Air Wargaming of the Garden Variety

I had hoped to get my Battle of Britain campaign rules all written up this week, but hat was not to be and they currently remain a collection of notes and scribbles on a first draft that still needs to be written as a second draft. I also wanted to play-test a bomber scenario, this will help with the design of for some of the campaign missions.

The game set up on the lawn with the target industrial complex in the distance. Two Hurricanes can be just seen patrolling in the upper right of the photo.

As my tabletop was already occupied with a game and the weather being fine and sunny, I decided to take the Blood Red Skies game outside. This is something I have been keen to try out for a while, as it gives the game more space and the aircraft do not feeling as crowded as they do on my 6x4 foot tabletop. I had earlier in the week made some larger bases for the telescopic rods to slot into, they keep the models stable on the lawn, so most of what I needed was already prepared. (Information on the making of the telescopic stands for indoors can be found here.)

The only question I needed to answer was how to represent clouds in an outdoor setting? In the end, I used quilt batting, which is the soft material used between layers of fabric on a quilt. Fortunately, with my wife is an avid quilter and there is always a ready supply of offcuts. She helped me find some suitably sized bits of white batting, which I then cut into cloud shapes for the game.

White quilting batting being used to represent the clouds.

The Scenario

A single Heinkel 111 bomber is being escorted by two Messerschmitt 109s. All are flown by regular pilots. Their objective is to bomb an industrial target.

Intercepting them were two Hurricanes on patrol. One is flown by a regular pilot and the other by a veteran pilot. In Blood Red Skies the pilot skill is important when it comes to the activation order of aircraft, additionally it helps provide an edge with both shooting and dodging any hits.

To represent the target, I used some factory buildings and flak gun emplacements I had made a few years ago (2020!) from wooden blocks for a St Nazaire raid game (info here). The buildings were laid out on a board to create an industrial complex. The complex is defended by two flak positions.

The Rules

For this game I used the Blood Red Skies rules from the Airfix Battle of Britain boxed set, which are a slightly cut down version of Warlords rules without the tactical and doctrine cards. When playing on my tabletop, I have adapted these rules to work on a hex grid, but for the outdoor game I switched to free movement, treating 12 inches, or one foot, as the equivalent of one hex. While I did have a measuring stick, I did on occasion use my feet to measure out distances. This was very convenient as it saved me always having to bend down to measure.

Although I do not have Warlord Games full Blood Red Skies rulebook and supplements, I was able to glean enough information from various quick reference sheets (QRS) found online to pull together a workable set of rule mechanisms for the bomber.

Game Report

As the Heinkel 111 with its bomb load, droned steadily toward its objective, it was sighted by a pair of patrolling Hurricanes. The RAF pilots wasted no time in turning to intercept the incoming raid. In response, the Messerschmitt escorts broke formation and began accelerating forward to engage.

The Messerschmitts move to engage the patrolling Hurricanes. While the Heinkel maintains its course towards the industrial complex.

The Messerschmitts and Hurricanes climbed and engaged each other in a tight dogfight, each pilot jockeying for position. Using a bank of cloud as cover, one Hurricane pilot using the aircraft's agility, slipped into position and shot off a burst or fire that cause minor damage to a Messerschmitt. An unexpected but useful blow.

A Hurricane uses the cloud to its advantage.

A Messerschmitt takes light damage.

Seizing the initiative, the veteran Hurricane pilot broke away from the dogfight and made for the bomber. The German fighters, recognising the danger, abandoned the dogfight and gave chase, using their great dive ability to close the gap and get in behind the Hurricane.

A Hurricane breaks away from the dogfight to threaten the Heinkel.

Pressing home his attack, the Hurricane pilot manoeuvred to tail the Heinkel and fired several quick bursts. The bullets stitched across the bomber’s fuselage, and soon smoke began streaming from one of its engines. The advantage was short-lived, as the Messerschmitts fell in behind the Hurricane and attempted to drive it off as it dodged their bursts of fire.

The bomber takes a hit on one of its engines.

Messerschmitts attempt to drive off the Hurricane.

