Walking the less trodden paths in Blood Red Skies - Romania

I have to admit it, one of the reasons I love BRS is the attitude of the players. I mentioned before how when we started to make beta stats available I was expecting a flood of requests for some of the high profile late war super fighters such as the Ta152 or Tempest, but instead the community wanted .......sigh...... Brewster Buffalo. 

There is also a hard core of players who are not really interested in yet another Spitfire or 109 Squadron, but like to look further afield. It is easy to forget that World War Two was a World War involving many different nations, not just the big five, and also that the war was truly global. Many nations fought in the air in WW2 that (probably) will never get a mainstream release from Warlord, but maybe deserve some mention. This week I was invited to have a game against such an opponent by one of our local gamers Rob Hymer (Happy Birthday btw Rob!). Rob is a new BRS player and has a soft spot for the Romanian air force. 

I was vaguely aware of the Romanian air force in WW2, but I wouldn't want to say anything without at least doing some googling. Rob knows quite a bit more ! and wanted to try out his planes so I was happy to run a 4 v 4 game with my Soviet Yak 1s against his IAR 81s.

It was a fun game which the Soviets won eventually because I have much more experience than Rob in BRS, and also got lucky, but I hope he had a good game and I'm sure he will be back for another match up.

It also rekindled a nagging desire to go a bit out of the mainstream for my next BRS project. BRS does lend itself well to toe - dipping as you only really need 6 fighters and 3 bombers and you are good to go. Not sure what, but I suspect something like Hungarian or Dutch or maybe something out East?  

So without further ado here are some pics of the game, and also some of Robs other Romanian planes which I think shows just why getting out of the mainstream can be so interesting. Rob got his models from Shapeways as there are very few other sources at the moment - Cheers!    

And a couple of shots of some of Robs other planes - including a Plz11 

Err how many Gladiators is too many*? Blood Red Skies and the magic of 3d printing

I recently mentioned my first forays into the arcane art that is 3d printing here 3d-printing-world-turned-upside-down.html

and did a bit of an interview with Rich Carlisle about his new project RoCWorks here roc-works-is-taking-off-interview-with.html

So this is a sort of follow up to both of those as when RoC-Works started to put their .stl files on sale I decided to take the plunge and bought the Gloucester Gladiator.

I had a couple of failed prints, then shamefaced I read the instructions that helpfully came with the files, reset and levelled my print bed, and I'm now turning out Gladiators faster than the original factory! Moral of the story RTFM!

I think the key is the files come with the supports already in place, at a suitable print angle and tested on a Elegoo Mars (which is close enough to my Photon to make no difference). I can easily get three on a build plate. 

The prints are clean and well detailed, and although there is a lot of supporting material on the Gladiator, they clean up quickly and easily.

The file cost £11.25 (introductory price) and includes a licence to print for own use only - you can't sell them or give them away, but to be honest at that price it's an amazing deal, even factoring in the cost of resin and running the printer, so if a mate wants some I will tell him to buy the .stl and I will happily run some off for him.  

In fact it was so painless that I picked up the D520 file too. I thought I had zero interest in the French, however I'm now bugging Rich to do a Ms406! 

So this is all ok if you are a 3d printer owner, but what about the rest of us? RocWorks are making the physical models available for preorder now and are planning to ship on 17th August. Prices are more than the print your own, but still very competitive.  printed-resin-models-catalogue NB the prices are for multiple models not just singles!

I understand there are more models in the pipeline, and if so I will be running the printer for some time to come.

Musing time now, but with RoCWorks taking the hassle and strain out of the 3d printing process I suspect this business model may well start to gather some momentum. 

* Technically the answer is 8 if you are playing to the Air Strike force building rules...... 

Roc-Works is taking off - interview with Rich Carlisle about his new Blood Red Skies compatible range of models

Interesting news. I’ve been chatting to Rich Carlisle about his new project Roc-Works. For those who may not know, Rich was one of the guys at Warlord when BRS started and was very much one of the unsung heroes that helped get Blood Red Skies where it is. He left Warlord over the Christmas \ New Year and has been involved in a number of other projects since then, however he has always been a BRS guy at heart. Anyway, long story short, he has this new BRS related project “Roc-Works” which I think will be great news for all of us. I asked him to explain a bit more about Roc-Works and what it is about for the Blood Red Skis Ready Room, but the interview took in quite a bit more than I originally expected so here it is in full. 

RichC Hi Ken, you asked for a bit about what’s coming up for roc-works.co.uk, we’ll I’ve been busy putting together a place for everyone to come and find some fantastic sculpts by several talented people; including Aidan & Rowan Boustred and Steve Toth. Production-wise I’ve decided to go along the 3dSTL route to allow those with a printer of their own to build their airforces. I can also make these aircraft to order for those without a printer.

