Painting Wildcats fast and dirty

VMF-223 ready to leave the painting table

With the new Midway starter set for Blood Red Skies now available I thought it may help if I shared how I painted my Wildcats. I did a similar post about Zeros here if you are interested here . I'm no expert but I think they look ok on the table. In this case I'm going to be painting them up as US Marines based on Guadalcanal rather than one of the Midway Squadrons, but the process is the same.

1. Clean the model up. Give them a quick wash in warm soapy water and let them dry. Warlord suggest this may not be needed with their new resin but it's a good habit to get into. Check for any spurs or casting points, and clean up any mould lines. Then do it again because you almost certainly missed something !

2. On the Warlord Wildcats, check they sit on the base. There is a widely reported problem with the mounting slot being too tight on the first batch of (blue) resin Warlord Wildcats. I think it is caused by the moulding process and has been fixed on the second (grey) production run. It is annoying but an easy fix, just run an Exacto or similar knife carefully round the mounting triangle. 

3. Undercoat. I used a GW Contrast spray undercoat - Grey Seer iirc. In the past I've used a standard cheap grey primer spray from Halfords, but I've discovered Grey Seer is a reasonable match to the light grey used on many planes in WW2 and it cuts out a stage of painting if you use the same colour for undercoat and underside, and I'm lazy. You can use an airbrush if you have one and can be bothered.

4. Block Paint. Block the undersides in light grey (or if you are lazy like me just paint around the Grey Seer.  I also use Vallejo but there are many others. The upper surfaces I used Vallejo Blue Grey which I think looks about right. Quick side note - "Looks about Right" is what you want. There are acres of books and more internet posts about the "right" colour to paint your models. Use them as a guide not a bible. Once they leave the factory the paint on any service aircraft fades and weathers with alarming speed. In the case of Wildcats this is even more pronounced as they are exposed to salt water if ship borne, or in the case of the Marines at Guadalcanal just parked in the open or under canvas. Also think a shade or two lighter if you can, as smaller models need a bit of a hike in colour otherwise they tend to look a bit dark for "reasons". Block the canopy in your chosen colour. I use light blue and highlight with a lighter blue just out of habit. I'd also run some gunmetal or similar around the spinner and engine. If you are unsure about colours then there are sets of paint available from Hataka or Blue Falcon Hobbies that take some of the angst out of the decision making process - Blue Falcon in particular are made by a BRS player for BRS models so are worth a look but are US based so not easily available in the UK.

5. Tidy up. Using the same colours as the blocking go back over any details you want and straighten any areas you missed. Paint the canopy bars, and the tyres. This is where you can add any oil streaks or gun soot if you are so inclined.

6. Panel lines. There are four schools of thought here: 1. Don't bother. This is probably most realistic as at any distance panel lines are going to be invisible in real life. Problem here is they do look so pretty, and without panel lines the single colour camo scheme like used on these Wildcats look a bit bland. 2. Use a thinned wash over everything. Something like Army Painter soft tone or GW Agrax \ Nuln Oil. I think he trick here is to be careful not to overdo it, and you may need to highlight over some areas if you get it wrong. I've tried this in the past and got it wrong so it isn't for me. 3. Use a clay based wash. Some people swear by Florry Wash or similar. My experience has been less than good but I suspect this may be something to do with how I apply the damned thing. Again I pass here. So that leaves 4 -Pin wash. Follow the panel lines with a thinned paint or ink in a suitable colour. On my Wildcats I used GW Contrast because I had some lying around. I quite like this for panel lines as it sinks into them well and gives a bit of a faded edging look. If you are doing panel lines a coat of gloss varnish really helps before you start (good tip there) as it helps with capillary action. 

5. Decals. The Warlord set are good, but are for the Midway carrier group and I'm doing  USMC unit so ordered from Miscellaneous Miniatures. They arrived in about a week from the US.  Wildcat markings are pretty simple, but check for some online pics for location if you are not certain, in particularly note the biggest stars go on the fuselage sides which are HUGE, and where the . I use Decasol \ Decaset to soften the decals once in place but it's personal choice. 

I then gloss varnish over the decals, and finally matt the whole model down. Done!  

As I said - quick, I think but they look fine on the table.

Blood Red Skies - "Grisha" Rechkalov - Bad Boy Red Ace?

While I have been taking a break I discovered a “spare” P39 model.  I have a Squadron of six painted up in Soviet colours so I thought as a little side project I would paint it as an Ace for Blood Red Skies.

But which one? I did a bit of research and decided on Grigoriy Andreyevich 'Grisha' Rechkalov, Double HSU (Hero of the Soviet Union) and a bucket of other awards gained mostly while flying Lend Lease P39s with 16 GIAP.

This is him - baby faced chap second from the left.

 

Incidentally the four pilots in this pic have more than 120"kills" between them.

And this is one of his P39s 

There were a couple of reasons for choosing him. 

1) He was the highest scoring Airacobra Ace (of any nationality, not just Soviet), with 50 of his 56 claimed kills coming while flying the P39. Putting that into perspective, the highest scoring US Ace was Richard Bong, with 40, and Johhny Johnson was the RAF highest scorer with 34*.

2) The markings for Grisha’s plane are included in the Soviet P-39 Airacobra decal sheet from Miscellaneous Miniatures - link here. 

3) He seems to have been a bit of a character, being subject to some rather pointed comments from his compatriots. This is unusual in the old Soviet Union where their heroes tend to be portrayed as whiter than white (Redder than Red?) Communist icons untainted by any criticism. Also there is some details that could be used to assign the two Ace Skills needed to him. All Good so far

4) The paint project looks simple enough but different to the "normal" Soviet P39s I have due to the tail flash. At least that's what I thought. More on that later..........

