Colorful Skies

My Table Top Flights Bavarian blue Fokker Dr.I and the Ares Kempf

Recently I had the chance to play in a Colorful Skies game at the monthly Wright Flight session. Colorful Skies is a set of rules modifications for Check Your 6! for the Great War and are included in the similarly named series of scenario books, all available from I-94. While I will not give much of an after action report, I do want to mention some basing solutions created by a friend that easily allows the use of Ares Wings of Glory planes for the Check Your 6! setting.

The alternating colored pegs in place - here the Dr.Is are at TAL 6, speed 3

I had a pair of Fokker Dr.Is, fairly maneuverable in Colorful Skies but tempered with a low robustness. Across from me were a pair of Camels, similar in maneuverability, but more robust. There were also a pair of Snipes matched against two Fokker D.VIIs.

The Camels Are Coming - here they are at TAL 4, Speed 4

I was able to avoid being shot at as I closed on the Camels by climbing out of gunnery range, but then came in behind the Camels by executing a Split S. Alas, my to hit rolls were too low and the Camels escaped to engage the D.VIIs. I was able to close in, after a D.VII and a Snipe had been shot down, and the remaining D.VII had run out of ammo. I was able to close in on a Snipe for a kill while my other Dr.I, having received both an engine hit and a lucky hit that reduced its speed to 1, dove out of the fray. At that point we called the game.

Come back and fight!

The bases are 3D printed. In this case they are two inches across to adjust for the 1/144 scale planes. The first bottom TAL is represented by the post that is part of the base, then printed pegs, in alternating blue and white, denote the rest of the TALs. A dice is used to indicate both speed and CAB. The pegs worked well, fairly tight and printed to accept the post on the bottom of the Wings of Glory planes. The alternating peg colors were ideal for easy TAL identification. My friend has also made bases with slots to hold colored pieces to denote different aircraft, much like the Check Your 6! official bases use a red, blue, white, black, yellow, or green indicator.

Moving in for the kill, while the Camel missed my Fokker.

Truly the only issue I had is when I climbed to a higher CAB to TAL 1. Changing the red dice to a white one to represent the higher CAB, as I was at TAL 1 I only had one peg on my stand, and my miniature was actually much lower on the playing surface then the Camel that was in the lower CAB. Other than that minor quibble, the bases worked very well! 

I am working with Mike at Table Top Flights to order some 1/200 scale World War One aircraft that has a post that still fits the Wings of Glory pegs. He is hopeful this will work. If so, I look to start a 1/200 project, possibly using a 1.75" hex base and having a custom mat in the same hex size. That is a good compromise between the official Check Your 6! gaming surface and adjusting for the size of the planes.

Wright Flight AAR

We had three tables a-rolling for the last Wright Flight gathering, with about four players per table. The other two featured balloon busting, while my table went for Albatros D.IIIs fighting Lafayette Escadrille N.17s during Bloody April. 

Both N.17s had A guns, and with their superior maneuverability I thought they would have a hand up over the Germans, but the two Frommherz D.IIIs did some incredible damage. I was able, early in the game, to make a head on with camelbeagle, which resulted in four points of damage on my end. But I was able get a good reversement onto the tail of camelbeagle's Nieuport, and lit him up a bit. Then I was able to turn into the other N.17 and hit him with a +1 shot, and he drew the boom card (we play the boom card as half damage rounded down, so seven points on the N.17). While both American pilots were able to get off the board without being shot down, they both suffered 10 points of damage each.

Alas, I only snapped a couple of pictures.

We played a second game, swapping out an N.17 for a French Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter with a random recon mission and random board edge exit point. After successfully taking photos, camelbeagle was heading for home. I lined him up nicely, did some damage, but in return took a pilot wound, which kept me from following up on the Strutter. Dan was able to get off the board while I had taken enough damage to exit as well. The other two players danced around a bit, but results were fairly inconclusive.

 

Part I - Bringing The Lafayette Escadrille to Life

N.1844 with some bad decal placement. This will be the miniature used for a repaint.

