One Trick Pony update

A couple of months ago I mentioned I was working on a MiG3 Squadron for BRS shameless self promoting link and I just realised that I didn't show you the finished unit.

As I mentioned, it is white. The models are from Warlord and are in the new resin. This was interesting to work with. The models were very clean, with limited mould lines to worry about, but they did require cutting rather than scraping or filing - the resin frays rather than files. This isn't a problem once you work it out, in fact I found it quite easy. As they're pretty much weightless they don't need widgets or base extensions and work well with the standard Advantage bases

As they were going to be white I undercoated white (doh) then went for a sky blue underside. Decals  with the trade mark red arrows from Misc Minis. These were always going to be a PITA to apply - no reflection on Kevin, they're bloody awkward shapes and when you realise he never had a copy of the Warlord model to work with, it's a bloody miracle they fit at all - but with a little work they do. Kevin did these as a request including the individual patriotic slogans, which is a very nice touch, and theyre available now on his website here

These were also the first models I tried Tamiya Panel line solution on. It worked, but I suspect the resin models may not suit this approach doe to the shallower depth of detail.

Anyway, here we are . 122nd IAP standing ready to defend the Motherland. As long as were only expected to engage unescorted bombers at high altitude we'll be fine.................

Blinging up Blood Red Skies - Third Party accessories

If you are like me sooner or later you will start looking around for "stuff" to enhance your game - be it damage tokens or measuring sticks etc. I thought I would run through a few options for Blood Red Skies players who are interested in a bit of "bling".

Spitfire Bling

This isn't an exhaustive list, and I'm sadly not able to buy one of everything to review, but here goes.....

Dice
Dice are the first upgrade for most players, and the easiest to pick up. I know some players prefer smaller 10 mm dice than the chunky official 16 mm ones, and personally I think the British ones look a bit "Meh" due to the rather muddy brown colour Warlord used.  In addition to the official Warlord BRS ones it is worth looking at other Warlord or third party dice for games like Bolt Action and Flames of War. Just remember to make sure any special symbols are on the "6" face to avoid confusion, and NOT to get Bolt Action "Order Dice" - which are not much use to us BRS gamers.

FoW Dice

Dice Trays
Not exactly essential but nice to have. Dice trays keep the dice from bouncing around and can prevent them knocking models about in the heat of a game. There are several neoprene dice trays available, but if you are on a budget you can always find cheap plastic trays used for plant pots in garden centres. More expensive folding neoprene ones are available from Warlord and Deepcut.

Deepcut dice tray

Measuring sticks and tokens
The card measuring stick in the starter set is a PITA to use because you have to pick the models up after placing them to get the stick out from underneath. It also suffered a scaling problem in production so is the wrong length. The second is only really important if all players are not using the same stick, but the first issue still remains. It looks good, but is less than useful when playing, so personally I would ditch it and get a replacement. Warlord will sell you a set of plastic measuring sticks and tokens to replace the card ones in the starter set, however my personal favourites would be to look at those produced by "Buy The Same Token" and available from their Etsy store. These are cut from coloured acrylic and are available for all the different BRS factions. They do a 9" and a shorter 4" measuring stick (good for tight dogfights) and a 6" range ruler, plus themed Boom and Zoom markers and a turn angle indicator. Both manufacturers measuring sticks are of the side measuring type which don't require you to lift your models to use unlike the original card one in the starter set, but the extra depth of the scallops on the BTST one makes positioning more accurate.  All in all a nice addition.

Buy The Right Token Japanese turn, range Zoom & Boom

Buy The Right Token Measuring Stick

Carrying and transport
The plastic (and new resin) models are light and less likely to be damaged in transport, but metal models are very prone to getting their paintwork damaged due to the extra weight. Storage and transport foam trays can get around this.  Generic foam cut transport cases are available from Kaiser Rushforth (KR). These are designed for Wings of War \ Wings of Glory but they fit BRS planes. Feldherr also do a line of foam trays. Another option, and my personal favourite is available from Just Lasered, who make a foam insert to fit the original starter box and can cut bespoke trays to fit your collection. I'm currently transferring my planes to Just Lasered trays cut to fit 4 and 9 litre Really Useful Boxes.

Gaming Mats
Gaming mats are probably the most expensive single item you can get to enhance your BRS games. There are a number of suppliers and materials, including vinyl, cloth, and neoprene (mouse mat). All have their advantages and disadvantages. Vinyl tend to be cheapest but can be a bit shiny and you sometimes have problems getting them to lay flat, cloth are easiest to transport as they fold, but also can get creases, and neoprene is heavy and expensive but lays flat and gives the best gaming surface (imho).  There are several manufacturers and it pays to shop around, but Deepcut are very popular. A special mention should go to Tiny Wargames who have Taranto and Pearl Harbour mats available. Cigar Box are also popular and easily available in the US. I would recommend going for a 6x4 mat if you can find one - its easy enough to fold a larger mat but you can't stretch a small one! There are also smaller mats available for Wings of Glory which are nice but as they are only just larger than 3x2 ft you will need at least a pair. Finally when buying a mat think about how you will transport it - most producers will also sell a transport tube or bag for a reasonable price.

Links
Buy The Same Token for measuring sticks and markers
Kaiser Rushforth for storage trays and boxes
Feldherr for storage trays and carry cases
Just Lasered for storage trays
Warlord just about everything
Deepcut mats and dice trays
Tiny Wargames   mats
Cigar Box Battle mats

Hope you find that useful. I should say if any manufacturer wants to send appropriate "stuff" for review I will happily accept it and donate it to the local gaming club.

Warlord Resin for Blood Red Skies

I usually have what I hope is a snappy title for any blog posts. Over the past couple of years I've followed Blood Red Skies as the game has grown and developed, and this is probably about the most important development in the game for quite some time - Warlord Resin planes. And I can't think of a suitable title for this one - so will just go with the above.

