Monday, April 27, 2026

Operation Battleaxe - Preparations

The game mats that I have work better for Europe than North Africa. I want to purchase a new mat. Possibly something from Battle Mat Bazzar but I am undecided. What I really want to get is some ground attack markers. I am thinking of some 2mm vehicles to use as ground targets. There used to be a company called Fightson that had some but their website seems to have gone away. There are a couple of items left on the Raiden website but not many. What they do have, that I want to buy, are some parachute markers to mark downed aircraft. That could be fun to have on the table. I also need something for bogey markers. I am undecided on that as well.

I have 90% of the aircraft I want for the campaign. The aircraft that I really want at this point is the Italian Ro.37 for an observation aircraft. Also some Westland Lysanders for the RAF and SAAf. Another interesting aircraft would be the Caproni Ca.310 for the Italians. These were more transport and liason aircraft and really should have no business over the front.

Over the weekend, I managed to paint up three Br.20s that I used in the game that I previously posted about. I also finished painting three more German Ju87s for the Luftwaffe. I have some extras that I may repaint for the Italians as they move away from the Ba65 to the Ju87 for dive bomber duties. Speaking of Ba65s, I managed to prime a group of 4 of those as well as three Martin Marylands for the British. I also cleaned the flashing off of some Blenheim Is.

I will be headed to the store this week and buying a pack of beads to use as markers on the bases for aircraft Identification. I had a hard time following who was who during the course of the game.

Operation Battleaxe Campaign - Day 1 - Mission 1: Italian Turn

I started my campaign. The first game had a flight of three Mc.200s escorting my newly painted Br.20 bombers. They were doing a bombing run on a convoy moving across the desert.

The defenders were two flights of two RAF P-40s that were to intercept the incoming bombers. Each group of two had 1 character card and the Italians similarly had two character cards, one with the fighters and the other with the bombers.

The Italians were lead by Tenente Gualtiero Titone, a veteran pilot. He was accompanied by two regular Pilots, SottoTennente Michael Mariano and Gergente Rocco Botti. The RAF pilots were a veteran pilot and three regulars. The bombers had a veteran crew and two regular crews.

I don't have a desert game mat. I did find a rather nice Hotz mat that I don't remember buying. It is possible that it was Terry Haney’s. I also don't have suitable ground targets. So three washers had to do.

What became evident as the game moved was that I need a better mechanism to ID which plane is which as it got confusing once the formations broke up. I have an idea on how to fix that.

The altitude stands mostly worked well. The die holder in the back did great for altitude. I tried to use the pointer to indicate the aircraft but it moved too freely and didn't work out. I will replace the pointer with a numbered bead going forward.

The Italian flight leader, Tenente Titone (veteran), quickly pulled away and intercepted a pair of P-40s. He quickly pulled behind the flight leader and got on his tail. His section fire card came up next and shot down the P-40 with a result of aircraft explodes.

The RAF was not idle. The other pair maneuvered and were soon on the tail of a Br20. The pilot had 4 separate shots on the bomber but only managed to score minor damage. The tail gunner managed to cause the pilot to loose control temporarily and break off.

The lead Italian circled back around looking to save the bombers. He was able to get on the tail of the second flight leader. It took two attempts, but this one too exploded.

A P-40 managed to get on the tail of the Italian flight leader and caused minor damage before he was shaken off his tail.

The bombers only had one aircraft to get close to the target and drop it's bombs. They missed.

The Italian flight leader lined up one more shot and caused some engine damage before running out of ammo.

At this point, the Italians broke off and headed for home. The P-40s didn't have a great outing. The Italians only had one aircraft that did anything scoring 2 kills and one reported probable.

The bombers claimed great success despite not hitting anything.

. Now I need to prepare for game 2 of day 1. This time it will be the SAAF’s turn.

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Aircraft Notes:
RAF - 2 AC shot down (1 Veteran, 1 Regular). 1 Regular with engine damage and minor damage. 1 Unscathed.

Italian Fiat Br.20s - 1 Successfully Bomb, 1 Damaged Cockpit and 2x Minor Damage, 1 2x minor damage.

