And More New Toys

As part of my new Spanish Civil War project, I ordered small batches of a few needed planes from both Flight Deck Decals and Table Top Flights. From Flight Deck came three I-15s, three Arado Ar 68s, three I-16 Type 10s, and mistakenly (because I might have been ordering while I was at work), one Tupolev Tu-2, which has nothing to do with the Iberian Peninsula! I had to double check my order for the Arado, thinking maybe I pulled another bone-head move and ordered the 1/200 scale as that plane is a beast compared to the diminutive Soviet fighters - no, the Arado is simply a beast! 

I-15

I-16 Type 10

Arado Ar 68

From Table Top I sourced three I-16 Type 5s, three Nieuport NiD-52s, three Breguet XIXs, and six Heinkel He 51s, the latter being my initial prime focus for the Legion Condor scenarios I am working up (and four appear on the Downloads page).

Breguet XIX

NiD-52

The Type 5 I-16

Heinkel!

The North American A-36

Those Operation Torch styles roundels are pretty cool...

No, not the Apache, not the Invader, not the Screaming Helldiver - the North American A-36 Mustang. Contrary to common parlance, the official name of the A-36 was the Mustang, North American Aviation's dive bomber version of the P-51. It was North American Aviation that called the A-36 the Apache, while in the 27th Fighter Bomber Group it was known as the Invader. To add even more confusion, much like "fork-tailed devil" and "whistling death," allegedly the Axis called it the Screaming Helldiver - not certain if I buy that story even if historical accounts indicate that it made a louder screeching noise than the Junkers 87 Stuka.

Michael T. Russo

Much like the early P-51 Mustangs, the A-36, using the Allison V-1710 engine, delivered poor performance at higher altitudes, but at the altitudes that dive bombers would start their run (typically 12,000 feet or less) the Allison performed well. The top speed of the A-36 was 365 miles per hour, while in a nearly vertical dive it needed air brakes to limit the dive speed to 390 mph, otherwise speeds would become excessive and lead to the A-36 not being able to pull out of their run. Carrying up to 1,000 pounds of bombs with six .50 caliber Browning M2A2 machineguns, the A-36 packed a decent punch. The gun arrangement was unique - four guns in the wings, and two under the engine firing through the propeller. And when the A-36 was not carrying bombs, it could hold its own against enemy fighter aircraft - eighty-four kills were claimed against Axis aircraft. And the 27th FBG even produced an A-36 ace - Michael T. Russo, who shot down a variety of aircraft (including Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, and even a Junkers Ju 52). Russo is called by many the first Mustang ace.

I have been able to cobble together about a dozen scenarios that mostly feature engagements in the Mediterranean, but also one action in the China-Burma-India theater. I will get a few of those into Check Your 6! format and post them in the future.

Ratings - With the Allison engine and issues with the single stage supercharger at higher altitudes, here is my take on the P-51A and the A-36 for CY6!:

Miniatures - Flight Deck Decals and Table Top Flights make the A-36 while Raiden has a P-51A which would work as a good proxy especially if the casting has the fuselage guns (most P-51As had only the wing guns). For some excellent decals that cover the A-36 specifically, check out Scale Specialties available from I-94. There is a sheet that covers early P-51s and A-36s in North Africa.

...but the red outlined star and bars add some color.

Paint schemes for North Africa and the Mediterranean are simple (and I like simple for my own painting) - Olive Drab 41 upper surfaces over Neutral Gray 43 undersides. The propeller hub was usually painted red with yellow identification stripes on the wings (and included in the decal sheet mentioned above). National insignia could be the white star on blue circle with yellow surround (Operation Torch style) or the 1943 star and bars with red outline - later the blue outlined star and bars would be used. Add in some yellow aircraft numbers and tail codes usually found in white and you have a fairly utilitarian scheme, but one with some color with the nose and national insignia outlines.

