Plucky Little Belgium (3) Early Fighters, some more dangerous than others..................

Belgian Fighters

First up one of the prettiest and fondly remembered fighters of WW1, the Nieuport 11 "Bebe". This was a plane loved by its pilots and respected by the enemy. The Bebe is as close to strapping an engine and wings on a pilot as you are likely to get. It was tiny, and light as a feather, and had a single fixed forward firing Lewis machine gun firing over the propeller from the top wing. It was one of the Entente types that ended the "Fokker Scourge" and won back air superiority for the Entente. It also had a profound effect on aircraft design. In Germany, the novel sesquiplane layout, where the bottom wing was thinner and staggered back to improve pilot view was copied by Albatros for their DIII design, which went on to devastate the Entente in Bloody April 1917. The Albatros also inherited the N11s fragile lower wing, which was not such a problem on the lightweight Bebe but was a critical weakness on the Albatros which was prone to wing failures at high speeds.  The Bebe also influenced the Entente designers who saw the success the lightweight N11 was having, and drew the wrong conclusion that nimble rotary engined lightweight fighters were the way forward. Belgium managed to get hold of some N11s as the design was starting to be replaced in French and British units.

 The model is another Shapeways 3d print, and it is a lovely little model full of character just like the original.

Next up is one of the most dangerous fighters to see service in WW1 - The Ponnier M1.

The Ponnier had been rejected by the French Airforce because it was too dangerous to fly. French Ace Charles Nungesser, a man who by any standards had ice water in his veins, crashed one in testing, was seriously injured and refused to get in one again - this is a man who flew under bridges for fun and had coffins and skulls painted on the side of his planes! The problems were mainly lateral stability - the M1 had short stubby wings which made rolling rather easy, but the tiny one piece rudder meant it was far too easy to lose control, and an engine that tended to overheat thanks to a miss shaped nose cone that restricted airflow over the cylinders. The French then offered them to the Russians, who with foresight declined. Belgium was desperate for fighters and sent some officials to France to buy SPADs. The French were very apologetic but had none spare, but would our allies and fraternal cousins like some of these Ponniers we have available? Belgium ordered 30. Belgian Ace Willi Coppens found out about the deal and went ballistic. He was a friend of Nungesser and lead a concerted campaign to get the Ponnier grounded. Ten were delivered and after some heavy modification which may have sorted out most of the problems a few saw operational service for a couple of months until replacements could be found. Most Ponniers however had their wings removed and were used as training aircraft to teach pilots how to taxi.

I love my Ponnier. The model is another 3d print from Shapeways. In Wings of War \ Glory the M1 performs well enough - quite fast and not too bad in the turn, and all the more fun to see the look on your opponents face when he tries to work out just what he is facing.

Plucky Little Belgium (2) A few steps forward, and a few back

More on my forray into the Belgian Airforce in WW1

As the war wore on it became clear the Belgians needed new aircraft

Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter. Belgium was in dire need of some more modern planes, and received "spare" Strutters from both England and France. This is one of the English sourced ones which were 2 seaters, the French supplied versions (licence built) tended to be single seaters with the weight saved allocated to bombs. The pics of the original show the RFC roundel was hastily overpainted and I have tried for that effect here. Yet another Shapeways model.

Next the RE8. This is an "official" Wings of War model, and the cause of much heartache. The RE8 was supplied to Belgium by Britain as a replacement for the ageing collection of F40s, GIVs etc. The RE8 was at best an obsolete design when it entered British service, by the time it arrived in Belgian hands it had a reputation as an easy kill. The reasons are pretty simple. The British "Higher Ups" thought that an airplane should be stable and easy to fly so that the crew could get on with the important stuff like leaning over the side taking photographs. They built the RE series to do just that, and ended up with slow flying planes that could not evade any enemy that came looking for them. Even worse the RE8 turned out to be flimsy and a bit of a handful to fly, being prone to stalls and badly balanced so that there was a warning on the side that said something like "It is dangerous to try to take off WITHOUT an observer or counterweight in the rear cockpit". The Belgians did try and fix this by replacing the engine with a more powerful Hispano-Suiza. This helped boost speed a bit, and made them far less dangerous to fly. The problem is that Wings of War produced the RE8 in Belgian colours they decided that rather than remodelling the front end with teh Hispano engine they would leave it the same as the RFC version, but remove the prominent exhaust stacks. This leaves the model as a bit of a deadloss - if they had left the stacks you could still use it as an unmodified RE8, but as it is it looks nothing like the Hispano engined Belgian RE8 and also looks wrong as an original. Oh Well.