Ready Room (err me): That’s great – I’ve already got some of Steve’s work as we did a couple of crowd funding projects (ok not big crowds!)  to have Steve design and print models – his Meteor and Ki45 were beautiful. I’ve also see Aiden and Rowans excellent Fleet Air Arm stuff. So all 1:200 and ready to accept BRS bases?

RichC – yes! and I hope to have all available BRS products including bases on the store

Ready Room so I have to ask – what’s the price point? 

RichC Prices depend on the size of aircraft (and therefor sculptors time and materials etc) so an average size fighter is £13.50 for an STL and £4.50 for a single resin model. $USD prices will be similar based on exchange rates 

Ready Room. That’s not bad at all – what are you working on ?

RichC Our first releases will be the following:  Brewster F2A Buffalo ,  Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Oscar),   Gloster Gladiator ,  Fiat CR.42 Falco ,  Dewoitine D.520 . From the 2nd August, you’ll be able to order the STL files whilst the actual resin models will be ready for release from the 17th August. More models are to come asap; including the Messerschmitt Bf 109 F Tropical, Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb/c Tropical, North American Mustang Mk1 and a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber (with torpedo) I and the sculptors hope you’ll give roc-works.co.uk a look and keep an eye on our progress, we have a whole lot of aircraft we want to make including many not available in detail anywhere else.

Ready Room – I’m sensing a matched pairs theme?

RichC Partially, I had a wish list we (sculptors) talked priorities and it came together. We wanted Italians and Aidan had the Cr42 and already had a Gladiator. Whilst Steve was working on a Spitfire and we added the Bf109F to match it but mainly to fill gaps we think are needing filling

Ready Room – You mentioned Italians – is that going to be a thing?

RichC There are definitely a couple more that I'd like to do, some are already planned by Warlord (SPOILER ALERT - ITALIANS ARE A THING!)  So yes, I want to look at those smaller airforces and aircraft that are often overlooked.

Ready Room – Will the stls come with printing recommendations – angles , supports etc?

RichC The STL come with several files. Firstly the STL sculpt but also that sculpt pre laid up (Sprued) and saved as 2 types of common printer files. Lastly as a ChiTuBox workable file with spruces so you can see how it’s been approached. Oh and we’ll include a guide on the website

Ready Room – nods wisely (not sure I understand that but I’m sure it makes sense to people with 3d printers)

Ready Room – any plans for bigger planes?

RichC Bigger planes, absolutely. We may start with twin engined bombers initially and I’d love to see the first of them later this year. But first things first. Let’s see if people want them   

So if people are interested in new BRS compatible “stuff” get your names on the newsletter list for RocWorks at https://roc-works.co.uk

For the TLDR brigade here is the short version

New UK manufacturer of BRS compatible models

Available as either print your own or physical models

On sale 2nd August for stls and 17th August for physical models

How good is that 😊

Poor Quality in Blood Red Skies

Probably the most queried Trait in Blood Red Skies is "Poor Quality".  The text on the card is pretty simple :

"Rushed development and poor manufacturing practices held back many innovative designs. - In scenarios where a die roll is made for starting advantage, Deduct -1 from the roll for planes of this type."

The classic example is the Yak 1 in the initial "bendy" plastic releases. The Soviet aircraft industry was in disarray and quality control at the factories was suffering as the pressure to provide aircraft for the front. As a result some planes were rushed into squadrons with known defects - including parts becoming detached in flight. Similarly as the war situation deteriorated for the Axis forces some resources became scarce and were replaced by less ideal substitute materials ersatz rubber in aero engines for instance, which adversely impacted on performance in some cases. 

What Poor Quality does in effect, is to handicap such aircraft at setup, making it less likely to start Advantaged, or more pertinently, 50% of them will start Disadvantaged in Dogfight scenarios, which can be a PITA. There is no ongoing impact - they will still get to be Advantaged, they just take longer to do that, assuming the opposition doesn't get to them first!

 

That seems very simple. What has happened however is that as the game has developed the "team" has found some other uses for this card. The relationship between altitude and Advantage is a tangible but non specific one - you can be Advantaged or Disadvantaged at any altitude, but if you struggle with a sustained climb rate you are more likely to be disadvantaged at setup. There are a lot of aircraft types that we know due to design or other issues did not perform as well at climbing to higher altitudes due to lack of superchargers (for instance). A good example here being the P39 Airacobra. We struggled to represent this because we don't have low or high altitude. One option was to make climbing for advantage a test for such planes, however this would add another dice roll per plane per turn - lot of dice rolls, to a game involving such types. We really don't like adding layers of tests. BRS is about air combat, which is fast and furious, and one of the strong points is the quick turn sequence, so anything that adds tests and slows that down is avoided if possible. We did however already have a card that generated the right result in game - Poor Quality.  