I own three of the Wings of War Lafayette Escadrille Nieuport 17s - two marked with three red stripes on the fuselage side, and one with a "T" on the fuselage. According to Jon Guttman's SPA124 Lafayette Escadrille - American Volunteer Airmen in World War 1 (Osprey, 2004), the three red stripes on the first mentioned Nieuport are "coup marks," but in his Nieuport Flyers of the Lafayette (Albatros, 2006), the three stripes represent Captaine George Thenault's rank. Four different pilots flew N.1844 - Thenault, Lufbery, Hoskier, and Willis, so whether the personal markings represent coup marks of the Native American Indians or the captain's rank, one plane needs to be converted into a different N.17. As one of the models has the three stripes in an awkward position I will use that model for the "repaint."

Colors to be mixed for the repaint

I will be using Dom's Decals suggested mix of six parts Vallejo silver and five parts Vallejo natural steel to paint over the three stripes. Then I will add masking tape to paint a vertical white band around the fuselage to represent Willis Haviland's N.1887, which later became George Hinkle's plane with the addition of an "H" on the fuselage and red trim on the white band.

The rather dark and dull looking Seminole head will be replaced

On all three N.17s the Seminole head looks rather dull, the colors looking rather muted, almost black and white. I will be using decals from Miscellaneous Miniatures to add some color to the planes. While the decals represent the later Sioux motif, I think they will work nicely as Seminole heads and will enhance the plane's colors rather well.

The decals to be used. I have used some on Reduced Aircraft Factory color 103rd Aero SPAD S.VIIs to great effect. See THIS POST

I also need to fixe the rudder flashes on two of the N.17s as the red portion has a bit of decal missing. 

This is a rather easy project, or should be, with really only the masking and painting of the white fuselage band presenting the hardest aspect. I should be able to knock these out over the next couple of days, in time for some Bloody April fighting at the monthly Wright Flight gathering.

Mat - GripMats

A Little Wings of Glory Recap

Yesterday was the monthly gaming session of the Wright Flight, and while I was planning on doing Polish-Soviet action using a slew of house rules, the lack of players meant we went with just one table, eventually getting up to eight attendees. 

We did two games of early war action (then why was there an Aviatik D.I on board?), seeing a mix of German aircraft against various early model Nieuports. I pulled out my Escadrille Americaine Lawrence Rumsey repaint for the first game, and in the second game I jumped over to the German side and used my Shapeways Siemens-Schuckert D.I, a copy of the Nieuport 17 but one that performs like the Nieuport 11. In both early war games I took a few hits, gave out a few hits, and jumped off the board before dying in either game.

A cluster of Nieuports, with a new player turning right towards my Rumsey!

Second game's plane of choice!

Nothing to see here (and I survived this passing attack)

Bill, that Halberstadt does make a nice photo.

Matt's nicely painted Shapeways British N.11

Passing planes over the Channel

We played another game with six participants, a later war affair. This time I had a chance to use my little Pfalz Dr.I, and the little beauty performed well. The O Deck is a dream, and I shredded a SE.5a that flew right into my arc. The Allies took a bit of beating...they did shoot down the Baron (well, somebody had to do it) and put some damage on the Fokker D.VII, but with the SE.5a unable to put out its fire and the Camels having taken a crap ton of damage, it would be considered a German victory. We also used my new range sticks from Pro Painted Studios, and they, along with my modified firing ranges, seemed to work well. Next time I'll add in deflection!

The Germans gather

Say hello to my little friend - the SE.5a takes a fire result. I would apologize for my actions, but I wouldn't mean it, and why waste a good apology?

Soon the end of the Baron...no one likes that Prussian anyway

We had a couple of new players, who had a tendency to ignore spatial awareness, or even friendly planes, and plotted turns that caused collisions. Luckily in the late war game my C Damage card was a goose egg for the goose-stepping Pfalz pilot, but Lord, gotta watch those new players!

