Tiny Air Combat Kicking into High Gear!

All,

I can't tell you how happy I am to report: PROJECT FINISHED!!!  I ordered a boatload of aircraft from Thomaston last years, for WWII Pacific, WWII Battle of Britain, and various moderns (from the Korean War to present).  Previously I'd completed the WWII Pacific set, and even played quite a few fights with them using the very simple "Battle of Britain" rules (https://oldleadbreed.blogspot.com/search/label/Battle%20of%20Britain%20Rules).

However, the WWII Battle of Britain and Modern sets had languished on the painting table... until now!  I recently had a surgery (emergency appendectomy), so while convalescing I sat down to base and paint in snatches, and this weekend I finished them up.  What now?  Well, first up is probably going to be heading to Cuba Libre for some modern air fighting over South Leon (https://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/), and then it's either back to the War in the Pacific, or over to the Arab-Israeli Wars (https://swordofgideonwargaming.blogspot.com/) for some dogfighting during the Suez Crisis.  Unfortunately, Battle of Britain is just going to have to wait, due to the amount of projects I've already got going on...  But enough talk, let's see some pics!

The whole shebang, WWII Battle of Britain on top, Moderns on the bottom, 152 aircraft total.

A closer look at the Moderns, with bad guys up top and good guys at center and bottom.

Some MiG-15s for Korea, Vietnam, and Arab-Israeli.

Uh-oh, who knows what these are?  Yep, kinda silly, but I couldn't help myself.  Look closely, those are "MiG-28s," from "Top Gun."  Cheesy...

Some MiG-29 Fulcrums.

Some Su-22s, destined to be shot down near the "Line of Death" in the Gulf of Sidra (a joke for those of us growing up in a certain age).

Some MiG-23s.

And some MiG-21s, great for Vietnam and Arab-Israeli.

A group of F-86 Sabres.  I don't really have any plans to do Korean War gaming, but I just couldn't help myself.  Maybe my War in the Pacific blog?  After WWII ends I continue tracking through Korea and Vietnam?  That's about 30 years from now, maybe.

Some F-16s...

And F-18s, for the Gulf War (which will be playing out soon on the Cuba Libre blog, soon being a relative term).  These are actually bomb-laden F-18 strike aircraft, with some air-to air F-18s coming up later.

Some F-4 Phantoms. Can be used for US Navy or allied fighters, maybe even as Gulf War-era USAF Wild Weasels.

An E-3 AWACs and E-2C Hawkeye.

Oh yeah, some A-10 Warthogs.

Some A-7 Corsairs (left) and A-6 Intruders (right).

Some F-15 Eagles, left as Strike Eagles (sorry for the bad lighting, they're not actually that dark), and right as traditional air superiority fighters.

Some B-57 Canberras for Vietnam strikes, will be used in Cuba Libre in South Leon.  Can also be used as RB-57s or EB-57s.

More F-4 Phantoms, painted up as USAF in Vietnam.  Will be used in Cuba Libre.

And then I just had to do it, had to work in some Arab-Israeli air gaming (it's Vicki's fault!).  Here we have some Super Mysteres for the Suez Crisis.  Astute observers will note that the far left aircraft is actually an F-86 Sabre posing as a Mystere because I broke a Mystere and didn't have a replacement...

One of my favorites, the Mirage, perfect for some Six-Day War dogfighting.

Those F-18 fighters I mentioned.

And here is maybe my favorite, the venerable F-14 Tomcat.

Just had to do the VF-84 "Jolly Rogers," too cool.

A closeup of those F-86 Sabres; sometimes I just feel like showing off.  I can't claim they're objectively beautiful, but I'm pretty proud of my handiwork on these tiny little airplanes.  They are actually fun to paint.

And on to the Battle of Britain!

First up is a section of Me-109s, in red.

Then the other section, in yellow.

The first section of Bf-110s.

And the others.

A three-plane section of Do-17s.  If you're wondering about the numbers of aircraft (per type), it's down to the rules I'm using, where the attacker gets (up to) four fighters to escort (up to) six bombers, and the defender gets (up to) six fighters to intercept them.  The 'up to' part is in there because casualties/losses carry over from game to game.

Which is part of the really cool campaign for Battle of Britain.  You play the war one week at a time, with one fight per day, casualties racking up and carrying over from fight to fight.  Then, when you start a new week, everyone gets replacements, and carry it out again.  So, the British will start each week with 9 Hurricanes and 9 Spitfires, while the Germans will start with 8 Me-109s, 4 Bf-110s, 6 He-111s, 6 Ju-88s, 3 Do-17s, and 3 Ju-87s.  While aircraft are somewhat generic, each of the named models has slightly different characteristics.

A flight of dreaded Stukas!

All six Ju-88s.

And all six He-111s, hopefully destined to end up at the bottom of the Channel!

And on to The Few: here are the six Hurricanes.

And the six Spitfires.

Sometimes I get a bit carried away ;)  First, I wish I'd have done something other than just the nose spinners to differentiate Spits from Hurricanes.  Second, it's a bit too busy on such small aircraft.  And lastly, I really did get carried away: that roundel behind the cockpit is yellow then blue then white then red.

And just to give you an idea of the size of these things: at left is an HR 1/300 Typhoon.  At bottom center is a Picoarmor 1/600 Typhoon.  At far right is the 'Tiny Air Combat' Spitfire you just saw in the previous picture.

Thanks for looking, and stand by for some gaming (probably during the Independence Day holiday).

V/R,
Jack