Airfix 1/72 Scale Mersserschmitt BF109-E3a - Royal Yugoslav Air Force

Here's the latest build completed. It's another Airfix 109-E, but this time in the markings of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force.

The RYAF had bought about 70 Bf109's paid for with an exchange of minerals/metals. The Bf109E3a was the export version of the same E-3 the Germans flew. Apparently the Germans were less than forthcoming with spares etc, and provided an after-sales package that would have no chance of winning any sort of customer service awards anywhere.

The RYAF flew a selection of modern fighters and bombers at the start of the war, and was much stronger than (for example) the Belgian or Dutch Air Forces. However, they were outnumbered about eight to one on paper by the Axis forces, and in practice due to serviceability issues, the RYAF couldn't put their entire force into the air when the Germans attacked. Despite being short of spares, fuel and even machinegun ammunition, and lacking thecombat experience of their enemies, the Yugoslav pilots' morale was unaffected, and there were occassions when there were more aircrew wanting to fight than aircraft for them to fly.

Obviously this is not an out of the box build. The Airfix kit depicts an E-4 or E-7, which had a differently shaped canopy with a lighter frame, and (according to photos) no head armour for the pilot.

Here's obligatory shot of the cockpit before it got closed up. The detail provided by Airfix is pretty good, and once the canopy is closed, almost invisible, so there's little need to add much else. I went with straps on the rudder pedals (the seat has harness moulded on), trim wheels, throttle/mix levers and a seat adjustor from stretched sprue. The undercarriage legs/doors were hotted up with brake pipes added from fine wire.

The alternative canopy was a vacform from Pavla. I bought it on Ebay, as a pack with a second canopy from a 109-K - goodness knows when I'll use it! It was a very long time back when I last did anything involving vacforms, so I was a bit nervous starting this.

I followed the usual practice of carefully cutting out the part. Pavla mould the canopy including some pieces of rear fuselage and canopy, so it's easy to cut out the proper part, and probably it allows the canopy to fit on different manufacturers' kits. Sanding, checking, more sanding and more checking eventually gets the fit OK.

A little bit of filler around the canopy blends the join, but a little bit of sanding on the fuselage behind the canopy is necessary to deal with a slight width mismatch.

Once sanded, the canopy is a treat. It's very much thinner and clearer than the kit offering, and allows more of the cockpit to be seen. I drilled out the machinegun  and cannon barrels, and the exhausts which improves their look no end, and added a vertical reinforcement bar in the underwing radiators.

The paintwork was simple: RLM70 over RLM65, both out of the pot Tamiya acrylics which airbrush beautifully, followed by about three coats of gloss ahead of the decals.

The decals are from a company called Kora (set  7234). They are thin, flexible and in perfect register, but the white is a little bit thin over RLM70. They're absolutely fine over the RLM65, but if I had a do-over, I would underpaint the upper wing markings and the tail stripes in white. After this, it was another coat of gloss to seal and then detail painting. Guns, trim tabs, landing lights and the like were done with a brush, as was the panel line wash, using acrylic ink.

The wheels are resin extras that come in with the decals, and the detail is superb.

Here she is after the final addition of things like pitot tube, aileron balances and the radio aerial from stretched sprue, and a coat of matt to flat things down.

L-10 was part of the 142. Lovacka Eskadrila, from 32. Grupa at Krusedol airfield. Second Lieutenant Miodrag Aleksic flew the plane to score an aerial victory over a German Bf109-E (and at least one other kill) during the invasion in 1941.

Merry meet again!

Airfix 1/72 Scale Messerschmitt Bf109-E7/Trop

Here's a departure (or a return, if you like). My route to wargaming was via model aircraft. I can remember how it happened: my dad and I built an Airfix Junkers Ju88 - he built the fuselage with me watching to show me how, then I bodged up the wings! I carried on until my early twenties, picking up AFVs, figures and wargaming on the way. I dropped it around then, but got bitten by the bug again early this year. I suppose, like wargaming or some bacteria, it never really leaves you: it just lies dormant, and you can relapse at any time...