Before I get too far into it, I think it worthwhile explaining why this is such a big thing. When BRS launched it had plastic models for the five plane types in the initial release. The quality of these models varied. I won't go into too much detail here as there's plenty about this on earlier blogs and elsewhere, but the critical thing is the models were light enough to work with the "Advantage" bases, which tilt to indicate game state. This caused a bit of a problem as the game developed and more aircraft were planned. Warlord were unhappy with the "soft" plastic they used on the original models and decided to try hard plastic for the next release wave - in this case Hurricanes, Mosquitos, Me110s and Fw190s. All these were released in hard plastic, and were very very nice. The problem was the process was taking far too long due to the production methods - cutting a steel injection mould is a complex and expensive business, and Warlord couldn't commit to regular releases in plastic. The solution they came to was to release the third wave of models in metal. This had the advantage of being quick to produce, but the problem was the metal models were too heavy to use with the normal advantage bases and needed the larger bases designed for using with bombers. This had a knock on effect in making it difficult to get models positioned close in to others due to the large base footprint, and also caused problems when using some of the many third party measuring sticks which are a part of the whole BRS "thing." Metal models also imposed some size restrictions on what could actually be done. All in all it was a far from perfect solution, and it is safe to say the metal models have met with a mixed reception and this has been holding the game back from it's true potential. On the other hand the decision to release in metal was I think a reasonable one as it allowed the game to grow and expand in a way that sticking to the slow release rate plastic would not have allowed. Personally I tend to spend the extra needed to get resin models from Armaments in Miniature rather than have the issues with the metal models. Warlord were aware of these issues - and have been looking into some options. Finally they have released their latest wave in their new resin. So that's the background - what about the actual sets?

The first three models released in resin are Soviet fighters, the MiG3, I16 and Yak 1b. These have already been available in metal as part of the "Johnie Red" boxed set, but this is the first time as a "Squadron" release. Each Squadron box contains six models, bases, pilot skill disks and the usual tokens printed on sturdy card, and the associated data card and trait cards printed on the standard lighter \ thinner card. You also get a sheet of generic waterslide decals - basically lots of red stars in different shapes and patterns, but no numbers or other symbols. The Ace boxes that complement the Squadron boxes contain one model and base and the relevant pilot cards - the pilot skill disk is in a much thinner card stock than the Squadron ones, which is a bit frustrating. Anyway - let's look at the models in slightly more detail.

Firstly, let's talk about what these are not, which is a whole new model. The models in both metal and resin are clearly based on the same masters, so share the exact same dimensions and proportions. This is not a bad thing, as the Wave 3 masters are 3d designed and usually have very nice and accurate proportions - quite an improvement over the first releases. The masters are clearly the same but the moulds are different - you can see where the main pour points and vents differ between the two types of materials. They're also not in traditional hard polystyrene, or brittle resin as used for their Bolt Action tanks and Cruel Seas ships, or in the softer plastic of the first wave. Instead these are in a very lightweight resin. The resin has a very small amount of flexibility, but is NOT soft or bendy in any way- something of a relief.  As the resin is a mid grey colour it is difficult to say exactly if the resin has picked up the same level of detail as the metal castings - I suspect the detail is very slightly softer but the impact is negligible and all the panel lines and other details are certainly there - see the pic later. The models I have have minimal mould lines - far less than the metal models I have, and there are some small amounts of flash at the vent points, but this cleans up quickly and easily with a knife.  The resin models also sit snug and tight on the Advantage base - something that is often a problem with the metal models. Due to their negligible weight they work really well with the tilting base mechanic. Lastly I'm advised the resin will take paint without an undercoat - shrug, I will undercoat mine anyway, "just in case". One of the problems encountered with the metal models from Warlord was pitting and distortion in the mould due to it being clamped too tight - there is no indication of either on these models, which is a bonus too.

So the $1000 question - have Warlord got this right? If these models are anything to go by, I would say a resounding YES. The new resin is lightweight, carries detail and I think works very well. Crucially this material will allow Warlord to maintain a release schedule and not have to rely on the unpopular bomber base extensions. There will be inevitable comparisons with the excellent models from Armament in Miniature, and I have to say the new Warlord resin is at least comparable. Price remains the same as the original metal sets.

This new material is a big step forward. I understand that Warlord plan to release all new models in resin and back fill and replace the old metal models with resin as the moulds come up for renewal - I'll have those Il2s as soon as that happens thank you. That's great news, particularly as the P47 is due to be added to the range soon and that would have been a very awkward model in metal. It also opens up many more options for larger aircraft than Warlord currently produce, which can only be a good thing. I can see these new resin models getting used for games like Wings of Glory too.

For the enquiring minds out there, this isn't a pre arranged review with carefully selected models etc. I ordered them through my FLGS (Asgard Wargames in Middlesbrough) - fine chaps they are, so I assume I got the same as everyone else.

oh - what do they look like? I'm having "issues" with my camera so these were taken on my old phone - my apologies, however.......

MiG3

Side by side of metal and resin Yak 1bs

And same with the I16s - sorry for the poor pic quality, but you can see the flash stub on the port side of the resin - this cleaned up easily

Cheers
   

Just Lasered transport foam - Really Useful stuff

How to transport Blood Red Skies models?

My BRS collection is steadily growing. This is causing me a couple of problems with storage and transport. Initially I was just putting the models on their bases and keeping them in a 4 litre really useful box. This was ok as long as they all had bases and were plastic, or resin, but due to my growing collection I was running into a number of unforeseen issues.

Some issues here I fear :-)

 Firstly I was running out of bases. I'm a big fan of Armaments in Miniature models, and they don't come with bases. Converting them to take BRS bases is easy, but that meant to store them I needed to buy bases or leave them rattling around with the possibility of damage. Warlord will sell bases of course, but at £8 a pack it was adding to the overall costs.

Secondly, I wanted some models that were going to be metal, and at that point leaving them loose in a box is not going to work.

Thirdly, me and my mate Paul just bought a resin 3d printer. The implications are pretty massive here as it means we can print our own models - assuming we can either find or create the files. The world is very much our mollusc, but we will have to be careful with the resin miniatures which can be a bit brittle, so again, loose was not looking like a good option.

Enter JustLasered. I first saw their products at the Warlord Open Day last year, when Warlord had a prototype of some foam inserts they had cut for the BRS base set. Making enquiries I discovered they could do custom cut trays to fit Really Useful Boxes, so after a few emails I decided to give it a try with my Battle of Britain Luftwaffe collection. As my models were not standard Warlord ones I send some samples so they could get the dimensions correct. I ended up with a set of custom cut foam trays that hold 9 Me109s. 6 Me110s, 3 Do17s, 3 Ju88s, and 6 Ju87s, plus a tray of bases, and a tray topper. All that fits neatly into a 9 litre Really Useful Box. All the cut outs include recesses to take my "widgets". All in all pretty damn good product.