Luckily Shapeways do an Hispano engined RE8 so I'm hoping to pick one up to show as a comparison.

Next - Fighters!

According to Douglas Adams, its a swear word.

I am of course speaking of Belgium

As alluded to in an earlier post, I quite like the underdog when playing WW1 Dogfights, and there can be no greater underdog then good old "Plucky Little Belgium"

Belgium was definitely the runt of the litter as far as WW1 Entente air-forces went. The problem was that she had almost no aircraft industry of her own, and half the country was overrun by the Germans in short order. Belgium therefore had to scrape and scratch her Aviation Militaire Belge together from what she could obtain from her allies, and as we shall see, this wasn't always top notch. I have a small but growing Belgian contingent for Wings of War.

I'll concentrate on the two seaters first before moving on to the "interesting" subject of fighters

Here's my first Belgian - a Caudron GIV of Escadrille C74. This was an interesting unit in that it was a joint Franco Belgian squadron organised to perform photo recce duties. The model is a 3D print from Shapeways and the decals are from Dom Skelton, crew from Peter Pig. The Caudron GIV was a fairly useful if slow and vulnerable plane. Probably more at home on "Catch the Pigeon" than the Western Front, but lack of suitable replacements meant this obsolete design served a long time in front line service.

Next is another "pusher", this time a Farman F40. This is "Medusa" which served with the Aviation Militaire, again on recce duties. Several Belgian F40s were painted in individual colour schemes similar to the nose art associated with WW2 US bombers including skulls, Chaplain, some nudes and Medusa. Being a bit photogenic there are several pics of these available on line. Another Shapeways 3d print (actually the first I bought and painted). Like the GIV the F40 was overtaken by events and was quickly obsolete, but served on in Belgian service for a long time simply because there was no available replacement.

Six years old again

I was "working" the Battleground show in Stockton this weekend doing a demo on the Hawk Wargames stand. Just after arriving I took a stroll around and there, looking up at me from a box of plastic kits, was a bit of my childhood.

It was an Airfix 1:72 Scale Series 5 Handley Page 0-400. This always held a special place in my heart. I think the kit was released somewhere in the late 1960s. When I was a young boy my grandfather would walk me to the newsagents on a Sunday morning and buy me an Airfix kit, which we would solemnly assemble that afternoon. I must have gone through hundreds of kits, but two always stick in my mind, the Sunderland and the HP 0-400. The reason for this is that these two were both on the top shelf behind the counter, and importantly in the section of the shop that doubled as a Post Office. Post Offices were shut on Sundays, so even if I got the chance at a Series 5 (not that it happened often, I was usually restricted to Series 1&2) we couldn't buy it because the Post Office was locked up.

I must have spent months staring up at the box, which showed the HP being attacked by a number of red Fokker Triplanes. The box was enormous, and being out of reach made it even more special. I could go to the shop through the week, but only on Sunday with Grandad, so I never managed to get one...sob!

The kit was re-released in the 1980s in a lacklustre red stripe box. Sadly at this time I was doing the sixth form \ university thing and my mind was elsewhere. It was released again in 2012 but the box was wrong, I needed the original or nothing at all. On occasion I have seen them on ebay bit they go for silly prices.

Anyway, a small amount of haggling later and I was the proud owner of my very own HP 0-400!!! The chap said he thought it was complete bit couldn't guarantee it, but at that point I couldn't care less, it was mine.

So I have it in front of me now.

I can say I feel pretty happy when I look at it. Its great to finally get hold of something you dreamed of as a child, and it brings back some lovely warm memories of my halcyon days with my Grandad. I also have to say the box must have shrunk, because it used to look huge to my childs eyes.

I've opened it, and yes, I think it looks complete, and looking at the number of parts (167!) this is no easy build kit - I shudder to think what me and Grandad would have made of it back then if we ever had managed to get it out of the Post Office.

The thing is, should I try building it, or is it better to leave it as it is as a memento? I'm tempted to do the latter. Sometimes it is good to have unfulfilled dreams, and it wont be the same without Grandad

WW1 Dogfighting - Repaints, Decals and 3D Printing

As I mentioned in an earlier missive, the "official" Wings of War \ Wings of Glory models are usually rather nice (not the Sopwith Triplane - more on that later possibly) but they don't cover all the aircraft wargamers would want, and even when they do, they sometimes do them in some strange colour schemes.

