Expanding the Aerodrome - More 1/72 Great War Aircraft

So I've built and painted a couple more 1/72 aircraft - this time a Pfalz DIII and a Bristol Fighter - both from Ukrainian model manufacturer Roden. These two kits were on sale at a local toy shop for 25% off - not bad. But they did end up needing a bit of extra work to be usable.This was probably more about the builder than the kit. But more of that later.

The Pfalz was actually a pretty straightforward build - with one exception (alluded to in my previous post) - NO PILOT!!! But no problem, my order of Wartime Miniatures 20mm pilots from Asymmetric Wargames had arrived with eight metal 20mm pilot figures and one of them slotted straight into the cockpit.

According to the super-helpful 600-page reference book "German Aircraft of the First World War", Pfalz Flugzeug-Werke was founded in 1913 with the help of the Bavarian government. As a successor to the Roland DIs it built under license, Pfalz designed and built the DIII, powered by the "ubiquitous" 160hp Mercedes inline-six cylinder engine.

The DIII was armed with twin Spandau machineguns - on earlier models such as this, they were enclosed in the cowling, but the DIIIa mounted the guns on top of the cowl to facilitate easier servicing. The aircraft was highly rated by pilots and hundreds were built. Later on it was overshadowed by likely the best fighter of the war - the Fokker DVII - but the Pfalz was flown by its own share of aces, including Werner Voss, as well as the pilot whose aircraft I've built here - Leutnant Emil Thuy (35 victories and the Pour le Merite).

The kit went together without too much difficulty, except for the landing gear , which had to be scratch-built from wire after the flimsy kit parts broke. I also didn't rig the 'plane as it seems fiendishly difficult to do and wouldn't last on the table anyway!  

The second kit I finished was this Bristol F2B Fighter, sometimes known to its pilots as the "Brisfit". Somewhat of an oddity, being a two-seater, but the model enjoyed no little success, often due to German pilots thinking it was a single-seater and approaching from the six... only to be surprised by the rear-facing observer and his Lewis gun!

Like the Pfalz, the Brisfit kit was lacking pilot figures, so I used two of the Wartime Miniatures figures I got from Asymmetric Wargames in Italy. The markings on the aircraft are those of the plane flown by Captain Andrew McKeevor of Listowel, Ontario, a small town just northwest of Kitchener. McKeevor ended the war as the war's highest-scoring Brisfit ace with a tally of 31 victories. Of course Lt-Col. William Barker of Dauphin, Manitoba also flew a Brisfit in Italy, but scored most of his 53 victories in other planes, most famously the Sopwith Camel single-seater.

The kit gave me some issues, to be honest. The interwing struts were very thin and flimsy plastic and I quickly found that I wasn't going to be able to use them in assembly - although I tried. Instead I replaced most of the struts with wire I cut from paperclips.

Like the other 1/72 planes I've built, I've fitted these with pins to suit the flight stands.

Lt. Thuy about to get a surprise from Captain McKeevor's observer...

Anyway, two more for the aerodrome. Stay healthy everyone.
 

1/72 WW1 Aircraft and Mini-Rant

Germans F-R: Fokker DR-1, D-VII, Roland C.II. Brits F-R: Sopwith Camel, SE-5

The lockdown produces some strange hobby obsessions, to be sure... in this case it's resurrected an ancient collection of 1/72 aircraft that (I think?) the group gamed with once, long ago. In digging around for some other hobby stuff I came across two unbuilt kits from that long-ago time, so on a lark I decided to build and paint them!
 

This is an Academy 1/72 Sopwith Camel, price on the box was marked "$3.25" (!) Flight stand is an excellent Forgeworld example that they produced for Aeronautica Imperialis, years ago.

Pilot with the Groucho Marx nose was sculpted by me, and provides the opportunity for a mini-rant. WHY OH WHY do plastic kit manufacturers produce model aircraft with open cockpits and NO PILOT??? It would drive me nuts to have to game with a pilotless Camel so I kneaded a pilot out of greenstuff. I know he looks terrible but at least there's a body in the cockpit.

Can't say much for the kit, I think it was less than 30 parts. Decal sheet was atrocious though - there was a decal provided for the tri-colour rudder but the colours were in the wrong order, so I had to paint it instead.

This is a Heller 1/72 Roland C.II. It's a pretty cool-looking aircraft that was known as the "Walfisch" (whale) due to its peculiar streamlined shape.