I also asked for a top layer to hold it in place. I chose the Luftwaffe Eagle clutching a Swastika symbol. With hindsight this may have been something to think about - Mel at JL suggested replacing the Swastika but on balance I decided to stick with the history, but I understand how some people may not like it.

These were so good in fact I've just taken delivery of another set to carry my Japanese.

So what are the downsides? Volume is certainly an issue - my original "chuck them in" system meant they fit a 4 litre RUB, where the new foam needs a 9 litre - I should say both boxes are the same footprint but the 9 litre is taller. If you only had 1 layer of planes and 1 of bases they would fit in a 4 litre, which does leave you with plenty of options if you just want to haul one or 2 squadrons around.

Secondly,  planning. These are bespoke cases, so you have to know what you want to put in there. With my Japanese I have had them cut slots for my Ki43 I that I one day will be buying. I'm ordering a Soviet set and have asked to have slots cut for Il2s even though I don't own any yet.

Lastly cost. As these are individually cut there is no standard price - you need to check with JustLasered, but the sets I have were very reasonably priced. On the other hand having the ability to store planes without bases, and the need for less bases means I'm saving £££ on not having to have every plane on a base, which is nice. 

So all in all very happy with these, and I would happily recommend them. Cheers

Just Lasered https://justlasered.co.uk/

Brewster Buffalo in Blood Red Skies - the little plane that mostly couldn't.

I run a Facebook page for fans of Blood Red Skies called "The Ready Room". I've been lucky that through that and the kind assistance of the author Andy Chambers and Roger Gerrish, plus Rich Carlisle at Warlord I've had the chance to playtest some BRS stuff and had access to the beta stat list of planes for the game that was not for general publication at that time.

As the game has grown in popularity there have regularly been requests to add more planes to the available list. This has proved quite challenging as Warlord really don't have the capacity to meet every demand for models, some of which have been quite obscure (really). In their credit they realised that the game needed to expand faster than their capacity would allow at present, so in addition to allowing me to "leak" some stats they were happy to release new "expansion" sets containing the data and trait cards needed to play some of the major planes that they had yet to get around to, either by using proxies or third party models. Two of these sets are now on the shelves, with more due in the coming months.

I think it is fair to say neither Andy, Roger, Rich or myself had any idea of the popularity of what Andy once described as a "Clown Car" of the skies. Frankly we expected one of the iconic sleek and fast late war fighting machines like the P38, Tempest or Fw190 Dora to top the wish list, but instead, very much to our surprise, it has been the Brewster Buffalo. You lot are weird.............

I knew a little about the Buffalo of course, but initially we all had discounted it as a possible inclusion into the game - who would want to fly this death trap?, so it was really just a rough beta stat. It was often sighted as one of the quirky mysteries of WW2, The Brewster performed so badly in the Far East that it was thought of as a death trap, yet did great service with the Finns against the Soviets. Why was this? Why could a single type be so bad and yet seemingly quite good at the same time? When you look into it however the answer becomes clearer. The Brewster we think of was really a number of quite different aircraft and the changes made by the different operators sheds what I think is a fascinating side light on how WW2 fighters developed and the requirements of the different users. So here is my take on the Brewster F2A\B239\B339\Buffalo in Blood Red Skies. I should stress this is just my thoughts - the others may disagree.

The US original F2A2 & F2A3
The US operated two different versions of the Brewster, so it is probably best to start there. The USN bought a few Brewster F2A2 to operate off their carriers. It actually was preferred initially to the Grumman F4F Wildcat. Generally it was ok (faint praise) and pilots thought it handled quite well, with a very handy turn and rate of roll. Unfortunately the spec didn't call for any armour or protection - not that unusual pre war, and also some other essentials such as radios were pretty much optional. By the time of Pearl Harbour it had been retired from USN service, probably because the Brewster plant was having problems making the thing in any numbers and the basic design could not be upgraded very much. The USMC however also operated the Brewster as the F2A3. The F2A3 was upgraded with a slightly better engine, wing mounted fuel tanks, radios, pilot protection and the like, which improved the range and theoretically improved the chance of survival but adversely effected handling. This is going to be a repeated theme. The Marine F2A3s saw action against the Japanese during the Battle of Midway. VMF221 has twenty F2A3s based on Midway but they proved totally outclassed by the Zeros they met there and were pretty much annihilated in their first encounter.

USN F2A2 

USMC F2A3

That could have been the end of the story, but there were other customers for the tubby little fighter.

Buffalo Mk I
Belgium had been looking for a more modern fighter before the war broke out and had placed an order with Brewster. The Germans arrived first. Britain was now desperate for any sort of modern fighter plane so grabbed the chance and bought up the Belgian order, giving the plane the name Buffalo which is now universally applied, if incorrectly. It did make some sense. Britain was producing Spitfires and Hurricanes as fast as it could, but these were needed for home defence. It was reasoned that the Buffalo could be used as a trainer or out in quiet parts of the far flung empire such as the Far East where the threat was not as great, allowing the Hurricanes and Spitfires to be concentrated at home. Anyway what would the Japanese have that could beat a reasonably modern US design? That lack of foresight was then compounded because the Brits did know quite a bit about modern air combat at that point, and understood what a modern fighter needed was some protection, radio and the like. They therefore made several modifications to the Belgian specs, all of which added weight. Unlike the USMC they didn't get the upgraded engine, in fact due to Brewster production being so badly managed and the urgency of the demand they settled on refurbished engines that had come off air liners. This was a recipe for disaster. The RAF MkIs were totally overloaded and under powered to the point where some pilots found they lacked the ability to loop. When the Japanese arrived in Burma and Malaya with their nimble Oscars it was a foregone conclusion. Almost. A couple of RAAF Squadrons that survived the initial contact decided that their only chance was to lighten the Buffalo. They stripped out most if not all the added equipment, and reduced the ammo and fuel load. In this configuration they at least felt they had a slim chance.