Poor Quality is starting to appear more often because of this. It is morphing into a useful way of applying a negative to a plane's characteristics without inventing new Traits. We don't really like new Traits because they would have to be retrofitted to current releases, and the problems with cards etc make that undesirable to say the least. In the dim and distant future when we get V2 there will undoubtedly be more Traits added, but for now we are trying to keep to what we have.

So get ready for a bit more Poor Quality. Italian aircraft with battery powered radios*, or planes with no radios at all? PQ can work here because it can reflect the disadvantage these planes would be operating under without making them totally outclassed. Badly designed cockpits that overworked the pilot, same thing. There are many uses for PQ, so giving PQ to a beautifully build Macchi** doesn't mean it was badly manufactured, but that something about their design puts them at a disadvantage.

Cheers

*For some reason the Italian designers didn't think a dynamo \ alternator was needed on fighters. Instead of powering their radios by attaching them to the big rotating thing at the front that would generate copious amounts of electrical power, not the sons of Caesar, nope, they would use batteries. Like our mobile phones, battery life would deteriorate with use and age. The end result was the Italian fighter force in the early war period would only have enough power in their radios to communicate for a half hour or so, after which point they were down to wing waving and the like. Of course poor radios were not just an Italian thing. In 1940 it is fair to say most fighters had issues with radios, and Spitfire, Me109 and Zero pilots all struggled one way or another to reliably communicate with others in their flight, but these were mostly ironed out.  

** Saying nowt but I think our Regia Aeronautica players will be smiling soon(ish) once we start to get out of the Lockdown backlog :-) 

Battle Group Northag - Red3 Miniatures BTR

I was looking to fill the gaps in my Northag Soviets and generally scanning around for alternate models in 10/12mm when I heard a new company had entered the fray recently - Red3 Miniatures. They had some models that were not available elsewhere so I thought it would be interesting to put in a small order to check them out.

What I ordered was a BTR60 Command version, and some Gaz Jeeps . Turnaround was quick, and I have to say I am impressed with what I got.

Red3 BTR60PU and PSC BTR60PB comparison

Models are all white metal. Casting is clean and sharp with a minor sink hole on the rear of one of them which I expect will be invisible to the eye when in use.

The BTR60 Command looks to be a BTR60 PU minus the frame aerial. Having assembled a 15mm version of this particular machine I can understand why they decided to omit the aerial in 10mm - or it could be one of the many sub variants. The model itself comes in 2 parts - the hull and the turret \ generator \ aerial. The 2 part thing seems an excellent idea as it allows the model to share the hull with the standard BTR60 PB personnel carrier with a straight turret swap. Detail and proportion are excellent. All in all it is a very nice model.

The BTR60PU is probably a bit higher up the food chain than you would usually see on a Northag table and you wont need many - mine will be a Battlegroup Tac Command hauling around my ECM capability.

Will it mix with PSC? Not wishing to open the "10 mm isn't a scale" argument but the Red3 model is marginally bigger than the PSC ones, but I expect once they're  on table they will mix well enough.

All in all I like these - and expect I will be picking some other  models from them.

Check them out here : Red3 Miniatures

Battlegroup Northag BTR 60 "Bloody Tricky Resin???"

Box has arrived. Lock down slippers and vaguely interested cat

So I've spent a chunk of my hobby time over the last couple days assembling the models on my Soviet starter army for Battlegroup Northag from Plastic Soldier Company. The army arrived two days ago, so I've had some rather nice lunchtime sessions in the garden armed with a craft knife cleaning up the vehicles.

First thing that needs to said is that contrary to the name, these are NOT hard plastic. They're in a grey plastic \ resin which PSC are calling "Ultracast". To the uninitiated eye like mine this seems very similar to Warlord's new resin. This has some pro's and cons. For the gamer it is lightweight and holds detail quite well. Allegedly it takes paint without undercoat too, but I'm nothing if not a rebel so I'm going to undercoat mine - if only to keep Halfords in business in these hard times. Apparently it also resists chipping and paint rubbing off - the bane of any models in this scale. It sticks together with superglue - though in my case I must admit some bits took quite a time to cure. It is also a bit flexible. I know some people are worried about bendy barrels but mine seemed mostly ok and straightened out where needed with a quick hot water bath, and I suspect you will really have to try to actually snap one of these gun barrels. The other pro on this material is that it doesn't have the massive up front costs injection moulding carries with it, which I'm guessing is one of the reasons it is becoming more common.