So what about Grisha’s skills? 

Firstly he seems to have been a bit what we could call a “glory hunter”. He had a rather big "beef" with Pokryshkin who he flew with as wing-man, and later they had a major falling out that resulted in him being relieved of command of a Squadron for "losing control, indecisiveness and lack of initiative" - ie concentrating more on his own kills than looking after the pilots under his command. This is all rather salacious and well worth a google if you are interested in the rivalries between aces, even supposedly fraternal Soviet ones. In return Retchkalov claimed Pokryskin was padding his kill stats by claiming as his own some of Retchkalov's kills.  It doesn't seem to have harmed his career too much as he later became a General post war. In Blood Red Skies Aces have special skills, and one of them is “Loner”, which grants bonuses to pilots if they operate away from friends, so that seems appropriate for Grisha.

Secondly, everyone, even his critics commented on his superb marksmanship. This should come as no surprise as you don’t get 50 kills if you cant shoot straight. There are a number of Ace Skills that can apply here, “Accurate”, “Killer Instinct” and “Tail Snapper” all would work, but I think Accurate is a good enough fit. That would give him a +1 shooting dice. Killer Instinct is a bit of a waste as his 37mm canon supplied by the Bell Aircraft Corporation already makes his P39 rather dangerous.

The last factor is his bonus to either Agility or Firepower from being a named Ace. Either seems reasonable, but I think I would go for +1 Agility.

So what would this package cost? I asked Andy Chambers (Name drop) and he thinks 125 points, which is not unreasonable, and combined with the bargain 23 points for an early P39 makes him just about "do-able" in a points based list. Maybe. 

How will he play - no idea, but if he's in a Soviet P39 we're looking at an eight dice attack with auto Critical which is "spicey", but a bit of a liability for the rest of the Squadron.

So now all I need is to find someone with talent who can lay out an Ace card. Step forward the multi talented Martin Wilson who proceeded to create this for me (Cheers m8!)

Postscript. All that was written with a mind to adding him to my Soviet Airacobra Squadron, so just before I planned to start the painting I dug them out to refresh my memory on the scheme I had used, only to discover I already had painted one up as an Ace - a certain G.A. Rechkalov ..... you really can't make this up!

Grisha and a wingman and yes I had forgotten I had already painted him!

If you fancy trying out a Soviet P39 Squadron you can get the models from Warlord here or from Armaments in Miniature here . You can use the standard stat card from the Warlord US sets. The Soviets were not enamoured of the wing guns and often removed them. If you want to do that you can use the "Reduced Armament" Equipment card, which adds Agility at the cost of Firepower. Alternatively Martin has created this card using the Beta stats from The Ready Room (which coincidentally IS Rechkalov's P39)

I mentioned earlier that Rechkalov flew as wingman for Pokryskin. If you feel like recreating this pairing he is already available as an Ace from Warlord, this time in his MiG3 which you can find here 

*Pat Pattle was credited with at least 50 kills but as the Squadron records were lost in the fall of Greece these are sometimes overlooked. Nothing at all to do with Pattle being a South African not a Brit, no, absolutely not…..
  

“What-a-mistaka-to-maka” as Capitano Alberto Bertorelli from Allo Allo may say. Thinking about Italians for Blood Red Skies

My Blood Red Skies collection is a bit eclectic. I have RAF, RAAF, Fleet Air Arm, IJN, IJA, Soviets, Luftwaffe, Finns, Dutch and even a few US Squadrons. 

I have been waiting around for Warlord to release Italians for well over a year, actually closer to two years. We’ve seen the model masters, I’ve even seen the box art, but the actual production models – nope. I have no idea why this is. Warlord have in the same time period released a totally revamped Italian range for Bolt Action, and Italian ships for Victory at Sea. Surely it makes sense to release the Blood Red Skies Italians at the same time to tie it all in???

Apparently not

So waiting patiently. Except I think I’ve had enough of that. If Warlord are happy to sit on models and not support the game then I think I’m justified in looking and spending my hobby £££ elsewhere. Here is my plan.

As always, I like to collect matched fighter and bomber Squadrons, and probably early, mid and late war options. So what do I go for?

Early -with some trepidation I think either a biplane Squadron of CR42s or FIAT G50s and some FIAT Br20s may be an idea. These have the advantage of being deployed against the RAF during the Battle of Britain by the Corpo Aereo Italiano (CAI). The trepidation about the CR42s is my previous experience with biplanes is they’re fiddly to paint and (IMHO) they’re not that good in game

Mid War – Macchi 200 or 202s and Ju87s are nice options and would theme well as Malta or Western Desert.

Late War – one of the Serie 5 types, not sure it matters which as they’re all excellent C205, G55 or Re 2005 like I say they’re all bloody great, and Sm79s as bombers – ok this last is a bit mixed as the Sm79 fought all the way through but there were no really late war bomber planes available. I’d like a Re2001 in there, and just for giggles a Breda 65, which has to be one of the worse warplanes in history, but that would probably be a bit too far.

So where are these models coming from? Six Squadrons or thirty models in total. I’d like to support Warlord by buying their products, but if they don’t offer them and have sat on them for literally years with no suggestion they’re ever going to release them and don’t seem interested I’ll 3d print them, or get them from Armaments in Miniature. If Warlord ever get around to releasing their models, well sadly that boat will have sailed.

Any thoughts?