There are a few books on the A-36, but one that I would recommend for a deep dive (pun intended) is Straight Down! - The North American A-36 Dive-Bomber in Action, written by Peter C. Smith in 2000. While out of print, and on the pricey side on the aftermarket sites, it details the development and use of the A-36. Most other titles on the A-36 include sections dedicated to modeling, which I do not find useful.

Caudron-Renault CR.714

Let's just get this out of the way first - while it looks kinda ugly cool, it's a pig. Unlike several other French fighters that could hold their own against the Bf 109E, the Caudron-Renault CR.714 Cyclone was a fairly unsuccessful effort to take French racing plane designs and militarize them, with wooden construction. As a light fighter it was supposed to supplement the lack of fighter aircraft in the French stable without having a negative impact on French fighter plane production. One might think that a "light fighter" design would result in a speedy and maneuverable aircraft, but with a top speed of just 290 miles per hour (keeping in mind that the aforementioned Messerschmitt had a top speed of 355 miles per hour), the 500 horsepower Renault engine just could not deliver. Surely being a light fighter then would at least yield a superior climb rate? Alas, no, as the Caudron could only manage twenty-three feet per second, with the German fighter coming in eleven feet per second higher. Okay, then it has to be more maneuverable and more agile, yes? No. Based on the Bf 109's rating in Check Your 6! the Caudron would use the C turn chart, with an agility of just +1. And let's not talk about robustness - without any self sealing fuel tanks, pilot armor, or even a radial engine, it warrants an R0 rating. Sign me up!

The CR.714 was first delivered to French squadrons in January 1940. However, it was such a shite plane that it was withdrawn from service - the following month! And the Finns, those crafty Finns who could make a fight with just about any plane discarded in their direction, said ei when it came to the wooden fighter (winter conditions and wooden plane - not a great combination). Ah, just who is deserving of this failure of a plane - I know, let's give it to the Poles, they won't know any better! And to the Poles it went.

Groupe de Chasse polonais I/145, the Polish Warsaw Squadron, received thirty-five Cyclones in mid-May, 1940. But even the Poles were leery of such an airframe, and one week after delivery and many complaints, the French Minister of War said pas plus and ordered the Caudron withdrawn from service. But the Poles, desperate to fight the Huns, and not having any other aircraft available to them, ignored the withdrawal order and used the Cyclones fairly effectively over a four day span in June. A dozen confirmed kills against Bf 109s, Bf 110s, and Dornier Do 17s were recorded, along with three additional unconfirmed claims. In return the Poles lost nine Caudrons in the air and an equal number on the ground. Hmmm, maybe it IS the man and not the machine....

Oh Bernhard, I need this in 1/285, pretty please!

Of course, those who know me also know that I like the obscure, and as long as I have some wonderfully painted (heaven no, not be me) Germans of the types mentioned, why not get a few Caudrons to recreate those scenarios. Wait, does anyone even make this pig in miniature? Why yes, yes they do - my friends at Flight Deck Decals and Table Top Flights both offer the Cyclone as a 3D print. Hmmm, decals, that will be my roadblock. A quick check at my favorite resources yielded a sheet of decals for the Caudron, for the Groupe de Chasse polonais I/145, over at Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals! This MUST be fate!

Check out the YouTube video made about this plane over at Showtime112's channel and keep an eye open for a few upcoming scenarios. Now, don't tell my wife but I am going to go order some shite planes! Oh, and then decals. And darn it, I have NO French paint colors! Oh, and I need a book on this plane (there happens to be one in the Polish Wings series - and now ordered!).

Prepping for the Condor Legion Scenarios

Moving into the realm of buying aircraft for the Spanish Civil War...

While the scenario list I have created includes a huge number of aircraft, I am not looking to go into yet another massive project. To that end, I have placed a couple of orders, more like sample orders, to review some of the cool aircraft that can be found in the Spanish Civil War.

From Dan at Flight Deck Decals I have on order three Arado Ar 68s, three Polikarpov I-15s, and three Polikarpov I-16 Type 10s. I forgot to order Tupolev SB-2s but will do so in the near future.

