Operation Battleaxe - Day One Afternoon actions Game 5

Somewhere I lost my notes on who was flying what. So for Game 5, the 3 SAAF will be flying a patrol over the front. They will intercept a a flight of incoming Germans and their dive bombers. So far, the SAAF has 3 aircraft out of action. Two aircraft are damaged. Another was a total loss with the pilot killed.

Pilot	Status	Kills	Campaign Missions Flown	Flight
Major Zayden de Beer	Veteran	1	0	Red I
Captain Adiel Hertzog	Regular	0	0	White I
Lieutenant Androw FitzSimmons	Regular	0	0	Yellow I
Lieutenant Francois van Wyk	Regular	0	0	Red II
Lieutenant Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0	1	White II
Lieutenant Wincuf Pinckney	Veteran	2	0	Yellow II
Lieutenant Luca Hanekom	Regular	0	0	Red III
Lieutenant Archie McKenzie	Regular	0	0	White III
Lieutenant Josh O'Brien	Sprog	0	0	Yellow III
Lieutenant Stephen Reynolds	Sprog	0	0	Red IV

In the center of the table will be a British Lysander that is returning from a reconnaissance mission.

Pilot Offier Smith, Regular Pilot, Blue I

At the same time, a Staffel of German aircraft (not the player staffel) are escorting a reduced staffel of Ju87s.

Fighters:

Schwarm	Pilot Status
White I	Jr Ace
White II	Regular
White III	Sprog
White IV	Veteran
Black I	Regular
Black II	Veteran
Black III	Regular
Black IV	Sprog
Blue I	Jr Ace
Blue II	Sprog
Blue III	Sprog
Blue IV	Sprog

Dive Bombers:

Schwarm	Pilot Status
Blue I	Veteran
Blue II	Regular
Blue III	Sprog
Green I	Veteran
Green II	Regular
Green III	Sprog
Yellow I	Regular
Yellow II	Regular
Yellow III	Sprog

This will be the largest game I have run as a solo Bag the Hun game. I think I have all of the stands prepared that I will need. I have cards for these as well. I will have to take dillegent notes or i will be lost in short order. After this, there is one more game with the German Scwarm taking center stage. After that, I will have to see who is left to fly for the second day.

New Paint Sets

My wife ordered some paint sets for me for Father's Day. The Soviet Paint set came in earlier. Yesterday, she gave me two Luftwaffe sets, one for the desert and one that I can use for the Eastern Front. I broke out the paints and got to work on my remaining Germans. The "SandGelb" in the set is a bit darker than that of the previous aircraft that I had painted up. The blue for the undercarriage looked about the same. I started work on three Ju88s, a pair of Hs126s and the first two Bf110Cs. I might be able to get these knocked out over the weekend. I have some good reference pictures and it looks like I can get away withe minimal camo on these aircraft. That will probably only be for the better.

Anyway, very excited about getting these moving. Knocking out these last few Germans should be stright forward. For the Italians, I have 3x Cr32s left to paint, 8x Cr42s, 7x G.50sand the 3-6x Sm.79s. The British need a pair of Lysanders, and some Blenheim Bombers to go. I think I will also paint up my remaining Hurricanes and Tomahawks. By the end of the summer, I should have all of my desert aircraft painted (that I currently own). Having no self control, I may end up ordering more. I am trying to see if I can order some individual aircraft but I am not holding my breath.

Distractions

I got a notification of a Humble Bundle Deal for some Free League Publishing games. I really like Twilight 2000. It had the module that I have never played before - The Black Madona. It also had some DragonBane content that I never had seen before as well as other RPGs. For the price ($25) it seemed a great deal. So I purchased it. I started looking through my haul and the Forbidden Lands rpg has caught my attention. Like Twilight 2000, it has a solo play component. The game has been fascinating and I have spent a ton of time reading it and looking up podcasts featuring the game.

I would like to get in a few solo sessions of this game to get the feel of it. I am trying to run it on Roll20 to streamline some elements and the possibility of playing the game with my former college roommates as well.

Minor Painting Update

Spent the weekend recovering from a cold. But still tried to get some work done. I got some paint on an Ro37bas. I started work on two others but came to the conclusion, how many observation aircraft am I really going to have on the table at a time? I may paint up a second one. This time, I tried to get something like the three fasces. I didn't do that great but at least it is not just a dot. In the picture, you can see a fourth Ro.37 that is undercoated but will likely not be completed.

I am looking at the collection at the moment.

