Megablitz: New Aircraft

Managed to do some painting over the weekend. This time I decided to paint some aircraft for late war eastern front. First off we have some new German fighters. A Me109G and Fw190.

The Me109 is an old In-Service Miniatures model, while the Fw190 is from Scotia

Next we have a Ju87G with autocannons and a Fw189 reconnaissance plane.

Both models are by Scotia

Of course these aircraft need someone to fight, so I also added to my Red Airforce. First up is the fighters, an La-5 and Yak-9.

The La-5 is a Scotia model, while the Yak-9 is GHQ.

For Ground Support we have a IL-2M and Pe-2 light bomber. Also in the background is a Po-2 bi-plane. A versatile little craft, they where used as light bombers, or reconnaissance planes.

Both the IL-2M and Pe-2 are from Scotia, while the Po-2 is from H&R. 

That's the new stuff for now. A few more odds and Ends and I'll be ready for a another game of Megablitz. I'm not sure what I'll work on next.

New Aircraft

Last week I decided to work on some of my Modern aircraft for Angola. First up for the South Africans we have a Canberra Bomber.

This came out very nice with good markings. 

Next we have a South African Buccaneer S.50.

The buccaneers used during the Angolan Wars didn't have many markings. Just a small tactical number on the rear.

Finally for my Angolan forces a MiG-17 fighter.

I paticularly liked this one with it's camouflage and unique markings.

Anyway I hope to use these in a scenario soon. This Sunday, I'll be going to play some Starfleet Battles. I also Hope to have another Megablitz unit done next week.

Rapier 2015 (Long)

Last weekend I went to Rapier down in Jacksonville. While I only did a little gaming I did get some great pictures of the games around me and managed to get some good loot too.

Friday

I arrived in Jacksonville around 1000 only to find the hotel filled up. So before I went looking for a hotel I decided to take a few pictures of the morning games. The first being this Star Wars Pod race. Although I wasn't part of it, this game was a part of a marathon of racing games played though out the convention.

At another table was a Napoleonics skirmish game.

Also the Wargamers were demonstrating their new rules By Fire and Sword.

After I had done some shopping, found a hotel, ate lunch, and sold a few things at the flea market. I returned to the gaming area to take a few more pictures. First being the first of several Blue Sky games.

There was also this nice regatta game, which was part of the racing marathon.

Then later in the night; me, Christian, Mike, and Mark sat down for a quick game of Starfire. A game which both me and Christian won.

My ship is the triangle one on the right.

Also late in the night was a Rapier favorite, the French and Indian War Canoe Race.

In this one you play fur trappers trying to get up the river ahead of the other trappers while also avoiding the Indians chasing you.

Saturday

After eating breakfast at the hotel I decided to take a few pictures of the morning games. The being the setup for the ever present Flames of War tournament.

There was also a Civil War game going on.

I then decided to check in on Mike and Mark, who was playing in the Waterloo game. Normally they play this game on one big table, but this year they broke the battle up into three smaller games.

Then me and Christian played in the morning game of Blue Sky. It's been a while since I've played Blue Sky. Christian was the with Japanese, while I was with the US. Christians side won, but I still managed to shot down several planes and still end the game with all my airplanes.

After Lunch, I joined Mike, Christian, Bill, and Mark in the Strike Legion: Planetary Ops game.

I was commanding the Heavy tank battalion, the gray tanks in the meddle. 

While we were playing there was game of All Quite on the Martian Front going right next to us.

The game featured this vary impressive land cruiser. 

 Another game that was going on nearby was this 28mm Bolt Action urban warfare game.

 My one regret was I wasn't able to get in on the Fire and Fury Regimental game, as I had been wanting to tryout the rules. I plan to buy the rules later.

Another interesting game that was going on was the Battle of Mobile Bay using large ship models.

The last picture I got was of another Napolionics game.

Unfortunately I left Jacksonville early Sunday morning, being that I had to work that night and I wanted to make sure I got some rest. In the next post I'll talk about the loot I got.

South African 1st Parachute Battalion

   As I've stated before I will start rebasing all my modern microarmor, as will as make some new units. I decided to start with something simple, the South African 1st Parachute Battalion. I ordered a some of Scotia's South African Infantry to start. I had brought these once before when Scotia was part of Simtac and they were awful, unrecognizable lumps of metal. I may have gotten a bad molding, as this recent order was much nicer. The thing that pleased my most about the infantry figures is that it fills a void for me, that being infantry with assault rifles and boony hats. I can definitely see me using these figures for other special ops needs, maybe some Vietnam Australians. Here's some pictures of the new unit.

