Les Chevaliers du Ciel

I'm familiar with the BD series that this film is based on but didn't know about the film itself. It's a great video clip either way and reminds me that I have some very nice Oddzial Ozmy 1/600th scale modern fighters that would be perfect for Target Locked On! and Airwar C21, not to mention CY6 Jet Age. Anyway sit back and enjoy.

Raiden Miniatures at Minibits

Some excellent news from Minibits in that they are now stocking the entire Raiden Miniatures range of 1/285th scale aircraft. You heard it here first! This is a big boost to my plans for a Winter War project using the Bag the Hun supplement, Blue Swastika Rampant, for which I could do with some extra Russian and Finnish biplane fighters. It also opens up some options for post war games in something other than 1/600, specifically for the Falklands, as I've always fancied doing this in 1/285th. Happy Days!

http://www.minibits.net/raiden-aircraft/

Flashpoint Alto Cenepa Wings at War Flight Stands

I made some flight stands for Wings at War, which can also be used for other rules including Target Locked On!, Air War:C21 and Check Your Six:Jet Age, with a little adaptation. The basic components are a 30mm x 30mm x 3mm lasercut mdf square, panel pins in four different lengths with the tips dremelled off, a 7mm dice frame (for a D6 energy marker), some Woodlands Scenic foliage and some Humbrol Grass Green spray paint.

I've used this method before to make hex stands and a prototype stand for Wings at War: MiG Alley but these are first to try out some foam foliage to represent the jungle tree canopy. They're nothing spectacular but are very quick to make and look the part, especially for ultra low level tree hugging COIN strike missions with top cover. These are destined for the Alto Cenepa project but I'll have to make quite a few more!

Missile Threat: Air Combat 1960-2000

I've had my eye on this set of modern air combat rules for a while but have yet to decide if I'm going to get a copy to try out, having already got at least three and probably more perfectly good rules already. However, they do look interesting and I may be tempted at the end of the week to download a set, if only to compare them with Airwar:C21, Target Locked On! and CY6:Jet Age, amongst the other rules that I have lined up for my modern air war projects. There's a play through of a game here:

Bag the MiG Bases in the Blue

I got home from Brittany late yesterday, so this morning I thought I'd waste no time and finish off the home made bases for Bag the MiG, Bag the Hun and other similar hex based rules like Air War:C21 or CY6. This was an easy matter of spray painting them with an appropriate sky themed shade, in this case Halfords Rover Henley Blue over a basecoat of Halfords Matt Grey primer. To take off  a bit of the shine I then over sprayed the whole lot in Army Painter matt varnish. There's no reason why you couldn't spray them in any other suitable colour or even paint them in a terrain themed shade of sand, grass green, snow or whatever, which is what I will definitely do for my Wings at War scratch built bases, when I get round to actually scratch building them of course!

Crisis in Kashmir!

Here's the pay day splurge for this week, a copy of the CY6 Jet Age scenario book for the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. I know very little about this conflict but since when has that stopped me from adding more weight to the lead pile? I'm thinking of this as a 1/600th scale project using Target Locked On! or even a modified version of the Wings at War rules, probably the Suez Crisis one as it is the closest to the Indo-Pakistan conflict in terms of technology. Any excuse for some more tiddly planes from Tumbling Dice!

On the Workbench this Week

I got back from Cornwall this afternoon and straight away got down to the MiG Alley project, having suffered from a severe dose of workbench withdrawal symptoms over the weekend. A double check of the CY6! and Bag the MiG scenarios has revealed that I only need eight Il-10's but ten La-11's, so I've readjusted the numbers accordingly. I couldn't fit the Tu-2's on to the painting rig so they have been swapped for nine Yak-9D's, which are probably more useful anyway. I also sorted out the decals for the last lot of 1/600th scale aircraft that I finished painting, so these will be completed alongside the new aircraft for the North Koreans and their Chinese allies. Tally Ho! (or whatever the North Korean equivalent is?)