Western Desert

84Hs1268431

Aircraft	Completed	Unpainted	Want
Germany
Bf109E	12	0	0
Bf110C	0
Ju52	0	1	0
Ju87	8	0	4
Ju88	0	3	0
0	2	0
Italy
G.50	0
Mc.200	0	1	0
Cr.42	8	0	4
Cr.32	0	3	0
Ro.37bis	0	2	0
Ca.310	4	0	0
Br.20	3	0	0
Sm.79	3?	5	4
United Kingdom
Hurricane	8	4	0
Tomahawk	8
Gladiator	0	8	4
Blenheim I	0	4	8
Blenheim IV	0	3	0
Maryland	3	0	0
Lysander	0	2	0

The goal is to have a complete Squadriglia/Squadron/Staffel of 12 aircraft for each fighter unit and a few bombers. I don't think I will have a full squadron of 12 bombers for anyside except for the Sm.79s. I am looking for the right paint scheme. I am actually hoping for a simple one. For Bag the Hun, I still need to finish up the first day of the Operation Battleaxe game. I have 2 more games to run for the day. One will be for the German Staffel and one for the South African's, I think. Hopefully, I will play those soon. I think I will have the Germans escort the Ju87s again in one. Not sure what I will do with the South Africans. Depending on how fast I can paint Lysanders or Blenheims, that may impact the mission.

I was also given some early Father's Day presents. My wife gave me a VSS paint set for Operation Barbarossa. And some cornfields. These may be a bit big for 15mm and will likely be used more for a garden plot rather than a large field. But who knows how I will use them.

Very grateful for these. I am still holding out hope for some Luftwaffe paint sets but will patiently wait.

I managed to undercoat some British Blenheim bombers as well. Hopefully those will get some paint soon.

More Painting This Week

While fighting a cold, I managed to get downstairs and do a little more painting. I focused on my Italians while I wait on the new Luftwaffe paint sets. I had 3 partially painted MC200s left of the six that I had. The trouble was going to be matching the paint that I had used for under the fuselage. Fortunately, I found it. There were three old jars of Poly Scale that I had used years ago. This gave me additional base coat and undercoat as well as the yellow for the noses of the aircraft. The yellow may be more appropriate for Italians in Russia late 1941 but that is what I had for the first six. So those were easy to knock out. But I needed a color for the camoflauge spots. Using the Miniature Painter Pro phone app, I snapped a picture of the existing aircraft and it gave me a match with a color I had on hand. I really love that tool. One of the aircraft was missing its magnet and that had to be glued on as well.

I also worked on some Italian Biplanes. I finished the assembly of four Ro.37 observation aircraft and glued the magnets to them. These are now ready for some primer. Also I assembled what I thought would be four Cr32s. However, the top wing was missing from one of the models. So I am left with just three of these. These too received their magnets and are reay for base coating. These are both Tumbling Dice miniatures. The Cr32s were bought many years ago and the Ro37s were a recent purchase.

I have not yet glued magnets to the Cr42s that I have cleaned off of the supports. I was fortunate in that I was able to remove the supports without damaging these small and fragile models. These are Pico Armor sculpts. Even though I was disapointed that they were resin and not metal, I am pleased with how they look. I will need to figure out how to match them to the three that I already have painted. I think I prefer the Pico Armor models as they look cleaner but they do have some gaps in their line that Tumbling Dice have. I have picked up some 3d Models from Wargaming3d recently in hopes to try to print some of my own aircraft. These would be for either the Romanians or Hungarians. But I am not there yet.

On the Italian to do list, I have seven G50s that are waiting for magnets and priming. I need to get some plastic tweezers. The small magnets I have for fighters, I am struggling to be able to fix to the models. Even the larger ones that you see on the Ro37s above I struggled to get on. There are probably half a dozen magnets on my floor that I have not been able to find because of this. Maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby is in order. I also have three Sm79s that are undercoated. I have three others that have a rudimentary paint job that I am unhappy with. I may search for different paint schemes and redo them. I am a fan of the Sm79. The tri-motor design and the look of the Italian aircraft have always interested me. I want to do a better paint jobs on these but I am not a good enough painter to do the more complicated paterns. i can just barely pull off the spotted ones.

That puts the Italians close to completion. I have an order out with Pico Armor that will include a replacement for the G50 that broke as well as some additional MiG-3s. I have a few aircraft left for the British. A pair of Lysanders, four Blenheim Is, four Blenheim IVs and then I have some spare P40s and Hurricanes that I need to look at to see if I actually want to paint them. I'm not sure at this point. I have 8 of each painted. I should probably do 4 more of each to complete a squadron.

The Germans need the most work. I have a Ju52, three Ju88s, eight Bf110s and two Hs126s that have been undercoated with no magnets. I also still have two Ju87s that have an undercoat and a base coat but no other paint. I would need two more to complete out the staffel. I would need four more Bf110s to have a complete staffel. There really is no point of a full staffel of Ju52s as they were primarily transports and they would be a lone target that the Germans would be trying to protect.But the Ju88s, a complete staffel would be three more packs of them. I may do that at some point.I do not believe I will paint He111s or Do17zs for the desert. While they would be nice, I need to get to an East Front project at some point.

Weekend Painting - Prepping for the next Operation Battleaxe Game

Had a chance to get away over the weekend and break out the paints. I managed to get some Italian Caproni Ca.310s painted. I used the app Miniature Painter Pro on my tablet to get some paints sorted for these. It has a really nice feature where it will save your palate with the picture so you don't have to remember what you did before. The camo scheme is loosely based on some that was able to find with help from Google. I'd like to paint the white facces on the black circles but I am not sure I have anything fine enough pointed nor hands steady enough to do so. So I am leaving them just black sircles for now. The pictures below are on the new desert mat that I picked up off of eBay.