First up we have the four parachute companies, each with two stands. The South African parachute units were somewhat small, so they could fit onto the helicopters.

Next we have the base units, including: the battalion HQ, recon platoon, Mortars, and AT platoon

Finally to help carry them around, we have a squadron of Puma helicopters.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the entire unit together. All the ships I order have come in, as have all of the aircraft for my next few Shipwreck games. I should have some of them painted by next week, the following week I'm going to Rapier in Jacksonville.

Check Your Six Sunday

Last Sunday I got a chance to play in a game of Check Your Six: Jet Age that Christian had set up. The scenario was Vietnam with 4 F-4B Phantoms vs. 4 MiG-19. I was playing one of the MiGs as was Christian. The other two MiGs were controlled by a kid called Carson. The F-4s were controlled by Chris, Mike, David, and one other. Here are the pictures I took of the game

The enemy pilots, Chris on the right and Mike on the left, prior to game start.

The two MiGs controlled by me and Christian starting side by side.

The F-4Bs flown by Mike and David, they're so close together that they look like one aircraft.

Christians MiG comes in close to the pair of Phantoms. 

Our four planes over shoot each other. Mike and David turn like a married couple holding hands. Me and Christian on the other hand turn into each other.

Meanwhile, the other two F-4s were firing missiles at Carson's MiGs. Several of the missiles and the one that did hit did no real damage.

The F-4s then fire on my MiG one missile misses while the other hits. But once again the MiG-19 proves too tough for the American missile.Note the planes were moving so fast it looks like the missile that hit was fired by another MiG.

Then David made a real error. Both him and Mike assumed that their F-4s were carrying cannons when in fact all they had was missiles. It was this assumption that put David in the very bad position; with my MiG-19 in front of him and Carson MiG-19 behind, both at point blank range.

David's plane explodes being hit by both our cannons.

In the end only Mikes plane is still on the board. The other two phantoms flee for the edge having shot all of their missiles. 

 Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay for the second game as I had to get sleep for work. As for my gaming news. I'm probably painting my first new modern unit this weekend. I've also received most of my new ships and aircraft for the next few Shipwreck games. My Last Square order came in only FOUR DAYS after I order it, unbelievable!. Now I'm just waiting for Shapeways to arrive.

In Soviet Russia the miniatures play with YOU!

The day I made my last post Both my Last Square and Rebel Minis orders came in. I finally got the last bits I needed for my next Megablitz game. The last pieces I needed for the game was some NKVD troops. So now I got Russian units to shot my Russian units.

First Up, in the green hats, is the 72nd NKVD border regiment.

I used H&R early WWI British infantry for the troops and GHQ heavy weapons.

 Next Up, in the blue hats, is the 36th NKVD regiment. These are interior troops used for rear area security.

I also, expanded my Red Air Force a bit with another I-15 regiment and a regiment of Lagg-3 fighters.

The Lagg-3 is C&C, while the I-15 is H&R

Lastly I expanded the tank divisions in the 1st Mechanized Corps. While I was doing so I found out that the tanks in the 1st tank division were actually camouflage, so I went and painted them as such.

That's what I did last week. I hope to get to do the game soon. In other news the Rebel Minis order contained my new HOTT army, which I've gotten based and hope to start painting this week. I also want to start basing my modern microarmor.

Flying Stand Experiment

First I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

As I stated in my earlier post Red Air, I've decided to use magnets for mounting my aircraft. This has left me with a couple of problems. 1.) What to do with all my plastic Warhammer flying stands, I have a lot of them and don't want them to go to waste. 2.) Metal magnets are damn expensive! So I've decided to do some experiments with the following.

Magnetic Tape, much cheaper than the metal magnets.

 The problem with my Warhammer flying stands was solved easily by attaching 6/32 Lock nut to the top, as seen below.

I prefer the metal tops as opposed to another magnet. One, it saves me from having to buy two magnets and two, I don't have to worry which end of the magnet is positive and which is negative.

Now for the magnetic tape. I decided to test it out using one of my larger aircraft, a SM.79 medium bomber.

A nice thing about the magnetic tape is that it has it's own adhesive.

 The end result actually works fairly well. The bond isn't as strong as a metal magnet but it's serviceable for what I want to do.

I've spending my time painting more buildings for Megablitz. When I bought my village buildings I also got the RAF airfield set and I have started to make a number of airfields. Also recently Morning Star had a sale on their Dysiopian Wars stuff and I managed to get the Industrial terrain set at 40% off or about $14. I don't really play DW, but the buildings are about the right size for Megablitz.

After I get done with my Megablitz painting I'm planning to do some more Modern 6mm miniatures, but I don't know where to start Europe or Angola?