Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero flight - 6mm

A recently completed side project: a flight of three 6mm (1/285 scale) Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters from Raiden/I94 miniatures which had been sitting, basecoated and magnetised, in my to-do box for literally years at this point. These were among the first planes I got intended for 'The Swede' introductory scenario in the Check Your 6! rulebook. One day they might fulfil this purpose if I find an opponent or get motivated to go solo. Until I get to play CY6! again, they'll be sitting in the display case: both the actual one and this online one.

The Raiden/I94 miniatures Zero seems to be the nicest and most accurate of the 6mm Zero miniatures out there (although I've never tried any GHQ aircraft). Raiden are a little larger than most of my other planes (Heroics & Ros and Scotia Grendel), though it's not usually obvious to me at tabletop distances.

These Zeroes were a very easy, quick and enjoyable item completed in between the more challenging 15 and 28mm projects. They represent a Chutai-Cho and two wingmen from the fighter Hikokitai (aircraft group) aboard the carrier Hiryu through 1941-42 (at Pearl Harbour, several island operationss, the bombing of Darwin and eventually Midway where the carrier was destroyed). The colour I used, Vallejo Silvergrey, is consistent with that shown in most colour plates I've seen of early Zeros in history books and modelling materials. Specifically, I used as references a painting in an old Take Off magazine and another depiction of the very same aircraft in Wheeler, B.C. The Hamlyn Guide to Military Aircraft Markings.

Colour realism and possible lack thereof

Historically, according to authoritative authorities, most (maybe all?) Japanese carrier planes at this stage of the war were actually a pale green-grey or blue-grey colour. However, there were probably variations, a lack of standardisation and the effects of fading which might account for the almost white appearance of Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft. Also I didn't want to mix paints for the perfect colour while wasting paint only to forget the 'recipe' in future if I paint more IJN carrier planes.

Hand-eye-co-ord failed me on the squadron and aircraft numbers: they're the red scrawling on the tail. The leader is supposed to be BII-144, if you can see it (you can't). A short-hair brush would probably have worked, but mine perished recently from overwork (a phenomenon called 'Karoshi' in Japanese).

For the first time ever I tried out a gloss varnish, which worked pretty well (make sure to keep the coats thin and prevent pooling in recesses). Historically the carrier planes were glossy.

Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero (Raiden/I94 miniatures, Vallejo paints, Dom's Decals).

Some Old, Badly Staged Photos of Little Planes, Ships, Tanks and Infantry

While I take some time to think up a more interesting subject, organise my existing miniatures and start a new project to document, here are some pictures taken a long time ago of various things I've painted. There are also some pictures of battles I've fought with some of them.

First, something completely unrelated to 6mm: A 15mm British Para and a fighter in civilian clothing that I painted for fun.

An early 20th Century Insurgent (Eureka Miniatures).

WW2 British Paratrooper (Old Glory miniatures).

Some of my 6mm stuff when I had it on display.

And now for some water craft:

A 1:1200 French 74 in progress (Navwar miniatures)

Finished: The French 74 (3rd Rate Ship of the Line) 'Le Superbe' now completed, including paper flags, cotton thread and flywire rigging (Navwar miniatures).

A 1:3000 Royal Navy frigate (Navwar miniatures) initially intended for a Cold War era game in the North Atlantic. The transparent base is cut from a plastic takeaway food container and the wake is simply Selleys pasted on and shaped with a toothpick.

I really enjoyed making these 1:1200 Spartan Triremes, and was pretty happy with my hand-painted sail symbols - the Lambda and the Gorgon (Navwar miniatures).

Team Yankee looks pretty good in 6mm. Here, the National Volksarmee takes on the Czech army (due to some Cold War backstabbing):

A Motor Schutzen Battalion advances (GHQ miniatures, CinC miniatures).

Motor Schutzen Company holds off the Czechs (GHQ miniatures, CinC miniatures).

East German T-72Ms enter a town in 1985 (GHQ miniatures).

A Norman Church. The graveyard headstones and low wall are just carved-up matchsticks (Scotia Grendel miniatures):

Some 6mm aircraft of various makes:

Messerschmitt Bf 110C night fighter (Heroics & Ros).

CAC Boomerang. My dad painted this one: he had never painted a miniature before (Scotia Grendel miniatures).

Fireforce! Rhodesian units, including Hawker Hunter (Scotia Grendel), Alouette III (Heroics & Ros) and Rhodesian Light Infantry (GHQ Afrika Korps riflemen), individually based as an experiment on whether skirmish-level games can be played at 6mm.

Various things prepared for undercoating (Baccus 6mm figures, and aircraft from various manufacturers including Scotia Grendel, Heroics & Ros, Raiden).

Condor Legion - a few little items

... Oh and another thing - let me just show some pictures of Condor Legion aircraft I've been working on:

Bf.109B (Miniature Raiden I-94, paints Vallejo, decals from Dom's decals).