Sometimes the solution is easy - want a Red Baron Albatros DIII in all red, just get the Brumowski DIII and overpaint the skull - job done (well in theory - in practice finding one now at a reasonable price is rather hard because they were all bought up and repainted...) However some easy conversions are possible just by adding some decals - step forward the talented Dom Skelton and his little on line shop Dom's Decals

Dom provides a series of self printed water slide transfers for use on various scales and themes, including WW1 planes where he does generic national markings but also some unit specific sets that allow you to create squadrons or Jastas. Dom also supplies the official WoG models at very reasonable rates and is highly recommended.

I should also mention an ebay shop I have used - 1:144 Direct, who also have a line of nice decals.

Using these decals for the first time can be a bit daunting as they are a single sheet that needs to be cut out, not individual decals like you get with Airfix models, and they do take a bit of preparation and care in applying - RTFM is recommended, but you can get some very nice results.

Lastly - what about aircraft that have no models at all? Look to the Future - 3D printing! I vaguely understand how this works, but to all intents it may as well be magic. Shapeways offers a 3D printing service that while it has its issues, shows how this really could revolutionise gaming miniatures. There are hundreds of WW1 models available and the prices are quite reasonable. I could write a tome on the subject, so I think I will save that for the next post, but if in doubt have a look again at this Albatros to see what they are capable of

WW1 Dogfighting - More from the Two Headed Eagle

My Austro-Hungarian collection for Wings of War currently looks like this

Hansa Brandenburg CI

Workhorse if the K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen as an artillery spotter or reconnaissance plane, The Hansa Brandenburg was an utterly unremarkable two seater which served throughout the war. Mine is painted in the early war red & white combination which I think looks rather nice. The model is a 3D print from Shapeways, with a PeterPig pilot & gunner.

Next up chronologically is the Fokker AIII, which is basically a Fokker EIII in Austrian service. The model is an "official" Wings of Glory one.

Austria tried to design her own fighters, with mixed success. This is the Hansa Brandenburg KD1 (sometimes called a D1). It was a rather interesting design by a very young Ernest Heinkel who had the idea that by strengthening the struts he could do away with a lot of bracing wire and therefore reduce drag. In this sense he was years ahead of Anthony Fokker, who did the same thing with the Fokker DVII in 1918 and was called a genius.

Heinkel decided to do this by a rather strange arrangement of struts as shown on the model, which accounts for one of the KD1s knick names "Star Strutter". Sadly this innovation was overshadowed by a couple of design flaws. Firstly the rudder was a single piece and rather small. This gave the KD1 an unpleasant tendency to lose lateral control and err.....crash. The second problem was armament. Germany initially refused to allow Austria to produce licenced interrupter gear for the machine gun, so as a stop gap they mounted a Schwartzlose machine gun on a fairing over the top wing - in a similar fashion to the way many British planes has a Lewis gun mounted. Sadly the Schwartzlose has a couple of problems not least of which was it had a canvas belt feed system, which if it got damp or wet would either freeze at altitude and jam the gun, or the belt would stretch and jam the gun. Even with these two rather hefty handicaps (see the pun?) the D1 was still quite fast and sturdy, and proved a reasonable fighter, particularly as later models had a much enlarged tail surface and the final batches had true interrupter gear so they could mount the gun more efficiently. Model is again Shapeways, pilot PeterPig.

Far more conventional is the Aviatik (Berg) D1. The D1 is another home grown fighter, but unlike the KD1 this was a reasonably competent dogfighter from the start. This is a standard Wings of Glory model, clearly demonstrating why the pre painted aircraft models have a market as trying to paint that hex camouflage would put you off for good.

Last of my current fighters is the Phonix DIIa. The DIIa is the last of the Phonix fighters to see active service and was a fast and agile airplane capable of holding its own against all comers. This is another 3D print, and is in the colours of the Naval Aviation unit that was tasked with defending the fleet - something of a throwback to the red-white-red wing stripes seen at the start of the war.