I also managed to finish a bunch of flight stands. Each has a dice holder and a bead to indicate the unit (color of bead) and plane (Roman Numeral). I have enough for 9 groups of 4 planes. I have also pealed the backing off of all of the bases as well.

I am awaiting some paint sets that I ordered. I bought three paint sets from Vallejo. The VSS pack, the early war Luftwaffe pack and the Desert Luftwaffe pack. I will wait on painting my Desert Luftwaffe until those show up. I have three Ju88s, a Ju52, two Hs126s, and eight Bf110s ready for painting.

For my Italans, I have 5 more Sm79s to paint. I have three primed. But I really want to update the paint jobs on the three that I have already done. I also clipped seven of eight G.50s off of their sprues. They are 3d prints form Pico Armor. The last one had a wing shatter as I was removing the supports. I reached out to Pico and they are sending me a replacement with my next order. I am really happy with the service from them.

I also prepped a number of Cr.42s. I have nine of them prepped. The photo below only shows six of them. The others are older metal sculpts that I already had that needed to be glued together. These need to be primed along with four metal Ro.32bis models from Tumbling Dice.

If I can get the Cr.42s done, I may put them on the table escorting a pair of Ro.37s. I'll probably wait until I get some more German Bombers painted up. I am trying to decide if i want more than just Ju88s for the desert. I have packs of He111s and Do17zs as well but I bought them for Operation Barbarossa. I think Ju88s and Stukas will be enough for the desert.I think I want to have a full staffel of each German Aircraft type. I am over half way there for the Stukas and the Bf109Es. This would be 12 aircraft per staffel. The Bombers in Kette of 3 and the fighters in Schwarms of 4.

Eastern Front Bag the Hun - Floating some ideas

While I am finishing my desert forces for Bag the Hun, I have been reading the Bergstrom book on Operation Barbarossa. I really like to research the early war period across all of the fronts. The equipment and tactics are still evolving. The planes are either cutting edge or hopelessly outdated. This makes for interesting match ups.

I looked at the spare aircraft that I have. The Germans have a head start. I found that I have 12 spare Bf109Es. This will provide me with an entire staffel of fighters. Which will be probably the largest amount of fighters I would have on the table at once. In addition, I have two Hs 126s. These came four to a pack. However, I can't see having a scenario with more than one or two on the table at once. So I intend to paint 2 for the desert and two for the Eastern Front. But what else would I need? The main need will be bombers. I am looking mostly to Pico Armor to supply these. A pack of 4 He111s, a pack of 6 Do17s, and probably a pack of Ju 88s will be needed. I am not sure if I want to do a group of Bf110s. I have some for the desert but it is not one of my favorite aircraft. I will grab a pack of Fi-156s for reconnaissance as well. They are neat little planes. Pico Armor has a Do217 which was used as a long range reconnaisance plane. But I think that won't see much time on the table.

But what about the other Axis Allies? Romania had the largest airforce of the three allied powers that went in with the Germans. They had a unique mix of aircraft. They had their own home grown aircraft: IAR 37 and IAR 38 - both biplanes. The IAR 39 that was an observation aircraft and the IAR 80 which was a modernish fighter. I found a 3d model for this on Wargaming3d. It is in 1/200 scale and would need to be shrunk to 1/600 for my needs. The others are no where to be found. The Romanians also had some British Blenheim I bombers (Pico Armor), Italian Sm79 bombers (Pico Armor), German He 111s, Bf109s (Pico Armor for both) and He 112 (Wargaming3d), French Bloch 210s (Wargaming3d) and Petez 633s (Tumbling Dice), the Polish PLZ37 (Pico Armor) and even the US Fleet F-10g. These would present some different looking aircraft on the table.

The next largest force was that of the Hungarians. They had Italian Ca.135s, Cr.32s, Cr.42s and German Ju 86s and He 170s. They had no modern fighter aircraft. Then there was the Slovakians whose aircraft didn't even register on the Niehorster site on the orders of battle for Operation Barbarossa.

I have some spare Sm79s. I am looking at my miniature collection and think that I could get a few of these together to use for the Romanians. I have downloaded the aircraft files that I could today from Wargaming3d. I can see making a small contingent of Romanians. They would provide something different for the table top.

* Quick Note - I just got a email that the Wargaming3d site is closing in July 2026. Aparently their parent company is going under. This is sad news as they hosted some excellent sculptors.

For the Soviets, I think I will go with Pico Armor's models. The plan I outlined earlier still stands. I will pull them in slowly. First I am planning on buying some early war paint sets. AK Paints seems to have some on Amazon that look interesting.

Books and Mats

So I was pleasantly surprised that Noble Knight games delivered my battlemat for the desert three days early. In addition, Amazon delivered my copy of Black Cross, Red Start three days early. The mat is 6'x4' with a very apparent hex pattern. The reverse side is plain. I may be able to use both sides depending on how my desert and cowboy terrain looks on it. The felt is fairly heavy and the hex pattern does not go all the way through. Very excited about these two purchases.