1/600 Tumbling Dice Junkers Ju 52 also available from Dom's Decals. Hand-painted markings.

1/300 Heinkel He 51 from Heroics & Ros. Hand-painted markings.

AirWar C21 - Suez Canal Raid

This one's going to be a very short and to the point post as I've forgotten most of the battle details (I played this game in September and am only just now getting to posting it).

I solo-gamed an Israeli Air Force raid on two Egyptian bridgeheads over the Suez Canal, testing out SAMs. Let me tell you - SAMs can be deadly, especially volley-fired SA-6 Gainfuls. The Israeli aircraft clearly need more decoy dispensers if they're going to survive more of these bombing raids!

The set-up.

Following on from my last AirwWar C21 post, Major Pushkin, a Russian ace sent to assist the Egyptians, did in fact get a new wingman, the skilled but ill-fated Lt. Hosni Samy. The Israelis again had a pair of Mirage IIIs and a pair of A-4 Skyhawks loaded up with Mk 82s and hoping to smash the pontoon bridges and maybe any tanks or other vehicles moving across.

Close-in dogfight right over the northern bridge.

Shahak 1 flown by Capt Weiss shoots down Maj Pushkin.

Captain Weiss shot down Major Pushkin's MiG-21 with a Shafrir 2 heat-seeking missile after he failed yet another complex manoeuvre. He did not manage to eject. That's right - Major Yevgeni Pushkin, Soviet ace, connoisseur of vodka, dead at the age of 50-something.

Pushkin's wingman, Lt Samy, messed up a very tight low-altitude turn and hit the ground. KIA.

Mirages overfly the bridges, past a wrecked MiG.

Casualties for the Israelis were high too. While Capt Weiss got away with his kill his wingman

Lt Shmuel Zahav was hit by an SA-6 SAM. Lt Zahav was seen to safely eject but landed close to the Egyptian-held target area. He is now listed as Missing.

SAM! Dead ahead!

 The leader of the bomber flight Captain Sharbal Golan was killed instantly in a huge explosion when his loaded plane was hit by three SA-6s (total damage 12, and the Skyhawk only had 5 to begin with!)

Lt Moshe escapes a SAM after destroying the north bridge.

Hero of the day though was the wingman of the Skyhawk flight, Lt. Elias Moshe, who dodged MiG-21s, SAMs and ZSU gunfire to deliver his bombs right on target, destroying the northern bridge. and an SA-6 battery as well.

The results were pretty much a tie - Egyptian forces lost two fighters, two pilots, an SA-6 batter and one of the vital bridges. Israeli forces lost two planes, two pilots and failed to destroy the other bridge. Their enemy's advance into the Sinai will continue, but at a slower pace.

Lessons learned - SAMs are deadly and make it hard to line up for a bomb-run (you really want to be break-turning as well as dumping countermeasures).

Next time Israelis will take more precautions, and the Egyptians need some more planes (I have some MiG-17s and a Tu-16 Badger...)

SAMs floating past harmlessly, like clouds...

AirWar C21 – the First Foray

 Okays its been a long time but here's a new blog post on a whole new game...

Background
In my quest to find a favourite aerial wargame for1/300 scale aircraft I’m giving AirWar C21 a go. Again, as I did with Check Your Six! I decided to try out the rules solo first to learn the system before introducing it to others in my gaming group.

AirWar C21 depicts post-1945 aerial combat, but I’m hoping, once I’ve learned the modern rules inside-an-out, to develop a version suitable for the Big One.

So I painted up some Egyptian and Israeli aircraft, put together some home-made accessories and had a game. Apologies in advance for the fairly poor photos - new and more ‘advanced’ phone and bad lighting


The scenario
I adapted the ‘Brave Sons of the Pharaoh’ scenario from the Check Your 6! Jet Age book to the AirWar C21 rules and my available miniatures – pairs of MiG-21s, Mirage IIIs and A-4 Skyhawks (one of each from Heroics & Ros and I-94/Raiden) and a handful of Heroics & Ros T-54s and BTR-152s, some GHQ Warsaw Pact infantry

Yom Kippur War, 1973: Israeli Skyhawks are attempting to interdict an Egyptian armoured/mechanised column moving through a pass in the Sinai. Two Mirage IIICJs are conducting a fighter sweep across the area. A pair of Egyptian Air Force MiG-21MF Fishbeds (one flown by an old Soviet ace on secondment) are also moving to intercept the Skyhawks.

