Year of the Honcho!

 Over the last couple of weeks I have completed 8 X F-86 Sabres, 3 X B-29's, and 8 X Mig-15's for the Air War over Korea. 

Once you get past all the propaganda and politics of this war you'll find a fascinating close run campaign in the air. Both sides over estimated aircraft shot down, and the matching of post war claims to the opposing sides stated reason for losses leaves a lot up to conjecture. 

Being the first Jet vs Jet campaign I think it's a great thing to dip your toes into before moving on to more modern Jet combat with missiles and all. 

By happenstance I fell upon the rule set called  Fly, Fight, Win: Honcho. It's an easy to play fast paced game that multiple people can play. A great convention game. The ruleset is free and you can get them from Wargames Vault. They have a WWII set called Wingman, and a modern set called Danger Zone. All are based on the same rules. Here is a link Wargames Vault 

If you end up getting the rules and have questions, then I would recommend the Face Book group named, Fly Fight Win. 

Miniatures are from I-94 enterprises Raiden range, the B-29's are from Flight Deck Decals. I did find that the Flight Deck Decals 3D prints for the fighters (while wonderfully detailed) are way to fragile for gaming purposes. Nobody wants to spend hours painting, placing decals, and then only to have it break. 

Decals are mostly from I-94 specialty range, while the bort numbers and Korean decals are from flight deck. 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Algernon Pulls It Off! More Albatros goodness of Jasta 5

 I finished three more machines for Jasta 5. This time they are Albatros D.V variant. The placement of the wing exhaust vent, and tail shape are the only difference that you would see in this scale. 

The all green machine was flown by Rudolf Matthaei, the half white with red band flown by Heinrich Bussing, and finally the one with the Red heart on machine was flown by Werner Voss.

Coming out of my coma like illness I made mistakes in painting my D.III's in D.V colors and vice versa, but unless I said something no one would know but me.

The last picture shows all six machines I have done on the prowl.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Algernon Pulls It Off! Albatros D.III's of Jasta 5

Well it finally bloody well happened. My Wife and I for the first time caught Covid over Christmas. Wow, I would not wish this upon anyone. Probably more to do with our age, but man we both feel steam rolled and quickly tire out at the simplest of chores. After seven days I am just now feeling like sitting at the painting table. So today I did a few aircraft.  

 On the WWI air group I belong to the challange this month is to paint up in any scale Albatros D.III's or D.V's and can be as colorful or as simple as you want.

My chosen subject are D.III's from Jasta 5 in 1:285th scale. These are 3D prints by Paul at Sabotag3D.com. I picked out two machines I really liked in Wilhelm Lehmann's Edelweiss decorated machine, and Hans Von Hippel's famous Blitz decorated machine. The third one is one I just made up because, well, I did.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Algernon Pulls It Off! Fe2b's

Finished up some more targets.. eh, I mean Fe2b's. I read that very early PC10 was lighter so here I used the darker version. Also I realized I have to get larger decal letters and numbers, I am not going to drive myself crazy trying to paint them on.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Algernon Pulls It Off! Some BE2c's for the Brits.

 I finished up three BE2c's for my growing British WWI aircraft collection. The BE2c's were used for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and bombing, and initially gave good service. It's inexorable decline began when the Fokker monoplanes grew in numbers and their pilots found the BE2c an easy victim. Newer designs slow to get to the front required these to stay in service longer than they should have been allowed at the expense of it's service men. 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Algernon Pulls It Off! A set of WWI air rules.

 So I am going to try out this ruleset and see how it plays. I had gotten rid of all my 1:285 WWI aircraft awhile ago, but I keep feeling the call to come back to it. It really, really helped that 3D printing has come along, and that dudes out there that are printing are getting smarter on the resin mix so they're not so brittle. So I purchased a bunch from a guy and I couldn't be happier.