The book looks to be in great shape. I couldn't justify the cost of a new copy and instead reached for the used, very good copy. I am glad I did. Other than a former owner's name in the book, it looks perfect. There is lots to dig through. The first chapter is on the air doctrine of the Germans and Soviets. I am really looking forward to reading this. The book is much larger than I thought it would be.

Operation Battleaxe - Review of the morning, Reinforcements.

Of the six battles that I had rolled for on the day, four have taken place. So far only the Italians have taken no casualties nor damaged aircraft. The RAF suffered the worst with 4 killed. The South Africans had one killed and two aircraft damaged. The Germans lost two pilots and the Italians have lost no one.

I received my order of Tumbling dice Ro37s over the weekend. I was happy to get them. I also ordered a new desert game mat off of eBay. That should show up on Thursday. I have plenty of planes to paint at this point. I think my next aircraft to target with be German Hs126s, Italian Ro37s and British Lysaners. This will give me observation aircraft for each force. The next priority will be German Ju-88s, British Blenheim Is and some Italian Ca310s to add more bombers to each side. The 3rd priority will be German Bf110s, 4x Bf109s and Ju-52s. At that point, all of my German aircraft will be painted for the desert. I will have a full staffel of Bf109s that can take to the skies at once.

The British still have my Gloster Gladiators and Blenheim IVs to paint up. I own some Spitfires but may save them for a different project. Either Battle of Britian or Malta. I would like to buy some Wellington bombers. These were heavily used across East and North Africa. But that is a future problem.

My Italians are in the best shape of the bunch. I have some new fighters to paint up: G.50, Cr.32, and Cr.42. I have between 6 and 8 of each. I also have a pack of Ca.310s as mentioned above. If I were to get any other aircraft, I would pick up some float planes. But that is distant future. I may have a few extra MC.200s that I could paint to get a full Squadriglia of fighters as well.

This is achievable to have all of this painted over the summer. Which brings me to my next excersize - Operation Barbarossa. I really want to get Germans and Russians for this campaign. I have some Bf109s already. I would just need all of the Soviet aircraft. My plan is to paint the Gemans that I have and place an order for just a single pack of fighters to get started. I am thinking of getting the I-16s as there were a large number of them. Then as I get a pack painted, order one pack for each side as I paint. I have a 6' x 4' Monday Knight Productions flocked game mat already that is a green grass. That would work for the campaign. I have ordered a book already, the Christopher Bergstrom Black Cross, Red Star Vol 1: Operation Barbarossa. I am just waiting for it to come in. Christopher Shores Co-Authored a couple of east front books that I am looking at as well. But will go with the Bergstrom book for now. I am looking at the Niehorster site for the order of battle. I am looking at the same axis of attack that the Battle for Ustilug took place on.

Anyway, just enjoying playing games regularly again.

Operation Battleaxe - Day 1 Game 4

Finally got to get the next game in for the campaign. The British were to escort a pair of TacR Hurricanes. I had two flights of four P-40s escorting them.I was going to use the recommended special article to determine starting positions but just never had time to digest the article. That is on the to do list though.

The game started with the lead group of British aircraft (White) flying at altitude 6, THE TacR aircraft flying in the center at altitude 5 and the second flight (Red) at altitude 4. Across the table was two schwarm of Germans Bf109s.

The British:

Pilot	Status	Notes
Flt Lt Carter	Veteran	Fkight Leader, White I
FO Carr	Regular	White II
PO Morgan	Sprog	White III
Sgt Pearce	Sprog	White IV
FO Hunt	Regular	Flight Leader, Red I
PO Moss	Regular	Red II
PO Read	Regular	Red III
Sgt Harper		Red IV

The Germans:

Status	Notes
Jr Ace	Schwarm Leader, White I
Sprog	White II
Veteran	White III
Sprog	White IV
Regular	Schwarm Leader, Red I
Sprog	Red II
Regular	Red III
Sprog	Red IV

The game began with a series of terrible die rolls. The first shot of the game was truely terrible. I think it was the British who fired and failed. My notes at this point were not very good.

This led to a firer side slip. The tide started to turn in the British favor though. Sergeant Pearce gets the first kill of the game by landing a hit on the pilot of German White IV, killing him immediately. This pilot had a character card and was removed from the game.

Flying Officer Hunt fired on German White II (Sporg) causing temporary loss of control which was recoved from. He failed his ontail test.

British PO Morgan fired on the German White III and missed. Then FL Carter lined up behind Yellow IV and poured fire on it causing fuel line damage and was activated again and caused it to explode for the second kill of the game.

Now the Germans started to get momentum. German White III gets on the tail of PO Moss. Then German Yellow I fired on PO Morgan causing engine damage.

The German White I pulled behind FL Carter and fired a burst that caused catastrophical structural damage. A picture was missed for this, but next the German White III pilot fired from on tail position and causes fuel line damage.