From Mike at Table Top Flights I have ordered three Polikarpov I-16 Type 5s, three Nieuport NiD-52s, three Breguet XIXs, and six Heinkel He 51s. These fill in the gaps that Flight Deck does not cover. 

My focus will most likely be on scenarios that feature the Heinkel – I just find it to be neat plane even though it was not a great performing one.

Once these arrive I will write a post to review the miniatures and include pictures.

Yakkety Yak After Action

A pair of Yak-7s, nicely painted by Misc. Minis

Yesterday for the Check Your 6! Southwestern Ohio group I ran a strictly hypothetical encounter, which featured the Yak-7 vs. the Heinkel He 100 (and found on the Downloads page and entitled Yakkety Yak). 

The scenario calls for five players, but since this encounter is a figment of my imagination, one could remove two of the Yak-7s, or add a pair of Heinkels, just to have a little fun or to adjust to the number of available players (we usually give a pair of planes to each player).

It is a bit of a bounce on bounce scenario, with four Heinkels closing on a pair of Yaks. A few random turns later four Yaks drop down from the clouds practically on top of the Germans.

The first game's initial setup

We ran the scenario twice as the first game was a rather short affair. The aircrew quality really showed through, but also the poor robustness rolls led to the destruction of three Yaks within the first handful of turns. So we changed the aircrew qualities with random die rolls, which yielded a result of all crews being skilled. This, on top of the Soviet "rabbits" changing tactics in the second game from running to turning into his foe, made for a heck of a game. The German players really danced about the board, and they had to due to being outnumbered 3:2. One turn saw the Yaks clustered together, and I thought the Germans would have a tough time the next turn. I took my pair of Heinkels and dover through and below the reversing Soviets, which also brought the other pair of Heinkels into a pair of perfect firing solutions. Our dice were fairly meh, but it did scatter the Yaks, and caused some damage. After seventeen turns, with one Yak shot down and another suffering an airframe damage (and one other running out of ammo) we called the game. No damages to the Heinkels resulted in a German victory.

The "rabbits" - my pair of Heinkels, have dove through the Yaks...

...setting up a pair of nice opportunities for the remaining Heinkels

And then the dance really begins with a decent amount of separation

Jamie obtains another great firing solution, but Mr. Robusto (Matt) makes his rolls

I tweaked the aircrew ratings a bit and have uploaded the revised version of Yakkety Yak. It was a fun game (both games for me - I had three kills in the abbreviated first game).

Yak-7s - Raiden Miniatures painted by Misc Minis.

He 100s - Table Top Flights painted by me, decals are Scale Specialties.

Mat - Deep Cut Studio.

1948 Arab-Israeli Scenarios

The First (1948-49) Arab-Israeli War saw a fair amount of activity in the skies over the Middle East. Rob Wubbenhorst created a set of six scenarios for Check Your 6! that appeared in Wargames Illustrated (#310) and a pdf download on the WI website. In collecting books, reading same, and doing some research of my own, I have taken Rob's "original six" (hockey reference) and have expanded the number of scenarios to twenty-three, which does include one hypothetical scenario. The 1948-49 War is ideal for smaller games when one has a few players available, and features a wide range of aircraft types (American, British, Czech, and Italian) and nationalities - Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Great Britain. I hope one day to work up a 1948-49 scenario book, but in the meantime I have re-purchased the planes necessary to game twenty-one of these scenarios, replacing the metal castings with the crisp 3D prints from Flight Deck Decals and Table Top Flights (see HERE). Like the metal planes, which are mostly Raiden, the 3D prints will be painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

On the chart that follows, Rob's scenarios are named in black, the ones I have added are titled in green. In the chart itself appears red numbers for Egyptian Spitfires which means I do not have the data to indicate if the Spitfires used for those particular scenarios were Mark LF.IXc or Mark Vc (most likely the latter). I hope with the future release of a series of books from Helion & Company more information will come to light. 