Now the cons. I hated cleaning mould lines and flash on these models. My previous experience of similar - ie Warlord resin on Blood Red Skies models, was relatively pain free. They were mostly flash free, and where there was flash and mould lines these were on smooth and regular surfaces so could be carved off with a sharp Xacto. This stuff doesn't like scraping or filing - it just frays, so the best way to deal with it is to carve the flash away with a knife. The PSC BTR60 is a collection of bloody awkward shapes with mould lines in about the most inconvenient places - ie around the top of the wheels and around the turret at the mid point. It was made worse by there being rather a lot of flash between the wheels too on some of them - I got the impression PSC were rushing these through and QC may have taken second place to quantity. The turrets on the BTRs and BRDMs were equally frustrating due to the shape and position of the mould line -  ie half way down the conical turret sides. After cleaning 88 wheels and 12 turrets I was ready to stab someone - thankfully Social Distancing saved me. In fairness I have had the same problem with metal conical turrets but they seemed easier to fix.

The actual models seem reasonable. Proportions are good, detail is good, and parts fit is mostly excellent. There are a couple of models which have sink holes - I assume where the resin has contracted for some reason, but I would guess these will not be that obvious once painted (fingers crossed). The BTR 60 is a four part model - hull, turret and two sets of wheels (4 each). I wasn't sure if these were supposed to fit a certain way round - one slot on the hull is slightly different to the others and there was a corresponding tooth on the wheel frame, but they did fit either way around. In practice I didn't have enough of the corresponding wheels to be picky and once assembled I am unable to tell which had been assembled the "right" way anyway.

The T64s went together smoothly and are rather nice - again 4 parts, hull, turret and 2 track units, and the BRDMs were similarly straightforward.

Overall I am happy with them. I would much have preferred the hard plastic that PSC are famous for, but on the whole they are nice models. IF however I decide to do another Infantry Company, they will be in BMPs so I don't have to face those bloody wheels again. I have not looked at the infantry beyond a quick glance so I will deal with them later - I'm praying they are relatively flash free.

No pics as yet - everything is out in the garden drying off from the undercoat, but I will do a follow up post "soon" once the paint is on.

Cheers

Battlefront Northag - Back to the Future ?

I was always a great fan of Cold War \ What if? games. Being around at the time I was fascinated by the prospect of "Modern" warfare, and now I fondly remember the excellent WRG and Challenger rules. When Team Yankee came out a couple of years ago we gave it a try (there are a couple of blog posts way back if you are interested) however for a couple of reasons it never took off here.

Last year Plastic Soldier Company started talking about doing a version of the "Battlefront" series set in the early 80s, and they were planning to do it in 10mm scale. This peaked my interest. I've always found 10/12mm to be an attractive option for tank battles. This was reinforced by my experience with Dropzone Commander. It went on pre order at a time when I had a bit of spare ££££ so I thought "why not". The game was originally planned for release around Salute in April, but the current situation has forced that back. The new release date is today (3rd May) so I'm hoping the toys will arrive soon. In the meanwhile PSC sent a pdf copy of the rules to those who preordered, so I've had them a couple of weeks and given them a read through - or two, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I've not read or played any of the Battlefront series of games. I've nothing against them, but just not had the time. Having read these, I may well have a look at some of the others.

Battlefront Northag is set in 1983. This is an interesting and deliberate choice because it predates most of the West's new tanks getting into service. Games are going to be something more than a few un-killable super tanks versus a horde of junk Soviets. There is the usual Cold War goes Hot intro, then rules, and finally a couple of army lists for UK and Soviet forces that would have faced off in Northern Germany - other armies are planned. Thankfully artillery is very much an off table thing, and the infamous "Team Yankee" tank park would also seem to be absent - all good to me!.

PSC are supporting the game with a full list of vhicles and infantry in 10mm. I already have a stash of 10mm \ 1:144 models waiting for paint. I bought them to use with Team Yankee, but as I said, the urge was not there so I have something of a head start. I'm going to be playing Soviets, so having the odd tank Company spare may not be a bad thing!

T80 in 1:144 from Takara

I'll hopefully go into more detail in another post, but  for now I think this is looking like a great little game. Rules are £20 and the two starter armies are £30 for the Brits and £70 for the Sovs - but you get your Rubles worth as that Soviet set includes 22 vehicles and over 100 infantry. The starters are up for sale on the PSC website now, with support units to follow "soon".

Worth a look.

SB2 for Blood Red Skies Part 3

I'm going to finish this up with a few thoughts on the Zvezda SB2, and then for balance a quick look at the same plane from Armaments in Miniature.

On the whole I think the Zvezda kit is a nice model and by re-boxing it (and the Blenhiem and Ju88) Warlord have managed to plug something of a gap for Blood Red Skies players. Well done to Warlord for what must have been some fast thinking and fancy footwork.

I can't help but feel however that the style of the SB2 model is out of kilter with the "home grown" Warlord releases, which have a lot of over-scale panel lines that make them a bit more fun to paint. That's not to say there is a problem with the Zvezda kit, it just doesn't share the same style. You can paint panel lines freehand of course, but it will not be as easy as on the Warlord models. It also has some parts that are clearly destined to snap off with normal gaming handling - which is a surprise given these were originally designed as gaming models for Zvezda's "Art of Tactic" game. Having said that, they're not going to be missed and do not contribute towards the overall look of the model particularly anyway, so its not a big issue.