Unfortunately I'd already raided the decal sheet years ago to use the crosses on a Games Workshop Shadowsword, so I had to freehand the crosses on the Roland.

Heller included crew figures which was nice!

Roland pursued by SE-5. Did you know that Albert Ball's first aerial victory was over a Roland C.II? I'm sure you did...

Anyway, there's two more dusty old kits built up. Of course, building and painting the Camel and Roland reawakened my passion for Great War aviation so I promptly went out and bought three more Roden kits to build - another SE-5, a Bristol fighter, and a Fokker D-VI. They were 25% off even! We'll see how long they last in their boxes. I'm currently reading "Canvas Falcons" as well so that should keep the juices flowing.

Tally ho and stay safe!

Wings of Glory - Break Through

Just before Christmas,we finally returned to our long-running Wings of Glory campaign. For that night’s game, the second game of the campaign set in early 1917, the scenario was Mission 5: Break Through:

Capitalizing on recent victories, German HQ has put more emphasis on controlling the skies.
Type: DogfightVictory
Conditions: Mission Points. At the end of each sortie, calculate each side’s Mission Points. The side with the most points wins the mission.
Fallback: Mission 4a
Setup: Mission should be played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The German Attackers have a 12 inch deployment zone and the French Defenders have a 36 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land.

• Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployments zones in a loose formation with no more then a ruler length between planes.
• The defender’s side has a chance for random balloons. Use the special Balloons rules.
• Each side has a chance for random ground targets. Use the special Ground Targets rules.

We drew cards, and manged to avoid both random Balloons and Ground Targets.

Frederick and Kevin ran, respectively, the Germans and the French. Since it was 1917, one pilot character on each side got an upgraded plane: a hex-camouflaged Albatros D.V. (Frederick) and a yellow SPAD XIII (Brian). Kevin ran a silver Nieuport 17 with twin MGs, and I ran a relatively elderly Albatros  D.II painted in the colours of Oswald Boelcke.

Below are the combatants, from L-R, D.II, SPAD, D.V., and Nieuport:

Below, two photos showing the French (Kevin) and German (Frederick) flight leaders.







Below, the two flights set off against each other. Nearest is my Albatross D.II.




The two sides flew past each other, the French to the south, and the Germans to the north (below, looking south):




Below, three of the four planes turned and got firing solutions right away, with the Albatros D.II and Nieuport taking some hits (my Albatross took 5 points of damage in one shot!).




The fight got really mixed up as the planes kept jousting at each other.






After a couple of Immelmann's, Kevin and I lined up on each other again.






Later, my Albatross and Brian's planes avoided a collision.




Kevin's Nieuport finally fell to my twin Spandaus, crash landing in No-Man's land.



Brian, wanting revenge for his comrade, started after the D.II.



Frederick came to my aid, flying under me.






Frederick trailed Brian for a bit, but the latter pulled another Immelmann...



...tried to attack Frederick...



...then went head to head with the D.II., shooting my plane down.



Brian then accelerated east...







...before turning around to dive for the western (Allied) board edge.




The fast SPAD blew right past the Albatross D.V.




Frederick got some shots into the SPAD, but not enough to bring it down, and chased Brian off the table.

The current standings in the campaign (as the moderator, my results do not count):

• Frederick's German Flight Leader: +5 (five sorties flown) +19 (three and 1/2 planes (14) and one balloon (5) shot down) +4 (drove off two enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) 6 1/2 victories = 24 campaign points, Knight's Cross, Deadly Aim 1
• Brian: +2 (two sorties flown) +8 (two planes shot down) 2 victories = 10 campaign points
• Kevin's French Flight Leader: +3 (three sorties flown) +6 (1 victory (Frederick's Wingman) and one shared victory) +2 (drove off one enemy aircraft) 2 1/2 victories = 7 campaign points
• Indo: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 5 campaign points
• Bill (suffered 2 wounds in Mission 1): +2 (two sorties flown) -4 (being shot down) +4 (one plane shot down) 1 victory = 2 campaign points
• Frederick's German Wingman  (suffered 1 wound in Mission 4a): +3 (three sorties flown) +2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 1 campaign point
• Kevin's French Wingman: +1 (one sortie flown) = 1 campaign point
• Jim: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) -4 (being shot down) 1 victory = 1 campaign point
• Byron (suffered 3 wounds in Mission 3a): +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down = -3 campaign points
• MikeA: +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down) = -3 campaign points

###

Tripods & Triplanes

I have also purchased the Tripods & Triplanes supplement for Wings of Glory from Ares Games. The story is as follows:

March 18th, 1918: the nearest approach of planet Mars to Earth. The First World War suddenly changes into a War of the Worlds, when what appears as a meteor shower falls over a wood in Alsace. A few hours later, just after dawn, an army of giant alien fighting machines appear out of the trees and starts burning villages and houses with their lethal heat-rays, leaving pestilential trails of black smoke behind them.