Well, here's my first completed build, Airfix's Messerschmitt Bf109-E7/Trop.

Cockpit detail as provided by Airfix is pretty good - vastly better that I remembered from the earlydays of a misshapen pilot sat on peg! I added straps on the rudder pedals from tape and trim wheels from stretched sprue. Here's a quick shot of the cockpit before closing up the fuselage.

Assembly is quick and easy, and the aircraft goes together without difficulty, and minimal filler! The kit includes the additional tropical dust filter for the supercharger.

Detail in the wheel wells is nice, and shows up nicely with a bit of washing and dry-brushing. The underfuselage drop tank fitment is one of the things that visibly makes this an E-7 rather than an E-4. I added the vertical strengtheners in the underwing radiators from stretched sprue.

I fitted the canopy at this stage, and it needed a touch of filler to makeit fit perfectly. After masking up, a quick coat of RLM02 will give the sense of the internal colour of the cockpit framing. 

Next thing was a coat of white primer from a spray can. My experience with miniatures makes me gravely suspicious of how well acrylics straight onto plastics will last!

I masked the wheel wells with cotton wool, then blew on a coat of RLM78, mixed from Tamiya acrylics. I had a try out with Humbrol's aircraft acrylics and had a total disaster. I couldn't get on with them at all, and 

 came close to abandoning the airbrush. Luckily, Tamiya paints thin perfectly and spray effortlessly.

The RLM79, againmixed from Tamiya, went on next. The high demarkation line was normal.

The RLM80 mottle was sprayed by finding a "skin" from a videogame, and after printing it off to scale, using it to cut a set of masks or friskets. I put on a couple of coats of Kleer to give smooth surface for the decals, and also to give an easy-clean surface to go with detail painting.

I sprayed in the white fuselage band, then added the decals. These are Airfix's out of the box offering, an aircraft of the legendary JG27. There is an alternative in the form of a Bulgarian Air Force 109-E4, in dark green over light blue, with extensive yellow trims, which also looks pretty nice. The decals are easy to apply. They didn't silver, except in a couple of barely noticeable stencils. Propellor, spinner, guns etc were hand-painted and added as late as possible, to avoid breakage.

The very last pieces were added at the very end: the radio mast and aerial, aileron balances and pitot. Here's an effort at an "in action" shot.

The last shot is an effort at a sepia-toned version. This aircraft, Schwartze 8, is sometimes described as the mount of Leutnant Werner Schroer, the famous Luftwaffe Expert who was Hans-Joachim Marseille's commanding officer. Although Schroer did fly Schwatze 8, it was literally only a couple of times, and the regular pilot was a chap called Franz Elles.

Franz Elles began operations in 1940 with 1 Staffel, I./JG-27 and saw action during the battle of Britain under the command of Edu Neumann. Transferred in early 1941 with I./JG-27 to North Africa, he flew as wingman to the famous Knights Cross holder Karl-Wolfgang Redlich. Elles amassed five "kills", four Hurricanes and a Douglas Boston. Elles was shot down, defending his leader's tail in a close air combat with P-40s on 11 December 1941, 40 km SE of Ain-el-Gazala. He was flying Bf 109F-4/Trop WNr.8537, "Rote 9" of 2./JG 27. He spent the remainder of the war as a POW in Canada. After the war, he joined the German diplomatic service and rose to become German Ambassador to the Central African Republic.

Merry meet again!

Tristan - A Present For Me

A little while back I reviewed Musketeer Miniatures' fantastic Bors figure, that I painted as a present for a colleague.


This figure, Tristan, comes as the partner to Bors. In the Arthurian canon, Tristan (Anglicised from Drustan) was apparently a Cornish nobleman, a nephew of King Mark, who largely became famous for falling in love with Mark's mail order bride, Iseult.