All in all a thumbs up there!

Now on to Armaments in Miniature

Coincidentally I also had a SB2 by Dave Schmid's Armaments in Miniature (AIM), so I thought it would be interesting to paint that one up in the same style to compare to the Zvezda ones.

AIM models are cast in lightweight resin so should sit on an Advantage \ Bomber base for BRS with no over balancing. However to do that you will need to deal with one slightly unusual AIM feature - the hoofing big screw and resin mounting sticking out of the bottom. AIM does this so the models can be attached to a base with a magnet, but I don't think that is needed for BRS and it is pretty obvious. Getting the screw and plug off is simple but takes some faith and balls at first as it feels like you are going to break something, however a pair of side clippers does the job without too much fuss and after a bit of sanding the resultant hole can be opened up to take a Hawk Widget so they will sit on an Advantage base, or you could use greenstuff to make a socket. It is a fairly easy job but it does add to the general level of "faffing on".

AIM are single piece castings, so other than a little cleaning up and removing the screw (if you want to) there is no assembly, which is a plus if you have big clumsy fingers and the innate ability to spill glue like I do this is welcome. The detail is less fine than on the Zvezda models, and on the SB2 in some places is positively agricultural, and it looks "plumper" (more Fat Yak syndrome?) but it does score over the Zvezda kit in that it has a plethora of panel lines to paint.  Interestingly the AIM version has what I think are the earlier SM100 engines with front mounted radiators that look a bit like radials (but aren't).

Dimensions on both models are similar enough that I would be happy using both even in the same flight, though the AIM model looks a little chunkier. I expect on the finer points of dimensions Zvezda to have this right, as they're a "real" established plastic kit company based in Russia so should have excellent research opportunities and production facilities , whereas Dave from AIM is a talented hobbyist working out of a small (I presume) set up.

So here are both models painted in the same style, with the AIM SB2 closest to the camera. I have not finished the undersides, or fitted the Advantage base, but I think it is a fair comparison shot for the purpose of this blog.

All in all the AIM model is a nice option. Pricing is very reasonable $6 each, and shipping from the US to UK is reasonable too. Of course you don't get the Advantage base, cards etc to play Blood Red Skies, but if you have spares you can swap those over as I plan to do.  I understand Warlord are planning to sell the bases on their own so if that happens (and I hope it does soon) AIM becomes a real option, particularly for the planes Warlord don't make.

All in all I think I prefer the AIM model, but only just. If I were buying specifically for BRS and didn't have any spare bases I would buy the Warlord version. As it is I am going to mix and match.

Here is a link to Armaments in Miniature - Dave doesn't have an online shop, but you can easily email him with your requirements and he responds quickly and efficiently.

If you found this helpful or interesting you can subscribe to the blog by clicking the button on the right. Thanks!

Warlord \ Zvezda Tupolev SB2 for Blood Red Skies Part2 - paint

For clarity I'm going to keep calling these "Zvezda" kits even though they are reboxed by Warlord. As I mentioned in the earlier post the kits went together well and with little problems. I decided NOT to use the conversion "plug" that they come with that allows you to mount the models on the Advantage bases for Blood Red Skies - I'm using Hawk Wargames "widgets" which are a bit smaller and work well for smaller bombers like the SB2, and I have a bag full left over from Dropzone and Dropfleet Commander.

I was now in a hurry to get them done and table ready. The Zvezda kits have clear canopies and front and rear glasshouses. I toyed withe the idea of leaving them clear and painting the frames etc - then common sense took over - all the other planes will have painted canopies so why bother with these? I stuck them down and undercoated everything in a white primer - so far so good. Once the primer was dry I sprayed the upper sides a suitably "Soviet" green. This was pretty much my first error. Looking at the various sources it became clear that many (most?) SB2s were left in bare aluminium until the war broke out, and camouflage was applied by the ground crews, in many cases by just painting wavy lines or "squiggles" in green leaving quite a bit of the aluminium showing. I think this would have looked quite "cool" but couldnt face it - the plan being to keep things simple*. I finished blocking areas with green and light blue gray undersides, then went to have a look at panel lines....... but there are none on the model. This is no real surprise. Panel lines are going to be invisible at this scale, however I have to admit I love painting the Warlord models partly because the exaggerated scale of the panel lines makes them "pop". The only lines on the Zvezda kit are the flaps and rudder, which I painted a darker green. I also painted the exhausts etc and added some prominent exhaust marks on the tops of the wings. I still have the undersides to complete but I was hoping to get them on table asap so left that for "later". I did add a "panel line" around the rear fuselage as the joint between the tail unit and fuselage was pretty obvious - I didnt want to have to start filling and sanding on such small planes, so a line happily hides that joint.

