Op Corporate for Air War C21

I've had a number of requests for the Falklands Conflict supplement that I wrote for Air War C21 many years ago. Its long out of print so I have spruced up the booklet and put it up on Wargame Vault. It is for the FIRST EDITION of C21, although it will, I hope, be of some use and interest to users of the current edition. The plan is to thoroughly update it next year to reflect the current edition of the rules, so for now its "pay what you want".

You can find a PDF copy of the booklet here:

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/229371/Operation-Corporate--Air-Battles-over-the-Falklands

The Plan – 2014

Having reviewed progress in 2013 yesterday, today I set out my plan for 2014. As a cursory look at the last 2 years will show I achieve between 50% and 75% of my objectives so I am confident I will be reporting a similar ration of success and “deferred success” in 364 days time J

1 – 15mm Colonial. Sort out those blasted Bashi Basouks and some river boats. Then look to see what we need extra (if anything) for the hinted-at Berkeley Vale campaign.

2 – Form Line of Battle. A surprise entry, but here because (a) I’ve remembered how much I love the rules and (b) Rodger at the club wants to give them a try. The plan here is to renovate the fleets and complete at least six ships from the “lead pile”

3 – Project X. Mysteriously referred to over the last 2 years, PX has three elements to it. I will complete at least 2 of them this year. You’ll know when I do J

4 – 1/600 Coastal. Resurrecting last year’s objective, I will renovate the existing fleets, finish any odd models that have yet to be completed, sort out soft copies of ship data cards and get some games in! A stretch target will be to do the same for my 1/1200 models.

5 – Armada Invencible. Another surprise entry, but 2014 should see the rules for this hit the streets. I have a couple of the ships already and it looks like my stock of old Airfix galleons might work with them at a pinch. The objective here is to get a copy, knock up small English and Spanish squadrons and try them out. And if they don’t work then an Armada variant of FLoB may be on the cards J

6 – Games. I’m well set up to run a number of games, including Wings of Glory, X Wing, Sails of Glory (of which more in the coming days I hope), War Rocket and a few others so the plan here is to get a number of games of each in. I’ll also try to run a one day campaign, maybe two. These may or may not be connected with Project X.

Inevitably there will be some mission creep. I can guess where the mission may creep to over the coming months (those 15mm Vikings would like a day out, as would my 7^th cavalry and Plains Wars Indians, and then there’s the “not the Spanish Civil War” stuff…..). So expect some variation.

However, one very firm target – NO NEW PERIODS!

And now to end, the first completed models of 2014 (which don’t fit in to objectives 1-6) – a pair of Zvezda 1/100 T-35s. They really are quite imposing! 

Warfare

After a week that could be described as rather less successful than Napoleon's 1812 holiday to Moscow I will be enjoying a well-earned (IMHO) trip to Reading for Warfare, where I will be helping out with the "Wings of Glory" participation game run by Chris Haigh (aka "Boney10" on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome).  I'll be taking along my Adriatic seaplanes and CMBs, and Snoopy is likely to make an appearance too. If you are at the show drop by and say  "hi" and have a game :)

Contrary to popular belief I will NOT be doing any shopping, and in particular will NOT be purchasing lots of Peter Pig and Zvezda goodness to get my "British Intervention Field Force" (aka BIFF) established for my alt-1930s games. Honest.

Latest From Shapeways

Here's my latest collection of finished models from Shapeways. First up a brace of Sopwith Dolphins. I'm awaiting the completion of a set of deailing parts from "Colinwe" on Shapeways that will include extra Vickers guns so that I can add one or two to these late war "monsters"

Next up - a Siems Schuckert D.III and D.IV. My personal favourites from this batch, they have a great deal of charm about them. I don't have any lozenge camouflage decalling so the scheme here was handpainted. This was quite daunting but I think the effect looks good (I was painting "for effect" when looked at from a foot away rather than a strict recreation of the scheme).

Early war now, and a couple of Nieuport 11s. This is a nice model and compares well with the Wings of War Nieuport 16 and 23.

