Gaming, Wings of Glory BoB , game 9

Today saw a further instalment on the campaign ladder. 

Game 9 - Bomb the radar site 

2 Me109, 2 Ju87 v 3 Spitfire

P.O. Cooke led his vic with P.O. Walker , and squadron new boy fresh from training P.O. Widdowson , they had been vectored onto a raid on a Chain Home radar site.

German escortst attempt to interfere with the Spitfires - and do!

On first pass the two Me109 escorts hammered PO Widdowsons Spitfire , sending it spiralling to the ground..the pilot himself was seen to bale out , and was reported safe and well at local anti -aricraft battery...  Damn British fighter advantage had gone on the first shots 

P.O. Walker tails a Stuka

Again the Spitfires tight turning circle enabled them to get back round and into the Stukas before the Me109 returned .. PO Walker tailed a Ju87 to destruction before it dropped its bombs... the crew baled out and were captured.

PO Walker was after the 2nd Stuka too , which was getting ready to dive bomb its targets , the Stuka gunner was having a good day, and all of a sudden the Spitfire erupted in a ball of flame . kaboom , killing the pilot instantly . to add insult to further injury the Stukas bombs landed close to target inflicting some minor damage to radar site too..

This left the more experienced PO Cooke on his own with a Stuka and  2  Me109s - the germans were now intent on getting home and celebrating a great victory... PO Cooke was out for vengeance! he had already dove down low in anticipation of catching the Stuka after its bomb run , and despite trading blows while manoeuvring at low level ..the Spitfire soon shot down the 2nd Stuka ... the Ju87 crash landed , severely wounding and blinding the pilot ,. The rear gunner was only lightly injured .. and regaled his fellow prisoners in the POW camp of how he had shot down a Spitfire.

Meanwhile the 2 Me109s were still too high and making toward the home .. , but one was a bit too close to one edge and not taking a straight flight path..  .. and PO Cooke was climbing to get him, a quick burst unsettled the ME109 pilot and maybe damaged the rudder, or the sun was in his eyes,,,  , the Me109 exited the game area to the side ,not the home direction ... gifting VPs to the Brits ...just enough 6 vps to the Brits , 5 to the Germans

British Victory

PO Widdowson, shot down , unwounded.. but 1 xp gained

PO Walker - dead 

PO Cooke claims his 4 aircraft shot down.. one more he will be an ace ... still no sign of promotion or medals ..

German Stuka crews both captured 

German fighter crews both landed home safe , claiming 1/2 a spitfire each... - though I suspect they are in for a grilling by the staffel commander

Campaign  , British 5 , German 4 , draws 0 

Wings of Glory - 1940 RAF Defiants and Battles

I have added some more planes to my 1/200th 1940 RAF collection.  These are by Dave at Armaments in Miniatures - and are great little resin casts. Really enjoyed painting these. I have also now sourced a host of acrylic propeller spinners and have started adding these to planes in the collection.

A pair of Boulton Paul Defiants 

Let’s hope the bandits are behind us! 

Next up a pair of Fairey Battles 

Wings of Glory - Dornier Do17s

In our Wings of Glory Battle of Britain campaign we have played out the Battle of France , our next scenario is the attack on the channel convoys. Ares the game manufacture don't currently do a Dornier model  so I have sourced a couple from the US made by Dave at Armaments in Miniature (who covers a lot of the holes in the main game range)  lovely little resin models they are too. The game forum does have a good list of aircraft data and stats so these are now ready for duty.

I need to add in some squadron numbers yet , bit more research required and the sourcing of decals too. 

I have added in a ball bearing to the underside by using a countersink drill bit to make the hole and superglueing the ball bearing in before painting. This allows it to be added onto a peg top with a suitable ring magnet glued to it to.