Decals were "interesting" too. I didn't use the ones in the kit but I replaced them with some from Mehusla I had lying around. I had intended to paint the rudders a contrasting colour but then thought - CBA for the moment.

Here's where I am now

I still need to attach the props - or rather the spinners - I'm going to cut the prop blades off as they are clearly going to snap in use anyway. I was thinking about using some acetate circles - depends on how I feel later. Once the undersides decals are on and some minor detailing done I think I may go back and paint some panel lines on the wings.

As you can no doubt tell I'm rushing this build and cutting corners where maybe I should not. Even so, I think they look OK. Next post I will try and sum up, and maybe compare them with "the competition" third party models that I have lying around.

*as an aside it looks like even the more "professional" 2 and 3 colour camo schemes were applied ad hoc by individual units - which has the advantage of making it difficult to go wrong.

Cleared for Take Off - Blood Red Skies

Sorry for the delay posting, it has been a busy couple of weeks on the gaming front. I've been to Salute, the Lardies released What a Tanker, Warlord started shipping Blood Red Skies, and I went to "WorLard" - I'll start with Blood Red Skies.

It has certainly been a while coming, and technically the retail release date is May, but the "pre order" stock has been shipped and as some of that is with distributors it is now pretty much generally available. That raises an interesting thought - if Warlord are holding their game for a later retail date than the distributors are they not missing out on possible sales themselves? Answers and thoughts in the comments below please.

Anyway the two player starter set has arrived Chez Renko, along with a Squadron of Yaks and an Ace for the Brits, Germans and Russians. There are plenty of "unboxing" articles and videos in places like Beasts of War so I wont bother with that, but I will give my general thoughts.

Firstly the box is very nice - well designed with all the bits in a clear plastic tray. - It looks more commercial than the usual stuff we associate with wargames and is I think designed to be played straight from the box with minimal assembly if you want. The quality of the supporting material is also good, nice heavy duty punch board counters and clouds etc and....

er what's that? Stop padding and get to the main point - the toys and how it plays? OK

So the toys. You get six Spitfires MkIIs and six Me109 Es. They're plastic, with Spitfires coloured brown and Me109s grey - and some of them are going to be clearly warped. This isn't a problem as they respond immediately to a nice hot water bath. The plastic is a bit flexible - certainly not the hard injection moulded stuff we expect from Warlord in the past, but I suspect that is deliberate (more later). The Spitfire is the nicer of the two models imho with little or no real faults. The 109 is less easy to love, with a strange bend to the bottom of the fuselage, rather clunky wings and the wrong panel lines for an E version. Having said all that they paint up nicely and are actually fun to paint too.

I've not painted the Spitfires yet but will do so "soon". I have painted up the Yak 1 Squadron box. This contains six Yaks and all the required bits to play, this time in a proletarian green plastic. These also painted up fast and easy, as shown below.

I was watching "The Attackers" on Amazon and all the Yaks are streaked with soot and dirt so I thought - "why not?"

The model again is not too bad at all - a bit thick through the fuselage - "Phat Yak" syndrome, but nice enough.

Ok back to why they're not the usual hard plastic. I think this is deliberate. BRS models are going to take a lot of handling as their Advantage status changes, so they need to be robust. They are also not targeting the rivet counting market, aiming for gaming piece quality rather than model quality. The choice of a slightly more flexible plastic and omission of details that would easily snap off will avoid sad piles of broken gun barrels and radio aerials (I'm looking at you Wings of Glory) - it's a trade off. Similarly the models come with basic self adhesive stickers NOT decals - another nod towards the "open the box and play" idea. Warlord are planning to sell more detailed waterslide decals and there are other suppliers (the ones in my pics are from 1:144 Direct on ebay - confusingly they're 1:200)

Now the important bit. The game plays VERY well. My initial thoughts \ concerns that I would struggle controlling more than 4 planes has gone - I played 8 Yaks and it worked fine - possibly helped by getting bounced on turn 1 and being reduced to 7 before any of my planes moved, but...

I think Warlord may have got this right, and although I can (and have) picked fault with just about every model, they do the job they're designed for well. The game is quick to learn and play in basic mode but surprisingly nuanced once you include the cards and advanced rules included in the starter set. There are some detail problems they should have caught earlier - the measuring stick thingy is a PITA to use and I have a sneaking suspicion it may be a bit "wrong" but as long as everyone uses the same it doesn't matter. Similarly there are a couple of typos that probably should have been fixed but were not. None of that detracts from the game as a whole.

Happy to recommend this one

btw - if you like this sort of thing why not click the "Follow" button over to the top right, then you wont miss anything.