Another late war "monster, this time the Pfalz D.XII. Again, a lot of character in this one, and a lozenge scheme based on "that looks about right"

Early war Brits - a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter (fitting a pilot beneath the win was a real challenge!) and a Bristol Scout. Again, I'm planning to add a Lewis Gun from Colinwe's detailing pack when available.

Another favourite now, the FE.2B. Again, awaiting a Colinwe Lewis Gun for the "up and astern" gun. This aircraft has a real bulky feeling to it. Makes a good comparison with Fokker E.IVs and DH.2s. 

Target time - a BE.2C. Not all that much to say about this one, other than Kampflieger has really done well to  capture the gangliness (and "shoot me here") look of the BE.

a Halberstadt CL.II and Fokker D.VIII - the former completed before I summoned up the courage to try a haqnd painted lozenge scheme, so the model is resplendent in a 1917 scheme. I might get another to make a late war two seater for my D.VIIs and suchlike to escort. The D.VIII again painted in "pre-hand painted lozenge" times, but a decent scheme that is reminiscent of a wasp - quite appropriate for this incredibly manoeuvrable and quite deadly fighter.  

here's the complete collection, with a couple of Farman F.40s in there from the previous batch.

Finally, an Etrich Taube - not a Shapeways one (although I believe someone is working on one just now). This is a plastic model / toy from China that is almost correct dimensionally. The fuselage is way too deep (I had to file it down a lot to even begin to look OK) and the nose way too wide, but it'll do for now and gives my E.IIIs something to escort.

Wings and Wakes of War

Another weekend of busy family stuff and occasional painting. There's a clutch of 1/600 ACW drying on the workbench, but the Hansa Brandenbergs and the CMBs are finished at last.

I'm working on a Wings of War scenario using these. the CMBs aren't fixed to the sea bases. Instead they are removable so that the models can be shown at speed (with the base) or slow /stationary (without).

For those who like to know these things the aircraft are from Riviresco, the boats from Rod Langton

Schweinhund!

Another Wings of War repaint completed this evening. This time an SE.5a, painted as Captain Duncan Grinnell-Milne's red-fuselaged "Schweinhund". Roundels courtesy of Dom's (most excellent) Decals :)

Also tonight - the "father and son" project from the weekend. Philip's class is learning about the Home Front at school at the moment and we got a project to build a model of an Anderson Shelter. Here's what we came up with.

Over the Front

As the last few hours of the Christmas holidays tick by I've been finishing off a few old projects. Laura now has two brand spanking new Pz IIIs to chase Philip's Crusaders across the 20mm western desert, but the big news is that my HP 0/100 is, at long last, finished!

Here is the "Bloody Paralyser" sitting in front of a couple of Skytrex Brisfits (which i've also finished sprucing up). The HP was surprisingly easy to put together, probably aided by its size. There was no need to replace struts with brass wire as in some other 1/144 kits. Painting was a bit of a chore, especially when i decided to change schemes half way through. Unlike other Skytrex 1/144 kits this one doesn't include  adecal sheet, so you either have to scrounge some from somewhere else or paint your own markings. Alas I had no spare roundels that would suit, so I decided to model the aircraft as one of those from 207 Sqn, RNAS (appropriate, given my naval shennanigans). The benefit of this scheme is that it uses small "low visibility" roundels and tail flashes, so no need to worry about the white bits!.

Whilst I'm in a 1/144 mood i thought I'd add couple more photos of my various Skytrex home-buuilds. First off the AEG G.IV. A lovely aircraft, but dwarfed by the HP.

And finally an observation balloon. This was a pig to put together, expecially trying to sort out the cables from which the basket is suspended, but I tink the effort was worth it.

The base is a scanned copy of one of the "Wings of War" balloon counters, since it is more than likely that its first outing as a target will be in a WoW game sometime soon. That said, I'm hoping to be using it in Air War:1918 games soon as well :)

And so the holidays come to a close, and my normal glacial rate of painting and gaming is set to return.