Snipes on the Hunt After Action Report

At the Wright Flight monthly Wings of Glory gaming day I hosted the Snipes on the Hunt Polish-Soviet War scenario. Five players took part, and we used some modified rules (covered within the scenario found on the Downloads page above).

Using the random starting location generator from the Wings of Glory Aerodrome, the Poles, being on the defense, started in the center of the table, while the attacking Bolsheviks were two range sticks to the Poles' starboard. Within a few turns the planes engaged, with one Ansaldo taking some early damage. I had the Camel, and climbed to maximum altitude while the two Ansaldos became also separated in height. The players took a few turns to grasp the changes to the diving and firing rules, but worked both changes pretty well for the remainder of the game. The Soviet ace continued to lay down some heavy damage on the G Dog's Ansaldo, flown by an ace and representing Meriam C. Cooper's plane, he of later King Kong fame, continued to take a beating as his damage cards were of higher values in the A deck. Down went G Dog.

Down goes G Dog - note the heavy amount of damage inflicted

The other Ansaldo started taking damage, including the boom card (which we play at half damage rounded up) and limped off the board with just a point or two of damage remaining on the stricken aircraft. While  had a nice run at one at the Snipes, my altitude was too high for firing, so I decided that as the Soviets had two planes in excellent shape still on the board that it was time for some discretionary valor and headed for the safety of friendly lines.

All in all it was a short game, even with the modified altitudes for firing. The Ansaldos were given diving turn cards to enhance their historical performance, but the nimble Snipes were too much to overcome.

We laid out a second game in which I hosted and another player swapped in. The second game saw a much longer combat, with no planes shot down, but a couple forced off the table.

Starting locations for the second game

Planes: Table Top Flights Ansaldos, Ares Camel and Snipes

Mat - GripMats

Magnets - K and J Magnetics

Kościuszko Squadron - The Decals (and Planes) Are Complete!

It seems to take me a bit of time to complete hobby projects - probably why I like to either buy painted planes, or have others paint for me. It is not that I am lazy in this aspect - time gets in the way and at times frustration with a quality looking finished project prevent me from doing more. However, in this case, while these two planes took me months to finally complete (and they aren't...still need to varnish them), at least I can say I am mostly happy with how they turned out.

Some things that still bother me - the Polish insignia on the top wings should be larger, the numbers should not have white outlines, a few of the decals are slightly crooked, and the squadron markings do not stand out. The painting is decent, but not superb (the fuselage color needs to be a tad lighter I think). Some of these issues are what they are - based on what I could find for decals, I used what I could source. As for painting, I could keep fiddling with this or that, and still not be 100% satisfied. The crooked decals are not really that noticeable, and as far as the tree feet distance rule...they look good. So, DONE (well, other than the varnish).

This is what I was shooting for:

And this is what I came up with:

Planes - Table Top Flights

Decals - I-94 (national insignia), Miscellaneous Miniatures (numbers and squadron markings)

Kościuszko Squadron - Let the Decals Begin!

I have been combing the world wide webs for some appropriate decals for the Table Top Flights' Ansaldo A.1s I've painted to represent the Kościuszko Squadron. While the sizing of the some of the following are a tad off, they will make these planes really pop.

First I ordered from I-94 to obtain Polish national markings. These have been applied on top of the upper wing and the bottom of the lower wing. While they should be a bit larger, they are looking good. The I-94 decals are easy to work with as the decals are individual, not one large decal film that covers the entire sheet. I have yet to place smaller national insignias on the tail, but once I tackle that the national markers are complete.

Today arrived the numbers and the Kościuszko Squadron decals from Miscellaneous Miniatures. These come on one large decal film, so close trimming will be in order. The black numbers have a white outline, which is not accurate, but I could not find something I liked that were close to the correct size. Not a huge deal...the white on the numbers going on the wings will barely be noticeable due to both the thinness of the white outline and the light colored wing. Along the darker fuselage the white outline y might be a tad more noticeable, but I can live with that. Black numbers, 5mm in height, in six positions, will be the task.