G'day - RAAF Buffalo's

Dutch Courage - the B339C\D
The Netherlands had ordered some F2s from Brewster for use in the Dutch East Indies, and around 70 had arrived when the Japanese invaded. These had improved engines and didn't have all the extra equipment of the British machines. As soon as they made contact with the Japanese the Dutch set about reducing the weight of their planes, flying with reduced fuel and ammo loads, and in these configurations they managed to survive for a while until the Dutch East Indies surrendered, the remaining planes flying to Australia to join the RAAF.

ML-KNIL B339

Bucking the trend - Finland
So that is the story of the Brewster  - except for one other user - Finland. The Finns also bought the Brewster - in this case they seem to have got hold of the ex USN F2A models that were "de Navalised" by removing the tail hooks and other equipment. With typical thoroughness they stripped and modified their Brewsters, rearming and re equipping them. The extra equipment made the Finnish Brewsters the slowest of all the variants, but they retained good handling. There is some suggestion that the cooler climate also helped prevent the overheating that the Brewsters were prone to in the Far East. They went into service against the Soviets during the Continuation War, and were surprisingly successful. How much this was a reflection on the quality of Finnish pilots or the poor quality of their Soviet opponents is difficult to tell, but they undoubtedly were effective, achieving kill to loss ratios of over 25\1 and producing 36 Aces. When you add that to the four Commonwealth Aces who achieved that status flying Buffalo's that makes 40 Aces out of a production run of just over 500 of all types, giving the Brewster possibly the best ratio of Aces to aircraft in WW2(!)

Finnish B239

So the Brewster in Blood Red Skies. As I mentioned, we don't really have a real Beta test stat, so these are extrapolations, but I think they're worth a try if you are so inclined.

Brewster F2A2 Buffalo USN Speed 6 323mph Ag 2 FP 1 Rapid Roll, Vulnerable 17 points

Brewster F2A3 Buffalo USMC Speed 6 321mph Ag 2 FP1 18 points

Brewster B239E (Finland) Speed 6 297 mph Ag 2 FP1 Rapid Roll 20 points

Brewster B339E Buffalo Mk I (UK\CW) Speed 6 313mph Ag 1 FP1 Sluggish 8 points

Brewster B339C\D (KNIL) Speed 6 307mph Ag 2 FP1 Rapid Roll Poor Quality 18pts - this last one is a bit of a stretch as the Dutch took out a lot of equipment to keep the weight down to a minimum, and that may have included radios and other bits, hence Poor Quality.

At the moment Warlord are not planning a model of the Brewster, however if you are so inclined, Armaments in Miniature do a very nice one that will happily fit in for any of the versions mentioned above, and Misc Minis do decals to cover the USMC VF221, 67 Squadron RAF, LeLv24 (Finnish) and I'm sure that if asked they will do Dutch too.

Links
Misc Minis
Armaments in Miniature

     

Zeros in Blood Red Skies part 2 - The A6M3 Mod 32, or why changing a winning formula can go wrong

A6M3 Mod 32 showing the signature clipped wingtips

A6M3 Mod 32

Although the A6M2 had been phenomenally successful the Japanese did not rest on their laurels. Steps were taken to try and improve the A6M2 by fitting a bigger engine to improve speed and high-altitude performance. They also tried clipping and redesigning the wings to improve roll rate and handling in a dive, both things the original Zero as not great at. The result was designated the A6M3 Mod 32, and was pushed into production with some urgency in April 1942. They immediately ran into problems caused mainly by the tightness of the original design. The new engine needed more space and to accommodate it, and to fit it in some structural and design changes were needed. This included reducing the size of the internal fuel tanks and moving the engine mounting nearer the cockpit. These changes upset that fine balance of the A6M2 and it was found that the A6M3 was marginally faster and dived better as planned, but the change in the centre of gravity meant it handled less well, and the reduction in fuel capacity caused the range to be reduced significantly. This loss in range was particularly problematic as it meant the A6M3 could not operate over Guadalcanal from the main bases in Rabaul, the major combat zone at the time. On a more positive note the 20mm cannons were upgraded to more modern versions (the Type 99 Mk II) with more ammunition provided. 

The A6M3 Mod 32 was produced in limited quantities and due to the short range tended to be only deployed defensively and as a combat trainer.  It was quickly replaced in production by the A6M3 Mod 22, which saw many of the changes reversed or revised to restore the lost range.

When it was first encountered by the allies the distinctive clipped wings meant they were unsure if this was a new aircraft, and so for a while it was given the reporting code name “Hap” after General “Hap” Arnold, then Commanding General of the USAAF. Arnold took exception and the Hap was quickly renamed “Hamp”, and then simply “Zeke 32”.

How can we represent the A6M3 Mod 32 in BRS? From our beta tests it has the following stats. 

Speed has increased to 343 mph, so still Speed 7. The armament changes now allow an upgrade to FP2, however the reduced range mean Deep Pockets has gone. The changes to the overall balance results in Tight Turn being replaced by Rapid Roll, which is slightly less useful because it allows you to turn at the start OR and of your move, not at any time, but is still quite potent. The A6M3 Mod 32 remains Vulnerable. The loss of Deep Pockets also helps offset the increase in points cost caused by the increased firepower.

A6M3 Zero 1942 7 (343mph) Agility 3 Firepower 2 Rapid Roll -Vulnerable - 32 points

In BRS the A6M3 is still quite a handful, particularly as the synergy with Aggressive Tactics is still there. In some ways it is better than the A6M2 - more firepower for instance, and though Rapid Roll is not as good a trait as Tight Turn, in this case having only a single trait means there is no chance you will not have it available. As with the A6M2 you really want to avoid head on attacks against well armed fighters and tail chases against bombers. 

It is "highly" unlikely that we will see an official model of the A6M3 from Warlord any time soon. However as with the A6M2 the A6M3 is visually quite similar to the A6M5 model, so all that would be required to convert to this version would be to (carefully) clip the wings with some nail clippers and file the edges smooth, or again as with the A6M2, a model is available from Armaments in Miniature.

A6M3 Mod 32 captured in US markings showing the clipped wings

Next , the final production version, the A6M5

Zeros in Blood Red Skies part 1 - The Legendary A6M2

I thought it would be interesting to look at a couple of WW2 fighters from the perspective of a BRS player, and how those designs changed and through the war. One of the main themes the games designer Andy Chambers wanted with Blood Red Skies was to show the way WW2 fighters evolved. As combat experience was gained planes were designed or modified to have more firepower, speed and protection, but this all came at the inevitable sacrifice of handling and manoeuvrability. 