I look forward to getting these scenarios fleshed out and play tested.

Heinkel Completion

Ready for the table, my hack job on the never used in combat but a really damn cool plane: the Heinkel He 100D!

A schwarm of Table Top Flights Heinkels are painted and decals applied. I am happy with the end result for the most part - the color choices worked well for the schwarzgrun and the hellblau, but the Vallejo dunkelgrun seems a bit off (the planes are slightly less dark in person). The Army Painter Satin sheen is a bit much, so I will hit the planes with some matt varnish. The decals are all Scale Specialties, sourced from I-94, and intended for early war Bf 109s, but they did the trick rather well on the Heinkels, although adding the swastika on the tail was a pain in the arse as there as not a lot of room to work with.

I have two additional Heinkels that are nearly completed, but one has a bent wing to straighten out, while the other has a less than smooth engine cover from the original print. But all they need is to have the badge insignia added, a bit of decal softener, then a coat of varnish, and then my Heinkel He 100 project is complete. Oh wait, I need opposing aircraft as well! UPDATE (11/4/25) - I completed the last pair of Heinkels - the wife's hairdryer did the trick on the warped wing.

I now have created two scenarios to use with the Heinkels, the latest being "Propaganda Jager" which can now be found on the Downloads page that features some French planes my gaming buddy Matt has. Look for some after action reports in the future.

Wings of Glory Resources

As I move away from using Wings of Glory for my Great War in the Air gaming (and in its place using Check Your 6! Great War), I deleted the page in which I listed a slew of Wings of Glory resources. So as to not lose these resources, but also to free up some page space, I am listing the resources as a blog post.

Facebook - billed as the "Official Wings of Glory" group.

Flight Deck Decals - 1/300th scale decals and now 1/144 aircraft.

I-94 Enterprises - High quality 1/144th and 1/300th scale decals and excellent service.

Litko Aerosystems - Ammo, jammed, smoke, fire, and other types of tokens to enhance your game.

Mako Models International - carries the Mark I 1/144th scale decals (eBay).

Miscellaneous Miniatures - 1/144th and 1/300th scale decals with great service.

Pro Painted Studios - modified range sticks that I use with my adjusted firing rules.

Rival Sky Games - officially approved Ares bases and fine service.

Table Top Flights - 1/144th scale aircraft of fantastic quality.

Transparent Vinyl Tape - for marking pegs.

Wings of Glory Aerodrome - Become a member...this is the place that is keeping the game alive.

Encounter Over the Baltic

This cool looking Swedish design, the FFVS J 22, first flew in September, 1942 and was introduced in October the following year.

So, how many Check Your 6! gamers have the FFVS J 22 in their collections? I am guessing not many, mostly because it was a design created by a neutral country and not used in combat. But should that stop us from fielding a few of these diminutive fighters for some what-if encounters? Of course not!

I have a 1950s Jet Age scenario that features East Germans vs. Swedes, a completely hypothetical engagement, and it would not be much of a stretch to go back a decade or so and do something similar against a World War II backdrop. Why? Because I want to be able to use the sweet looking Swedish FFVS J 22, a radial engine fighter that, when flying mock combat against the P-51, could hold its own under 13,000 feet. The J 22 was available by late fall 1943, so German opponents (from a fighter perspective) could be the Messerschmitt Me 109G and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A models. Now, I have not really delved into having very many German aircraft in my collection, but creating another what-if scenario might push me to obtain some mid to late war German fighters, which of course would find more historical uses.

Ratings for the J 22 might look something like this (very speculative and I am open to opinions to flesh out the stats):

Image from Table Top Flights

Okay, as stats are sort of worked out, where can one find the J 22 in miniature? Look no further than the detailed 3D prints offered by Table Top Flights. The J 22 is also offered in metal by Heroics & Ros, but the quality of the present-day 3D prints leaves the venerable H&R line in the dust.

Now, to create a scenario! Oh wait, I just did. Check it out on the Downloads page, called Encounter Over the Baltic.