Cheers

Blood Red Skies models (5) Zero

Penultimate look at the soon to be released "Blood Red Skies" models, this time the Japanese A6M5 Reisen “Zero” \ “Zeke”. As with the others, I should stress these are pre production resin models not the hard plastic expected on release. They are exactly as I received them, ie I've made no attempt at cleaning up flash or mould lines. Lastly the pics are blown up so remember were dealing with a model about 5cm long - the grid shown is 1cm.

The model is listed as the A6M5, the original of which first flew in mid 1943. Dimensions and proportions are as close to 1:200 as I can tell. Detail is similar to the rest of these models, a lot of over scale panel lines which I think will paint up well, and the signature external exhausts of the A6M5. What is lacking are the 20mm cannon barrels I would have expected on the wings, but to be honest that could easily be fixed with a bit of sprue if it means that much to you. The wing panels also seem to be the earlier A6M2 configuration. The choice of A6M5 is a bit of a strange one given the in service dates are not a match with any of the other fighters in BRS – if it had been an A5M2 for instance it would have matched up with the first three planes in the range quite nicely at least on in-service dates. That raises the question, could you use this model as an A5M2? The answer is a fairly clear if qualified “yes”. The earlier version has a longer wingspan and lacks the exhausts I mentioned, but to the casual, or anyone other than a rivet counter gamer that is probably not a real issue.

Last I will look at the P51D Mustang.

Building an Impetus Army - Just in case Santa got the note!

I've been asked a couple of times by the guys in the shop about playing Impetus and choosing your armies, so I thought this would make an interesting post topic (I hope you agree!). What follows is a list of things I think you should think about before you start.

1. Scale
OK I know this seems stupid but "some" people (looking at you Mark) seem to forget that you really need an opponent. Make sure whatever you are buying is in the same scale as the local gaming group, unless you are ploughing a lonely solo furrow, it really helps if your toys are the same scale as your likely opponent. In my area this means 28mm for preference. There are several advantages here. 28mm is easily available, and although the individual figure cost is higher than 15mm and 20mm, you will use fewer figures per unit, so 28mm also tends to be cheaper. Lastly , if you are of "a certain age" they're still big enough to see :-)

2. Cost
The next thing you need to have in your mind is budget. Historical wargaming is not expensive compared to the Fantasy \ Sci Fi stuff around at the moment, and if you are used to paying GW'esque prices this is probably not such a problem. That said do a little bit of a costing per figure to give you a rough idea, and if its looking too rich, maybe think again as if you cant hit the playing points level, you probably wont get to play.... As a general rule historical infantry are about £1-£1.50 each in metal, cavalry between £3-£5. Plastics are cheaper

3. Time
One thing non historical gamers sometimes are surprised by is the size of historical armies. There are a few that can be built at low figure counts, but most are going to be 100+ infantry and at least a couple of dozen cavalry. That can be a significant painting time commitment.  Impetus isn't a "boutique" game with a few figures and simple rules. Building an Impetus army is a much bigger and challenging project. Of course it is worth the effort, but it is a lot of effort and will take you months not weeks to complete.

So that's part 1. If you are still interested I will look at what you should think about when choosing an actual army.

Cheers!

Is there such a thing as Painters Block?

I think if there is, I had it.

And the culprit was this little feller.

This is a MT-90 Jackson Armoured Personnel Carrier from the Resistance faction of Dropzone Commander, parked in front of a suspiciously 1950s looking LiftHawk dropship. It looks a bit brighter than in real life - me being lazy and using a flash on my camera rather than get the light right. It is a strange vehicle, supposed to be a military leftover from before the alien Scourge invasion. As far as APCs go it is fine, however it is not used very often in the game, mainly because there are usually better ways for the Resistance to deliver their infantry to the battlefield. You get three of them in a Resistance Starter Army set. This is quite important in that I have two starter boxes of Resistance troops, meaning six in all. Having painted three up in fairly standard military colours I was searching around for inspiration on the other three and read in the fluff that the Jackson was also quite common in Police forces, particularly with SWAT units. So I decided to paint it up as a Police vehicle taken over by the Resistance.

And then it happened. Painters Block. I could not for the life of me finish the model. I got so frustrated that I put the damned thing away and left the Resistance stuff to gather dust as I fluttered to other projects. Then earlier this week I volunteered to loan out the Resistance to a friend who wanted to play Dropzone but had no suitable toys. I was a bit rash as I could not for the life of me remember what I had painted. When I checked I was relieved to discover I already had painted to one degree or another enough toys for now, but there, staring up at me like a lost grail. was the "Police" Jackson. How hard could it be? Actually not hard at all - whatever caused the block was gone and I ran up the little number in short order - and I was free! So I'm now looking forward to painting yet more Resistance - probably another blue & yellow M90, but also maybe a black SWAT version, then a Police LiftHawk and then....

Normal service will be resumed just as soon as we are sure what that is............

