Guadalcanal Diary Part Four - Spotty Zeros

A slightly blurry pic of the A6M3s - 

The first quartet of Planeprinter A6M3 Zeros were in plain grey and painted up quickly enough. Tamiya paint and panel liner, plus the usual canopy. 

The second set of A6M3s I decided to try and copy the hastily applied camouflage they were sometimes seen in. Basically the ground crew were given a tin of green paint and a yard brush and told to get stuck in.  I thought the best way to try and replicate the washed out \ faded look was with either a sponge or cotton bud (Q Tip to our Cousins) over the same Tamiya grey - I went with the cotton bud. I'm not 100% happy with the result but it looks OK to me from "table distance".

Decals are from MiscMinis as usual. They include tail stripes but the pics I found didn't always have them and as the decals are designed to fit Armaments in Miniature models I decided to swerve them - both models are a nominal 1:200 but that doesn't mean they're exactly the same and wrapping decals around the fuselage is not a lot of fun.

Quick history bit.

The A6M3 was an attempt to improve on the superlative A6M2 that was sweeping all before it. the Imperial Japanese Navy may well have been suffering from "Victory Disease" but even they were noticing the Zero had some problems, particularly in a dive where controls rapidly became heavy. They asked Mitsubishi to work on an improved version to address this, and got the A6M3 with a new engine, more ammo for the 20mms and clipped wings which resulted in a (slightly) faster plane with better dive characteristics. It was a case of "be careful what you wish for" because the new Zero was not well received. The new engine was longer than the old one, so to get it in to the already tight A6M fuselage meant some changes, in this case losing some fuel capacity and therefore range. The changes also messed about with the centre of gravity a bit, leading to slightly less impressive handling. These changes hit at exactly the wrong time. The IJN was committing to the Guadalcanal campaign and was using A6M2s to escort G4M1 Bombers from Rabaul to the target at Henderson Field and the ships around Guadalcanal. This was a gruelling trip for the fighters, sometimes five hours each way, but the phenomenal range of the A6M2 made it possible, even though the pilots must have been tired even before they reached the target area. The new A6M3 just didn't have the range of the A6M2 so could not  escort the bombers all the way. To counter this, and make the trip less gruelling the Japanese establishing bases closer to the island such as at Buin on Bougainville Island. Operating from here, the A6M3s could cover the cover the bombers, and it would also provide a useful staging post for damaged aircraft on the return trip. Sadly this was also within range of the Cactus Airforce operating from Henderson Field, and the bases were regularly pounded both during construction and operations, leading to high attrition rates for the fighters based there. The IJN was forced to commit scarce fighter strength to defend airfields that were only there to allow fighters to operate further forward, putting their already limited numbers of fighters under even more strain. Guadalcanal was exactly the wrong battle for the Japanese, who were looking for a knock out blow, but found themselves in a meat grinder battle of attrition they could not win.

Guadalcanal Diary Part Two - Start - Stop

I've been meaning to do some 1942 IJN for a bit and Gisli's post just gave me the impetus. I ordered some decals from the ever reliable MiscMinis in the States. I already had the A6M3s from the Planeprinter Patreon in my "to paint" pile, and badgered Paul Davison into printing some G4Ms as my printer is a bit too small to do them comfortably.

I've always struggled with the IJN colours - not just the grey green white (whatever) but also the dark green. I decided to order some Tamiya paint - that should deal with the issue, right? Ideally I would have ordered some of Steve Toth's Blue Falcon Hobbies paint, but the last package from Steve got picked up by HM Customs and they demanded £50(!) to hand over 3 paint dropper bottles, so I had to go with plan B - Tamiya.

The Tamiya IJN Grey arrived and was duly used on six A6M2s and six A6M3s. I'm not that keen on the Tamiya paints - I'm sure with the right techniques and skills they're great, but my slap it on style doesn't seen to get good coverage, and while I am sure they're perfect on 1:48 scale, they look a bit dark on 1:200....