Fighter Squadriglia: - 1 with 2 kills and minor damage all ammo expended (veteran), 2 with no shots fired. --------------

Italian Score Board

No.Pilot Status Kills Notes
1Capitano Mirocleto GerbinoJr Ace 5 Spanish Civil War Veteran
2Tenente Gualtiero TitoneVeteran 2 (1) Squadron XO. 2 Kills Day 1
3Sottotenente Tarso IsolaRegular 0
4Sottotenente Urdino PeduzziRegular 0
5Sottotenente Michael MarianoRegular 0 1 Mission Flown
6Sottotenente Abramio GiacintoSprog 0
7SergenteMaggiore Lavinio LicoVeteran 2
8Sergente Cristian PiccoliRegular 0
9Sergente Romano GarafaloRegular 0
10Sergente Rocco BottiRegular 01 Mission Flown
11Sergente Rodolfo ScaleseSprog 0
12Sergente Neoterio SciulliSprog 0
13Sergente Girardo RizziSprog 0

Operation BattleAxe - A Bag The Hun Campaign

I pulled out all of my Bag the Hun miniatures again for the first time in a long time. I took stock of my miniatures and have plenty of painted aircraft. So I pulled out my air campaigns and started to look through them. The idea would be to do a solo campaign but for four separate fighter squadrons based on the miniatures I have painted up.

The thought is that each side will get an action during the day randomly rolled on a table that will target a specific force. The sides to this will be the SAAF & RAF against the Luftwaffe & Regia Aeronautica. Each game will be played independently between the squadrons unless a force randomly rolls an opposing mission against a side that is attacking them. This way, mostly the opposing forces would be other random squadrons with the occasional opportunities for them to clash head to head. Or so is the idea.

I plan on keeping the games on the smaller side with between 4 to 8 fighters per side with a small handfuls of supporting aircraft (4 or less). This should make the games manageable and faster for solo play. Operation Battleaxe was a short operation lasting only 3 days. That gives a total of 12 games for the full campaign. Note, that the squadrons are ficticious but based on real squadrons of different numbers. Each side will have 3 characters of the 13 member squadron. This will be the Squadron Leader and two other members of the squadron - chosen randomly. Of these, at least one must be a Sprog. Each of the squadrons will have a relatively similar experience levels.

Meet the Regia Aeronautica

For the Italian forces, I am looking to run a Squadriglia of either MC.200s (In june 1941 there was only 1 in North Africa), Cr.42s (I have 4 planes painted), or G.50bis fighters. I have more MC.200s painted than any other Italian aircraft so I will likely go with them. Pulling from some of the historical formations I have made the following Squadriglia of 13 pilots.

377a Squadriglia

They are flying the MC.200 aircraft. Apparently, these were uncommon over North Africa at this point of the war. But I have 8 of them painted up. The squadron has 12 total aircraft at the start of the battle.

No.Pilot Status Kills Notes
1Capitano Mirocleto GerbinoJr Ace 5 Spanish Civil War Veteran
2Tenente Gualtiero TitoneVeteran 1 Squadron XO
3Sottotenente Tarso IsolaRegular 0
4Sottotenente Urdino PeduzziRegular 0
5Sottotenente Michael MarianoRegular 0
6Sottotenente Abramio GiacintoSprog 0
7SergenteMaggiore Lavinio LicoVeteran 2
8Sergente Cristian PiccoliRegular 0
9Sergente Romano GarafaloRegular 0
10Sergente Rocco BottiRegular 0
11Sergente Rodolfo ScaleseSprog 0
12Sergente Neoterio SciulliSprog 0
13Sergente Girardo RizziSprog 0
These fighter aircraft will support squadrons fielding Ro.37bis and Ca.310 reconnaissance aircraft (I need to buy a few), Ba.65 aircraft (liason/observation and light bomber), SM.79 bombers and some Cr.42s fighters in a ground attack role. I own SM.79s with one nearly painted. I also own some B.65s but they are not even primed. I have three Cr.42s painted up and ready to go. I own some Br.20 bombers as well but they are also not painted. I do have some G.50s painted but they may need some decals to complete them out. I think I also own a pack of Ca.310s provided that my aircraft recognition skills are up to task.

Meet the Luftwaffe

For the Germans, I have a bunch of Bf109s painted up and ready to go. So these will be my base force. I own some Bf110s but they are unpainted. I have at least 4 Ju87s painted up as well which would make a great support. I think I have some bombers (likely Ju88s) but I didn't see them when i checked the tray. They would be unpainted if they are there. That would cover nearly all of the aircraft for the campaign. 3.II JG 28 These are flying the BF109E-7 trop aircraft. They were the most common German fighter aircrat over the western desert. I have 8 painted and another 16 that are unprimed. The squadron has 12 aircrat at the start of the battle.