I suppose the name should have warned me - Dropzone Commander Resistance Leviathan Hovercraft

Names are not a reliable indicator. Take this as an example

This is the Douglas TBD "Devastator" torpedo bomber of WW2 vintage. It was never really going to live up to the name - partly because US torpedos were generally awful at the time, but mostly because it was pretty crap. 41 attacked the Japanese fleet at Midway, only 6 survived and they achieved no hits. To be fair they were so easy to shoot down the Japanese fighters were all drawn down to the turkey shoot and the US dive-bombers got a free run in and changed the direction the war in the Pacific was heading. Incidentally the pic is of the cover of the Airix box - nostalgia strikes again :-)

So when I saw the Leviathan hovercraft from Hawk Wargames I was not immediately overawed. This is the stock shop pic and it doesn't give much of an impression of size

Sure it looks a bit bigger than this - the Kraken, which is the other hovercraft the Resistance use

Then I stuck one together, and frankly it is HUGE! Pictures say a thousand words etc so here is my latest addition after being stuck together, posed artistically with a Hannibal Heavy Tank, and a Kraken. I'll try and get a better lit shot later but this gives a reasonable impression of the size of the thing!

For such a big model it went together very well. The resin parts needed careful cleaning and trimming but the fit on the whole was pretty tight. I may use some Greenstuff on some of the joints, then again I may get away without it. Dry runs before assembly are the order of the day - particularly as if you want to have the ramps operate you need to fit one hinge, then the door, then the other hinge in that order as the ramp itself will not clip in (as I first thought). The lack of instructions is probably the only minor point against this model, and even then it is self evident what goes where just by looking at the box. There are 21 parts in the model - technically 25 as you get alternate weapon options of AA guns or rocket launchers and all of them were clean cast with no bubbles and minimal flash, but you do need to take care cleaning the areas where the pour hole or vent has been. Luckily the resin is easy to work with, a sharp knife and emery board (stolen from Mrs R) were enough. Detail is phenomenal, which is pretty much what we have come to expect from Hawk.

If there is a problem with the Leviathan, it's the price. as one will set you back £35 RRP, which is a reasonable chunk. I wouldn't get one if I were just starting out, but then again if you are starting out your Resistance army wont have either 24 Technicals or 12 Trucks to move around, so you wont need one. Actually that may be a fairly big restriction on the Leviathan, as most Resistance armies I have seen don't go for big truck or technical units, but rather prefer to use the more resilient ex military stuff.

Ok there is another problem too - at just about six inches wide you may find some streets too narrow to get the damned thing down! On the plus side the Leviathan offers Resistance players a great way to move a lot of otherwise vulnerable units at reasonable speed, and also comes with some pretty serious AA or artillery support functions too. Great model - can't wait to get it painted.

More on Dropzone Buildings

Part 2 – with some added text - and a disclaimer. I'm not associated with Waugh Games other than as a user of the shop - just in case you were wondering.

OK a bit of background. Brian Waugh is the owner operator of Waugh Games, which is a gaming shop on the outskirts of Middlesbrough. I’ve used the facilities he provides to organise local gaming tournaments, initially for Impetus, and more recently for Dropzone Commander.

Brian saw some of the mdf buildings available to DZC, and decided he could do better. He made a couple of prototypes but I was not very impressed, basically just boxes with squares cut in them. He then got Jez Evans to do some more interesting designs, and this is what we have here. Jez said he looked for real world buildings and then tried to get them into Dropzone friendly dimensions, and I think this has really paid off.

All the range is laser cut mdf, supplied unassembled and unpainted. They’re simple to assemble, as most are still just “boxes” although some have some internal inserts to blank out some of the larger openings, or external panels to give some relief. Interestingly, they all come with some small roof detailing – fans, vents and ducts, which adds something to the basic models. The level of detail is on the whole good

As you can see from the pics they paint up well – again Jez did the paintwork.

These will certainly fill out the table with some nice looking buildings. I’m getting that Cinema to use as my Resistance HQ building so am already looking for Rocky XXII posters to stick on the walls J.

I think the real question will be pricing. The webshop is being revamped as part of the move to the new (larger) Gaming Centre, but as soon as they are done I’ll report back, but they seem to hit a reasonable balance of price to detail.

Here is the demo layout.

The base board was just pained green, roads were printed from the Hawk downloads site and stuck down, then a metric sh*tload of mixed flock was applied. Finally the whole lot was sealed. I have played on it three times now and it really enhances the experience*

*Or something like that

New Dropzone Buildings from Waugh Games

As I mentioned in the post over the weekend, Waugh Games have a new range of laser cut mdf buildings for Dropzone Commander or any similar 10mm scale game. I tried to get some photos at the Teesside Wargames Convention but the lighting was pretty poor, so I have arranged with the owner Brian to drop in to their new Gaming Centre to get some better pics.

They say a picture says a thousand words so I'll just leave it up to the pics :-)