Below are some of the DH2's I just painted up for the British, and one photo has a dogfight with an Albatros D.II (which is a metal aircraft). 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

1:300 scale WWI German Albatros D.II

So back in the day, I used to attend Historicon and I signed up for a game called Hostile Aircraft. It was when the rules first came out and the author was an interesting fellow, but cool. After that game experience I immediately signed up for later ones he was running. I was hooked. 

I collected a bunch of aircraft, and then lost interest over the years. Family, work, etc. bla bla bla. Finally a few years back I got rid of them all. 

Then I saw a few vids from Steel Fist, and bought some more bloody aircraft. That was a year ago and I really didn’t do anything with it. Then that dude from Steel Fist had to go and mention the Facebook group Algernon, and so I joined that and got hooked again after looking at all the cool aircraft.

This time I think it will be better. Algernon is much simpler (Hostile Aircraft actually gave my friend a migraine trying to figure out 3D combat) and a bit more laid back. So I think I will enjoy it.

So after digging out my books (thank god I kept those, never throw away your books!), and tried like hell to remember the colors I needed. Here are my first four Albatros D.II's, my hands aren't as steady, so the free hand almost drove me mad. Then I find out that the two packages of crosses I had, one sheet was fine, the second sheet was misprinted, same for the other package. I was not happy but I went and put on the crooked crosses anyways. 

Now off to painting some DH2's, hopefully I can get in a game next month. 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Thanh Hoa Bridge - A Jet Age CY6 Scenario

     One of my very favorite loves in miniature gaming is Air Combat. Visions of being a famous fighter pilot (think of Snoopy and his many encounters with the Red Baron here) I have dreamed about since I was a boy. Unfortunately I have horrible vision and would make the worst possible Ace or wing man for that potential Ace. So miniature air gaming Ace it is;)
     I use two sets of rules for my air gaming fun. One is called "Phantoms" and gives you that feeling of tension of actually flying and feeling that dogfight, and the other is Jet Age CY6 (Check Your 6) which is a compromise between realism and playability. I use 1:300 scale aircraft or 1:285 scale aircraft as my choice of scale so that I can have room to maneuver a dozen or so aircraft on the game board.

A quick overview of the scenario played this past Saturday goes like this:

     Originally built by the French during the colonial era in Vietnam, the Thanh Hóa bridge was sabotaged by the Viet Minh in 1945. From 1957, the Vietnamese started rebuilding it. Completed in 1964, and inaugurated by Ho Chi Minh himself, the final bridge was 540 feet (160 m) long, 56 feet (17 m) wide, and about 50 feet (15 m) above the river. Allowing the passage of both road and rail traffic, it was a vital link between different regions of North Vietnam, and when the war started, became a strategic passage for supplies and reinforcements sent to the Viet Cong fighting in South Vietnam.
     With the beginning of Operation Rolling Thunder (the bombing campaign against strategic targets in North Vietnam), the decision was made in March 1965 to interdict the North Vietnamese rail system, including the Thanh Hóa bridge. The Vietnamese, realizing the importance of the bridge, had set up an impressive air defense network, five air defense regiments being stationed in the area.
     873 air sorties were expended against the bridge, starting in 1965 (around '68 Rolling Thunder was halted and no bombing took place between '68 through '72 of North Vietnam until Linebacker began again in '72), and it was hit by hundreds of bombs and missiles before finally being destroyed in 1972. It became something of a symbol of resistance for the North Vietnamese, and various legends of invincibility were attached to it. The Vietnamese gave it the nickname Hàm Rồng (Dragon's jaw). For the US planners it became an obsession, and many raids were planned against it despite their unpopularity with the pilots.

The game:

     Four of us played the scenario and we deployed 2 X Mig-21's armed only with 2 heat seeking missiles each (no guns), 4 X Mig-17's, 2 X Light AAA batteries, 1 X Medium AAA battery, and off board a SA-2 complex with an ammunition limit of 6 shots for the Vietnamese. For the US we had 4 X A-4 Skyhawks with a medium bomb load, and 4 X F-8 Crusaders armed with guns and 4 heat seeking missiles each. (Remember to click on the images to see there full size).