While the first Hurricane weaved and jinked the tailing Messerschmitts, the second Hurricane had not been idle. Appearing out from a cloud bank, it lined up the stricken bomber and delivered a well-aimed burst of fire. This proved decisive, the bomber's second engine faltered, and it began a steep, uncontrolled descent.

The Heinkel is shot down by the second Hurricane.

With their bomber lost and also having taken light damage, the Messerschmitts saw little point in prolonging the engagement. Breaking off, they turned for home, leaving the skies to the RAF.

Outside on a sunny day wargaming. So enjoyable!

Hopefully this game report provides enough details on how the game progressed. When dogfights occur in the game and aircraft are going up, down, left, right. and centre. It is very difficult to describe all the different manoeuvres which are going on. Anyway, the game worked out well and now I have all the pieces I need to finish off writing up the campaign rules. 

Painting Zulus and a remote Air Wargame

Painting-wise, it has been all about painting the Zulus. Last week I was able to complete 60 figures, and I currently have another 60 sitting halfway done on my painting desk. All the Zulus are plastic HaT 20mm miniatures. I am hoping to keep the momentum going for as long as possible by painting steadily until I hit that inevitable point of not wanting to paint another Zulu. When that happens, as it inevitably will, I will switch to something different for a change, then hopefully return to painting the Zulus refreshed.

In terms of basing, I have settled on 4 x 3 inch bases and have 12 figures per base. This gives a nice dense look to the unit, while still leaving enough space around the figures so I can apply glue and flocking without too much difficulty.

The first batch of Zulus completed.

The Zulus are mounted on 4x3 inch bases. 12 figures per base.

On the gaming front, I have returned to air wargaming using the Blood Red Skies rules by Warlord Games. This was a project I started earlier this year with Airfix’s Battle of Britain set which came with the basic Blood Red Skies rules. The boxed set came with 2 Messerschmitts and Spitfires in 1:72 scale and I have added some additional models to add variety, Hurricanes and German Bombers (see here). They are all mounted on telescopic rods so I can vary heights to show when aircraft are Advantaged, Neutral, or Disadvantaged as per the rules.

Yesterday I played a remote game with Jon from Palouse Wargaming Journal. To make remote play easier I have adapted the rules to use a hex grid, as free movement and the associated measuring and shooting angles can be problematic when gaming remotely.

The setup for remote gaming.

My remote gaming setup is fairly simple, a mobile phone mounted on a tripod using Google Meet. For this game I added a backdrop sheet to prevent the models from getting visually lost against my wall of shelves with their clutter of boxes and containers.

As Jon was new to the rules, and it had only been a few weeks since my last game, we started with a small action with one aircraft each. Jon opted for the Messerschmitt and I had a Spitfire. There is no action report this time, partly due to me not taking nearly enough photos during the game, but also because an air combat game is really difficult to describe. Unlike land battles, where you can write about and take photos of flanking manoeuvres and centres holding firm, it is difficult to describe dogfights that have the aircraft zooming around the tabletop shooting at any enemy targets that end up in your aircraft sights. I will have to think more about how best to describe the games as I am planning a small air campaign.

A dogfight in progress as viewed from the mounted mobile phone.

Early on in the game Jon managed to get his Messerschmitt into more advantageous positions to line up more shots overall, but luck was not on his side with his dice rolls letting him down. On those occasions when he did roll well and landed a possible hit, my pilot proved elusive and successfully dodged incoming fire. With both our aircraft struggling to land any decisive hits, we introduced additional aircraft to escalate the engagement. Jon had a second Messerschmitt, while I added a Boulton Paul Defiant (a recent purchase I that I could not resist getting on to the tabletop) with its distinctive turret guns.

The extra aircraft came with veteran pilots and soon increased the intensity of the game, creating more firing opportunities. It was not long before Jon managed to get on the tail of my Spitfire, and this time, his shooting found its mark and I was unable to dodge. My Spitfire went down in flames and that was the game.

A Spitfire getting shot down.

