Red Eye in the Sky

I finished the MiG-21R. I marked as a Yugoslavian aircraft because I liked the markings. Here's some pictures of the completed model.

Here's the completed aircraft.

A view of the underside and the recon pod.

Here it is next to my other MiG-21. This one is marked for the Cambodian air force.

Any way that's what I've been doing this week. I also finished getting the two Megablitz units together and will start painting them next week.

New project

As I stated in my last post, I've decided to take a little break from wargaming miniatures to work on my much too large and neglected collection of models. I decided to start of with something simple, so I'm now making Attack Hobby's 1/144 scale MiG-21R. I got this kit because I found the idea of a Soviet made recon aircraft interesting, so I thought it would go good with my other MiG-21.

A look at the box. The thing that grabbed me most is the recon pod. I'm a sucker for ordnance and stores.

Starting out with the construction of the fuselage. The container in the background is full of bird shot, which I use as weight.

Adding the wings.

One of the things I found interesting about this kit is that it came with a very nice resin cockpit tub.

Attaching the wheels and the ever important recon pod. Almost done.

I was hoping to have the plane done by the end of the week, but several building issues got in the way. Hopefully I should have pictures of the completed model next week. As for my wargaming I yesterday I started to gather stuff up for my next Megablitz unit and the one I need for the game I'm planing. Here's a sneak peek.

I'm actually trying two different units at the same time.

North Atlantic BLOODBATH! Part 2

Here's the continuation of the AAR I put up last night.

Turn 5
Things started getting gritty. The Russian frigate Bessmenny manages to repair itself enough to move again. The fires on the Spanish frigate Asturias went out of control and she sank. Now it was only Caron facing three combat ships, but air support was on the way.

Asturia going down.

 Turn 6
Caron continued to close as she waits for the arrival of the first air strike. Caron exchanged fire with the cruiser Grozny and Bessmenny, but none of the weapons hit. Meanwhile, baku started launching Yak-38s to patrol the skies.

The enemy commander taking pictures of me with his KGB spy camera. The scum!

Turn 7
The ships continued slug it out with guns. Caron loses her front gun mount, but does Bessmenny in with her back gun. Four buccaneers arrive on table and fire 16 Sea Eagle missiles before the Yaks can respond unfortunately the ones aimed at Baku are either shot down or distracted onto the AOR  Dnestr. The AOR is blown out of the water.



The ships exchange gun fire at close range.

Which results in Bessmenny sinking.

The burns and goes under after being attacked by 8 missiles.

  Turn 8.
Without a front gun the Caron is sunk by Grozny. The second wave of buccaneers arrive. Unfortunately these were armed with laser guided bombs and had to get close to the target. Three were intercepted by the Yaks and the final one was shot down by an AK-630 CIWS. The battle was over.

The Baku limps away free.

 This was the bloodiest game of Shipwreck we've ever played. Nether side could clam victory. My entire force was destroyed and while Baku got away she lost almost her entire escort group. The loss of five ships, including a cruiser, a top of the line missile destroyer, and a priceless AOR, would result in the commander being court marshaled...in the woods...while digging a hole.

After the game I stuck around to watch Christan's MSH game. Here are some photos



Christians Germans on the defensive.

The Polish forces entering the board.

 A German territorial battalion guarding a town.

The best shot of the game, two air strikes arrive at the same time. The F-4 hits nothing, while the MiG-23 takes out an  infantry platoon.

 

Next store Micheal had a game of Starfire II going on. Some of those ships look familiar.

Another shot of the Starfire II game.

 Anyway that's what happen this weekend. I think I'm going to take a little brake from wargaming and build a model instead. Last week I got a hair in my ass and decided to gather up all the models I have collected over the years and hadn't gotten around to building and put them all on one shelf unit so I could finally get around to building them all.

Umm....yeah

North Atlantic BLOODBATH! Part 1

This weekend there was a game day at the local office of St. Leo's. Me and Christian played a game of Shipwreck, early in the morning. The scenario situation was as follows.

World War III has started and both sides are suffering heavier casualties than expected. Yesterday our two fleets clashed in the Battle of Vest Fjord leaving both sides battered with no clear winner. As the damaged American carrier group pulls back, the crippled Baku limps Back to home port.

STANAVFORLANT moving to intercept the Russian Fleet.

The carrier Baku and his escorts headed North to home.