     The US setup with the Crusaders in the middle of the board and split the Skyhawks into two groups on each flank of the Crusaders. We realize now that it would have been much better to have reversed this setup with the Crusaders on the flanks. The setup hurt us later in the game with the Crusaders concentrated so.
     Fortunately for us as we approached the vaunted target, the Vietnamese players weren't able to get a lock on us easily with their SA-2 Sam battery but just before the Vietnamese engaged with their aircraft they got a hit on a Skyhawk with one of the flying telephone poles and blew it out of the sky with the poor pilot sharing the fate of the aircraft. The Mig-21's where busy trying to get into a position to shoot and a section of Mig-17's took long range shots at the Skyhawks and missed. I split off a section of Crusaders to attempt to help cover the two Skyhawks that were being attacked by the 2 Mig-21's and 2 of the Mig-17's while the other section I took down to the deck to strafe the AAA emplacements in an attempt to clear the way for the Skyhawks bomb run.

[Situation after SA-2 has downed an A-4]

     The Mig-21's pulled a fancy maneuver to get into position to fire their air to air missiles and the US team knew we were in trouble. The good thing is when you perform an extreme turn you're not able to fire your missiles so it bought us a little time. I was struggling trying to get my Crusaders into a position to shoot the Mig-21's, while doing this I allowed the trailing Mig-17's to take close in shots of me. The dice gods where with me and both Mig-17's (Green pilots) rolled a double 2, and a double 3 causing them to miss but more importantly run out of all ammunition and forcing them to leave the board to keep from giving the US players easy Victory Points. On the other flank the lone A-4 skyhawk was being pursued by the other two Mig-17's with no fighter cover nearby for them.  One of those Migs taking a shot and hitting but the Skyhawk was able to shake off the hit with a good save roll. The 2 Crusaders that went down on the deck were able to take out the Medium AAA battery, but missed taking out one of the Light AAA batteries. The SA-2 battery must have had a green crew member operating the Radar as they continued to fail to get a lock or would get a lock with a delayed firing allowing the US player to duck down below it's minimum shooting height.

 [Orange markers on aircraft represent the use of Afterburners]

     The meat of the battle was about to begin. The Mig-21's had maneuvered such that they now were able to take a missile shot at the A-4's and shoot they did. An Atoll missile streaked in on one of the A-4's with the pilot unaware and struck the aircraft causing engine damage and the pilot decided that at this point it was better to dump ordnance and make for home. The Crusaders trying to cover those skyhawks could not get into position to fire missiles but did get up close and personal to use guns but the shots went wide. 

[black markers are used for engine damage, white for frame]

     The two A-4's left that could still bomb the bridge trudged on to complete their mission, the destruction of the Dragon's Jaw. The first A-4 went in and missed the bridge bringing groans from the US team. The Vietnamese team now desperately tried to shoot down the last mission capable A-4 down and got hits but again the A-4 passed it's robustness test and flew over the bridge dropping its bomb load and this time got hits. As matter of fact the A-4 pilot rolled box cars and thus earned the US team two hits on the bridge. At this point the Skyhawks scrambled for home with the Crusaders doing their best to cover them. The US team was ahead in points but only by 3. The expert flying of one of the Mig-21's was able to get a parting shot at the fleeing Skyhawks but fate was not with the Vietnamese team this day as the missile fell off the rail harmlessly toward the earth. 

[The US team breaks off the fight and heads for home]

At this point the opposing teams agreed to end the game as the US Crusaders had a 16 missile to 2 advantage and were capable of putting distance between themselves and the Mig-17's (plus we were all ready to head to the pub to drink to a gloriously well done game).