Thank you to Jon for a most enjoyable game. By the end of the game we had both got to grips with the rules and many of its nuances and our aircraft rule traits. Hopefully I will be able to remember the game's nuances the next time I play! 

Currently reading.

I am planning to setup a short air campaign over the next couple of weeks, and I hope to post the campaign rules in my next blog post. With any luck, my current reading "The Most Dangerous Enemy" by Stephen Bungay will provide plenty of inspiration and ideas.

Boardgaming and test painting Zulus

No wargaming this weekend, but there was plenty of gaming all the same. With the kids and their partners over for a BBQ and games day. As a family we all enjoy gaming, and this weekend’s boardgames line-up included the co-operative games "Reign of Cthulhu" and "The Captain Is Dead!". The Captain Is Dead! proved to be popular and we played it twice, narrowly losing in the first game before managing to pull off a victory in the second game. In the evening we wrapped up with "Small World of Warcraft", which was won by my wife. Despite declaring at the start that she did not understand the rules and was going to give the game a miss!

A cooperative game of The Captain is Dead! in progress.

The games day began with hunting down the horrors of Cthulhu.

The day wrapped up with a game most of us had not played.

Planning and preparation for my Anglo-Zulu War project continues. On the rules side, I have been reviewing options following suggestions from "A Wargamer’s Guide to the Anglo-Zulu War" by Daniel Mersey. At the moment I am leaning towards using "Black Powder Second Edition" with its "Zulu" supplement. I need to settle on the ruleset soon as this will help to determine the basing approach I take.

A option to wargame the Anglo-Zulu War.

On the painting table, I have started work on the HaT 20mm plastic Zulu figures. A test group of four were painted. With 600 Zulu figures to get through, I am keeping the painting approach very simple. They are prepared with a wash in detergent and a coat of PVA glue, then block painted with a final PVA coat to give them a glossy finish that I like. 

The countdown is 594 Zulus to go...

Preparing the plastic figures with a wash in detergent.

A test group of 4 figures are painted.

I have also spent a little time on some remaining Star Wars Legion figures. If I am honest, that was probably a bit of procrastination on my part before I start tackling the mass of Zulu warriors in the plastics pile. Anyway, they are finished now, so no more excuses!

Some Droidekas completed. They were very fiddly to glue together.

Some more Rebel troopers. I chopped off some of their heads and replaced them with Kroot and Tau heads from my W40K bits box. I already have a couple of Rebel troop units and wanted this one to look a bit different.

Scratch made WW1 wagons and the next wargaming project

I have continued with the WW1 Middle East theme from my last post by making some very simple supply wagons for both the Turkish and British forces. I often end up with spare cavalry figures after painting units, as the HaT 1:72 scale figure boxes usually contain 16 figures while my cavalry units are made up of 12 figures. Rather than leaving the spare figures unused, I decided to put them to use as wagon teams.

The British wagons on the move.

Turkish wagons guarded by cavalry.

The wagons themselves are simple scratch-builds. They made from off-cuts of wood, with balsa-wood shaped to form the canopy. The wheels are made from washers and card glued together. Each wagon is drawn by one of the spare cavalry figures and a horse with the saddle removed. Like much of my WW1 armies, they are very basic models with any detail painted on so they look the part when viewed on the tabletop.

The almost completed wagon. The toothpick axles just have to be trimmed.

The wheels begin as washers glued to card. Once the glue is dry, they are cut out. This approach provides a nice round wheel with a good thickness.

A toothpick acts as the axle.

Any remaining wagon detail is painted on. I will often use a combination of a dark colour and lighter colour when painting details such as the wheel spokes.

Alongside the wagons I also completed a couple of howitzers crewed with some spare Indian figures that were converted and an officer. These will provide the British forces with some more artillery support. Again all the figures and models are HaT 1:72 scale (although the officers may be ESCI - not sure as the come from my spares box).

Indian crewed Howitzers

My next project arrived a couple of weeks ago. A large box with a selection of HaT 1/72 plastic figures for the Anglo-Zulu War. Prior to doing much with these kits, I have been waiting for a couple of second-hand books to arrive. This project was not planned, it was opportunistic, and came about when I saw Hannants.co.uk had a good number of boxes of HaT Zulus boxes available in stock.