Having just painted a half a dozen I thought it may be worth looking at the Japanese A6M Zero, with specific reference to Blood Red Skies. I’m using the beta test stats here, so be aware these may be subject to change if and when they get officially released.

First a bit of history. The Mitsubishi A6M Type 0 Rei-sen “Zero” was one of the most advanced fighter planes in the world when it entered service in 1940. As with all Japanese aircraft the US allocated a reporting name, based on the assumption that US pilots would be unable to pronounce or be confused by the Japanese names. Fighters were given boys names, bombers girls, and in the case of the A6M this was christened “Zeke” but on this occasion this didn’t really take hold and was usually just known as the Zero.

The Zero was built to a very specific requirement, that of a long-range carrier fighter, and it met those requirements superbly. Initial reports of the Zeros prowess were discounted in the West – how could the “backward” Japanese build fighters better than “us”? That changed when they were encountered and the Zero ran up a terrifying reputation as a supreme dog fighter, possibly the best of the war, with a phenomenal range of operation. The Zero was incredibly manoeuvrable, particularly at lower speeds, and had a great rate of climb. All over the Far East, Chinese, American, British, Commonwealth and Dutch pilots learned to fear it as it sliced through almost any and all opposition it encountered. Full disclosure here. The Zero is quite similar visually to the Army Type Ki-43 Hayabusa \ Oscar, and I suspect in the heat of combat a lot of Ki43s were misidentified as Zeros in a similar way that a lot of Luftwaffe pilots shot down in the Battle of Britain insisted they were victims to Spitfires when they had really been attacked by Hurricanes. The Oscar was also very nimble and lightweight, so some of the legend of the Zeros invincibility should probably go to the Oscar.

The reason for the Zero’s incredible performance was due to the design team, led initially by Jiro Horikoshi, and their obsession with weight saving. They used new light weight materials and trimmed every ounce of spare weight. A great deal of effort was put into making the Zero clean and streamlined. That meant the plane was very lightweight, improving range and manoeuvrability. The downside however was the Zero was inherently more susceptible to damage than other contemporaries and didn’t have any protection in the way of armour or self-sealing fuel tanks. This was an acceptable trade off to the Japanese, who reasoned that making the Zero hard to hit was more important than surviving if you did get hit. Initially it looked like they may have had a point as in the first six months of combat the Zero ran up an incredible score, and the IJN pilots gained both experience and confidence. Incidentally, this weight saving and streamlining efforts on the Zero meant it was also a very demanding and complex aircraft to manufacture, something that would cause problems later.

So let’s look at the Zero in Blood Red Skies. Currently the only official stats are for the late war A6M5 version, but I am lucky enough to have access to the Beta test stats for the earlier A6M2 which won the fearsome reputation in China, Pearl Harbour and the Philippines. I will also look at the interim A6M3 Mod 32, a less successful mid war upgrade, before taking a quick look at the A6M5 in later posts.

Data card by the talented Martin Evans

A6M2
The A6M2 is the classic Zero of the early war period. This nimble lightweight fighter is reasonably fast and very agile. Top speed was 331 mph which makes it Speed 7 in BRS, slower than the Me109E and Spitfire II but faster than almost anything it was going to meet in the skies of the Pacific and Far East. Firepower is about average for an early fighter, with a pair of 20mm cannons and pair of .303  machine guns. Like the Me109E the limited ammunition on the cannons and their mediocre performance means the A6M2 has only 1 Firepower in BRS. Like all Zeros it has the “Vulnerable” negative Trait which means opponents shooting at it always have a bonus firepower dice. It has two very useful positive Traits too, Deep Pockets, and Tight Turn. Deep Pockets reflects the superb range and endurance of the A6M2, giving pilots the confidence to maximise their performance without having to worry too much about running out of fuel on the way home. In the game you can discard a Deep Pocket card to ignore one Boom Chit inflicted on the squadron. Tight Turn is a great card to have in your hand, as it allows you to take your standard 45 degree turn at any point in your move, not just the end, making this Zero a real handful in a turning fight. Add to that the fact that the early war Japanese have access to two very powerful Doctrine Cards – Aggressive Tactics and Seasoned Pilots, and keeping a Zero in your sights long enough to get a shot is going to be difficult to say the least. This amazing manoeuvrability comes at a price, and you really need to avoid getting shot at if you can manage it. Try to avoid head to head attacks against fighters and particularly tail shots against bombers with bonus rear defensive weapons where the chance of getting hit by defensive fire is much higher due to the Vulnerable Trait.

At the moment there is no model of the A6M2 available from Warlord, however unless you are a real propeller head the visual differences between the A6M2 and A6M5 are minimal in 1:200 scale, mainly a matter of the exhaust pipes protruding from the engine cowl in later models and a slightly different wing span, so you can use the A6M5 model without too much trouble, either by carving the exhausts off or just not painting them, or if you prefer a very nice resin model is available from Armaments in Miniature.

Nothing lasts forever. In June 1942 a Zero was forced to land in the Aleutian Islands. The pilot was killed in the crash but the plane was recovered by the Americans in a repairable condition and they soon had it flying again and learned the Zeros strengths and weaknesses, particularly poor handling in the high speed dive, and started devising tactics to exploit this.

So part 2 will look at the unloved middle child of the Zero family, the A6M3 Mod 32

Links
Warlord Zero Squadron
AIM Zero

The Wrong Zero? - Blood Red Skies

So a couple of weeks or so ago I spent some time regaling anyone who would listen with my reasons to go for "Not A Zero" (NAZ) option for my Japanese in Blood Red Skies, resulting in my Ki44 Shoki Squadron from Armaments in Miniature (AIM).

Thing is, I do have some Zeros too, and I've been painting them up over the last few days.

The models are the "bendy" plastic from Warlord, sourced in China. This gives me no end of anguish, because as I have often repeated, these really are the "wrong" Zero imho. The problem is the Warlord model is the A6M5, which entered service in 1943. I did a couple of posts on these a year or so ago when I first got a glimpse of them. The M5 is the last main production version, which is really a mid war aircraft, so didn't' sit well with the 1940 vintage UK, German and Soviet models in the starter set, and was pretty much dog meat against the 1944 P51D the US got, particularly as the points in the starter were a bit off and made the Zero rather more expensive than it should have been. If Warlord had done the A6M2 of early war Coral Sea \ Midway fame I would have been much happier.