The What If War

Yep, I have a hankering! 

In 1937 Europe was unsettled, to say the least. The rise of Germany was on the near horizon and it was unknown to the other European powers what Germany's impact would be on future events. Austria was still "free" although the Austrian socialists were making strides towards controlling the country (with a little shove called German annexation in March 1938). There were some rumblings of the Germans and Czechs having a bit of a "have at you" as well. Using this unsettled setting as a background, I wanted to create a biplane encounter, using some planes not often seen on the tabletop, and appearing in eye appealing schemes. 

The setting is late 1937 with the Austrians causing some angst among the Czechs by repeated violations of Czechoslovakian air space by the CR.32s of the Austrian Luftstreitkräfte. The Czechs have been hesitant to do more than protest as they have concerns of a larger conflict that would see Germany supporting Austria. However, on a beautiful fall day over the Vltava River the Czechs had had enough and scrambled fighters to intercept the latest Austrian incursion.

Austria - The Austrians had as their main fighter the Fiat CR.32. I just love the Austrian roundel over top a gray or natural metal scheme and have been looking for an excuse to buy a sheet of Austrian decals (which might wind up on some Tunnans as well). As Table Top Flights make the CR.32 in 1/285, grabbing a flight (or two) of these will be a no-brainer. However, does anyone know what constituted an Austrian flight?

Czechoslovakia - And now I can get some double duty from my Slovak-Hungarian War Avia B-534s! Or, it gives me an excuse to order more! I am asking Flight Deck Decals to scale some of these for me in 1/285. I know the Czechs used three-plane formations, so three flights of these will do nicely, thank you very much.

Germany - Okay, I should use an early model of the Bf 109, but I miss the Heinkel He 51s I used to have for the Spanish Civil War (traded them years ago) and want more! And I really like the above scheme, the medium blue speaks to my Bavarian roots. Like the Czechs, the Germans were using three-plane formations, so as a support to the Austrians, I might just grab three of the Heinkels. Again, I am having Flight Deck scale these to 1/285.

The good news is that all three antagonists have paint schemes that I should be able to pull off myself.

I have created a scenario (well, you KNOW I was going to) in which the aggressor (the Austrians) intentionally violate Czech airspace to embarrass the Czechs, with the Czechs unexpectedly responding in force, and with the Germans coming to the Austrians rescue. Check the Downloads page for the Violence over the Vltava scenario.

Melee Over the Mausoleum

I have added another scenario to the Downloads page, this one dealing with an event that took place on this date, eighty-eight years ago, during the Sino-Japanese War. The scenario (entitled Melee Over the Mausoleum) is a scaled down version of the historical event, and features such interesting Japanese aircraft as the A5M fighter (later known to the Allies as Claude) and D1A dive bomber (Susie), facing off against Chinese piloted and U. S. supplied Model 68 Hawk IIIs and Boeing Model 281s (the export version of the P-26 Peashooter). The historical event also had several E8N floatplanes (Dave) and a pair of CR.32s, but as I cannot source the floatplanes from my favorite retailers (Flight Deck Decals or Table Top Flights) I have not included them in the scenario. I may, in the future, utilize some proxy floatplanes, like Petes, that will perform double duty.

Because of the slowness of the pre-World War II aircraft, I have changed the speed bands to make a more playable scenario. To that end, here are the ratings:

Afternoon Delight After Action Report

I hosted one of my scenarios from my Slovak-Hungarian booklet (not yet ready for much public consumption) at the local store, and suckered...er, convinced four members of the Check Your 6! Southwestern Ohio Group to play. The scenario was Afternoon Delight, which is a representation of the largest air battle of this small conflict.

The Slovak starting positions...

...and the Hungarian initial starting alignment.