There's a pretty strong thread running through the stories that Tristan could have had some Pictish heritage (Drustan derived from Drust, an attested name of several Pictish kings). Of course it's quite possible he was a Cornish noble with Pictish blood - then as now the nobility of different states/countries probably intermarried.

Modelled in a fantastically aggressive running pose, Tristan is a pretty commanding figure. This is ncely in keeping with the Arthurian view of him is a handy fellow in any sort of fight. The sculpting and casting is first-rate, with no flash and minimal joint lines. Interestingly he comes without a weapon in his right hand. I added a sword (swiped from the spares in the GB Dark Age warriors pack), but drilling through to add a spear would be facile. Here he is, bearing down on a group of Pictish raiders. Maybe there's an old family feud between him and the Pictish noble?

Stand and fight!

As Tristan is a well-equipped elite fighter, he has a mail shirt and a Saxon-style helmet, complete with boar crest. I'm perfectly happy with this - there's no evidence that the Saxons had a monopoly on viewing the tough, aggressive boar as a symbolic of a fighting man. In my view Tristan has looked at the state of the art in weapons, armour and tactics and decided that the Saxon style, complete with the small, viciously-pointed buckler, suits him best.

No backing down!

And as for where he's going, well, he might get an outing in a Dux Brit game, but mainly, this one's for my desk!

Decision time!

Merry Meet Again!

Beowulf

I first read Beowulf when I was about nine or ten years old. I don't recall who's translation it was - if I had to hazard a guess, I would say it was Rosemary Sutcliff's. It wouldn't be fair to say it was the one book that set me onto the path that has led me here: that honour belongs to The Hobbit, which I read around the same time. But that version of Beowulf was certainly one of the things that led me to other versions of the same work, and then to read The Sagas, the Fight at Finnsburg, Y Gododdin, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the works of Mallory and so many others.

I own what might perhaps be called a Beowulf bore's collection of different versions. I should say at this stage that I am far from being a scholar of Old English. I can pick out words and phrases, and understand how the language was structured, but I cannot claim to be highly qualified to comment on the accuracy of any translation!

William Morris's version has a feel I like, but there are parts where he seems to translate things differently to all the other versions I've read, so it sits uneasily. It has the advantage of being available for free.

Michael Alexander's version is my personal favourite. My copy is dog-eared, heavily overwritten with my own notes and much repaired. I love the feel and tone of it. The alliterative structure Alexander has produced, to me, really drives home the idea that Beowulf was written to be read aloud, recited in front of enthusiastic listeners, rather than pondered over in a quiet corner.

Marc Hudson makes no attempt to create alliteration, but his version is light, accessible and accompanied by a thorough, thought-provoking commentary.

John McNamara's verse translation is unfortunate in that it came out in 2005. By then I was firmly wedded to Alexander's version, but I would recommend McNamara's version without hesitation to any new buyer/reader. The poem text is excellent and benefits from a fantastic set of supporting notes and commentary.

So here's my Beowulf. This is Musketeer Miniatures version of Aelle. Their figures are fantastic sculpts and casts, and the character figures have so much life that I almost regret having built parts of my Anglo-Saxon and Sub-Roman armies with the figures I have, even though at the time I bought them I loved them. I already have an Aelle, so there was an opening for this figure to do something else.

Never have I seen

a greater earl on the earth than one of you,

a man in his war-gear. He is no hall-retainer,

ennobled with weapons, unless his looks belie him,

given his peerless form.

That description was the one given by Hrothgar's coastguard when he first sees Beowulf and his companions arrive. This mini is almost "straight out of the packet". The only difference is that I replaced the shield, with a version made from 10 thou plastic card, engraved and embossed to represent rivetted construction in three bits. When he hears about the dragon, Beowulf orders his armourers to make him a shield of solid iron, as he believes (quite rightly) that a wooden shield will fail against the dragon's fire.