No.Pilot Status Kills Notes
1Hauptmann Magnus HipplerVeteran 4 Kills scored in the Battle for France.
2OberstLeutnantVeteran 1 Squadron XO
3Leutnant Edgar MasingRegular 0
4Leutnant Erik Von BraunRegular 0
5Feldwebel Marc ViermetzRegular 0
6Feldwebel Fritz LipsSprog 0
7Feldwebel Jacob StaudenmaierVeteran 2
8Unteroffizer Stefan KellermannRegular 0
9Unteroffizer Jacob KindlRegular 0
10Unteroffizer Christopher SchulbergRegular 0
11OberFahnrich Benedict StoltenbergSprog 0
12OberFahnrich Karl GebhardtSprog 0
13OberFahnrich Claus EhmannSprog 0
The fighters will support the Ju87s of a nearby squadron as well as escort the Ju88 bombers of other squadrons. Occasionally they may protect spotting aircraft (I found an unpainted pack of Hs126 that I can get going on).

Meet the RAF

For the RAF, I settled on a unit equipped with the P-40. I currently have eight of these aircraft painted up. There were still unit equipped with this fighter deployed in North Africa by June 1941. As supports, i own some Blenheim Is and IVs, none of which are painted. I also have a pack of Martin Maryland bombers as well that need paint.

No.Pilot Status Kills Notes
1Troy HolmesVeteran 1 Kills scored in the Great War.
2Caleb CarterVeteran 1 Squadron XO Kill Score in France
3Toby HuntRegular 0
4Deacon CarrRegular 0
5Wyatt MossRegular 0
6Bertie MorganSprog 0
7Ernest KhanVeteran 2
8Thomas ColeRegular 0
9Gabriel ReadRegular 0
10George Foster DouglasRegular 0
11Elliott HarperSprog 0
12Stanley PearceSprog 0
13Adam GeorgeSprog 0
I have started the clen up process for some Blenheim Is and primed some Martin Marylands to give these fellows something to escort. I need some form of observation aircraft. The fighters themselves may be pressed into a ground attack role. I don't think it will take long to get the support aircraft ready.

Meet the SAAF

For an allied contingent for this campaign, I added a squadron of SAAF flying Hawker Hurricanes. They will use the same support aircraft as the RAF. The paint schemes are more or less the same between the RAF and SAAF. So what gets painted for one, is done for the other.

No.Pilot Status Kills Notes
1Zayden de BeerVeteran 1 Kills scored in the Great War.
2Rudi PietersenVeteran 1 Squadron XO Kill Score in France
3Adiel HertzogRegular 0
4Androw FitzSimmonsRegular 0
5Francois van WykRegular 0
6Bertie MorganSprog 0
7Wincuf PinckneyVeteran 2
8Jonah ParkerRegular 0
9Luca HanekomRegular 0
10Archie McKenzieRegular 0
11Josh O'BrienSprog 0
12Dexter HillSprog 0
13Stephen ReynoldsSprog 0
I have 8 Hawker Hurricanes ready to go. In addition to the Blenheim Is and Martin Marylands that I have, I also found a pack of Blenheim IVs to paint up. I also have a pack of Spitfires but they may not end up in this campaign. I also think I might have a single pack of Gloster Gladiators languishing unpainted. They might be interesting to have make an appearance.

I have already played the first game but this post is long enough.

Monday, April 20, 2026

Mountain Lard Weekend

Over the weekend, I managed to head up to Hendersonville, NC and attend the Mountain Lard game day. It was a great games day. Even though there were some last minute cancelations, there were still four games going simultaneously for both periods. In the morning, I ran a Sharp Practice scenario based on the Horseshoe bend scenario that I had written. Though a small scenario designed for 2 players, we had three at the table. The Loyalists divided their forces. The game went rather well. Unfortunately, one of the Loyalist players had to leave mid game due to a family emergency. The Loyalists won the game when a random event set the house on fire triggering the end game event - Colonel Alston's wife forced the rebels to surrender to protect her family. The player running the Raiders had achieved their objectives and had successfully looted several buildings. They were the only unit to take no shock for the entire game.

The Loyalist advanced unobserved to start the game and nearly reached the sentries before being spotted.

The two Loyalist players (Dave P and Mark C). The one on the left, Dave P, had to leave part way through the game. (Hope everything was OK, Dave.) He commanded a unit of militia and a unit of Loyalist Raiders. The raiders as mentioned earlier were very effective.

Once spotted, the Loyalists quickly came under fire. The unit of militia took no losses but plenty of shock.

It took a while, but the main body of loyalists began to move and advanced on the house. They approached the side and took the house under fire.

Seeing an opportunity, the Rebel player decided to attempt to charge the broken militia and Loyalist Raiders in an attempt to reduce the Loyalist force morale. But did not roll well enough to leave the yard.