The next project arrives.

Some reading.

Possible rules.

More on this project in the coming weeks (and months) as it progresses... 

WW1 Middle East adding landing boats and Royal Marines

While painting the Indian units for my WW1 Middle East games (see the previous post) I decided to continue with the WW1 theme by adding a few landing boats and a unit of Royal Marines. This will give more options and variety when setting up scenarios, as British naval forces supported a number of land operations during the war, eg, the Dardanelles, Mesopotamia, the defence of the Suez Canal, and Red Sea operations supporting the Arab Revolt.

A unit of Royal Marines are landed ashore.

The Royal Marines are HaT 20mm WW1 British Infantry (Early) simply painted in a dark blue. Although this uniform was replaced by khaki fairly early in the war, but I chose to keep the blue help them stand out from the other British units on the tabletop.

The Marines advance.

After they were painted, I decided to have a go at making some simple landing boats. They were cut from 19mm MDF board into basic boat shapes. For their crews, I used spare HaT WW1 cavalry figures that had previously lost their horses to making some supply units. These figures were cut in half at the waist and glued into the boats. After initially painting them grey, I thought they would look better if I added a second crewman to each boat along with a rudder made from a cut down matchstick.

You can see how simple the models are. Along with an additional crewman I did attach a cut down match stick to the stern to represent a rudder.

The models are very simple, but they are robust and quick to make. Rather than modelling detail, I rely on the overall shape and paint to give the impression of landing boat. I use a rather loose painting style and try to give the impression of detail, rather than painting details themselves. Sometimes this approach works, while other times it does not and the models will get undercoated again until I get the look I want. For models that will not get a great deal of use, and are viewed at three feet, I am quite happy with the results.

A closer view of the model boats shows the loose strokes of paint to give the impression of detail.

A wargamer's view from three feet.

I have a small ship made from wood off-cuts to represent the Campbeltown from when I setup a St.Nazaire game which I can re-use to support the amphibious scenarios.

A basic block ship from which troops are ferried ashore.

The next post will either about adding some more supply wagons to the WW1 collection, or a post about my next planned project which has been recently delivered, and was not on my planned list of things to do in 2026.

Star War Legion and WW1 Middle East painting

Before I became absorbed with painting aircraft for the Blood Red Skies game over the past few weeks, I had been adding a few models and making conversions to my Star Wars Legion forces. Four of these models were straightforward builds, AT Walkers for the Empire and Rebels, along with a couple of Speeders.

AT Walkers painted for the Empire and Rebels.

A couple of Speeders.

The first conversion involved turning a Luke Skywalker figure into Obi-Wan Kenobi. I reversed the pose to give the impression of Obi-Wan deflecting a blaster shot or standing in a defensive guard. This required removing Luke’s head and replacing it with a spare, along with adding a cloak from the bits box. Green Stuff was used to make the hood and also lengthen the shirt to be more robe like.

A comparison between the figures. Obi-Wan on the left and Luke on the right.

A cloak from the spares box proved very useful as when I make them from Green Stuff they lack movement.

A view of Obi-Wan from the front.

The second conversion made use of the spare torso from the AT walker kit. I added an alien head and cloak from the ever-useful spares box and mounted the figure on a cheap plastic dinosaur, which was slightly modified and fitted with reins and a saddle to create a suitably Star War beast rider.

A beast rider

Another spare cloak was added to this conversion.

With the aircraft painting done (for the moment) I am now reinforcing my WW1 Middle Eastern forces with some additional Indian units. So far I have added one unit of Indian cavalry and two units of Indian infantry. All are HAT plastic 1:72 scale figures. A battery of howitzers is also on the painting table, which will be crewed by some converted Indian figures, although they are not yet finished.

Indian Cavalry - HAT Bengal Lancers were used.

Two units of HAT WWI Indian Infantry. The Officers were added from other WW1 kits.

I hope to get these units onto the tabletop for a game soon.