling Dice has a more comprehensive offering of aircraft.

Image from Pico Armor website

Image from Tumbling Dice website

Wildcat, Nell, and Buffalo, primed and awaiting a paint order to arrive

As for painting - normally I send off my planes to Miscellaneous Miniatures or I-94 for painting. They both do fine work at an affordable price. But, as the planes I am working on for Wake Atoll are fairly simple in paint scheme, and I should be able to handle the chore of applying national insignia decals, I will be taking a stab at painting the Wake Atoll planes myself. I seem to do decently well with my 1/144 World War One projects, so tackling 1/600 should be workable. I foresee a couple of issues - one is the small nature of the planes which might be a fiddly aspect when trying to paint, and the other is applying a magnet that won't overwhelm the miniature to those tiny fuselage bottoms.

Once the paints have arrived, I will paint up the Americans first, just to see how the planes look in their early war scheme, and to see if I enjoy painting such a tiny scale. More to come!

Updates on the Wake Project

Art by Marc Stewart

I am slowly moving forward on gaming Wake. I have now worked up six scenarios that are a mix of historical and what-ifs that will need a little playtesting. All will feature the newly painted Wake Island Atoll piece that was made by Fight's On, but seemingly no longer available. The scenarios also feature a variety of aircraft types - for the Japanese one will see the Nell, Mavis, Zero, Kate, and Val, while the United States Marines have Wildcats and at least one scenario with Buffalos. I am also looking at a couple more possible scenarios to add in to the mix. Once the scenarios have been completed and playtested a bit I plan on putting together a pdf with the scenarios, plane data, a bit of a background, and a listing of manufacturers.

The full mat will look like this - one can barely discern the hexes

I have ordered a cloth sea mat from Deep Cut Studio, using their waterworld file. The mat should turn out well as their other products I have ordered are crackin' good and their service is stellar. Deep Cut is located in Lithuania I receive my mats within 7-10 days. The Fight's On piece should blend nicely with the mat.

The finished Fight's On Wake Atoll terrain piece

I still need to collect Japanese aircraft, which is a bit of an issue. Buying a dozen Nells does not thrill me, and one can add in a couple of Mavis flying boats to that cost, let alone the Kates, Vals, and Zeros, none of which I own. Luckily I have gaming buds that have the carrier-based planes needed, but when doing a project I do like to have all sides covered. I also need to send off my Table Top Flights Wildcats and Buffaloes to Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures for painting. While I do have Nells, Wildcats, and Buffaloes in 1/600 scale (Pico Armor), I think adding magnets to such small fuselages would be an exercise in patience, which I am in short supply when it comes to such chores. However, it would be an easier way (meaning cheaper) to put together all the aircraft needed. And while Pico Armor does not make the Mavis, Tumbling Dice does.

Burma!

Yesterday I hosted a Check Your 6! game at the local gaming store (if a 50 minute drive is considered local), using the Burmese Buffalo Hunt scenario found on the CY6 forum with a few minor changes. It was a fun challenge for both sides as the scenario takes place in the rain and fog and visibility is drastically reduced. Also, the Hurricanes of 17 Squadron have their long range fuel tanks still attached, severely impacting their speed and maneuverability.

Nine Nates faced off against three pairs of Allied aircraft - Hawk 81s of the American Volunteer Group's 1st Squadron, Buffalos of the British 67 Squadron, and the aforementioned Hurricanes. It was interesting to watch the player's morale ebb and flow with the game. After spotting the Buffaloes, and having a set of the three Nates drop down from above just a few hexes away from them, the Japanese players continued to place hits on the Brewsters, but the robustness of the Buffalo coupled with the two light machineguns of the Nates meant that the Buffalos were not going anywhere for some time. However, the tide began to turn a bit with one of the Buffalos taking damage and the other receiving a lucky hit, impacting its fuel. By this time the slow climbing and slow moving Hurricanes, along with the faster Hawks, made their way into the fry, but the Nates were able to react and drive off the Allies. If memory serves me correctly, one Nate was shot down and one damaged, with the Allies suffering the loss of a Buffalo, the other damaged, a Hurricane shot down, and a Hawk likewise. Several of the Nate ran out of ammo during the course of the game (I believe four in total, but it was still an overall Japanese victory. I probably should have balanced the players a bi more as the Japanese side all had experienced gamers, while the Allies had one experienced gamer, one who had played CY6 a few times, and one who had never played.

All the planes were painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

Mat - Hotz Mats

Planes - Raiden

Commission Work in Hand!

Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures reached out to me recently let me know that he was once again doing commission work, and of course I just happened to have planes sitting about waiting to be painted! I sent him two small Check Your 6! projects, those being Pearl Harbor and Burma. The Pearl Harbor scenario you can find on the Downloads page above, and the Burma planes will allow me to do a few scenarios from the Battles Above Pacific scenario book. Here are some pictures of Kevin's work (and these pictures do not do justice...the planes are so much cleaner looking in person).

Flying Tiger Project:

Pearl Harbor Project (my buddy Matt has the Japanese covered):

And the details on the undersides of two of the planes:

These two projects are now complete, short of adding magnets.

Kevin offers high quality paintjobs at affordable prices. The planes for these two projects were $5.00 each.

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

Rating the Finns

Brian DeWitt has created four very good scenario books for Check Your 6! In Battles Above 4 he has provided several scenarios that involve the Finnish Air Force, both for the Winter War and the Continuation War. As a gamer of the less mainstream, I plan on obtaining the planes to do many of these scenarios. As an historian, I also like to keep things as historically accurate as manageable, and with gaming at times complete historical accuracy can certainly be a hinderance. Many Check Your 6! scenarios are representations of much larger historical encounters, necessarily so because putting dozens and dozens of aircraft on the table bogs down the game. 

One area though that is bothering me somewhat are the Finnish pilot quality ratings. Remember, it is the man, not the machine (but really the machine has a large part to play). So how are the Finns able to rack up such amazing kill ratios flying aircraft like the Gladiator, Fokker DXXI, Buffalo, Hawk 75 (P-36), and other such second tier types that as the war progressed were inferior to their Russian opponents? Take for example Lentolaivue 24, perhaps the premier Finnish fighter unit. Claims were such that this unit might have had as high as a 25:1 kill to loss ratio. While Russian/Soviet sources have not been fully examined to compare actual reported losses, even if Lentolaivue 24 managed half that kill ratio, it is an amazing feat. So how is that replicated on the table top? Pilot quality.

But that is my dilemma - in looking at many of the Finnish scenarios in the book, they are often outnumbered, and even the difference in pilot skill between the two forces for any particular scenario does not seem to be great enough to recreate the historical record. To be honest, based on my readings (thus far just a couple of Osprey titles and perusing websites), I believe the Finnish ratings in Battles Above 4 to be too low, the Russians too comparable, or a combination of the two. I would even be, in some cases, tempted to give the Soviets a poor rating as found within the Korean War scenario book for Check Your 6! Jet Age (the dreaded -1 pilot). 

I have a few titles on their way, including what appears to be an amazing work, Finnish Aces: Their Planes and Units 1939-1945 by Kari Stenman and Karolina Holda. I plan to go through Lentolaivue 24 pilots as deeply as I can, accepting that this squadron's performance might have been the exception, but overall I believe that Finland's pilots were well trained, skillful, and far superior to most of their Soviet opponents. Mr. DeWitt mentions that he gives "green aircrew rating for aircrews that are not adequately trained or marginally trained new pilots that are in their first few engagements." I agree with that assessment, but not when it comes to Finland's pilot training and experience. More on this topic once I have a bit more source material.

A Little More on Wake

The Wake Island Check Your 6! project has been sitting around for a few years now. I went ahead and ordered Brewster Buffalos from Pico Armor to use in some hypothetical scenarios. A squadron of Marine Brewsters (VMF-221) were on the Saratoga and dispatched to reinforce the atoll. Things of course did not shake out that way, but could make for some fun games. Still need to ship them off for painting!

I will still need to purchase a sea mat with 1.5 inch hexes, which I think I will obtain from Deep Cut Studio. A friend ordered a desert mat from them recently, with hexes superimposed, and it looks rather nice. Deep Cut, although based in Lithuania, has great turnaround time to the U. S., and their custom work is nice (I had a custom sized mat made for Wings of Glory). 

Sample image from Deep Cut Studio website

Another addition was a Fight's On Wake Island terrain piece (Fight's On now owned by I-94 Enterprises). It should not take long to paint, but I want to wait until I receive my ocean mat so I can match the colors outside the atoll with the mat.

Update: Well, I got tired of making a decision to order the sea mat, and decided to paint the atoll. Needs a little touch up after first coats, but just about complete. The center of the lagoon should be lighter and with more of a turquoise color, but this works as a gaming piece. And I finally ordered the mat from Deep Cut!

I have also started to put together a few Wake scenarios, some historical, some historical but with some what-ifs thrown in. Might get a half dozen or so scenarios completed when all is said and done.