The little things that can be done.

With my bicycle training hitting its most demanding period and starting a new job I have had very little time for gaming. I did manage to 're-base' my WoW WWI aircraft in the few minutes I could find. It is a really neat way to enhance the gaming with the miniatures but I can not take the credit for it. Harry did something similar for his Check Your Six miniatures.

It is a steel ball hot glued to the stand and a ring magnet glued to the plane. It allows total variance in yaw, pitch and roll of the plane with little effort and it stays in place. It makes a difference when using the miniatures and the plane to plane rule instead of the base for shooting.

Now to just find time to game!

WoW future releases news!

From: http://merlindex.free.fr/spip/index.php

Wings of War Miniatures série 4 :
Se5a
Pfalz D.III
Breguet 14
Rumpler C.IV-C.VII
Wings of War Miniatures série 5 :
Morane Saulnier N
Fokker E.III
Airco DH.2
Halberstadt D.III
Wings of War Miniatures séries 6 :
Hanriot HD.1 ( ?)
Sopwith Triplane ( ?)


These are some great releases and I am especially looking forward to the early planes in Series 5. No idea on the actual in-store date but probably not till mid/late 2009. Worth the wait!

Jasta 12, Albatros D.V, late 1917

It has come to my attention that my Tutschek is more than likely wrong. A print showing his DV as having green/purple wings, black fuselage and regular white edged Maltese crosses was posted on the WoW Yahoo group. I will repaint and decal the model and post a picture soon. 01/21/09

Jasta 12 was one of the highest scoring Staffeln during "Bloody April" 1917. The unit markings while under Adolf von Tutschek were a black rear fuselage and tail.



These are to represent mid to late 1917. I used the WoW Albatros D.Va (Jentsch) WW07I model.

Ltn Viktor Schobinger

Unknown

Obltn Adolf Ritter von Tutschek

(I am still looking for proof that he flew an all black D.V. He did fly a D.III so it is possible.)

The crosses are I-94 decals and the pilots are Reviresco.

They will make some nice 1917 air support for my FOW1918 Germans.

Sources:

http://members.cox.net/tbittners/schobinger_d5.html

http://mwmiller.theaerodrome.com/alb/schemes/j12/j12.htm

http://www.theaerodrome.com/services/germany/jasta/jasta12.php

Lieutenant Werner Steinhauser joins Jasta 11

It has come to my attention that my re-paint is incorrect. Steinhauser's plane with the red band and yellow Xs did not have the yellow with red lines tail. His later plane that had a yellow band with red Xs had the tail depicted here and with Baltic corsses. I have painted over the horizontal tail section in camo green so that it is correct. 01/17/2009

Continuing my repaints of Jasta 11 in the Spring of 1918; I have added Lieutenant Werner Steinhauser. Steinhauser joined Jasta 11 at the end of 1917. He scored ten victories before he was killed in action in his DR.I over Neuilly in June of 1918.





I used the WoW Fokker Dr I (Rahn) WW07L model. The pilot is a Reviresco. I really enjoyed the painting and think it turned out okay even with my shaky hand.
There is question about the paint job on his plane. Some have it as a red strip with yellow Xs and others the reverse, yellow strip with red Xs. I used the Osprey JG1 book print as a reference.



Sources:
"Richtofen's Circus' Jagdeschwader Nr 1, Aviation Elite Series, Osprey Publishing, Greg VanWyngarden 2004

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/steinhauser.php

WoW planes for Trade or Sale

Santa was very good to me this Christmas but I think the old guy is getting senile. He gave me a number of duplicates, not that I don't like or want duplicates for repaints but I am only shooting for three or four planes per squadron and type. I have the following planes available:

Sopwith Camel (Barker) WW07D - two each, new in box
De Havilland D.H.4 (Atkey) WW08L - two each, new in box
Fokker Dvii (Schafer) WWo8B - two each, new in box
Fokker Dr I (Rahn) WW07L - one each, new in box
Albatros D.va (Udet) WW07G - one each, used, no box

I would like to trade for the following:

Watch Your Back! box set
Burning Drakens box set
Albatros D.va (Jentsch) WW07I - one, maybe two
Series III planes - pretty much any

So, if you have excess planes new or used, let's talk!

Chris

The Scoop on Series 4 WWI WoW

This was on the WoW Yahoo group from one of the creators, Andrea Angiolino.
"The next release is going to be the DoW WWII series 1 planes then Balloon Buster will follow. That's the kit with Ni.16 with rockets and balloon, 2 different color schemes. Prototyping is closing in these days, production will start just after WWII Series 1 I guess.Then Series 4 will follow. It should include R.A.F. SE5a, Pfalz D.III - D.IIIa, Breguet BR.14 B2 and Rumpler C.IV-VII,. with 3 color schemes each - some of them colorful indeed. Again, two Allied and two German planes, one fighter and one two-seater each."

In the repaint world-
Dom's Decals releases Jasta 37 decals (Albatros D.V) and is working on sheets for the Series III Nieuport 17 and Series II RFC Snipes.

FOW1918 US Air Support, WoW US bomber group

The American Air Service used the DH4 'Liberty Plane' as it's standard general purpose two-seater aircraft. Aircrew operating the DH-4 were awarded four of the six Medals of Honor awarded to American aviators, with First Lieutenant Harold Ernest Goettler and Second Lieutenant Erwin R. Bleckley receiving posthumous awards after being killed on 12 October 1918 attempting to drop supplies to the Lost Battalion of the 77th Division, cut off by German troops during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, while 2d Lt Ralph Talbot and Gunnery Sergeant Robert G. Robinson of the US Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor for beating off attacks from 12 German fighters during a bombing raid over Belgium on 8 October 1918.The type flew with 13 U.S. squadrons by the end of 1918. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airco_DH4



For FOW1918 the Wings of War 1/144 models make a great air support option. The DH4 would be right at home bombing and strafing the trenches.