The risk did not pay off and the main body of Loyalists charged an destroyed the single rebel group, killing its big man. The picture is from the Facebook post from the event as I forgot to take a picture of this.

The main body of loyalists then charged the house repeatedly and took the bottom floor. Several attempts were made to run upstairs as well. A firing random event from the Rebel player led to the house catching fire which ended the game in a Loyalist victory. The house and home was lost. Here is the defeated Rebel (Allen on the left) and the victorious Loyalist (Mark on the right).

At the same time, Mark Luther was running a game of Coastal Patrol featuring Soviets against Germans. Over lunch, Mark told me that the game ended as a draw with both sides left nearly broken.

The other two games were a game of O Group with 10mm miniatures and a 1st World War game of Chain of Command in Africa (28mm). The Africa game was amazing and I really feel like I missed out playing that one.


The Chain of Command game was run by the gentleman in white.

In the afternoon, Mark and I were in the Bag the Hun game that was based on the TV show Black Sheep Squadron. I had a Japanese Shotai of three planes commanded by a top ace. The target was to shoot down a flight of two Avengers. My ace maneuvered perfectly and got on the tail of an Avenger at point blank range. He had no less than four opportunities to fire on the Avenger. He managed to lightly damage the aircraft but received engine damage in return and had to flee the battle. My other two planes were shot down pretty quickly. I think Mark lost one of his Zeros. All Corsairs and Avengers were able to exit the game. Not my best flying.

My forces before the game starts.

Things looked promising as I quickly got on an Avenger's tail. My two wingmen are still alive at this point.

No matter how much my Ace shot, I failed to strike damage on the Avenger. A Corsair (not piloted by Boyington) shot down one of my other planes and here the other is about to be killed.

After some lucky shooting by the Avenger, my ace gets engine damage and turns around to retreat.

Mark (left) commanded the other three Zeroes and the Drew M, who piloted Boyington and his wingman (right).

And our host for the game, Mark B. Fantastic job running the game and the "Emmy" dice mechanic that he added added alot of fun.

The other afternoon games were a second run of the WWI Chain of Command game, a game of What A Tanker set in Stalingrad and a game of Charlie Don't Surf (20mm minis I think). All of the games seemed like great fun. The What a Tanker game seemed to be a 10mm game.

The What a Tanker game looked like fun.

The Charlie Don't Surf game also looked like a great time.

The event host, Chad, did an amazing job pulling this together. There was a raffle that i didn't win. But everyone got a gift bag.

The next day, I met my college roommate who presented me with a gift. A big box of mostly painted 15mm Minifig Napoleonics. I was shocked with the number of figures that were there. Aparently, there was a church member at his mother's church who was a wargamer who passed away. His wife, not knowing what it was, sold it at a church rummage sale. My roommate's Mom purchased them and gave them to him thinking he might like them. Having no use for them, he gave them to me. I am still trying to sort these miniatures out and figure out what is there. In the box, there were two very old Warhammer 40k miniatures. Still in the blister Packs.

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

House On Horseshoe Bend Playtest

I ran a playtest of my secnario for Mountain Lard. The scenario should play out quickly. The main determinant will be how quickly will the British advance. I rolled randomly for the side that the British would advance. They ended up on the road. At Mountain Lard, I will ask the British players where they want to enter. Using the bonus die to movement, Col Fanning moved three groups of Loyalist Militia straight up the road with a good roll. Unfortunately, on the Tiffin card, the sentry rolled really well and immidiately spotted the British Force and alerted the sleepy troops inside the house. The next turn, the Rebels immediately took the British under fire. They squandered their first fire at long range and just added some shock to the three groups. Then the subbordinate Rebel leader was drawn who had his long term militia in the first floor. They fired and stacked more shock on the Loyalists. On their next activation, the Loyalists darted across a fence and took cover behind the snake rail fencing. The Loyalist raiders did VERY little. I positioned the Loyalist 2IC with them who was not able to move 12" in the three turns before chapter end.

A firefight ensued between the two groups in the house and the British formed behind the snake rail fences. The Long term militia landed some good hits on the Loyalists since they had moved into close range. It was here the fight became bogged down. The Loyalists were not able to break contact. Shock was climbing. Col Fanning received a wound that degraded his status. The rebels took some casualties among the troops on the second floor. But with only 4 windows, they only had room for 8 of the 10 memebers to shoot anyway. (This was a problem with the model. The historical house had 5 windows on the second floor but I didn't pay attention when gluing them on.