The Magnifcent Seven

I've been reading this excellent online article about the F86 Sabre and the WW2 veteran pilots who flew it in combat against the MiG15 over MiG Alley during the Korean War. It really is stirring stuff and great as inspiration for both Bag the MiG and MiG Alley, not to mention CY6 Jet Age and all the other various rules that cover the Korean War. There's some cracking digital art as well!

http://www.donhollway.com/magnificentseven/index.html

Korean War Inspiration

A fantastic online article which, if you've seen the film, will make you want to download it and watch it again, although I'd probably read the novel as the more interesting option. The article itself has some great scenario material that could easily be worked up into a series of linked games, using CY6: Jet Age or the Bag the MiG variant for Korean War air combat, although any decent set to rules would do if they feature decent mechanisms for AAA and ground attack. It would make a superb show participation game too, which I don't think has been done before? Anyway, here's the link:

http://donhollway.com/toko-ri/

F16.net

I was looking for some information on weapons loadouts for NATO F16's, specifically those of the Norwegian, Belgian, Danish and Dutch air force operating in the Baltic Air Policing role, when I came across this excellent website:

http://www.f-16.net

There's a massive amount of detailed reference material here including  service histories plus operational, technical and logistical information for worldwide F16 users. What a great resource for Target Locked On, Air War:C21 and CY6:Jet Age just for starters.

Check Your Six Jet Age

I sent off for these last month and they arrived today, which is a bit of a long wait but well worth it. I've had a quick flick through and the rules look very slick and pretty comprehensive, with a very good selection of scenarios included, from the Six Day War to the Falklands and several other post-war conflicts too. I already have the Korean War and Arab-Israeli scenario books, both of which I bought for a bargain price in a closing down sale, so I've got plenty of reading to do. 

In the meantime, the Peruvian air force is underway for the Air War C21 Alto Cenepa project...more about that later.

Air War C21 Projects for March

Well, this month has turned out to be a bit of a crash landing, in terms of the MiG Alley project and my plans to complete it by now. :O(

The workload issue and my week away in Cornwall wiped that one out, although the USAF planes are still on the workbench. In the meantime, I've been thinking ahead and have decided that I'm going to scale things back in March, in an attempt to finish at least one smaller project in the limited time I have available, now that we're in the run up to the final GCSE exams.

So, while I'll be chipping away at MiG Alley, the Chain of Command 5th DCLI project will be bumped along to the Easter holidays, during which I'll base up and undercoat the figures. The project for March will, therefore, be Air War C21 but from two different directions. To start with, I'm going to paint up a small handful of aircraft for the Alto Cenepa War, which is something I've been planning to do for a long time.

http://www.acig.info/CMS/?option=com_content&task=view&id=97&Itemid=47 

This was a short lived conflict between Peru and Ecuador in 1995, over a remote stretch of the Amazonian jungle on the border between the two countries. This involved some intensive air activity but only a couple of actual engagements, although there's plenty of potential for 'what if's? There's also a really interesting mix of aircraft, which I've already got from Tumbling Dice in 1/600th scale. I might even have a look at trying out Hind Commander for this as well.

The second half of the project will be the ultramodern Baltic Air Policing mission, which I've decided to call Flashpoint Baltic. This will kick off once the O8 1/600th aircraft from Fighting 15's arrive in the post, although this looks like it might be a while yet. This might even be turned into a series of linked scenarios or at least a club game, although I'll need to get more experience with the rules before I go that far.  It may also be an opportunity to try out the CY6 Jet Age rules.

Whether or not I actually get round to this before the end of term will have to be seen???

CY6 Jet Age

A chap at the club mentioned these rules the other day and I thought I'd take a second look. I've played the WW2 version of CY6 a few times and, although it was impressive in terms of depth and detail, I always thought it lacked the tactical aspect and randomness that you get with BTH2. I also can't stand charts and tables, let alone loads of ratio calculations! It's buckets of dice and card based turn mechanisms for me..mumble, mumble, bah humbug.

Anyway, I've sent off for a copy of the Jet Age rules to see what they're like and to give them a try out once I've got the Korean War planes sorted. I think they'd be good for a couple of planes a side rather than massed dogfights over the Yalu, so will be focussing on just that. I've always fancied doing a Cold War Goes Hot style game or the Falklands War (which is featured as a mini-campaign in the rulebook), so these might just be the rules to go for..

...and if not, I can always fall back on AirWar:C21!