Then German White II, who recovered from out of control, gets a shot on a plane but only scores minor damage. Flight Lieutenant Carter's card came up and he failed to parachute and his altitude dropped further. German Yellow III fired on Sgt Harper but only gets minor damage. Throughout, a number of the d10 rolls were poor. FL Carter attempts to bail out again and fails to do so, dropping ever lower. German White I gets a shot on FO Hunt and forces Hunt to hard evade. In the picture below, Carter is in the upper left corner.

At this point, the British are in serious trouble. PO Read takes a shot on German Yellow III but side slips. Sgt Harper fired on German Yellow I and just wases ammo. FL Carter attempts to bail out yet again and fails. The ground is approaching him rapidly. German Yellow III fired on PO Morgan and scored a lucky hit on the pilot, killing him instantly. He was so close to escaping off the table. Morgan is the burning aircraft on the far right.

Close up of PO Morgan's fall.

FO Hunt fired on German White III causing the German to evade. PO Read fired on White I in passing, scoring minor damage. The German Ace (White I) fired on PO Read and gets a pilot hit. PO Read didn't survive and his plane plunged toward the earth. FL Carter has his final attempt to bail out but fails again. His aircraft hits the ground with an explosion, killing him instantly. Lastly, German White III gets a shot on PO Moss and Moss' aircraft explodes. (No pictures). At this point, the surviving British pilots break contact and head for home. Several Germans had run out of ammunition by this point and they decline to pursue.

The British took a hard loss. Four pilots killed including one of their best pilots. Two kills were scored but FL Carter was one of those. This puts the roster as follows:

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Squadron Leader Troy Holmes	Veteran	1	Kills scored in the Great War.
2	Flight Lieutenant Caleb Carter	Veteran	2 (1)	Squadron XO Kill 1 Kill in France, 1 Kill in 1st mission. KIA
3	Flying Officer Toby Hunt	Regular	0
4	Flying Officer Deacon Carr	Regular	0
5	Pilot Officer Wyatt Moss	Regular	0	KIA
6	Pilot Officer Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0	KIA
7	Pilot Officer Ernest Khan	Veteran	2
8	Pilot Officer Thomas Cole	Regular	0
9	Pilot Officer Gabriel Read	Regular	0	KIA
10	George Foster Douglas	Regular	0
11	Flight Sergeant Elliott Harper	Sprog	0
12	Sergeant Stanley Pearce	Regular	1	Kill on first mission. Promote to regular.
13	Sergeant Adam George	Sprog	0

I now have to plan for the afternoon battles. The Germans and the RAF were slated to have afternoon missions.

Reinforcements and Musings

I just received my miniatures from Pico armor. I really like Pico Armor miniature. They seem to be always be clean casts and have very little flash and have crisp look to them. This time it seems something changed. Two of the packs that I received were 3d prints instead of metal miniatures. That was a surprise that I wish they would have mentioned on the website when I ordered. I ordered some Gloster Gladiatoers, Lysanders, Ju-52s and some G.50s. Of these, the Gladiators and G.50s were 3d prints that still had their supports attached.

Appologies for the horrible picture. But you can clearly see that the 3d prints are still on their supports. This is always the hardest part with 3d prints is removing the supports without damaging the model. For a biplane, I was really hoping for a cast metal model. I will see what I have to do.

From Raiden miniatures, I ordered some old FightsOn! items. I picked up a pack of damage indicators. They are basically black and white pipe cleaners. Still, I like them.

Also from Raiden and FightsOn!, I grabbed a table edge indicator for showing where the sun is. These are simple hexes. Not 100% necesary but they are interesting.

I am considering ordering their pacific airfield model as well. It is a shame that many of the old FIghtsOn! items are no longer available. They had 1/600 scale bailed out pilots. That would have been fun markers to litter across the table. At this point, I am waiting on the shipment of my Tumbling Dice order. I ordered a flak position and some Ro.37s from them. They are on their way. This should give me all the aircraft I need for North Africa. The only thing I may want is some additional German bombers (Do17z or Ju88A). I have a pack of German bombers that are unpainted that I need to paint up still.

A friend is lazer cutting some additional dice holders for my aircraft stands. Thus far, I am really happy with the samples that he sent me. Here is a sample one.

He is printing a whole sheet of these for me that should give me more than enough to work with.

Musings.....

I started looking at my miniatures for Operation Barbarossa. I am thinking of playing through my Ustilug campaign as a solo campaign and possibly updating it to Chain of Command 2. In doing that, I have started looking at what it would take to get a few East Front airgames in. The Soviets have a very interesting mix of aircraft. There were biplanes as well as more modern fighters. For the Germans, the Bf109E-7 was very common. I just happen to have 8 unpainted Bf109 models in my miniature tray. I also have Ju87 dive bombers that are unpainted. So I already have a start. I read an article that when the Italians showed up on the Eastern Front, the aircraft that they sent were still painted for the desert. This would take me into the Fall of 1941 for the campaign. I really would only need to purchase some Russian aircraft. I would be looking to paint up models for use over the Ukraine. This would bring in the possibility of having some Romanian aircraft as well. Once my current desert air campaign is over, I may look into starting an East Front Campaign.