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

103rd Aero - Decals

Before adding decals - notice the muted roundel and rudder colors

Before Shapeways' recent demise, many of us in the Wright Flight were buying printed color aircraft from Reduced Aircraft Factory. These planes were filling in many gaps in our respective collections, but the colors, due to their very printed nature, were extremely muted or even slightly off. This was particularly noticeable in the primary color ranges, where blues, reds, and other solid colors simply do not come out as vivid as in real life. Usually the details for squadron markings and lozenge patterns were excellent, but the Sioux Indian heads on these 103rd Aero Squadron SPAD VIIs got lost in the mix. To rectify that somewhat I bought decals from Miscellaneous Miniatures to add to the planes, giving them a bit of a "pop." While the Indian heads on the decals are the early Lafayette Escadrille Seminole version, the decals came out looking rather good.

After, but before adding decal softener

The Voss Effect

Transitioning some of my blog posts from over at the Wings of War Aerodrome to the blog so that others might enjoy!

Last Dance of the Hussar by Russell Smith

I have been working a bit with camelbeagle (Dan) on a Voss Wings of Glory scenario. Well, Dan has been doing most of the work, but I have been making a few suggestions about setup, aircraft, using more accurate climb rates, that sort of thing. For those who do not know, I have a side business - I give tours and talks related to the Civil War - American that is. So, historical accuracy is fairly important to me. Dan has planned a four on four fight, simply to keep the amount of players around the table at a reasonable number, with four SE.5s against Voss in his triplane, with a couple of Pfalz D.IIIs and an Albatros D.V making a late arriving appearance. 

In reading accounts of the action (September Evening: The Life and Final Combat of the German World War One Ace Werner Voss by Barry Diggens and Lt. Werner Voss: Germany's Greatest Teenage Ace by Walter Musciano) it is apparent that Voss cannot be given too many ace abilities. I have an Ares Voss Pfalz on its way, mostly for the ace ability cards, and a couple of Pfalz D.IIIs offered by Reduced Aircraft Factory of a couple of the German pilots involved. Dan has 56 Squadron in hand. 

Looking forward to testing this scenario and then hosting for the Wright Flight in the future. When we do, we'll be certain to post an after action report!

By the way, the Musciano book was written in the 1960s, and the colors given for Voss's various planes are questionable at best...stating that his Fokker and Pfalz has red noses...Rudolph would be proud.

Wings of Glory AAR

The repainted Nieuport 11

So the announcement came on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome - the July session of the Wright Flight would be Nieuport 11s facing off against Fokker eindekkers. We had a large turnout, with over a dozen players. Apparently last minute a decision was made to do some sort of odd Cthulhu game? WTF? I didn't drive an hour to game stinkin' fantasy! Luckily the G Dog brought planes to stick with the original plan while the heretics played in the other event...but then also appeared on our table Nieuport 16s and Halberstadt D.IIIs! Would my little Chapman N.11 make it? (repainted with AK Interactive Clear Doped linen version 2 as it matched the color already present on the bottom of the plane very well).

The target for the Allies was a drachen, with three N.11s and one N.16 facing off against a pair of Fokkers and a pair of Halberstadts. To be honest, I was having too much fun poking one my Nieuport partners to focus much on the game or take many pictures, but one N.11, the target of my fun, was able to cause a fire on the balloon as he himself was shot down, both from plane damage and a second pilot wound. Another N.11, using incendiaries and colliding with the balloon, also inflicted a great amount of damage. I used my Nieuport to snipe at the opposing German aircraft, avoiding the the ground fire while throwing out a little damage here and a little damage there. I started taking hits in return, and decided, with the remaining Nieuports now heading beck to Allied lines, that it was time to leave the fighting as well. The balloon burned up before reaching ground, so it was an Allied victory.

Staying on the periphery, causing damage as I go

The flaming Jean Navarre Nieuport, before meeting his demise

In the future I will be certain to bring extra planes and gaming mats to help stick with the original plan as all I brought was my single Nieuport 11.