The other problem is the model itself - not wishing to over stress this, but it is a fair bit under scale, something closer to 1:220 than the nominal 1:200 it should be. Like all the "Bendy" (tm) BRS plastic the Zero is a bit prone to, well, bending, and several of mine have some strange wing and fuselage shapes. I know this can usually be corrected with hot & cold water, but it does irritate. It should be said for all of that the model is perfectly serviceable, and 99% of the players wont be bothered by it.

Painting them should have been a fairly easy job. The Japanese don't really have complicated colour schemes, and after 1942 Zeros usually have a simple two tone light grey undersides and green uppers, so what could go wrong? Quite a bit really it turned out. Deciding on what colour green was a bit more complex. You can spend many an hour researching and the best answer is "green". The problem is as much the real WW2 paint was not that standardised anyway, and standards slipped as the supply shortages kicked in. In the Pacific theatre there was the added complication of exposure to the elements which meant paints weathered very quickly, so in reality any green that is near enough is probably good enough. I therefore took the cheapskate option and rifled through my current paint collection until I came upon Army Painter "Greenskin". It looked about right and I figured once it had been dulled down a bit with the Darkshade wash I was intending to use for the panel lines it would be ok. Not sure what went wrong but the bloody stuff took three coats to achieve anything approaching a consistent coverage. The undersides were easier, and the engine covers and canopies were my now standard patterns. It took me a while to block the eight Zeros, and a second session to tidy them up and wash them, but at the end they were looking quite nice, or at least I think so.

So decals. Here I had a cunning plan. I was going to use Warlord's Zero decals.  I usually use MiscMinis, and indeed had ordered some in preparation, but as Warlord did a dedicated set and MiscMinis were designed for use with the AIM model I decided to give Warlord a try. This was partly a response to my knowing that the Warlord model was under scale, so I didn't want to risk the MiscMini decals swamping the models, if you follow. There is an added complication here in that Warlord decals are actually for Zeros based on the carrier Akagi, but the Akagi was sunk at Midway, which was in June 1942, and the A6M5 Zero wasn't even in service until the following year, so Warlord are producing decals for a model they don't make - I got nothing.

That plan went out the window fast. The Warlord decal sheet doesn't have enough of the white edged "Hinomaru" (aka "Meatball" roundel) to complete all eight models. Actually they don't have enough to do the six in the Squadron box, which was a pain. I probably should have done a bit more research and bought two sets. They do include the un-edged Hinomaru to be fair, but that wasn't what I wanted. Luckily, between the left over decals from the Ki44s and the MiscMini sheet I had enough to do the upper wing markings of all eight. The side markings were another issue. Again there was not enough decals but in my "spares" box I had some 1:300/1:285 ones from I-94 Enterprises, and between them there were enough. The tail numbers came from the Misc Minis set, and the under wing Hinomaru came from Warlord. So it was a bit of a collaborative effort in the end. I should add here it was also quite instructional. The main issue with MiscMinis is they are sold as a single sheet, so you have to carefully cut each item, trimming it as close to the decal as possible. This is a major pain in the arse. Both the Warlord and I-94 decals are very different. with each decal being separate. I have to say this made a massive difference in time and general fiddle factor. I will keep using MiscMinis as their range is superb, but maybe in future I will check what Warlord do as well.

So that's about it. Eight Zeros painted up and ready to hit the Blood Red Skies. I think they look "good enough" - in fact I quite like the way they have ended up. I still have one more to paint - that for the Ace Saburo Sakai. I am lucky enough to have a resin pre production Zero from Warlord, and I plan to paint that up as Sakai's mount. It will take a bit of fiddling to get the tail number correct, which is one of the reasons I didn't go ahead and paint it with the rest, but now I have the experience with these under my belt, I don't think it will be too much of a challenge - I may even try to add some weathering. Famous last words.......

One last thought. Nothing has been confirmed by Warlord, but there is a persistent suggestion that they may not be happy with the bendy Chinese models. They have not repeated the process since the starter set, and anything after that has been either the FAR superior UK produced hard plastic as seen in the Mosquito, Hurricane, Bf110 and Fw190 models, or metal. This could be an issue as they are already sold out on a number of "bendy" Ace SKUs and the implication is they will have to either get more from China, or switch to metal or hard plastic. Given the quality of the hard plastic this would be a great opportunity to rejig the moulds and reissue, hopefully taking the time to remaster the 109 in particular. That would be my ideal solution, however the current preference at Warlord is to use their tried and true metal spin casting skills. I rather suspect given the lead time to make plastic they will end up going metal just to fill the gap if it happens.... All idle speculation of course but possibly something to watch in future.

Links
Warlord BRS Zeros
Armaments in Miniature
Warlord Zero Decals
Misc Minis
I-94 Enterprises (available in the uk from Minibits)

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Blood Red Skies - Japanese Bombers roll in

I do have a plan for Blood Red Skies. I have to admit it's not a particularly brilliant plan, but it is a plan.......

Blood Red Skies is all about fighters, but sometimes you need to have a few bombers to act as targets. The scenarios in BRS and the coming supplement "Air Strike" are configured so that when bombers are called for they are "free" to the appropriate player (ie don't cost points). The actual numbers involved are based on the number of "engines", so usually three twin engine bombers, or six single engine etc etc.

With that in mind my cunning plan is to assemble suitable forces to allow me to field a fighter & bomber force for the nations I'm expecting to play and covering the early and late war period. My Soviets are pretty much complete, in that I will be using Yak 1 fighters and SB2  bombers for the early war, swapping to La5s and Pe2s for mid- late war.

My Germans are not quite as developed - I have Me109Es and Do17Zs for early war, and I plan to use FW190s and Ju88s for mid- late war.

Brits are a bit lost - I have Spitfire IIs for early war but as of yet no bombers - I'm sure Blenheims are in my future. Mid - late war I have Spitfire IXs but no bombers yet.

So that brings me to the Japanese. As I mentioned in my "Not a Zero" posts last week, I've just finished my Ki44 Shoki fighters. I also have some Zeros to paint. When choosing a bomber to go with them I needed something that would balance with the Blenheims and Do17 light bombers, so I chose the Ki 48 "Lilly".