 A truce is hurriedly signed between the warring nations and, against the advancing Martian tripods, the best war machines of Earth are dispatched, manned by the most gallant and skilled warriors of our planet!

The supplement includes both a Nieuport 16 (armed with Le Prieur anti-balloon rockets) and a small Martian "Locust" Tripod. Le Prieur rockets seem to function well against the Martian invaders. I currently have four such balloon-busting Nieuport 16 models, flying under the flags of France, Italy, and Britain.

Below are examples of the Martian Locust Tripod and an RAF Nieuport 16. 

(These two photos copyright Ares Games)

With another couple of Martian Tripods ordered, I look forward to running some alternate-history sci-fi games!

Wings of Glory - Campaign Game

Some time ago, we played another game in the long-running Wings of Glory campaign. For that night’s game, the first game of the campaign set in 1917, the scenario is Mission 4a: Stalled Advance:


Background: Hoping to prevent a stalemate and gain the upper hand on Intelligence for a major ground offensive, HQ has called for a renewed effort to eliminate the enemy’s observation balloons.
Type: Balloon Busting
Victory Conditions: Mission Points.  The side with the most mission points wins the mission. For this mission, Balloon points are worth double the normal value.
Fallback: Mission 3a or 3b
Setup: Mission was played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The Attackers have a 16 inch deployment zone and the Defenders have a 32 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land.

• Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployments zones in a loose formation with no more then a ruler length between planes. 
• The (French) defender’s side must place two balloons per sortie using the special Balloons rules.
• Each side has a chance for random ground targets. Use the special Ground Targets rules.

Frederick and Kevin ran, respectively, the Germans and the French. Since it was 1917, the best pilot character on each side got an upgraded plane: an Albatross D.V. and a Spad XIII.

Below, Kevin contemplates the table.



Frederick overlooks the defending artillery observation balloons, and the pair of machine-guns placed between them, deep behind the French front line trenches.



The two patrols flew over No-Man's land.





The French opted to pass to the south of the Germans, seeking to gain their tails.



The northern balloon took several hits...



...and took several more as the Germans made long firing passes.



The French ganged up on the German wingman, who weathered their shots.



The German flight leader then fired on the southern balloon.





Concentrated fire brought the German wingman down.



By this point, the balloons had been winched down half of their altitude; the French might save them both!



Frederick's flight leader made a couple of passes at the northern balloon again.







Eventually, the balloon's hydrogen exploded!



Jousting with the French, the surviving German opened up his throttle...



...and headed east for home. Only the Spad had the speed to potentially catch up.





Kevin zigged when he should have zagged, resulting with the French leader ended up facing the wrong direction, and so he decided to head back to the French lines. The Germans won!





Knights of the Air Campaign: Results as of March 19, 2015

Scoring:

• Bill (suffered 2 wounds in Mission 1): +2 (two sorties flown) -4 (being shot down) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 2 campaign points
• Brian: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 5 campaign points
• Byron (suffered 3 wounds in Mission 3a): +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down = -3 campaign points
• Indo: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 5 campaign points
• Jim: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) -4 (being shot down) = 1 victory, 1 campaign point
• MikeA: +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down) = -3 campaign points
• Frederick's German Flight Leader: +4 (four sorties flown) +19 (three and 1/2 planes (14) and one balloon (5) shot down) +2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 4 1/2 victories, 21 campaign points; awarded the Knight's Cross!
• Frederick's German Wingman  (suffered 1 wound in Mission 4a): +3 (three sorties flown) + 2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 1 campaign point
• Kevin's French Flight Leader: +2 (two sorties flown) +6 (1 victory (Frederick's Wingman) and one shared victory) = 1 1/2 victories, 8 campaign points
• Kevin's French Wingman: +1 (one sortie flown), 1 campaign point

Next Game: Mission 5 Break Through