My last aircraft is the UFAG C I, another Wings of War\Glory model, and again demonstrating the joy of pre-paints. The UFAG was a rather good general purpose 2 seater which served in the last year of the war

And a group shot

I'm hoping to add a Floatplane in the near future - once I get out of my painting rut

  

WW1 Dogfighting, and the influence of popular fiction

As I mentioned, I have a small but growing collection of Austrian, or rather I should say Austro-Hungarian aircraft for WW1 dogfighting. This is mainly down to the inspiration of Otto Prohaska, as told in the rather interesting and entertaining series of  books by John Biggins, particularly his "The Two Headed Eagle". Otto Prohaska is a retired Austro-Hungarian Naval officer living his last days in a nursing home in Wales, who retells his adventures to a kindly nurse and odd job man through four volumes, all worth while reading just for the beautifully researched and constructed background.

 
All four books are a jolly good read but the first "A Sailor of Austria" which introduces Prohaska and tells of his career as a U-Boat Captain is particularly good, as is The Two Headed Eagle, which by convoluted means takes him to a secondment to the air-force, where many adventures ensue. Recommended.

Prohaska also gives what is to me the most sobering reflections on our little hobby. When told by a rather rabid enthusiast that was interviewing him in his nursing home that he was one of the last surviving persons to have had the honour and privilege to have taken part in the Great War in the Air, he replies.......

"If you really want to know what it was like, to fight in the air in the Great War, then go up to someone you have never met before and who has never done you the slightest harm and pour a two-gallon tin of petrol over them. Then apply a match, and when they are nicely ablaze, push them from a fifteenth floor window, after first perhaps shooting them a few times in the back with a revolver. And be aware as you are doing these things that ten seconds later someone else will quite probably do them to you. This will exactly reproduce for you ...........the substance of First World War aerial combat.........."

Ongoing Projects

I have a series of ongoing projects which I will detail here, mainly to provide comfort to similar souls who have too much unpainted toy soldiers and not enough time, so here in no particular order..............

Battlefront WW2 (Fire & Fury) in 15mm
Still the best Battalion level WW2 game out there, and much beloved here in the Kommisar House. I have a number of 15mm projects either stalled or making slow progress. I'm building up a couple of Manoeuvre Elements (ME's in BFSpeak, or Companies in English) using the rather nice Zvezda 1:100 Art of Tactic plastic models for the Blitzkrieg period, with the aim of doing a Panzer Battalion for France 1940 that can also double up with some replacements to be used in Russia in 1941. Then there is the much delayed Cromwell Squadron, and the other "Funnies" to finish the Breaching Team, and the Recce Squadron.....

.....and the Katyusha Battery (more Zvezda, with some Peter Pig crew). This one is pretty much 95% done, but has been for over a year.

Moving away from the figures and stuff, I have two outstanding scenarios to finish, Operation Clipper, which is a full on Regimental attack scenario, and The White House, a follow up to a scenario I wrote re the assault on the Administrative Building at Stalingrad

Phew this is cathartic :-)

Then I have some stuff to paint for Chain of Command. I have to finish up some British support options - mainly a 6Pdr and crew from Valiant Miniatures and some Rapid Fire \ Ready to Roll Universal Carriers. Then I have a platoon or so of German infantry, and then a US Platoon, and finally a platoon of Finns from the Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter. I'm sure more of that will come later.

Dropzone Commander
My current priority is to get some more games of DZC played and finish painting my Scourge Army. My UCM Army is about done, at least until the next new toys arrive...

I really like DZC. The pace and urban setting are so unlike other games, and the models are very nice

Impetus - 28mm Ancients
Not a lot to do here ;0) Finish my Hussites - these need another 4 war wagons painting, and some crew (memo to self get some female Hussites from Kingmaker Miniatures). Then the Thracians. These started out well just after Christmas and I got 31 of the target 100 painted, but then distraction has set in. We have a tournament in November that these guys are entering so I may have to revive that particular production line. Then finish my War of the Roses "Uncle Dicky" army - basically add another 100 points or so

7TV
We like the lunacy that 7TV creates. My cast is based around the bad guys from Big Trouble in Little China. Currently got enough basic Wing Kong thugs painted, plus a version of David LoPan as my villain. I have another Avatar of LoPan to paint, plus some serious Martial Arts guys. Then I need to build the warehouse that acts as a cover for their underground secret lair.............

So as you can see I'm pretty busy, or rather I have a lot of plans. Just about all the lead needed for everything mentioned is bought and currently resting gently. If I can complete a couple of these projects by the year end I think I will be content.

Unless of course something else grabs the attention of my butterfly like mind..............

Cheers