Setup saw the Slovaks (three Letov S.328s escorted by three Avia B.534s) moving in from the southwest as they were on a mission to bomb targets along the Hungarian advance (aircrew quality was one skilled and two poor for the fighters, with three green for the bombers). To oppose them were six Fiat CR.32s with two skilled and four green aircrew. Both sides had to plot forward moves until a spotting check was made, and all aircraft were pretty much spotted by Turn Three. The escort Avias, pulling away from the slower bombers, made an impressive turn to take on the the flight of Avias that were heading directly for the Slovak bombers, but was unfortunately too high to do any damage. Meanwhile the other flight of Fiats now had a good angle on the Avias, but they in turn were too high. 

The Avia flight turns into the Fiats tasked for the bombers...

...but that Fiat flight stayed focused on the Letovs...

...and one split s later placed themselves in a great position, while the other Fiat flight starts to engage the Avias

Some dancing about lead to the second flight of Fiats placing rounds on the Avias, but as many '4' results were appearing on the dice, damage was limited. This was a theme for the Hungarian players - a decent amount of hits, but many '4' were being thrown, and hence, thrown out for damage.

The remaining Letovs stay on target

Things started heating up quickly, with some beautiful formation flying. The Slovaks started taking damage and based on some great positioning by the Hungarian fighters I thought this scenario was going to be over, and soon. However, the small caliber and number of guns on the Fiats meant that the Slovak planes might take hits, but were not being blown out of the sky. The bombers, less one from their flight, kept heading for the target hexes. The flight of Fiats that first encountered the bombers reversed course and stayed on the tails of the Letovs, and another Slovak bomber went down. But then the dice went cold. Even with some incredibly easy to hit numbers, the dice were unkind, and three Fiats chasing the bombers could not finish the job.

One Slovak bomber closed in to the target area, diving a couple of turns to grab the extra hex. But just as the Letov was over one of the targets, the Hungarian antiaircraft scored a full hit - five six sided dice of damage was inbound. However, Mr. Robusto (my friend Matt) fended off the strike and then placed his light bombload squarely on target, giving the Slovaks a much needed four victory points. The game was running closer.

Down to one bomber, the Fiats could not buy a hit

One Avia fighter, with the skilled (+1) aircrew, took a lucky hit and went out of control as a result. For several turns this pilot could not pass an aircrew check, and the Avia kept losing altitude. One of the Hungarian fighters pulled a Split S, winding up in the out of control aircraft's hex and at the same altitude, and both pilots failed their checks. Collision! The result was the Hungarian Fiat fell from the sky, while the Avia still hung on.

Out of control!

The balance had swung. While the Hungarians might have been able to nail another Slovak fighter or two, the remaining bomber was moving safely towards a friendly edge, and the out of control Avia finally regained a semblance of order, and was also pointed towards a safe edge. At this point we decided to call the game.

This is not the first game I have hosted in which a side looked destined for destruction, only to flip the script and pull out a victory. The dice, had then been average in nature, most likely would have seen the third Slovak bomber shot down, but it did not happen and the Slovaks could pull out a slight victory.

Returning home I pulled out some resource material and I am updating a couple of items by increasing the Slovak crew quality a bit, and giving the Letov a +1 agility.

Thanks to the group for playing!

Planes - Flight Deck Decals Avias, Table Top Flights CR.32s, and H&R Letovs, all painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

Mat - Deep Cut Studio.

Heinkel He 100 - Part II

Some months ago I posted a bit about the Heinkel He 100, including some rough stats for Check Your 6! You can see that post HERE. Also, I have created a scenario, titled The Factory Defense Unit, which utilizes the He 100, that can be found on the Downloads page. 

A beautiful replica at the Planes of Fame Museum

I finally pulled out some planes that needed a coat of primer, including the Heinkels. The details on the Table Top Flights planes really pop once primer has been applied (in this case I used Tamiya Fine Surface Light Gray). 

With primer in place...

...and with a thin coat of Vallejo Air Schwarzgrün.

I need to do a bit of cleanup of a few nubs on the planes before adding more coats of paint. I have found that I like using the Vallejo Air series - while the Air line is intended for airbrushes, I have found that using this thinner paint with a brush works well and avoids some of the issues of a thicker acrylics, if one does not mind doing a few coats. 