Operation Battleaxe - Delayed

Well weekends can seem to melt away. Was able to do nothing over the weekend. I am still waiting on the the orders I placed. I set up the Hs126 aircraft and am ready to glue the landing gear on them. Wasn't able to get that one. I have the aircraft sheets ready for the next game. Hopefully, I will be able to run the game ths week.

Operation Battleaxe - Planning for Game 4

Time to plan the fourth game in the campaign. The RAF quadron is going to be going out. They will have two missions as well. The first is an offensive mission. The other a defensive. The offenssive mission will be a reconnaisance mission. I do not have any Lyssander aircraft yet. But I do have Hurricanes. One of the missions assigned to Hurricanes was Tactical Reconnaisance (TACR). So there will be a single Hawker Hurricane that is being escorted by a flight of four P-40 Tomahawks.

For the mission, the following pilots will be flying for the RAF.

Pilot	Status	Notes
Flt Lt Carter	Veteran	1 kill in France
FO Carr	Regular
PO Morgan	Sprog
Sgt Pearce	Sprog

The TacR pilot will be a regular pilot. The TacR aircraft will enter the table from the bottom first. At the end of the first turn, the supporting aircraft of the RAF will appear.

The opposing force will be the Germns. They will be flying in three groups of two. The RAF will be flying in pairs as well. Each pair will have a character card. The Germans will be lead by a Jr Ace. There will also be a veteran, two regulars and two sprogs. This will be a tough fight for the RAF. This will also be the first game with an ace present. If I can get my larger hex mat rolled out, I may add some bogeys as well.

I have some more miniatures on the painting table but need to purchase some small magnets. I found the pack that I want and I placed the order. I also placed an order from Tumbling Dice for some Ro.37s. From Pico Armor, I ordered some G.50s, Ju52s, Lysanders, and Gladiators. From the Raiden webstore, I ordered a couple of FightsOn! items as well. I am thinking through a new mat. I am just not sure what to order. For the moment, I am going to use a flocked Monday Knight Production mat that I have and for smaller games I will keep using the existing small one.

I am hoping to get the next games done by this weekend.

Operation Battleaxe - Day 1 Game 3 - The German Turn

I rolled on the random tables and the Germans will fight two defensive missions on the day. Lucky them. In rolling for the mission, both resolved in intercept missions. The first mission will have 8 fighters flying. The second will have just four.

The Germans began the mission with two groups of four aircraft. These were piloted by:

Pilot	Status	Group
Hauptman Hippler	Veteran	White 1
Lt Masing	Regular	White 2
Fw Lips	SPROG	White 3
Ofr Gebhardt	Sprog	White 4
OLt Grun	Veteran	Orange 1
Lt Von Braun	Regular	Orange 2
Fw ViermetzRegular	Organge 3
Ofr Ehrmann	Sprog	Orange 4

The opposingh forces was two groups of four Hawker Hurricanes escorting a group of three Martin Maryland bombers. Given the small hex mat that I was using, I put the opposing forces on the opposite sides. The bombers were between the two groups of Hurricanes. I have not added in bogeys yet as the table top is too small for that to really work. The two groups of fighters advanced rapidly on one another.

The Organge flight of Germans came face to face with the RAF Group 2, Pilot II. By luck of the draw, the Raf fire card came up first. He poured fire into the Ofr Ehmann's aircraft and landed a hit on the pilot, killing him instantly. The first score of the game went to the RAF. In that same section fire card, The RAF pilot Group 2, Pilot III fired on Fw Viermetz's aircraft and caused engine damage. Then RAF Pilot IV from the same section also shot but missed causing him to side slip.

the first group of Germans under Hauptmann Hippler closed in on the bombers. The bombers drew their fire card and missed. In the next turn, the bombers card came up and a bomber scored wing damage on Ofr Gebhardt's plane. The survivors of the German flight under OberLeutnant Grun circled around the bombers. The RAF red group attempted to do an immelman to turn around and catch up to the Germans but two of the four aircraft failed their rolls.

The Germans attempted to surround the bombers but the bomber move cards came up and they moved forward without taking a single shot.

The RAF Group 1 character fire on a german plane and side slipped. He fired again on the next card and missed. Then the RAF red desction fire card came up. Red 1 was positioned on the German Fw Viermetz. The result was engine damage. This was the second engine damage result that he had taken and his plane plummeted to the ground. Luckily, he was able to bail out later and reached the ground safely.

This brought the third turn of the game. The bombers continued their advance toward their target. RAF Red character had a shot on Ofr Gebhardt but only managed minor damage. But Gebhardt was not out of the fight. He was able to bring his guns to bear on RAF white #II and cause catastrophic structural damage. On the move card, the stricken RAF pilot was able to bail out and parachute to safety.

On the start of turn four, the bombers safely exited the map to their target. RAF Red IV got on the tail of the German pilot Lt Von Braun. His fire caused catastrophic structural damage leading to another RAF victory. Not to be outdone, the leader of red group fired on Fw Lips but timed his shot poorly and side slipped. Von Braun's card came up and he was able to bail out successfully.

