The Reason Why

This blog post came about from a post on the TOOFATLardies yahoo group were I was blaming the Fat Wally website for my deep dive into Alternate History. To be honest the fault belongs to the old GDW Europa wargame.

Way back to my wargaming days I played a lot of Europa. Once Torch came out I had everything to do a strange and wonderful alternate 1940 history were France Fights On and the Battle of Britain happens over the Mediterranean instead of the channel.

Fast forward 20+ years and I want to do it again but at a tactical level and in lead not card board. I also had many years of research to make it work or so I hope to. I also had the Bag the Hun rules by TOOFATLardies as well as the Operation Sealion for the period feel for the supplement.

So with French and Italian aircraft ready and a few British and Germans added to the list I move forward with the miniatures as well as the writing. Yes I want this as a supplement even if it is just for myself.

While I have no one to blame but myself the Fat Wally website made the decision to start this in 2014 very easy. And as it was already started I can keep my no new armies pledge. Kev not only has great looking aircraft models but tells you how he painted them.

It is also easy to keep the number of aircraft small. The Italians only have one fighter with the range to be effective (but the G.50 can cause trouble defending Rome and Milan) and two bombers so you are looking 12 fighters and 10-20 bombers on the Axis side. The French have more variety but still small numbers, figure 10-20 fighter and 8-12 bombers. A few American aircraft will make an appearance as well as British FAA aircraft.

My biggest cost is bases. My initial idea was to go with Tumbling Dice aircraft and reuse the bases. I than had a credit that I used for Shapeways and O8 and found the 3D CR42s were to small to drill for bases and the O8 broke my drill bit so I will have to base then individually. No biggie just slowing down the process.

Sorry this got a little long but it happens. Thank you for reading and let me know what you think.

Jon

Savoia-Marchetti SM.79

Additions have been made today to the Regia Aeronautica for my 1940 project. While the most important part of this order was the decals for the Italian aircraft there were the bombers I needed for rounding out the two squadrons.

In this order were the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 and the Fiat BR.20. As the BR.20 has a particular role for the campaign I will leave it for a blog post of its own. The Italians can now launch a squadron each at the French in both southern France and on the island of Corsica.

One thing I found with the Oddzial Osmy (O8) is that they are tough, tougher than my drill bits. After ruining one bit, and having a He111 thrown at my chest (yes it left a mark) I decided to base the Oddzial Osmy aircraft on their own fixed bases. It also means I need to place an order for the bases from em4miniatures moving it up in front of a couple of small order to fill out the squadrons.  Has anyone else had similar problems with the Oddzial Osmy miniatures? The Tumbling Dice are a softer metal and are easy to craft.

I also saw there was a major difference in size between the Oddzial Osmy (O8) and the Tumbling Dice SM.79s. The Oddzial Osmy miniatures are cleaner and smaller, but not enough to be concerned. I will make sure that in the future all aircraft will come from the same manufacture.

The SM.79 does deserve a place in any campaign set in the Mediterranean from the Spanish Civil War to the Italian Social Republic. It is perfect fighter fodder against the landings in Sicily and on the mainland in 1943 against Allied P51s and P47s. I hope it will be more successful in 1940 against the French. With 1,240 built it was one of the most important bombers in the theater used as both a torpedo bomber and a level bomber.

As of this evening I have the three painted SM.79s with decals and I will work on the two G.50s next. The decals are so small that I need my camera in my iPad to tell me how to apply them. In hindsight I could of painted a white dot on the wings as I cannot see the markings in the middle.

More images soon and should be able to get these aircraft in the air for a game of Bag the Hun. I do not think anyone will mind that the French aircraft are missing their roundels.

Thank you for reading this post and please follow, as there is more to come.

Type 89s Anyone

I finished up three of my five Japanese Type 89s this morning before heading out to work. These tanks have always interested me. Maybe because they looked retro even when they were new.

The image on the left is the first image I remember seeing of this gem way back in a magazine in the 70s.

This medium tank, at least according to the Japanese Army,  weighed in at approximately 13 tons. This is in comparison to the later M4 Sherman weighing 30 tons and the M3 Stuart at 16 tons. I am willing to call them a medium tank as they were considered a medium tank when designed in 1928.

The Type 89 was not built in large numbers with the 400 plus built making an impact in China and the Philippines. While I have no plans to put them to use soon, if I was it would be battle on the mainland. I have had a lot of fun using them and armored cars in the DOS game Steel Panthers III.

There are certain things you need to be concerned with commanding these tanks. A 37mm Door Knocker (Pak 36) as well as heavy machine guns and anti tank rifles should be on the list. All were available to the Chinese.

While I do not see this happening anytime soon if the Japanese Army is needed in China down at the club I will be ready. Well at least I have a start. I may have to dust off my Manchukuo Army list for Chain of Command.

Stay tuned and thank you for reading this.
Jon

Paint Table

While I am working on finishing up some tanks an order from Shapeways came in. Now the Italian have an additional 12 CR.42s. Not sure how I am going to base or paint them.

Off To A Good Start

Well my painting is off to a good start this year. I have 72 WWI infantry and 6 cavalry painted with 10 tanks started and 11 aircraft done and waiting on decals.

While the poor weather allows me to catch up on my painting the British have yet moved north of Fao.

End of 2014 - Bring on 2015

Well I have ended 2014 with a fair amount painted. This is thanks to Rob’s painting contest.

I am pleased that I am starting out 2015 strong with a battalion of infantry completed for The Great War and another underway. That gives the British an impressive two brigades to do combat with Johnny Turk. Unfortunately the Turk only has two battalions and a squadron of cavalry. This needs some correction.

Projects I am working on:

On to Baghdad – 15mm WWI

Battle of Britain, Over the Mediterranean – 1/600 Alternate History Air Campaign

Chain of Command – 1939 Poland

Not planning on any big purchases and doing a lot of clean up of what I do own. Not much exciting just hope to get a game in here and there every month.

Here are the numbers that I ended the year with.

1/6000 Naval

98 Ships

1/3000

7 Ships

1/2400 Naval

49 Ship

1/1200 Aircraft

3 Helicopters

6 Aircraft

WWI - 15mm

2 - Aircraft (1/144)

7 - Tanks

1 - Truck

96 - Figures

17 - Terrain

7 Boats

WWI - 6mm

4 Machine Gun Stands

Non-WWI - 15mm

9 - AFV

2 - Arty

79 - Infantry

40mm

6 Snowmen