Above we have a second coat of Schwarzgrün applied, and a couple of relatively sloppy coats of Hellblau applied to the undersurfaces. A third coat of Schwarzgrün will be added and at that time I will clean up the delineation between the upper and lower surfaces.

Now the third coat has been applied to the upper surfaces, and ready for the RLM71 Dunkelgrün splinter pattern after some touchup.

I am not enamored with the Vallejo Dunkelgrün from a color perspective - it is barely discernable and the color seems "off" a bit. My splinter pattern is fairly random and probably not very historical in appearance, but as one needs to look closely to even notice, I am not overly concerned. I have painted the exhaust pipes in natural steel, and have added a bit more touchup to the undersurfaces, while adding in my typical light blue canopy (Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue Shade 73C).

Next step is to order decals. I do want to obtain white numbers along with some sort of squadron insignia. I might go full on hypothetical by using some Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals from their Dockfighters range. 

New Toys Ordered Part II - Luft1946

A Focke-Wulf Projekt II shoots down a Yak-15

I have gone on a recent spate of ordering new planes. Some are to be used for future projects, others for expanding existing projects, while others will be to replace existing metal planes with higher quality 3D prints and more accurate paint schemes.

A strictly hypothetical project (see posts HERE for more information on this project), but one that should be fun to work on. The Yaks will be an easy paint (either silver overall as depicted above or the typical Soviet green over light blue scheme), and I might send the Germans off for commission work since painting camouflage scares me!

Table Top Yak-15, Flight Deck Yak-15, Flight Deck Focke-Wulf Projekt II

Flight Deck Decals

Focke-Wulf Projekt II - 2

Yakovlev Yak-15 "Feather" - 4 (adding to the two I have already from Table Top Flights, and THEN forgot I had already ordered four from Flight Deck!)

Table Top Flights

Focke-Wulf Project II - 2 (to compare to the Flight Deck version)

Focke-Wolf Ta-183 Huckebein - 2 (I have a pair of these already, but the tail is slightly askew so am checking to see if another pair will be a bit "better")

The New Gaming Mat

I have to say from the start, I am highly disappointed in Deep Cut Studio's service - they had spoiled me so much with my first three mats all arriving within a week to a week and a half that I expect ALL custom mat orders made in Lithuania should arrive in the United States in the same timeframe. For this most recent order the company, and how dare they, decided to take SEVENTEEN DAYS to make and ship my latest addition to the mat collection. Cheeky bastards! 😜

Of course the proceeding is written completely in jest, although they have spoiled me with my previous orders with their fast turnaround time! The mat was well worth the wait! Let's show some pictures, shall we?

The SPAD, at TAL 4 and Speed 5, gets a deflection shot against a Fokker D.VII which is at TAL 3 and Speed 4

What I received was a beautiful aerial fields mat (with the clouds option) with 1.75 inch hexes to use with both my existing Check Your 6! and Check Your 6! Jet Age collections, while also serving as the playing surface for my Check Your 6! Great War 1/200 scale projects (more about the hex size determination HERE and the planes HERE and HERE). I went with the cloth option as it looked to me like the best fit for World War One gaming in the skies over France and Belgium, plus the cloth mats are lighter, easier to store, and cheaper to ship than the PVC or mousepad versions.

A different attack angle. Planes by Table Top Flights, bases and pegs are 3D prints from a friend

As you can see, the color is rich and the hexes are noticeable without being too intrusive. One can have hexes added to the mat in a wide variety of sizes, colors and thicknesses. 

I probably could have went with a thinner and slightly lighter color of hex lines, but I am pleased with this look

All joking aside, I am highly pleased, once again, by the service and quality offered by Deep Cut Studio. If you are hesitating to order from them based on their Lithuanian location, don't - I have had a great experience every time I have ordered from Deep Cut, and I am fairly certain you will as well.