The Lineup - Heroics & Ros and I-94 Raiden miniatures (one from each manufacturer for each plane type). The stands are Games Workshop and the plane cards are downloadable from Boardgames Geek (more on that later)

The local terrain

The target - advancing column of Egyptian T-55s and BTR-152s (Heroics & Ros)

The fight
Egyptian Air Force Pilot Officer (PltOff) Ali Adib spotted the Israeli A-4 Skyhawks first on his radar display and called it out to his flight leader, the Russian Major Yevgeni Pushkin. Maj Pushkin initiated the combat by unleashing both his R-3R (AA-2C Atoll) Semi-Active Radar-Homing missiles at the nearest Skyhawk (PltOff Adib’s MiG was only equipped with two IR-homing Atolls). A momentary lapse of concentration caused Pushkin to fail his manoeuvre and he promptly flew off the board. (Literally ace pilot, Turn 1… Switch on, Pushkin). The radar-homing Atolls, with no illuminated target, flew away harmlessly and Adib looked around in mild panic for his flight leader.

Maj Pushkin's opening salvo

Maj Pushkin departs the board while his wingman continues on

PltOff Adib continued on the fight by himself against one then the other of the Skyhawks as they attempted to manoeuvre as well as possible despite their bombload-induced high stall speed. The Mirages eventually figured out what was going on and joined in a swirling dogfight with the outnumbered Adib. Poor stick work and energy management all round resulted in numerous failed manoeuvres, overshoots and stalls, with the Mirages in particular failing to get missile lock, IR-homing Atolls flying wide and the MiG and Skyhawks trading a few cannon rounds to little effect.

Radar-homing AA-2s pass by a Skyhawk

 
Suddenly, back into the fight rushed Maj Pushkin (I decided a 6 on a d6 at the start of each turn would let the Russian return). Darting past at high speed Pushkin launched an IR-homing missile and fired his guns at a Skyhawk flown by Lieutenant Gabriel Natan. Twisting to avoid the missile, Lt Natan was able to get in a shot at Pushkin’s MiG as it passed close by, damaging its gun. However Natan stalled his heavily-laden aircraft and was only just able to eject before it pancaked. Pushkin decided he would claim that one as a kill.

Maj Pushkin takes a shot with an IR-homing Attol

... gets hit by Skyhawk cannon after an overshoot

Natan loses control of his Skyhawk and stalls it

The Skyhawk crashes, Natan manages to eject

 PltOff Adib chased the remaining Skyhawk but was intercepted by a Mirage IIICJ flown by Captain Avraham Weiss. Weiss shredded Adib’s plane with cannon shells in a violent head-on gun pass. The burning MiG-21 plummeted to the ground. No ‘chute was seen.

PltOff Adib is shot down by a Mirage

 
Meanwhile, the inexperienced Lt Shmuel Zahav, overflew the Egyptian armoured column in his Mirage IIICJ as he tried to set up for an intercept on the enemy MiGs, attracting an SA-7 Grail Surface to Air Missile (SAM) which he avoided easily.

Egyptian air defence takes an opportunity shot at a Mirage flyover

 The aforementioned remaining Skyhawk, piloted by Captain Gilad Alon, was now within sight of the enemy armoured column and lined up for a bomb-run. Immediately behind Alon was Maj Pushkin, who launched his last remaining IR-homing Atoll and forced Alon to break off his bomb run. Having used his last weapon, the Soviet pilot accelerated for home, leaving the Mirages in the dust.

Maj Pushkin foils the bomb run

Maj Pushkin's last missile misses, but Capt Alon has to break off his attack

 Capt Alon’s quick break-turn had allowed him to survive the AA-2 missile, but seconds later the Egyptians volley-fired three SA-7 SAMs at him. Alon skimmed over the mountains dumping flares but failed to pull off a sharp evasive manoeuvre. Two of the missiles struck, setting off a catastrophic ordnance explosion that obliterated plane and pilot.

SA-7s chase Capt Alon's Skyhawk, while Maj Pushkin passes by, making his escape

 
Capt. Weiss and Lt Zahav in the Mirages used the last of their cannon ammunition shooting up a pair of BTR-152s in the Egyptian column before turning for home.
Lt Natan, who had safely ejected from his stalling Skyhawk, landed on the road. With nowhere to run he was captured by Egyptian troops.

The Mirages strafe the Egyptian column

... destroying some BTR-152s

Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed this game and after a few turns things started to flow easily. The rules are fairly intuitive despite the degree of technical detail included for planes, missiles, bombs and the like. AirWar C21 represents altitude abstractly which greatly simplifies matters. Quick reference charts for each aircraft, where you note all relevant details including speed, weapons, countermeasures and damage, are a really good idea and are downloadable from here, as Boardgames Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34413/airwar-c21-2nd-edition.

The only things that slowed down gameplay for me were remembering to check each aircraft’s reference sheet for its current speed when performing a manoeuvre and needing to note down the circumstances under which a missile was launched (e.g. with or without a lock, shorter than minimum range etc.) as the resolution of the attack is conducted in the Phase following the one in which the missile is launched.

Coming next
* Some random surprise mission maybe including a MiG-15 out of storage…
* Trolling SAM batteries
* Major Pushkin needs a new wingman.