The squadron markings go on each side of the fuselage, aft of the number. One of the smaller (but not smallest) sized decals will be used. Should fit nicely with the plane number.

I hope to have the planes fully decaled over the next few days, once once I do (and a coat of varnish has been applied) then the Snipes on the Hunt scenario will be ready to roll out at the local game store!

Kościuszko!

After a couple of months of not touching any of my Wings of Glory projects, I have been slowly working on a pair of Ansaldo A.1s for the Kościuszko Squadron. I believe I have them completed from a painting perspective - now I just need to order decals to mark the planes. They are not perfect, but looking pretty decent I think, and once the decals have been added and a final coat of sealer has been applied, they should look good on the tabletop. 

These are resin prints, from Table Top Flights. Good prices and service from Mike over at Table Top. Painted with Vallejo cork brown for the fuselages, and AK Interactive clear doped linen version2 for the wings and tail.

Oops, just noticed I forgot the radiator on the top wing, so I have now taken care of that task, and with a little more touchup around the radiator, the painting will be completed.

I've put together the framework of a scenario, pitting the two Ansaldos, along with a Camel, against two Soviet Sopwith Snipes. Balance should be decent - the Ansaldos are similar to the SPAD XIII, so think boom and zoom. The Snipes are speedy and maneuverable, but slightly balanced by the Camel. The scenario, called Snipes on the Hunt, is available on the Downloads page above.

The Polish-Soviet War

The blogging function on the Wings of War Aerodrome has been changed, not allowing for pictures to appear within the blog, and posting pictures upside down, so I will be blogging about my various Wings of Glory projects and gaming here!

Yeah, I need an intervention as I have plenty of projects to work on, but this one intrigues me. At one time I was going to do a 1792 Russian-Polish War project in 15mm, but alas the company that started making the figures never released more than a few packs, and the project withered on the vine. But as part of that project I read a bio on Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko and find the chap fascinating. Since I cannot game the 1792 affair, I CAN game the 1920 war, in which American and British pilots formed a squadron in honor of Kościuszko.

I have two books now on the Kościuszko Squadron. I have a pair of Table Top Flights Ansaldo A.1s to paint. I picked up a Sapozhnikov Sopwith Snipe. I made a trade with camelbeagle for a Polish Sopwith Camel repaint. I plan on getting one more Sapozhnikov Snipe to do a minor "repaint." Based on this I would say that this is enough!

The Ansaldo's are fast and good diving aircraft, and balanced with a Camel, these three Polish crates might be a nice mix against two Snipes. The Snipes utilize a fast and maneuverable deck, and Sapozhnikov should have an ace ability or two as he had four kills during World War One and two in the Russian Civil War. The Kościuszko Squadron pilots should have at least single ace ability as well - they are referenced to being well trained several times in the book Kościuszko, We Are Here!: American Pilots of the Kosciuszko Squadron in Defense of Poland, 1919-1921. This just might turn out to be a balanced three on two game, and a five or six player game is about all I like to manage on the table top!

UPDATE:

While not a lot has happened on this front in terms of getting aircraft painted, I was able to grab a Sopwith Camel repaint that camelbeagle picked up I believe from an eBay purchase (if the Camel in the picture was painted by one of the members of this forum, please let me know!). I know of at least one Camel in the Kościuszko Squadron that was brought in by one of the British members of the unit, however the artwork I have seen has the squadron insignia closer towards the tail, and does not show a red cowling...but as this plane has a spiffy paintjob already on it, I am leaving it alone!

For the pair of Soviet Snipes, I will most likely leave one as is and paint some sort of distinguishing feature on the other...perhaps adding red to the cowling and/or adding a red section to the upper wing.

I have slapped a little paint (Vallejo cork brown on the fuselages) on the Table Top Flights Ansaldos (like weeks and weeks ago). The focus now will be to complete these two aircraft and then create a scenario using all five aircraft.