GAMING UPDATE, 27AUG22, 7pm My Place

      Despite the long hiatus I have not given up wargaming. I will be hosting a game at my place 7pm, this Saturday August 27th. Be There!

Enter The Dragon! Chinese Air Force of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War

 

 

 

       Badly outnumbered, poorly supplied, and frequently forced to respond to Japanese actions rather than being able to take the initiative the Nationalist Chinese Air Force put up a dogged resistance throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War.  The Chinese did not have an indigenous aircraft industry to speak of and were forced to buy foreign designs to try to keep up with Japanese aircraft developments. A production facility was set up at Hangzhou Air Base which assembled Curtiss fighters built under license along with a few other foreign designs. Attrition during the first year of the war left the Chinese with a depleted air force that was dangerously weak. The Soviet union stepped in beginning in August 1937 sending hundreds of aircraft and dozens of "volunteers". This Soviet contingent represented the main strength of the Chinese air force until the Spring of 1941 when the U.S. included China in the Land-Lease program. After Pearl Harbor the flood-gates of supply were opened but the U.S. often sent the "second-string" aircraft to the Chinese. There is a good overview of the aerial  conflict on Wikipedia.  

       My collection of Chinese fighters reflects the chaotic situation that the Chinese found themselves in at the beginning of the war. It will continue to expand as I obtain more models (I already have some Russian models in the pipeline) .

Wargames Atlantic 28mm Boxers

 

 

the front of the box

       Fresh from Michigan Toy Soldier Company's shelf is this box full of Boxers!  Molded in medium gray plastic and cleanly cast without a trace of flash and limited mold lines these figures are a demonstration of what plastic miniatures can provide to the hobby. Crisply detailed, loaded with options and rich with posing choices it would be a small matter to assemble a vast number of these figures without having two of the same. With some careful use of the available options these miniatures could be used as far back as the 1800's and right up into the Second World War. At about a dollar each they are quite a deal as well.

1/72 scale Fiat CR-32 by Supermodel

 

 

yeah, I threw the box away again so I had to steal a pic from Scalemates

 

       Plodding along on my 2nd Sino-Japanese War project I am currently adding to the Nationalist Chinese Air Force. The Kuomintang fielded a dizzying array of aircraft during the long brutal fight for survival against Japan. One of the small purchases was a group of 16 (some say 24) Fiat CR-32 fighters in 1933. The fighters were well-received by the Chinese pilots who liked them better than the Curtiss Hawk II or Boeing 281, but there were no further orders due to difficulty of supply of the exotic fuel that the Fiat A-30 RA V-12 engine demanded. By the fall of Nanking in 1937 all of the CR-32s had been lost.

        There is a very informative article on Wikipedia on this aircraft.

Conquest Day at Bastion Gaming Center

        Have you had enough of fantasy RPG stuff? Tired of Tolkien? How about some old-fashioned rank&flank massed fantasy battles with loads of beautiful minis? Bastion Gaming Center will be hosting a Conquest Hobby Day on July 30th from Noon to 9pm. to introduce new players (and encourage older ones as well) to Parabellum's fantasy army battle system called Conquest.

       There will be a group painting area where we can show off out talents and encourage others, and pick up tips and pointers, a Paint and Take table for interested folks to try their hand along with demo games so that you can give the game system a try. I have seen the minis up close and can say that they are exquisitely detailed and crisply cast so painting will be a joy. If you wish to try a game you can find a free copy of the rules here.  There is a regular group playing Conquest on Tuesday evenings aty Bastion and they would be delighted to have new players join in the fun.

       On top of everything else there will be free pizza for all participants.

       This is really worth a look!

Surprise for Everybody! Game at my place Saturday 23JUL22

 The usual 7pm time, the usual place

Be there!

A Surprise for Anton, updated with some results

 Hello All,

Anton and I have been reinvestigating the first major gaming craze of our careers.  WRG 6th Edition.  

1/72 scale Kawasaki KI-10 from X-Otic and ICM

        This was the last biplane fighter accepted into Imperial Japanese service. It was a product of the "dog-fighting school" of aerial combat and emphasized maneuverability over speed and firepower. Early in the Second Sino-Japanese War it was very effective but it was a design dead-end and the Japanese (and almost all of the rest of the world) got out of the combat biplane business. There is a useful Wiki here.

       Both the X-Otic and ICM kits leave a lot to be desired  but will do for wargaming items. As usual I assembled these with steel plugs inside the fuselage to allow for mounting on my adjustable magnetic flight bases.  I find the biggest disappointment to be that even though the aircraft are shown with spats in the box-art there are none to be found in the kits! I have had these around as completed kits for some time but finally got around to applying paint and decals. With these four I have completed my 1935-1941 collection (yes I know there are tons of Japanese light bombers and fighters not on my list but they are only available as expensive epoxy kits out of the Czech Republic). 

 

the odd multi-colored roundel on the aircraft on the right mark it as a 

member of the  Manchukuo Air Force, a puppet empire 

set up by the Japanese with the Last Emperor of China as it head

 

to me they look like ugly versions of the Curtiss P-6 Hawk family

 

now all I have to do is finish off my Soviet bombers and I can start my Nomonhan Campaign

A Little Vanity Project

Daftrica, the grand-daddy of my full color maps

        I have been fascinated by maps since my childhood. The concentration of information that a good map represents is a wonderful thing. My wargaming with maps started when my brother and I got a copy of Avalon Hill's "Luftwaffe" for Christmas, we played that so many time the counters fell apart. A short while later we discovered "Panzerblitz" this had geo-morphic maps that contained much more information. It opened our eyes to lanes of fire, reverse slope positions, and using terrain to mask our maneuvers.

Not Dead Yet!

       I had fallen victim to a schedule that became wildly more demanding through June. I think that for the next few weeks life may be somewhat more normal. I can't promise a flood of new posts but here are some Victrix 28mm French Guard artillery that I painted in the past couple of weeks. I like them a lot less now, there is little flexibility in the posing and the figures are difficult to arrange around the guns in a convincing manner and still fit them onto a normal-sized base. They are rather pretty sculpts however.

 

I haven't decided yet whether to mount them on pennies (as per usual)

 or just attach the guns and minis to the base

Gaming Update: Saturday 11JUN22 1900hrs at R.U.P.'s place

       Rich Uncle Pat has offered to host this weekend's game. 

His place at 7pm, Saturday the 11th of June, 2022.

Be there!

Wargames Atlantic 28mm Aztec Warriors

       Wargames Atlantic has provided the opposing forces to the Conquistadors set in the form of Aztec Warriors. As is usual with Wargames Atlantic products the miniatures are cast in a firm medium gray plastic that is nearly perfectly cast with no flash and only the faintest hint of mold lines. Inside the well-illustrated box you will find five sprues that each contain six figures, two in complete feather "armor", two more in padded body protection and the remaining two wearing loincloths. These figures are accompanied by an array of terrifying weapons; obsidian edged wooden clubs and swords. 

        All of the figures have the arms attaching at the shoulder which allows for the widest set of options regarding positioning. Detail on the figures is crisp with the stone edges of the weapons coming through nicely. As usual with Wargames Atlantic miniatures there is a wide assortment of heads available with fifteen heads on each sprue. These cover the various religious and military orders within the Aztec military system. Pretty much every type of soldier fielded by the Aztec Empire at it's zenith can be represented with the components supplied. A couple of boxes of these will set you up with a great skirmish force to oppose the recently released Conquistadors. Well done indeed!

 

the cover, nicely done box-art paired with some expertly painted minis