Wings of Glory WW2 - Blenheim bombers and Schwalbe ME262s

 With the start of the 1940 Wings of Glory campaign game I needed to complete a couple of Bristol Blenheim bombers.  I have most of the WWII aircraft produced for the game, however they don’t make a Blenheim and there is an early scenario in the campaign that calls for 2 Bristol Blenheim bombers - fortunately Zvesda do one in the same 1/200th scale So I have cracked on to complete the two required last week. It is a nice little kit to put together and looks good. I will get some proper propeller spinners sorted once I get all the aircraft  i have in the to"to do pile" done.

I also picked up a couple of resin ME262s from Armaments in Miniature in the US to add to the late war collection in an attempt to give my allied bomber fleet some more opposition. The game system doesn't have these released officially but a few guys in the Wings of Glory forum have produced stats and movement cards etc. I have made up some magnetic gimble mounts for attaching these to the flight stands - as it nice see these banking as they turn and swoop like the "Schwalbe" (Swallow) they are named for!

i have some more items on order from AIM, some Dornier Do17 , Boulton Paul Defiants and Fairey Battles that will be needed for the later games in the Battle of Britain campaign 

Wings of Glory game and updates

This weekend saw a meet up of the Old Guard group - there were a few games with people chucking sticks at each other , and I took my WW2 Wings of Glory collection.

Over the course of the day we played 5 games , with a few different scenarios - we were using all the standard rules , which everyone was picking up well.

The final game pitted 3 ME109'S and 2 Stukas , against 2 Spitfires and 2 Hurricanes

Fighters lead the way

My Stukas get bounced , and try to evade the RAF... where are my defending fighter!

There was a real swirling dogfight , and a Spitfire went down very early, one of the Hurricane pilots was wounded

Ian (ME109) and James (Hurricanes) plot their moves

Martin pretends to escort my Stukas .. there will trouble back at base tonight!

James with the luckiest Hurricane ever - he kept getting hit , but picked out zero damage chits! but we got him in the very end - just as he downed my Stuka!

One of my Stukas  was shot down - the other limped home with engine trouble and wounded pilot!

Great games - and a few people now in search of their own planes . 

I got hime to find a delivery - a Lancaster and ME110 night fighter! 

I have also picked up a nice beach mat from Deepcut studios and started some work on the D Day stuff with a coupe of gun emplacements. The order for 6 Higgins boats, 3 LCMs, and the assault infantry  has just turned up .. so plenty in the pipeline to keep me busy.

Wings of Glory WW2

Having mentioned in the last wrap up post that Wings of Glory was likely to feature this year at the Old Guard meet ups. I decided I would get the stuff we require to get up and running with the WW2 variant (Pete has the WW1 stuff) . A couple of large orders were soon winging (see what I did there..)  their way to the man-cave.

Tally Ho! 

Battle of Britain starter set

Storage solution from KR Mulitcases

Bespoke trays inside 

a 6X4 mousemat material mat - from Deepcut Studios

Th starter set has two Spitfire an two Me109I have picked some some addition aircraft so it gives me:-

3 x Spitifre mk1
3 x Me109e
1 x ME110
2x Ju87

Some of the other guys have Hurricanes and looks like Heinkels now too.

I also picked up a a couple of JU52 kits. They will needs cards etc doing . but will make for good scenarios, so worth doing I think

All very strange for me taking an "off the peg" project with work all done - but hey why not for once. I think over time the planes will get a little extra work as they need a bit of extra detailing , but thats a  way off for now.

It was top marks for all the various suppliers in order processing and delivery times. well done - internet shopping at its best..

I have been laid up by the "Aussie" flu that has hit the UK... so no painting at all - just starting to come through that now , so hoping to be back to the brushes next week. My AHPC start is in tatters. Still a while to go but I think I will need to re jig the painting order around a bit.

I have a game coming up this weekend with Martin and James - and hopefully Scotty to get the WW3 stuff on the table and James is sorting out a Team yankee scenario for... looking forward to that after 10 days of being ill - a much needed morale boost..