The RAF leader of white group got a shot off on Hauptman Hippler. The veteran took damage to his instruments. The RAF fired again and his shooting was so bad, he side slipped. The German move card had them flying back to base with all haste. The mission was an abject failure. The RAF succeeded.

The Germans as they stand from this mission:

Pilot	Status	Group
Hauptman Hippler	Veteran	White 1 Instrument Damage
Lt Masing	Regular	White 2
Fw Lips	SPROG	White 3
Ofr Gebhardt	Sprog	White 4, Wing Damage, Minor Damage, 1 Kill
OLt Grun	Veteran	Orange 1
Lt Von Braun	Regular	Orange 2, Shot Down - Walking to base.
Fw Viermetz	Regular	Orange 3, Shot Down - Walking to base
Ofr Ehrmann	Sprog	Orange 4, Shot Down, KIA

The squadron is supposed to fly a second mission. However, they only have three undamaged aircraft from this mission and another four men back at base who can fly. Of the aircraft that returned, two are badly damaged.

The next mission will be my RAF squadrom.

Operation Battleaxe - Day 1: Game 2 The SAAF Turn

The SAAF got a good start with some early move cards and advanced across the table. One German section had its fire card drawn before they could get close. The SAAF leader, Captain Pietersen, moved further ahead on his character card and separated from his wing man. He was lining up on the Stukas.

The Germans got their move cards and two fighters advanced directly at two South Africans. This left both sides open as they were squared off opposite each other.

The other pair of German fighters maneuvered to get a shot on the lone South African leader. The Stukas move came up and they moved away from the SA leader.

The Red Section (the ones with yellow beads) fire card came up. This was a completely different game than the first one. The Mc200s and Tomahawks had a mere 4 base fire dice. Both the Hurricanes and Bf109s had double this. While both South Africans rolled hits, the German’s maneuverability forced the fire to side slip.

This brought the German fire card for this pair. Only the leader had a shot due to the previous side slip. He took full advantage and netted a critical hit which result was catastrophic structural damage. I will have to see if Lieutenant Parker can bail out before he crashes to the desert below. The Luftwaffe claims the first kill of the game.

Captain Pietersen, now without Stukas to shoot at, had two Bf109s ahead of him. A German Sprog failed to quite circle around him.

The next card was the Lufftwaffe flight leader. He maneuvered to get behind Captain Pietersen. He didn't quite have enough movement to get on tail. Captain Pietersen's section fire card came up and he was able to take advantage of the German Sprog directly in front of him. A burst of fire netted him some Critical Instrument Damage on the sprog. He will need to break off and head for home.

Lieutenant Jonah Parker's card came up and he was able to successfully bail out and had his chute open. Since they were intercepting over friendly territory, he will likely make it back to base.

The Stuka card came up and they moved closer to their objective. As it sits, they may exit the table without taking a single shot. This would be more difficult if I had a larger game mat. I think this one is two feet by four feet so there is not much room for combat. Lieutenant Bertie Morgan moved to support Captain Pietersen rather than chasing the Stukas.

Captain Pietersen managed to take some fire and ended with a damaged fuel line. He would head for home rather than continuing to engage.

The second group of Germans began maneuvering away from their victory and moved towards the other South Africans.

They circled around and got on the tail of Lieutenant Parker's aircraft dead close. Things did not look good for the South Africans.

Lieutenant Morgan came in and got on tail of the German tailing Parker and managed to get on its tail. Now it was a race for fire cards.

As fate would have it, the German Fire card came up and the German poured fire into Lieutenant Parker. The critcal result was the plane exploding. Lieutenant Parker was KIA.

The British Fire Card came up next and Lieutenant Morgan poured out some fire on the Victorious German who had now claimed two kills in the game. However, his shots were no where nearly as effective.This resulted in some wing damage.

The Germans covered their pilot and came in for a shot on Lieutenant Morgan resulting in wing damage. After this, there was a slight bit of maneuvering and combat broke off.

For the South African's, the result wa srather grim.

Pilot	Results
Captain Pietersen	Fuel Line Damage
Lt Morgan	Damaged 1 enemy, wing damage
Lt Parker	Shot Down, Rescued
Lt Hill	KIA Aircraft Exploded

The Stukas made it to their target. The German fighters did well.

Pilot 1 - Veteran: No damage, no successes.
Pilot 2 - Regular: Critical Instrument Damage, returned to base.
Pilot 3 - Regular: 2 Kills
Pilot 4 - Sprog: Suffered Engine Damage, returned to base.

In the end, it was a fun game that had some interesting results. I really enjoyed the difference in the Bf109s and Hurricanes from the previous scenarios aircraft. I am looking forward to the next scanrio. This will feature the Germans squadron. Then the last mission of the day will be the RAF. Hopefully, I will get another game in this weekend.