     This scenario was provided by one of the gentlemen from the CY6 Yahoo page and we found this scenario both enjoyable and balanced. I don't know who the gentleman is that wrote this one, but our thanks go out to him for coming up with a good one.

     Well that's it for now, hope you enjoyed the read, and remember to Check Your 6!

     [As a side note both sides are using early versions of their respective sides heat seeking missiles and one must be in the rear aspect of the target to get tone.]

Last Doolittle Raid Pilot Passes away

I know this doesn't concern my project, which sadly has had to be set aside for real life issues, but since I am into military history I thought this important enough to post.

Col. William Marsh "Bill" Bower, the last surviving pilot of "Doolittle's Raiders" who bombed Japan in 1942, died Monday at his home in south Boulder.
He was 93 and "lived a completely full life," said his son Jim Bower.
"My dad was a hell of a guy," he said. "He was a brave soul, a warrior. He was everybody's friend. He did all kinds of volunteer work. He was an exceptional human being."
Bill Bower was hailed as a hero for his role in the United States' first air attack on Japan following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He volunteered and was chosen for the mission, which was planned and led by Lt. Col. James "Jimmy" Doolittle.
On April 18, 1942, 16 B25B Mitchell medium bombers took off from the decks of the U.S.S. Hornet in the western Pacific Ocean. Because landing planes of that size on the Hornet was impossible, the pilots continued toward China after bombing their targets in Japan.
All but one of the aircraft, which landed in the Soviet Union, crashed in China or were ditched at sea. Of the 80 crew members, 11 were either captured or killed; the rest returned to the United States.
On his return, Bower married Lorraine Amman in 1942.
Bower continued to serve during World War II, assuming command of the 428th Bombardment Squadron and joining Allied invasion forces in Africa. He remained there and in Italy until September 1945. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in the raids.
After the war, he worked as a planner and accident investigator for the U.S. Air Force and served in the Arctic as commander of a U.S. Air Force transport organization. He also served as commander at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Ga.
In 1966, he retired and moved with his wife and four children to Boulder, where he was involved in the real estate and sporting goods businesses for many years. His family described him as deeply involved in the community, from volunteering with Second Harvest, Community Food Share and Meals on Wheels to founding the Central Optimist Club to serving on city of Boulder committees.
His family described him as "the best outdoorsman," saying he was a big-time fisherman who also enjoyed bird hunting and guiding hunters in the Colorado mountains. He also enjoyed annual "Raider" reunions. Five Raider crew members, including two co-pilots, survive him. But Bower was the last living pilot.
In 2008, he was recognized for his distinguished service to his country at the Bolder Boulder Memorial Day race.
But to the children in his neighborhood, he was simply a handyman and caretaker, his family said.
"All the kids on the block at the time gravitated to him," Jim Bower said. "He took care of all the kids."
Michael Carrigan, a University of Colorado regent whose family lived on the same cul-de-sac as the Bowers, said part of his daily routine as a child was to ring the bell at Bower's house for a Jolly Rancher.
"He would give us a Jolly Rancher," Carrigan said. "Every day was Halloween at Col. Bower's house."
It wasn't until he was in college that he learned that the man who helped with the neighborhood children's projects and passed out candy was a war hero.
"He never drew attention to himself," Carrigan said. "He was very humble, kind and generous. I'm grateful that my children will continue to enjoy the liberties and freedoms that he fought so hard for."
He is survived by his children, Jim Bower, of Arvada; Bill Bower, of Chapman, Kan.; Mary Brannaman, of Sheridan, Wyo.; and Mindy Bower, of Kiowa; and six grandchildren. His wife died in 2004.
Longmont Ledger Editor Clay Evans contributed to this report.

Boulder's Bill Bower, one of Doolittle's Raiders, shows off the crest used by the four units that participated in the 1942 air raid on Japan in this April 2009 photo. Bower died Monday (10JAN2011) at age 93. ( MARTY CAIVANO)