The game was great fun. I stopped at this point and was going to run it again. The house never really was in danger and the Loyalist Raiders didn't really do anything. I think the number of points needed by the sentries was about right. A lucky roll just saw the British spotted at once. With an excellent roll, the British can nearly march into the yard of the house. I will run this a few more times to see what needs to be changed before the weekend.

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

The House On Horseshoe Bend - Completed

I finished the house. It is based, assembled and painted. the way I had it printed, it took quite a bit of assembly. In hindsight, I would have made the windows as part of the base model. But I still think I have something usable. I will put the parts up on my PayHip store later today (https://payhip.com/b/Cd5sf) as a pay what you want. The main item that will be needed for the model is some roof tiles. These can either be purchased from Warbases or made from card or thin wood. I also used brick paper for the chimneys. This could be painted on by a more ambitous painter than I am. The model is 1/100th scale and based off of the actual house. I am missing a window on the front of the house on the second floor. I forgot to check the source before glueing the windows on.

Above is the front of the house. And below is the back of the house.

I am pretty happy with how this came out.

Monday, April 6, 2026

Backside of the House

The build is moving ahead slowly. The posts of the back porch are now bricked. The porch is painted.The roof of the porch needs to still be tiled. Once this is done, I will need more superglue to start assembly. With Eastern being this weekend, I don't see getting much done. I did manage to paint all of the windows for both the sides of the house and the back of the house.

I am very disapointed in myself as I just realized that I failed to put enough windows on the second floor. There were supposed to be five across the top and I only had four across on the front of the house. I will make the back match the front. Mildly annoying but it still is coming along well.

I am pondering doing the covered well that stands near the house in the current images of the building. It was just off the back corner of the house. I'm not sure I would be able to get around to it anytime soon.

With the weekend over, I was able to get a small amount of work done. The back porch is glued in place. The rear doors and lower windows are in place. The Back porch is shingled and glued in place. But before I could do the upper windows, I started with basing. I spread a mixture of acrylic caulk, PVA glue, sand and paint over the base. I got it as far under the building as I could. If I could do it again, I would have primed the base black first before gluing the building to it. I had to leave that to dry overnight.

I still have the second floor windows, the side windows and more work to do on the base left. It is getting there.

Monday, March 30, 2026

Shingles, Porches and Windows

This is probably the worst part of the build. Getting these last pieces on this side of the house is painful. The gap between the porch roof and the building roof is a narrow fit but workable. Over the weekend, I managed to finish the front of the house.

I am attempting to figure out how the roof will be painted. Since this picture, I did complete the rest of the roof. On the front, I ran out of superglue. I used PVA to glue the upstairs windows in place. For the back of the house, I still have to brick one more support on the base of the porch. I also need to paint the supports for the porch roof. These will need to be glued in place along with doors and windows. After that, the only remaining item is the side windows. I will have to paint the remaining windows and glue the tiles on the porch roof for the back. Once this is all done, I think I will be ready to work on the base. The completion is getting closer.

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Windows and a door

I managed a bit more work on the house last night. I got the front first floor windows applied. I applied a touch of brass paint to the door knob after this. In addition, I finished the second chimney. I had a harder time with the brick paper this time for some reason. I just started to tile the roof as well. I got one whole strip applied before I had to stop for the night. I didn't get a picture of the roof tiles. Maybe tonight. In the picture, you can see the porch laying upside down to the right. After the rooftiles go on, I will put on the porch. That will let me determine how much room I have for the upper floor windows. In all honesty, I think the building should be taller. Possibly by another 10mm or so. It will be tight between the porch and roof to get them in there. But it is starting to come together.

Monday, March 23, 2026

This Old House

The front and back steps came in yesterday from my printer. Also I received my package from Warbases with the roofing tiles. These made it downstairs to the hobby table. I am now trying to figure out how to paint and assemble the building. I have the blockw with brick paper on them ready for the house. I think I will have to glue these to the bottom of the building before gluing that to the base.

The initial pass was to prime the pieces black and then drybrush the base building white. I am adding Brick paper to the chimneys and the base bricks.

Over the weekend, I managed to finish one chimney and start on the second. I also started to paint the windows and doors.

I also managed to finish bricking the supports of one of the porches and painted the porch and front steps.

This week, I am hoping to finish the doors and windows and start to glue them to the building. The roofing needs to be done. I started to cut out my Warbases tiles. I am rather concerned with getting these to line up correctly.

I also did some work on the TRE Games snake rail fencing that I purchased. They are nice kits but look a little large to me for 15mm miniatures. I made one section of fencing.

The upper rail is head height with a 15mm figure. Here it is compared to my existing snake rail fances.

I may skip the 'x' supports and upper rail. I also need to sort out how I will base these.