I played NATO while Christian once again played the Soviet navy. My mission was to sink the Baku before it could reach home waters. The Soviets had a more powerful group but several of their ships were damaged and low on ammunition. Here is a turn by turn shot of the action.

Turn 1
The weather at the beginning of the game was bad with rough seas and off and on rain that interfered with detection rolls. I split my force in 2 to force Christian to split his missile fire. The destroyer Sovremenny and cruiser Kronshtadt turned towards my Southern force. Kronshtadt then shot down a Lynx helicopter from the Netherlands frigate Ms Banckert. The Sovremenny and Kronshtadt then fired 4 missile each at the Southern task force sinking the German destroyer Rommel. I didn't have any good radar locks so I didn't fire.

My ships splitting off into 2 separate groups.

4 missiles about to hit the DDG Rommel. The other four were either shot down or distracted by large metallic puff balls.

Rommel burns after being hit twice.

 Turn 2
The rain lets up a little allowing for better detections. Ms Banckert launches another Lynx to replace the one shot down. Baku and the Krivak I Zharkyy turn towards my Southern force. Finally I get some good detections and the missile fight begins. I launch 16 harpoons and 4 Penguins at the Soviets. Baku fires 4 of its SS-N-12 missiles and Kronshtadt fires his last 2 SS-N-14s. All the SS-N-14s miss.  USS Caron is struck by a SS-N-12 but it is a dud. Ms. Banckert is hit twice and explodes. Of the my missiles 9 find targets and the entire Soviet front line disappears.

The Soviet escorts hit multiple times by Harpoon and Penguin missiles.

Caron is hit once and Ms Banckert is struck twice by SS-N-12 missiles

Half the Soviet escort force goes under.

As does Ms Banckert.

 Turn 3
The rain starts up again, but this doesn't stall the action. I turned my Northern force to the enemy as Grozny goes to attack position. My Northern Force fires 8 Exocet and 8 Harpoon missiles as Baku fires his last 2 SS-N-12s and Grozny fires 4 SS-N-14s. HMS London is sunk as the Krivak II Bessmenny is crippled.

 

HMS London is hit by an SS-N-12. Commandant Blaison actually manage to take out a supersonic terminal dive SS-N-12 with its main gun.

Both Bessmenny and Baku are hit by 3 missiles each. Bessmenny is crippled, but Baku suffers only light damage.

Turn 4
Grozny fires the last of his missiles. The French frigate Commandant Blaison is sunk and the Spanish FFG Asturias is crippled.

Grozny fires the last of his missiles.

 

The French frigate Commandant Blaison goes under.

 

I'll continue the report in my next post tomorrow.

High Command

Just finished my latest Megablitz unit. This time it was the XVI motorized corps troops. I particularly like this unit because of all the interesting units that usually don't show up in a regular miniatures game. Let's take a look.

 

First off we have the the commander with his staff car, as well as the 62nd corps signal battalion. Behind them are the II/23rd and II/Lehr flak battalions. These units were attached Luftwaffe units hence the blue uniforms. The camera flash has made the blue look a little too bright, it's actually much darker. Speaking of the Luftwaffe I also painted up another Ju-87 that you can see in the background

 

Now we have the combat support elements. The two in the front are the 9th machinegun battalion and the 654th panzerjager battalion. I read that the 654th actually had towed 37mm AT guns, but I decided to give it a JgPz IB instead. In the back is one my favorite stands in this unit the 62nd bridge battalion. Next to the bridge battalion, is the corps artillery with a heavily camouflage 150mm howitzer and sd7.

 

Next up we have the rear support which include the 473rd corps supply battalion which is carrying a lot of parts for the panzer division including a spare turret. Next to it is the 542nd transportation battalion. This is an army level unit so it has a different tactical marking. While doing my research for this unit it seem that the German army corps usually only had one supply unit. The rest of the upper level supplies came from army level supply units. Behind the supply units is the 83rd medical and 83rd workshop battalion with a Pz III ARV. Both these battalions actually belong to the 3rd panzer division, but I'm keeping them at the corps level for now.

Finally the whole unit together.

 Anyway that's the new unit. I've only one more unit to finish as well as some terrain items and I'll be ready for a game. As for my other projects I'm going to try to do a game of Shipwreck next week; so hopefully I'll have an AAR for you next time.