For WoW the DH4 is a tough nut for the Germans to crack. It is fast, well armed and can take some major punishment. I removed the blob gunner and single Lewis gun that comes on the model with the dual Lewis gunner from Reviresco. This is more accurate for the US DH4 as it was armed with the dual rear guns not the single as the model comes. It is not a simple replacement. The original single Lewis gun is molded into the body of the plane. I had to use the Dremel.
I left the blob pilot as he is well under the upper wing.

Now to build a US ground force for them to support!

Reviresco Fighter Pilots Review

I was not able to make Fall-In this year but a friend went and picked up a pack of Reviresco Fighter Pilots for me.



The packing notes 30 figures but I ended up with more. I got 26 pilots, 5 observer rings, 10 observer/tail gunners 'German' and 6 observers/tail gunners with dual Lewis guns for a total of 47 figures. Some of the figures had a lot of flash and a few of the empty observer rings were in poor shape but overall most were okay. The pilots are fine, nice detail for 1/144. The observer/tail gunner 'German' (that is my title) is nice and looks to have a MG08/15 type gun but the observer/tail gunner with dual Lewis gun is only fair. Not sure how many planes I will actually be able to use him for. I may try converting him into a single Lewis.



The pilots paint up nicely but will not fit as-is into the WoW planes. They will not fit at all into the SPAD and I am still trying to figure out how I am going to get them into the Sopwith. The upper wing is in the way.



For the Dr1 you just need to cut the pilot at the waist and fit him in. For any of the series II and III planes you will need to remove the blob of a pilot. This is a touchy procedure. Kinda like playing the kids game operation, don't touch the sides.
I cut the top off, hand drilled a small hole in the center and then used my Dremel with a bigger bit to get the bulk out. I still chipped some paint so from now on I will do this prior to re-painting.



For the price it is not bad and if you do not have a lot of planes may be worth getting a friend to split it with you. If all you use are the pilots they come to about .32 cents. Not a bad price to not have pilotless planes.

I am still hoping to get my hands on some of the Peter Pig models in the future and will compare them.

The 148th take to the air!

As I noted in my last post I was inspired to do some Sopwith Camels as the 148th Aero Squadron. My biggest problem was finding letters the right size and white triangles. The letters ended up being rub on letters that I transfered to clear decal material and then applied them to the planes. Not exact but close enough to me. The triangle ended up just being hand done. They are close and a few had to be done a few times. I am reasonably happy with them and they will look nice taking on my Jasta 15 and 11 in WoW and providing my British forces air support in FOW1918.

Inspiration for a Sopwith Squadron

In searching for pictures of Sopwith Camels for some repaint ideas I came across a few links on the 148th. The 148 Aero Squadron was a US unit that served with the British. I think it will make for some pretty easy repaints and offer something different.

Here are a few of the links.

http://mwmiller.theaerodrome.com/camel/index.html
This one also has some great prints of two RNAS squadrons. Future plans?

http://www.crossandcockade.com/pdf/148th.pdf

"The 148th fulfilled many ground attack and bombing missions, as well as their normal pursuit duties."

Perfect for FOW1918 and WoW.

Pics and details to follow.

Sneak peak at WoW series 3 planes

Here are a few pics of some of the Series 3 planes.
They are due out in November and will give use FOW1918 players some Austro-Hungarian Air support and the Nieuports can be modified to Italians.


Nieuport 17 (Lufberythenault)
Nieuport 17 (Nungesser)
Nieuport 23 (Kibanov)
Albatros D.iii (Brumowski)
Albatros D.iii (Hautzmayer)
Albatros D.iii (Voss)
Ufag C.i (Flick 23/d)
Ufag C.i (Luftfahrtruppen 1)
Ufag C.i (Luftfahrtruppen 2)
RAF R.e.8 (Longton & Carson)
RAF R.e.8 (Ferguson & Fry)
RAF R.e.8 (Aviation Militaire)




These pictures were taken from www.boardgamegeek.com


Here is a picture of the Peter Pig WoW pilots. I really want to get my hands on some of these!



This picture is property of Peter Pig.

Small modeling to WoW

I have made a few little modeling modifications to my Wings of War gaming to make it a bit more eye appealing. The first is making smoke markers out of foam rubber. I cut the general shape, cut a slit to slide over the lower wing and then rough it up by pulling small bits off.



The second is to make an angled altitude peg. It allows for banking to either side, climbing and descending. Take two of the clear pegs provided with the models. Cut one in half straight across and the other in about a 45 degree angle. Swap them and glue together. You end up with two angled pegs.

Wings of War meets Flames of War (1918)

In gaming FOW1918 I have created a number of armies and was wanting to build air support for each. I found the metal models in 1/144 scale at first but then I came across the Wings of War prepainted models. For about the same price I did not have to assemble and paint those little buggers. The line is limited but expanding and the game is a blast so I highly recommend it to any WWI gamer.
In FOW you can only get a maximum of three planes so that is what I started to collect. I decided I wanted them to be all form the same squadron so it has actually lead to researching the airwar and really finding some neat stuff. I have started a few Jastas and plan on rounding them out with a few more planes.


My first squadron is of course Jasta 11 (Spring 1918) part of JG1 'Richthofen's Flying Circus'



Then I started Jasta 15 (late 1918).



Here they are ganging up on two US spotter planes.

I will post more photos and detail on these later.