The Lilly is pretty much cut from the same mould as the other pre war "fast bombers". They all were inspired by the Soviet SB2 and relied on speed to get them through the defending fighters - which to be fair at the time was not a bad bet as most of the fighters were still biplanes like the Bristol Bulldog and Fiat Cr32. Most of them stressed speed over protection, because who needed defensive guns and armour plate when the fighters were too slow to catch you? And anyway armour and guns weighed quite a bit which slowed you down and robbed you of your primary protection, speed.  Up against the current opposition the streamlined monoplane twin engine bomber was fast enough to leave the biplane fighters in the dust. The problem was that simply proved to be the impetus for the world's air forces to finally give up the defence of the biplane and move to the monoplane fighter. It was a new world, and the fast bombers suddenly found themselves no longer able to outrun the opposition and unable to fight back when caught. On the whole it was a bloodbath.

The Ki48 was actually quite a good light bomber for it's day, possibly the best of the class, with unusually for the Japanese, a reasonable reputation for not exploding at the first sign of enemy fire. They served on through the whole war in just about every theatre the Japanese Army Air service was present, but losses were heavy.

Armaments in Miniature make a Ki48, and it's a nice model (and cheap!) so I ordered three. In a moment of madness I decided to go for one of the mottled camouflage schemes which seem to proliferate in Japanese units once the shooting began. With hindsight I probably should have went for an overall green but, well, too late.

Here they are having had their base colours applied.

Here they are after decals and tidying up. Decals are by the ever reliable MiscMinis btw

And the final version

I'm not 100% happy with them. I decided to try using an overall wash rather than a pin wash for the panel lines, and I think I may have overdone it. I also applied the decals first, which meant I had to give them a touch up with a brush. All this was of course my fault, mainly an attempt to cut corners but hopefully I have learned a lesson, and they still look mostly ok.

We're lucky in that the Lilly was one of the planes we got Beta test stats for, and the talented Martin Evans has done a data card.

So all in all that's my Japanese bomber "squadron" ready. Not sure where to go next - watch this space :-)

Links -
Armaments in Miniature
Miscminis

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Cheers

 

Not A Zero Part 2 Meeting my Demons

So having decided to chose the Ki 44 Shoki (Demon Queller) as my first NAZ I ordered six from Armaments in Miniature. As always they arrived in the UK a week or so later (cant praise AIM enough for their service) and then spent the traditional couple of months sat in my "to do" pile until I became motivated, which was last week.

First job was to clean them up - which took very little time as there was minimal flash. Slightly more work was involved in removing the mounting screw - a feature of AIM models, and replacing it with a Hawk Wargames "Widget". This only takes a minute or so to be fair but I always worry I will snap or break something, which is stupid as I must have done this 30+ times now without incident. Lastly I masked the widget with tape to protect it from errant paint, and went to think about undercoats.

The undercoat may or may not have been important. I tend to undercoat planes white, but the Ki44s often sported a rather American looking all metal finish. That is WAAAY out of my comfort zone but the chaps at Asgard Wargaming and on line suggested using either a grey or black undercoat - so I went with grey. I then blocked the base colours on which is very easy as there are only a couple - overall a chrome silver from Vallejo which is part of their Air range but I applied with a brush as I couldnt be ars*d to set the airbrush up and clean it afterwards - those Vallejo metalics are excellent btw. I used a thinned down Vallejo black ink to mark out the panel lines then put the black anti glare markings and the base blue on the canopies and retired for the evening feeling a little underwhelmed with the results. Hand painting the panel lines is always a bit of a job but it is usually worth it, but on these I just didn't think it was working. Ah well..

Next morning dawned bright and early and I rose with the lark. Not being able to get back to sleep I decided to make more progress and tidied up the basic blocking, panel lines,  cannons, canopies, spinners and leading edges. After the previous night's Doldrums I found the models looked much better in the early morning light.

So now on to the final session. After Tea (the traditional Northern name for the meal Southerners call dinner for reasons I don't understand) Mrs is happy to watch Emmerdale on TV so I head on up to the loft to get the decals done. In this case these are from Misc Minis and represent the 70th Sentai, a famous Shoki Squadron particularly noted for it's actions against B29 Super-fortress raids in the last part of the war. The decals were a bit fiddly. MiscMinis print their decals on a single sheet rather than as individual decals, so you need to carefully cut around each of these. I use decaset and decasol but this time the decal film seemed a little heavier than usual and for some reason it was a but fiddly. The end result is however well worth it. I think on balance if Warlord do a suitable decal set I would use them simply because each decal is separate and needs less work, but as that will only apply to the mainstream I don't see me moving away from MiscMinis any time soon.

So here they are, ready to defend the Home Islands and the Emperor:

I usually matt varnish, mainly out of habit, but I'm contemplating leaving them in gloss  - thoughts?

Part 3 will hopefully be a report on their first try out... watch this space

NAZ "Not a Zero" - My latest Blood Red Skies unit

If you want to play Japanese in Blood Red Skies (and why wouldn't you?) at the moment your choices are a little bit restricted. To one plane to be precise. The Zero. Actually it's worse than that because the "official" model from Warlord Games is the late war A6M5 version which really only came into service in the mid to late war period. Why they chose the M5 has been chewed over regularly - the only answer I can get is it made sense at the time. Luckily most players are happy to sub the A6M5 for the much more iconic early war A6M2 and the stats have been posted up as a beta test in various places.

Thankfully Warlord are releasing an expansion set for each of the BRS factions. The RAF one has just been released in March, April will see the Luftwaffe, so the IJA\IJN set will be along soon enough. These are card only sets, no models, but there are other sources of models out there such as the excellent Armaments in Miniature.

So if you fancy trying something different, something "Not a Zero". Where do you go?

The Japanese Army and Navy both operated their own air services, and not unlike the relationships between "sister" armed forces the world over, they pretty much refused to speak to one another or acknowledge each others existence other than to pass the blame when something went wrong. In Japan this was even more charged as both parties were directly involved in politics to an extent that was absent in the other combatants. It should come as no surprise therefore that the Army had their own designs. Actually I'm being a bit unfair here. It is perfectly logical that the IJA and IJN would have different design requirements as they are operating in different environments.

