The VF-27 Scenarios

What follows is the aircraft mix needed for the seven scenario outlines I have cobbled together featuring the Hellcats of VF-27, calling this group of scenarios "The "Cat's Mouth" Killers of VF-27." Not a huge number or variety of planes are required, and these scenarios are ideal for 2-6 players (typically I run games with two planes per player). I will probably just order the requisite fighters as I do not need six Jills for just one game - seems to be a waste of money and waste of time to paint them. However the Judys are useful for other Hellcat scenarios from the Desperate Measures scenario book, so I might also add those to my next Flight Deck order - plus it is a different looking aircraft for a Japanese design.

Blog Slows

Just a little update - after a prolific 2025 my blog posts in 2026 have slowed to a crawl. I've had a few Civil War presentations and tours already this year which require some preparation time, including a trip to the Fort Donelson Symposium where I led a tour and did a talk, and then there is the dad issue. About a month ago he was hospitalized. After a week of clearing his lungs and controlling his blood pressure, he spent nearly three weeks in a rehab facility to work on strength. Now he has been in an independent living apartment for almost two weeks, and it has been a chore. Not only organizing the move and getting him settled, but his memory, almost overnight, has been severely impacted. The facility is beautiful - new, with plenty of excellent amenities, but dad seems to also find the negative in every aspect. And the incessant phone calls (called me over 60 times when I was in Tennessee, always wanting to go "home" even though he knows he can't due to his need for having others around) and worn me, and more importantly to me, my wife down to a frazzled edge. So I have not had the energy to paint, decal, or post, let alone to get a game or two in. There is the constant running to his house (45 minutes away) and then visiting him. By the time I get home, I'm done mentally for the day. Also, the weather has prevented me from priming many planes over the winter, but now the weather is improving I at least will be able to work on that task.

I do keep working on research, having created scenario outlines featuring the F6F Hellcat, including a few featuring VF-27 as I have the excellent Scale Specialties decal sheet which includes the distinctive cat face of the squadron. What I also like about VF-27 is the fairly late war use of the three color scheme before morphing into the overall glossy dark sea blue, and they were using both schemes the day the USS Princeton, their carrier, was sunk. The three color paint scheme is not so daunting to me, having worked on some early war Wildcats and Buffalos - same colors, with the addition of the band of dark blue to the upper surfaces.

To pull off the seven VF-27 scenarios I only need four Hellcats (more accurately it would be four -3 and four -5 models, but at 1/285 scale who is counting?), six A6M5s, four Oscars (I already have several later model Ki-43s), four Judys, and six Jills. Flight Deck does make all the planes needed (well, they offer just the -3 Hellcat, but at this scale...).

The P-66 Vanguard

What could have been a frontline fighter for Sweden turned into a castoff destined to see limited service in China - the Vultee P-66 Vanguard.

Designed in 1938, what would become the P-66 first flew just seven days after the German invasion of Poland. It was a part of a concept of a series of aircraft designed to perform different roles, but keeping the same wing and fuselage structure - fighter, combat role, basic trainer, and advanced trainer. The fighter was the Model 48C, and 144 of the fighter version were ordered by Sweden in early 1940, to be known as the V-48C in Swedish service. This model had a different engine that enhanced high altitude performance along with an armament layout of four .30 caliber machineguns in the wings and a pair of .50 caliber machineguns firing through the propeller arc. However, Sweden did not receive any of the V-48C due to exporting bans put in place by the United States.

Great Britain took possession of one hundred Vanguards to use as advanced trainers. However, after trialing the Vanguard, it was decided to send these aircraft to the Republic of China. They were to be used to form a third American Volunteer Group, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the forming of additional groups was scratched.

The Vanguards sent to China were assembled in India in late 1942. Twelve of the P-66s were assigned to the 74th Fighter Squadron (part of the 23rd Fighter Group), but were not involved in any significant actions while equipped with the P-66. However, two Chinese squadrons utilized the Vanguard, starting in August, 1943. These Chinese Vanguards were initially received in the standard United States Army Air Corps scheme of olive drab upper surfaces and neutral gray undersurfaces, but the olive drab was soon covered by Chinese olive green and given Chinese insignia. 

The Chinese P-66 was involved in at least two combats. The first, taking place on August 23, 1943, saw twenty-nine Chinese fighters (ten P-40s, eight P-43s, and eleven P-66s) scrambling to intercept a Japanese attack Chungking. The Japanese forces consisted of thirty-one Oscars and twenty-one Sallys. The bombers ranged in at 23,000 feet, but some the Chinese fighters (mostly the P-43 Lancers), having sufficient warning, had climbed above the Japanese formation and was able to attack the bombers with a height advantage. One Sally was shot down and several others were damaged, however the Chinese lost a pair of P-66s, one P-40, and one P-43, due to the Oscars' intervention.

On November 21, Enshi airfield was attacked, and three P-40s, one P-43, and four P-66s rose to defend the airfield. While one Japanese fighter was shot down and three others were listed as probables, three P-66 pilots were lost in this action.

I have cobbled together some speculative Check Your 6! ratings for the P-66:

There is one source, in 1/300 scale, for the Vanguard. PT Dockyard make a few obscure World War Two aircraft, including the Vanguard. They are cast in resin, and are a bit crude compared to today's standards, and need a lot of filing and sanding to get the surfaces smooth and even. But I believe that once painted they will serve the Chinese Air Force well.

