1/300 scale Second World War Fighters

 

Me-109G in 1/300

Update: I have since been in touch with TK and found the link to his blog. 

You can find it here. 

My pal Kristian has taken to playing wargames with his young son Arpad, who is a big fan of Second World War era planes.  Previously they've been playing with 1/72 kits, but found it a bit awkward. With that in mind Mr. K pulled out the sculpting knife and produced the above. He plans to do a Mustang, a Lightning, a Yak-3, a Stuka and a B-17. 

No Hurries ? Or Spits? For shame Mr K!

And from underneath

TKs questionable plane choices aside - this is a lovely little model and is available for the princely sum of €1.50 or €3.50 painted. Leave a comment if you'd be interested in one and I'll put you in touch. I was trying to find a link to his blog - but can't seem to put my hand to it.

Blowing up Russians to the music of Queen

Harriers roaring down the valley

I'd been working on this game for a little while and I'm glad to say it went down very well at Hobocon.  The game itself was identical to BUT LEGALLY DISTINCT from Andy Chambers old Games Workshop game "Bomberz ova da Sulpha Riva". This was essentially the Dambusters, but with Space Orks as the RAF and Imperials as the Germans. It's a good, solid, albeit very simple game, that involves gambling on the results of two dice rolls each turn and moving your fighter accordingly. But for uncomplicated fun, I think its hard to beat.  The game can accomodate 1-5 players and lasts between twenty and twenty five minutes. 

Crash! A Harrier collides with an electricity pylon

In my version, the players took on the roles of pilots in 266 Squadron flying Harrier jumpjets against the Russian hordes poring across the North German plain. The Soviet players picked six cards from a hard of twelve and assigned two to each sector.  These cards remained hidden until the Soviet player revealed them or the RAF player flew over them.  The defences were Shilka AA batteries, SAM sites and AA guns, which one needed to be moving fast to avoid, and Electricity Pylon, which one needed to be moving slowly to avoid. The Soviet player also had some Hind helicopters, which were mechanically similar to the Harriers. 

Hokum I know, but it made for an enjoyable game. 

This made up most of the musical accompaniment

It must be said that when I arrived at the convention the game had a different name that made mention of the 3rd Shock Army and a bunch of other Cold War references that no-one quite understood. I had however brought along a CD player and some Queen CDs (mainly because Mrs. Kinch had tidied, nay hidden, my Clash stuff) and these turned out to be very popular. The two albums were Jazz and A Night at the Opera, both of which are fairly in period for 1979. 

I discovered that accosting random players with "Would you like to play a game about blowing up Russians to the music of Queen?" was a much easier sell than "Would you like to play a game about trying to conduct airstrikes on the 3rd Shock armies artillery reserve?"

Our gallant lads

I managed to run the game seven times over the course of five and a half hours. Our initial crew were Wing Commander Fatzington, Flight Officer Gundam, Flight Lt. Douglas and Air Marshall Du Gourmand. 

Keep it together Gundam!

These gallant lads managed to scrape a win despite, ahem, rugged individualism and nothing approaching team work. This was mainly due to Fatzington rolling dice that were subsequently burned at the stake for suspected witchcraft. 

Having cut down one Hind (seen going down in flames in the back ground) 

Flight Lt. Ash was the highest scoring lady ace of the day.  The Harriers could only move in the clear hexes on the table, so most of what you see in on the board is set dressing and is just there to indicate to the players the "railway" that they have to travel down.  In the original game, the Orks had to blow up Imperial bridges, but I had two 2SU mobile artillery pieces that served as objectives and they did fine. 

A big nasty furball

On the whole, I think the game was a success. From the point of view of quick playtime and number of players that actually played it, it certainly was. It looked nice and the mechanics held up despite Games Workshop removing the free PDF from their website a month before the game.  This did mean that I had to cobble a rulesheet together from memory, but it was none the worse for it. 

Magniminous in victory as always

It did mean that Fatzington returned to the game when he discovered that Ash had beaten his high score. Though truth be told, the top ranking Ace of the day was Billy, who played the game solo against me and brought such shabby Nazi tricks as tactics and concentration of effort to the game. It was observed that the game was actually easier without a group of players that had to be co-ordinated. The music was also a definite draw. 