So anyway, the Army had a fighter every bit as advanced as the Zero, the Nakajima Ki43 Hayabusa (usually translated as Peregrine Falcon or Fighting Falcon). Like the Zero it has exceptional handling capabilities and is a bit fragile. They also look quite similar, and in BRS will play in a very similar style, so are pretty much a Zero in game terms. In fact many Allied pilots confused the two types regularly in their reports, adding to the Zero's already formidable reputation. I wanted something different. Something Not a Zero.

Which led me to the Nakajima Ki44 Shoki (Demon Queller) given the reporting name Tojo by the Allies. This is a really interesting Japanese fighter for a number of reasons. Firstly, its Not a Zero or a Zero clone. It also plays in a totally different way to the Zero. The Shoki is an Army designed interceptor. It fast and fairly reasonably armed (depending on the version), but unlike the Zero it turns like a brick. The Shoki is an energy fighter, with Great Dive and Great Climb traits. It also saw service throughout the war in the Pacific, from 1942 to the very end where several Shoki pilots became Aces by shooting down B29 Superfortress - no mean feat.

So I've bought a "squadron" of six from Armaments in Miniature and have started to get some paint on them. I'll update as I progress, and hopefully will have a battle report with them after their first outing.

Cheers

A new challenge - Paint a Squadron a Week - Hold my Beer!

Stupid idea really but I was pondering on the embarrassing amount of unpainted planes I have for Blood Red Skies. I'm not sure how it happened but I have rather a lot of unpainted aeroplanes in the "to do" pile, and I need to reduce that.

Here's what I think I have to paint

Japanese
6 Ki 44 Tojo
3 Ki 48 Lilly
9 A6M5 Zero

German
9 Fw190A
4 Ju88

US
11 F4 Wildcats (some of these may become FAA Martlets)
5 B25 Mitchell
5 TBD Devastators
5 SDB Dauntless
2 B17E Flying Fortress

UK
1 Walrus (this is a lie I have 3 but I have no intention of painting more than 1!)

Soviets
2 SB2

I also have a selection of one offs that I picked up as comparisons but I'll leave them for now.

So I've decided to try and whittle that lot down before the next lot arrive by painting one "Squadron" a week - either 6 fighters or 3 bombers. There's no possibility of doing this of course, but I think its worth setting a target so you can measure just how badly you failed :-)

Blood Red Skies - The WW2 plane I love the best

Isn't the Spitfire. It's the Lavochkin La5FN

I had better explain. Back in 1997 I got my hands on Airwarrior III. This was one of the first massively multiplayer on line games and was about WW2 dogfights and stuff. It was at the time the cutting edge of online gaming, in fact it was one of the first wave of games you could play online against other players over the internet. I stress you could play it, but given the nature of the dial up connections and the fact the server was on the other side of the world it did take some effort and cause quite a bit of frustration - particularly when the wife decided she needed to call a friend and picked the phone up mid dogfight, resulting in an instant disconnection. Needless to say the graphics were rather basic, but at the end of the day, if you shot an enemy down that was a REAL person you just beat, not a selection of computer code that always reacted the same way. This was really exciting stuff, and the skies were literally full of real people to fly with and against. It was a revelation.

The main player base was in the US, as far as I could judge. This meant the skies were full of P38 and P51 players, and the occasional "Death Star" B17 that would have spent half an hour dragging itself up so high that when fighters got up to it they were hanging by their prop and nearly stalling, and therefore an easy kill for any gunners. I didn't bother with that, because I had fallen in love with a little lady from the East, my beautiful La5FN, and she lived down low in the dirt and gutters. To be honest I knew very little at the time about it, but after trying it, I knew I liked it. Lightweight and agile, the La5FN was a joy to fly in Airwarrior because the sky was full of impatient Americans who firmly believed that the P51 was the best fighter in the world. The impatience was the key. Rather than fly their Mustangs up high and use the altitude to their advantage by Boom and Zoom, they were happy to come down low and turn fight with the cheap and nasty Commies in their La5s , with predictable results. I don't know how accurate the flight characteristics in Airwarrior III were, but in a turning fight against Mustangs the La's won every time.

After a while I moved on to playing the amazing IL2 Sturmovik series, and stuck to my La5FN. Il2 was a beautiful game, with for the time superb graphics, and a joy to play. The first time I took it up into the beautifully rendered skies I was almost breathless with the sheer prettiness of the game and my beautiful La5FN. Ok I liked my Spitfire, but I loved my La5.

Historically the La5s first saw action over Stalingrad, and the definitive FN version with it's cut down rear fuselage came slightly later. With the new generation of Yaks the Lavochkins wrested control of the skies over the Eastern Front from the Luftwaffe, and although it was never the same level of air superiority as the Western Allies achieved, it was enough to allow the Sturmoviks in to do their work, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So when I got into BRS I was rather keen to give them a go. At first I was disappointed with the raw stats, but once I understood both what they represent and how the plane works, I'm much more relaxed.  I bought six from Armaments in Miniature but got sidetracked and it took me a while to paint them, but after a recent "spurt" they finally made it to the table. Here they are, painted up as 32nd Guards from 1943-44. Decals from Miscminis

And here is a pair climbing into action somewhere over the Eastern Front - in this case Hartlepool Wargames Club, so possibly more the North Eastern Front :-)

Warlord are planning on releasing their own model later in the next month or so in metal. Initially this will be part of a mixed Squadron Pack based on the "Johnny Red" comic strip, but with a full Squadron release plus an associated Ace pack to follow later in the year.

In BRS the La5FN gives Soviet players a few interesting options. They're faster than most Me109s and although marginally less Agile in game terms to the superlative 109F they do turn better due to having the "Rapid Roll" Trait. In comparison to the Yaks they have slightly more firepower, at a cost in agility. Where they shine is the way their "Rapid Roll" and the synergy that gives with the Soviet's Low Altitude Performance doctrine, meaning they don't stay disadvantaged for long and can get back up into the fight. They do have the "Poor Quality" trait, which Andy Chambers thinks is reasonable due to some alleged production issues (as far as I am concerned nothing can be poor about my beautiful La5s but he wouldn't listen), and as a minor plus this does make them quite cheap too.

Like everything in BRS they have to be a little wary of the Fw190, but they're measurably cheaper in points which means you should always have either a pilot quality or numbers advantage over the FWs, but they give Soviet players a much needed high performance mid to late war fighter.

I did mention I liked them didn't I?