Swiss Pictures

A couple of weekends ago I hosted a pair of games featuring the Swiss defending their airspace. Both scenarios are based on historical events. While I am not able to piece together enough details to make an after action report, here are the pictures from both games.

In both games the tail gun from the German bombers was able to cause damage on an attacking fighter with a paltry 1 result on a single die. And in both games a fighter went out of control for several turns. I had not experienced that sort of strange commonality in games before. Also, you will notice some blue tokens - I have decided to use a rule in which a plane that climbs may only fire at same or higher TAL while one that dives may only fire at same or lower TAL. The tokens are from a Litko set, and I had them make just "climbed" and "dived" tokens.

I also used a different ratings for the various models of Messerschmitts. The E-1, E-3, and E-4 were all being used by the Germans at this time so I use a random roll to determine the model for each Bf 109. In both games the German player wound up with one E-1 and one E-4 model. 

The first game featured a Dornier Do 17 on a recon mission. Jumped by a pair of Swiss Me 109 DBs, and then a pair of German Bf 109Es come to the rescue.

A recon Dornier is not where he should be

And the Swiss react

The Swiss fighters were painted by Chris at I-94

Stung by a lone LMG, the Swiss player failed the robustness roll

The Dornier finally goes down

To the rescue, perhaps a tad too late

Hoobestank lyric "I'm going out of control" comes to mind - I think it was five or six turns of failing!

Passing Messerschmitts

Still out of control...maybe that player should stop plotting F1 moves UNTIL he recovers?

And as soon as he regains control, Emil is there to mop up!

The second game saw a pair of French Dewoitine 520s chasing after a crippled Heinkel. A pair of Swiss Me 109s are guarding their border, while a pair of German Messerschmitts arrive to even things up. Had the French player crossed the Swiss border, the Swiss fighters were free to engage. The French player wisely choose not to violate Swiss airspace.

Don't get too close!

The cavalry is on its way

I told you not to get too close!

A fighter furball

Out of control? Really?

Planes - Raiden

Stands and tokens - Litko

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

Collection Growing!

Ah, eBay, the evil shopping site that causes me to lose too much time in trying to source quality painted aircraft. Luckily, there is a gamer who mentioned on the Check Your 6! discussion group that he was selling off his collection, and so I have been able to score some interesting aircraft - none of which were needed mind you, but certainly desired!

First, a half dozen Heinkel He 111s, painted up for the Battle of Britain, and in this case are the old Falcon Miniatures castings. In actuality, since being able to pick up some other Battle of Britain aircraft from a gaming buddy (featured HERE), this purchase actually does fit! I can add two more scenarios from the various with the addition of these Heinkels, and admittedly I was able to win these for far less than I expected.

Picture from eBay listing

The paint work is very good but there are a few inconsistencies with the decals - German crosses are not all the same size, some are not on the undersides of the wings, and some are at a bit of an angle, but truly trivial points when it comes to the overall look.

And a picture upon arrival.

I hope to win more auctions from this seller as I am rather pleased with this first purchase, and it helps me to quickly add to my collection!

The Yugo Project

In a previous post I discussed the indigenous Yugoslavian fighter known as the Rogožarski IKZ or IK-3. I have finally gotten around to pulling the planes from their baggies, mounting magnets, and getting a coat of Vallejo primer on them. While I have ten of these Leading Edge IKZs, some of them are rather pitted and as the Yugoslavians started the war with only six operational IKZs I selected the six best to work with. The thin coat of primer filled in a few of the pits a bit, and I imagine that the pits will become even less noticeable once the main colors have been applied (after a second coat of primer).

With a coat of primer in place.

Paint scheme for the IKZ will be a three color camouflage on the upper surfaces and a factory gray green undersurfaces. My previous post gave some specific RAL and FS color codes, but in doing deeper research, some of those colors are difficult to source within the various hobby paint ranges. Also, there is much confusion on just what tones were used, the prime example being the undersurface color. I have seen light gray, light blue gray, and gray green on various models and illustrations. The Rogožarski factory used gray green, so light gray and light blue gray are not accurate. As I use Vallejo Model Air for most of my painting, I am going with the following:

Gray Green - 71.305 Interior Grey Green

Brown - 71.041 Tank Brown

Green - 71.092 Medium Olive

Yellow Ochre - 71.031 Middlestone 

I will be striving for this look

And now for a scenario - I was able to create a much scaled down version of the IKZs first action of the April 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia, and I believe I can create a two additional smaller scenarios of subsequent actions. The first scenario, entitled The Punishment Begins, can be located on the Downloads page. It features five IKZs facing off against Bf 109s, Ju 87s, and He 111s. While I have the IKZs and Messerschmitts, I will need to pick up the German bombers, something I am going to need in the long run anyway as I expand the collection into some early war actions.

I'll add the other pair of scenarios in the coming days.