BRS Finns

I've been thinking about starting a new nationality for Blood Red Skies. I already have "cough" several squadrons, British, German, Soviet, Japanese and some American, but I'm thinking of doing something a bit less mainstream. Choices were narrowed down to French, Italian, or Finns. Finns won out, mainly because I have some spare Soviet bombers that I can re-purpose, and could get some 3d printed fighters, so this was going to be a fairly low impact project, at least as far as my wallet is concerned.

I'm initially planning just two Squadrons - one fighters, one bombers. The bombers will be Tupelev  SB2s, a mix of Armaments in Miniature and Zvezda models. The Finns didn't have much of an aircraft industry and relied on either imported or captured models. In the case of the SB2s, they managed to recover and repair at least five Soviet SB2s over the period of the Winter War, and put them into service as maritime patrol and attack bombers. Later they "acquired" more via their then German allies who captured large numbers during Operation Barbarossa. This meant they used several different versions of SB2s, which gives me a good excuse to reuse those spare SB2s I had lying around without worrying too much about them being different models.

The fighters will be Brewster Buffalos. These are 3d prints provided unbidden by my regular opponent Paul. Yes I know I have been less than complementary about them in the past The Little Plane that Mostly Couldn't but ..........

Pics from Wings Palette

Decals will be the excellent ones from Misc Minis

I'll update as the project develops



 

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 :-)

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.

Double Barrel Russian? Warlord \ Zvezda SB2 Bomber for Blood Red Skies

I've picked up the Warlord Games SB2 Bomber box for Blood Red Skies - available from Warlord games for £20 from the Warlord shop or in my case from my local games store Asgard Wargames  where I got it for £18 and got a free cup of tea. Nice*.,

Now to avoid confusion I have to say the models are the EXACT same models as made by the Russian firm Zvezda for their Art of Tactic game, but reboxed with some supporting bits to make them usable for Blood Red Skies. This can cause some confusion if you didn't know.

In the new Warlord box you get a flight of three, plus Advantage Bases, Base extensions, skill disks and a stat card.

The models themselves are designed to be push fit \ snap together but I would strongly recommend using glue. They're made with what I would call standard plastic and go together very well. I only had one issue with assembly and that was the tail unit - TOP TIP - DRY FIT THESE FIRST to make sure you have then the right way up as the instructions seemed fuzzy to me. Other than that it was easy. You get the option of undercarriage in the up or down position -  I suppose for strict historical accuracy down would be OK as a large percentage of SB2s were lost on the ground in the first wave of Blitzkrieg attacks on the Russian airfields but mine are up so I can play them in BRS :-). Other than that the propellers are to scale, meaning they're probably going to snap off in use - so mine are being made pre snapped. There is also a fragile looking antenna underneath that I'm leaving on but more in hope than expectation of survival.

Next up - painting

* to be honest I had to make it myself but the facilities were there