Operation Battleaxe - Ba.65s and Martin Maryland Bombers

Seeing the need for some more variety, Managed to paint up some additional aircraft. I had already previously primed these aircraft. But what I noticed was that I had failed to glue any magnets to them. I had found my stash of small magnets and hoped i had some small ones for the Ba65s. I have six of these bombers. It is always tricky to get them as flush as possible so they won't look wonky on the flight stands. I really need a plastic pair of tweezers to do this with. But I don't have them. To ensure that i don't glue the magnets on backwards, I placed the new magnet on top of the flight stand and then slid paper between the magnets and lifted off the one for the aircraft. Then pushed the aircraft with glue on it, onto the magnet and flipped it over to dry. I only have enough magnets for 4 ot the 6 Ba.65s. I have more than enough for the Marylands.

The Marylands are larger and I have more larger sized magnets available. I am using AI to do the color matching. So far the colors selected by Ai seem reasonable. This has proved to be a big help to me.

I managed to finish the Ba.65s. The Marylands have their primary camo painted on. I need to paint the roundels and tail insignia. I probably need another 20 minutes of work to complete them. Mostly because I am a slow painter.

The Ba.65s:

And the Marylands:

Operation Battleaxe - Minor Update

I did not get a chance to get in a game last night as I was too tired. But I did get to purchase a set of beads for aircraft identification. I was able to set up aircraft for the next scenario with the ID beads. These were in a large bag for a whopping $2.00 at Walmart's craft section. The beads fit perfectly on the post for the bases. I figure that I will limit it to up to 4 aircraft per card (I have been using 2 per section card move/fire). The pack came with a number of colors that enabled me to make sure I have penty of options.

I also managed to identify a pack of aircraft that was in the drawer. Apparently, this is a pack of 4 Hs 126 observation aircraft. This will be a great addition to my Germans. I will need to glue the landing gear on but these should not be difficult to paint up for the desert.

I am pretty happy with the miniatures that I have. I have plenty of extras that I can use for other theaters. But that is a future project. I definitely want to do an eastern Front campaign at some point. I have some reference books already but will wait until I have painted up all of my Western Desert items first. I have a few items on deck for painting (Ba65s in particular). I do want to purchase some Ro37s for the Italians as well and some Lysanders for the British. But progress is being made.

The cards are set up for the next game. I have printed the aircraft record sheets. I am ready.

Operation Battleaxe - Notes on Day 1, Game 2

I am getting ready for the second game. This will be the first game for the South Africans in their Hurricanes. I ended up with an intercept mission. I made a quick determination if they were intercepting over the target, on the way to the target or on the way home from the target. The result was on the way to the target. Next I needed to determine who they were intercepting and that is the Germans.

Next I looked at my miniature collection and realized I only had Ju-87s painted for German bombers. I wanted to keep the game small so the scenario will feature three Ju-87s escorted by four Bf-109s. This will be a tough battle for the South Africans.

The Germans will have the fighter escort divided into two Rotte of two aircraft each. The bombers are in a single Kette. Each grouping will have a character card associated with it. For the Germans, the fighters will have one vetteran, two regulars and one Sprog pilot. The bombers will have one veteran, one regular and one sprog. The SAAF will have two pairs of fighters, each with a character card. I will have a veteran and a Sprog in one and two regulars in the other. This should have more variety than the previous game with no sprog pilots present.

Since the Germans are on their way to the bombing site, there will be no flak or ground targets to worry about. This should be a straight forward game. The German goal is to get the Ju-87s across the table for their bombing run. The SAAF are trying to shoot down as many Ju-87s as possible and prevent them from achieving their objectives.

The pilots I picked for this flight are:

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
2	Captain Rudi Pietersen	Veteran	1	Squadron XO Kill in East Africa
6	Lieutenant Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0
8	Lieutenant Jonah Parker	Regular	0
12	Lieutenant Dexter Hill	Sprog	0

These are the pilots that i created in the original post of the campaign.

All of this is with aircraft that are already painted. I think I am missing the national roundel on the side of each of the Hurricanes but it should be fine. I may fix that or I may leave them as they are as i remember painting those on the P-40s and it was painful. The Hurricane is a slightly smaller model.

I hope to get to a craft store today and buy some beads to mark the aircraft before playing. I will also pick up some white and black pipe cleaners to use for damage markers. Hopefully I will get to run this on Wednesday night.

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 - Game 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
1	Capitano Mirocleto Gerbino	Jr Ace	5	Spanish Civil War Veteran
2	Tenente Gualtiero Titone	Veteran	2 (1)	Squadron XO. 2 Kills Day 1
3	Sottotenente Tarso Isola	Regular	0
4	Sottotenente Urdino Peduzzi	Regular	0
5	Sottotenente Michael Mariano	Regular	0	1 Mission Flown
6	Sottotenente Abramio Giacinto	Sprog	0
7	SergenteMaggiore Lavinio Lico	Veteran	2
8	Sergente Cristian Piccoli	Regular	0
9	Sergente Romano Garafalo	Regular	0
10	Sergente Rocco Botti	Regular	0	1 Mission Flown
11	Sergente Rodolfo Scalese	Sprog	0
12	Sergente Neoterio Sciulli	Sprog	0
13	Sergente Girardo Rizzi	Sprog	0