Chocks Away - Friday Night WW1 Aerial Combat

 A couple of weeks ago I hosted a friend, Luke, for a Friday evening's World War 1 air combat.  We used 1/600 Tumbling Dice planes and used "Chocks Away" - a set of really simple rules written by myself.  This is not so much an AAR as a sample of how our two games progressed on the night.

Luke chose to be the Allies, with RE8 Bombers, Bristol Fighters and Camels.  I fielded Albatross III fighters and Fokker Dr1 triplanes.  Yes, two Richtofens were present.

The dice colour represents skill - Ace = red, Trained = yellow/clear, Raw = green.  Height is in 6 bands, related by the dice pips.  Counters represent factors - bombs on board = blue, jammed gun = black, moved this go = red, damaged = yellow.  The white and purple counters were to help Luke work out what sort of similar looking Olive drab plane he was looking at!  :-)

So, here are the pictures!

British bombers, game 1.

British Bombers in the 2nd game

German start - 

Close Combat - getting stuck in!!!

All in all we had two really fun games, with Luke doing much better in game 2 and getting his bombers off the far table edge.  A great way to end the week.  !

As ever, I hope this inspires you to have a go.

Air Apaches - B25 Mitchell Strafers - 345 Bomb Group

 One of the distinctive sets of markings were those applied to the 345 Bomb Group, operating in the Pacific.  

These planes represent the Hells Belles squadron - with a bright blue Bat emblazoned on the nose of their B25-J strafers.  

The strafers carried 6 or 8 fixed .50cal MG in the nose, a possible 4 further fixed .50 cal package guns either side of the cockpit and the top turret packed a further 2 .50cal.  They also had bombs in the bomb bay.  Their tactics were to go low, with the element of surprise, hoping to shoot up the Japanese planes whilst they were still on the ground.

The models are 1/600 Tumbling Dice, USAAF markings from Doms Decals, the Bat nose & tail Apache markings a combination of hand painting & suitable letter transfers.  I added a battery of nose guns and side package guns to the Tumbling Dice model.

A lone Bat in close up...

D-Day Dakotas

 A few photos of my D-Day Dakota Fleet.  Fuselage codes CJ - 71st Sdn, & CU 72nd Sdn, both from 434 Troop Carrier Group, 53rd Troop Carrier Wing.  Based at Aldermaston.

The planes are Tumbling Dice 1/600.  The USAAF decals are Doms Decals.  The wing stripes are painted by hand - as were the originals!  The D-Day markings do make the slightly boring OD over light grey a little more eye-catching.

The initial D-Day drops of 82nd & 101st Airborne took place on the night of 5/6 June, so this must be one of the follow up drops on 6 June.

3 planes from each squadron:

After running into the Luftwaffe.....

Planes from Storage 1

As we were clearing out our storage the other day, I found a box or two of treasures - painted 3 years ago, but still not photo'd or played with.

Here, for your delectation....

Checkertail P40s

Hawk-75s of the Finnish Airforce....

All 1/600 Tumbling Dice planes (the Hawk 75s are Myrskys....), Decals from Doms Decals, stands Litko.

Gallery - 2

Jg 1 sported a really neat chequered paint scheme in late 1943.  Here is my 1/600 take on it....

3 staffel, JG 1, highly visible!

With 1 Staffel following 

From the side.  TD planes, Dom's Decals + markings, Beacon transfers (1/285 scale) tiny checks.  

Gallery - 1

OK, I am very much experimenting here.  My aim is to have a separate page with pictures of my planes......

so here goes!

B 17s from 12 o'clock level.  TD planes, Dom's Decals.

Same planes from a slightly different angle.

Sturmstaffel 1 - Heavily armoured FW 190 A-6, A-7 & A-8s to take on the USAAF Heavies

From above - the effect is a little marred by the stands

Side view.  TD FW190, Dom's transfers.  The real model is sitting on a paperclip, what you are looking at is a lot bigger than reality.

On the workbench - June 2017 part 2

Albatross D IV & V from Jasta 5.  These take longer to paint than the RFC, as they are nice and colourful....

RFC RE8 & DH4.  The Re8s have exhaust stains on the upper wing

Photo'd in Natural light, maybe I need to add lighting? 

On the workbench - June 2017 part 1

Here's some photos of stuff on the workbench - painted but not yet varnished.  Photos were taken with my wife's phone - yet to be fully mastered by yours truly.  I've photo'd these on a white background - hopefully the planes stand out more clearly......

3 x B17-G  91st BG (red) & 94 BG (Yellow)  Black side hatches & marking triangles/squares are transfer paper.

448 BG B24-J - more to follow..... The open side hatches are squares of black transfer, as I find it really hard to paint squares.

Mitsubishi Bettys (now where are those British warships......?)

Tumbling Dice Ju 52 - part 3

The first batch of Ju 52 are now painted.  4 are from 2./KGrzbV 172 (in Tunisia), 1 is from the Deutsche Waffenstillstands Commission (based in Morocco).

Having spent all that time getting the undercarriage looking nice, you now don't see it.... !  They do sit correctly when landed and I'll photo them on stands, and thus flying, soon.

I'm looking forward to getting them varnished, probably in the Autumn.....  They will then have a short career as cannon fodder.....  roll on Operation Flax.

Tumbling Dice Ju 52 - part 2

Tumbling Dice Ju 52 - undercarriage conversion & detailing

The second part of this blog looks at some other small additions to enhance your fleet of Ju 52s, thus enabling them to strike more terror / die with greater gallantry, depending on who has air superiority.

If part 1 seems too much, you can just use the wheels as supplied and add the following:

Ju 52 - post 2 - starboard exhaust

Ju 52 - post 2 - port exhaust

Ju 52 post 2 the dorsal gunner position

Ju 52 post 2 - gunner & MG

Ju 52 post 2 - the end result!

So there you have it, a neat Ju52 ready to take to the skies.  Due to my nomadic nature, my planes have yet to be painted, but I hope to add pictures of the final results later.

Thanks for watching!

Colin