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 The planes are either cutting edge or hopelessly outdated.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.