Then the decals for the Zeros arrived. Kevin Hammond at MiscMinis did a great job as always with these, however he included tail markings and fuselage stripes in batches of four (historically correct). As I had six planes this would mean a Chutai (flight) of four and another of two. I was also toying with the idea of doing one pair in the transitional grey plus hastily applied green splodges camo seen at the time, so maybe the logical choice was to do two groups of four?  I did have some "spares" from batch printing so two more were dug out and hastily undercoated. Having a 3d printer is marvelous but also makes you quite profligate. Ah well

So while I'm waiting for the Zeros to dry I started on the Bettys. They're big girls and there is a lot of glass to paint. I'm painting these in the lazy monotone IJN Dark Green - Tamiya again, and again I think they came out a bit too dark. Not sure if I need to maybe try a drybrush highlight? 

 

Guadalcanal Diary Part Three - (Bam Balam!)

OK I'm struggling with the title - been a long day :-)

In addition to the fighters, to do the heavy lifting, I'm going to need some bombers. The Mitsubishi G4M1 Type 1 Naval Attack Bomber, commonly known by it's Allied reporting name as the"Betty" is the logical choice. Entering service in 1941 as a replacement for the G3M "Nell", it was in almost all ways but one a superlative aircraft. The G4M had exceptional range, good speed and bombload, and good (for the time) defensive weapons. The only problem was to achieve that superlative range and other positive features the design sacrificed protection. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they did have a worrying tendency to burn if hit. When used as a high level bomber the speed and range of the G4M meant it could be hard to intercept. They could also be converted to carry torpedoes as well as bombs, and some squadrons were specially trained to do so with the aim of contributing to the IJN's Kantai Kessen (Decisive Battle) doctrine, where they would wear the strength of the US fleet down by long range air attacks before the two battle lines would meet. 

The Betty was the workhorse of the Imperial Japanese Navy's land based bomber force (fleet?) in WW2. Notable points were the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse, and the assassination (is that the right phrase??) of Admiral Yamamoto. Their long range meant they could bomb targets as far afield as China and Australia. The Betty was ubiquitous, wherever the IJN went, there was the G4M.

The G4M was a big bird, more akin to a Wellington or Mitchell in size and role than a Ju88 or Blenheim (for instance) and it has a distinctly portly appearance - the Japanese pilots nicknamed it "The Cigar" as a result of it's shape, though how much the flammability issue contributed is an interesting thought. The Allies were much more straight and to the point, calling them "The Flying Zippo". 

In many ways the Betty mirrored the Zero in design, with protection being sacrificed to achieve excellence in other areas (range in both cases). That analogy continues to the crews, who were honed to a very high standard of capability, but who could not be replaced easily when lost. At Guadalcanal, this became horribly apparent as squadrons were almost annihilated by Wildcats and AA in long range strikes against the US invasion fleet at Lunga Point. Some squadrons lost 75% of their combat strength and received no replacements.

Throughout the war the IJN tried to update the design, adding more defensive weapons and even some protection such as rudimentary self sealing fuel tanks, however the weakness was baked in to the design and even at the end, the Betty had a well earned reputation as a flying torch. The Betty ended it's career and the war as a launch platform for the Oka suicide rocket plane. 

In Blood Red Skies the Betty is a good medium bomber. Speed 6 is commendably nippy for such a big plane, and defensive firepower is adequate - FP1 all round with a bonus +1 in the rear arc due to the 20mm cannon in the tail . On the down side it is rated as Vulnerable,  so enemies firing at it get an extra attack dice, and it can't dodge incoming attacks with Agility 0. The FP 1 rating is ok but can be deceptive if you are facing Robust enemies such as Wildcats which can negate your FP.  

My models are from PlanePrinter - printed by Paul D for me on his machine as mine struggles a bit to deal with something this big. The base colour is Tamiya IJN Green, which I'm convinced is a bit too dark for 1:200, but too late now...............Decals from Misc Minis.

So, which way to Henderson Field?