Perhaps a later iteration of the game will involve a jukebox element - each target that the players blow up, they can change the song on the CD player from a previously approved selection of Blondie, the Clash, Queen, Abba, etc. 

Swordfish

The plane spotters amongst us will almost certainly recognise this as a Fairey Swordfish, a biplane torpedo bomber used by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.  Antiquated even when it first entered service, it did good service, as it's low speed and rugged construction provided a stable platform for launching torpedoes. Most famous for its service at the Battle of Taranto where they inflicted heavy losses on the Italian navy.  There was a double page spread in a Warlord annual about it - so I mainly remember the Swordfish (also known as the stringbag) in four colour comic form. 

Swordfish also took part in the Channel Dash, the only time since the Anglo-Dutch wars that an enemy fleet has successfully traversed the Channel. This was a battle that took place in 1942, when a group of German vessels sailed from Brest to bases in Germany, during which they were attacked by a flight of six Swordfish.  The attacking planes were wiped out by superior numbers of more advanced German fighters, but their determination and grit was saluted by no less a personage Admiral Ciliax, the German officer commanding, who said "....the mothball attack of a handful of ancient plance, piloted by men whose bravery surpasses any other action by either side that day."

This specimen was something I picked up as a passing fancy. I have a weakness for biplanes and I managed to pick this one on eBay, fully assembled and painted for about the price of a pint. I don't have any plans for naval games, so I think this will be doing service against the Anglican League or the Soviet Socialist Republic of Liverpool in Very British Civil War games. 

As the Swordfish comes, like the Gladiator, with its landing gear deployed, it can also be used on the ground either as an objective or a piece of scenary.  I've been playing a number of Very British Civil War games via webcam with a nameless mysterious figure in Roscommon known only by the codename Steve. The British Union of Fascists air power has been making life somewhat difficult for me, so it might be time to play an attack on an airfield scenario. 

This will give me an excuse to put a shape on my newly discovered RAF control tower and will give the Swordfish and the Gloster Gladiator a bit of an outing. 

Although it may mean that I may now have to build some sort of 1/72 scale wind sock. 

Revell Hawker Tempest Mk. V for a good home

I'm not entirely sure that this box isn't older than I am. 

Further to my previous post about Masquisards and the air support thereof, I've come across another Memoir '44 scenario featuring the French resistance. In that game, the Resistance are harassing a retreating German column with the assistance of some SOE chaps, who are calling in air strikes. I thought this would make for a particularly good convention game. I actually have sufficient figures to do the scenario, but I thought that adding a Spitfire or something with rockets trailing gouts of teddy bear stuffing would be a really splendid visual thing that would add to the game. I filed the idea away in my head and resolved to do something about it later.


It came back to me when I was passing my local model shop today and I dropped in looking for a diecast British or American aircraft that fired rockets.  I wasn't that interested in building a kit as I always made a dreadful hash of them when I was younger. I chatted to the proprietor and told him that I was looking for a "rocket firing plane". He started looking through his stock, but no dice. I was halfway down the street, when the proprietor ran out of the shop and collared me as I was about to mount my bike.

He's not a young man and I felt so sorry for the chap, whose chest was heaving from the run and was obviously pleased at having found the right thing, that I forked over the cash without demur and made for home.

The box complete with decals, parts and instructions

So I now own a Hawker Tempest in a very nice box, it's actually (or so young Master Gow informs me) just the thing. It actually looks like a very simple kit and I might actually be able to make a fist of it, but I won't be doing so for a while. However, I am well aware that I am no connoisseur of aeroplane models and there maybe a chap out there who would appreciate the kit (and the box and the rest of it, it has it's decals) rather more than I would.

With that in mind, this kit is going to sit on a shelf for a while until I get time to make it. However, in the meantime, if you happen to like old Revell kits or for whatever reason you must have this particular mark of Tempest, I would gladly swop it for a something in a rocket firing Spitfire, Tempest or Typhoon, either diecast or a made up kit. I intend to drill holes in the rocket launching pylons and add a rocket at the end of a length of wire.

I don't really know anything about 1/72 scale aircraft, but I know enough to know that this nice old kit is probably wasted on me. If you're interested, contact me through the comments below.