The P-43 Lancer

One of the forgotten fighters of the Second World War is the Republic P-43 Lancer. A development of the Seversky P-35, and the predecessor to the well-known P-47 Thunderbolt, the Lancer carries a rather negative reputation, one that might be based on information that could be less than factual.

There is little available in written form on the Lancer. It has a few pages in the Squadron Signal Mini In Action, and it is a subject in the TopDrawings series by Kagero, coming in at a miniscule twenty pages. Yet the P-43 was built in larger numbers than many other World War II aircraft that have been detailed in several published works. The Lancer also saw combat over the skies of China - possessing a turbo-supercharger the Lancer could intercept high flying Japanese aircraft that the P-40 could not reach.

The first batch of pre-production P-43s were delivered to the Army Air Corps from September 1940 to April 1941. Although the plane exceeded USAAC performance goals, the goals, along with the YP-43, were already obsolete due to a lack of armor, lack of self-sealing fuel tanks, and not being as maneuverable as other aircraft. Due to delays in the P-47 development, the Lancer went into production, with the P-43A model having an improved engine and increased firepower with two .50 machineguns in the nose and one in each wing. Additional Lancers were ordered for China, and these aircraft did have pilot armor and self-sealing fuel tanks. This is proven by the issuance of part numbers for both by the USAAC. Therefore those Lancers sent to China, P-43A-1, offered slightly better protection than the P-43A model. One source that every P-43 skeptic should read is an article written by Rick Dunn. His detailed writing of the Lancer in Chinese service may convince the reader that the Lancer was not as bad as we think.

Performance of the A model sent for use with the American Volunteer Group showed that it was successful at high altitude and processed a high roll rate, while the radial engine was less susceptible to damage than the water-cooled inline engine found on the P-40, but that the fuel tanks in the wings leaked which caused fires to occur if the fuel came into contact with the turbo-supercharger that was located under the fuselage. The Japanese noted that the Lancer's wings could be easily punctured as well. 

The P-43A-1 saw service in China's 4th Air Group. As a mediocre airplane, it saw both success and failure. There are few combat accounts, and details are lacking, but I plan to create a couple of Check Your 6! scenarios based on what information I can scrounge. Flying alongside P-40s, opponents were the Ki-43 and Ki-44 fighters, along with mid-war Japanese bombers and recon aircraft.

The P-43 is available from Flight Deck Decals and as Chinese paint schemes were rather plain in appearance, a set of Chinese roundels along with airplane numbers is all that one needs. The Lancers were received in standard USAAC colors (olive drab 43 and neutral gray 41), but were soon painted in the Chinese olive green. I believe that the under surfaces retained the neutral gray. 

In game terms, the P-43 Lancer has already been rated by Tom Michael on the Check Your 6! discussion group. I've added a little information by including climb rates, as the Lancer had a comparable climb to the P-40B/C, significantly better than the F4F, and slightly better than its descendant, the P-47. I've increased the robustness on the A-1 model due to the pilot armor and self-sealing fuel tanks being added, although there is some debate on how effective those additions truly were. And I have added a aircrew check anytime the Lancer does maximum speed to see if it catches on fire.

There will be more on the Lancer project as I obtain planes and work up a couple of scenarios.

The Peregrine Falcon

We know the plane by its American callsign, "Oscar," but the Nakajima Ki-43, to the Japanese Empire, was called the Hayabusa, or Peregrine Falcon. It is one of the most common of Japanese aircraft, but the Mitsubishi A6M series is far better known, and more often used by Check Your 6! gamers. However, the Hayabusa racked up half of all Japanese fighter victories during World War II, seeing action across the empire.

Often mistakenly called "Zero" in Allied reports, the Japanese Army's first retractable gear fighter was manufactured from 1939 until 1945, in three main types. The Hayabusa was to be the replacement for the beloved Nakajima Ki-27 (later known to Allied forces as the Nate). The Ki-43 prototype was not favored by military test pilots, but design improvements led to a favorable response by the Japanese Army, albeit at the sacrifice of strength and protection. The Ki-43-I was initially armed with just two Type 89 7.7mm machineguns, progressed to one Type 89 and one Ho-103 12.7mm machinegun (the most common gun arrangement on the Ki-43-Ib), then completed its run with two Ho-103 machinegun (the Ho-103 was classified as a cannon by the Japanese as it used an explosive shell). Speed for the Hayabusa was just over 300 miles per hour.

In 1942 the Ki-43-II was introduced with such improvements as light armor for the pilot and a crude form of self-sealing fuel tanks. Other improvements included a reflector gunsight, a taller canopy, and a three-blade propeller. Equipped with a more powerful engine, performance was enhanced, but speed and the rather weak armament were still detriments to the Hayabusa's ability to cope with more powerful Allied aircraft.

In game terms we have the following:

In 1/285 and 1/300 scales we have a few quality choices for the Hayabusa. Flight Deck Decals offers both the Type I and Type II models, while Raiden has one Oscar available (from the pictures on their website it is difficult to determine which type). Table Top Flights also provides both a Type I and Type II model. There are other companies that produce the Hayabusa, but the three aforementioned are my preferred ranges.

One can obtain some double duty in purchasing the Hayabusa. Compiling the various scenarios that feature the American Volunteer Group, from both the core rulebook and Battles Above 3, and adding in the Dutch East Indies scenarios from Battles Above 3, one needs a dozen Oscars. 

This highly maneuverable and successful aircraft deserves a bit more attention from Check Your 6! gamers.

Table Top Flights 1/285th World War II