The champion of warriors, the chief of the nobles,

ordered a wondrous war-shield to be made for him,

entirely of iron, since he knew for certain

that a wooden shield could provide no protection,

when fire attacked wood.

The other figure here was sold with the Aelle/Beowulf as a banner-bearer. He gets elevated to the status of a real character: Wiglaf.

This was Wiglaf, Weoxstan's son,

well-loved shieldman, a Scylfing prince

of the stock of Alfhere; 

Wiglaf is the only man among the Geats with the courage to stand with Beowulf when he fights the dragon. All the other members of Beowulf's hearthguard, the toughest of the tough, turn tail and run, and only Wiglaf remains, striking the blow that gives Beowulf the chance to make a killing stroke against the worm.

Here are the two, together, ready to take on anything that threatens the land of the Geats. I put these two on 1p coins as bases, rather than the 2p's I normally use for characters, with the plan that they could be sabot'ed onto a single base as a unit in a game (sort of "kill one, you still have a king" idea).

They killed the enemy, extinguished its life; 

by their courage, the kinsmen, acting as one, 

worked its doom. So should men do when there is need.

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without a couple of shots of the heroes confronting the dragon, so here goes:

Merry Meet Again!

The Steel Bonnets

I've just finished reading George MacDonald Fraser's "The Steel Bonnets", which is still one of the very best books on the Border Reivers you can get.

First published in 1971, it still reads wonderfully, a tale of history with all the elements of a great thriller: criminal intrigue, political double-dealing and breakneck action.

Fraser is probably best known as the author of the Flashman stories, and to me it seems that this is what lifts the book from the merely interesting to the exceptional. Fraser was evidently a skilled researcher and historian, but it is this in combination with his fantastic ability to tell a great adventure story that makes The Steel Bonnets such a great read. His descriptions are vivid and full of colour, whether of the hard, harsh landscape or the harder, harsher men who lived in it. He weaves a dry, ironic wit into the stories of raid and counter-raid, bitter feuds, cynical politics and the endless efforts of men on both sides to simultaneously control and inflame an area as lawless as any to be found in a work of fiction.

Fraser has a fantastic backdrop to write his story over. Centuries of family feudsoverlay the larger feud between England and Scotland. A population, part-ruined by raiding, who took ever more to raiding others in order to survive themselves, full of astonishing but actually real characters. Fraser describes one as the sort of man that later story writers "...who had never heard of Robert Carey, found it necessary to invent..." and he does justice to them all.

The lords of rival clans, raiding one another without regard to national borders, make the Wild West seem tame. With names like Auld Wat, Jock of the Side and The Bastard Heron, these men, already larger than life, jump from the page thanks to Fraser. In the midst of them all are the appointed Border Wardens, some strong and upright, like the "rugged, short-tempered" Hunsdon, others, like Kerr of Cessford "as much bandit as peace officer", no more law-abiding than those they policed. These men frequently tried to keep order in their own territory whilst encouraging their own locals to raid across the border. Here were Scots fighting on behalf of the English, English supporting the Scots and both sides fighting and reiving one another indiscriminantly.

Fraser breathes even more excitement and drive into this, painting a vivid picture that pulls the reader along. Events like the rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong from Carlisle Castle and the little-known but incredibly significant fight between Hunsdon and Dacre near Brampton would be high points in any adventure yarn, and Fraser's prose brings them into sharp, thrilling focus.

The tumult of the Anglo-Scottish border in the sixteenth century is as exciting a period for a wargame as any I can think of, and anyone wanting to try it need look no further than Fraser's work for all the inspiration and background they will need.

Bors - A Small Present

This is Bors, one of Musketeer Miniatures' fantastic Sub-Roman/Arthurian character figures.

I couldn't have been happier with this figure. The pose, anatomy and sculpting are all first-rate. The mould lines are minimal and flash is absolutely non-existent.

This was painted up as a gift/thank you for a colleague.  I've painted up minis in the past for my colleagues who have helped me out with their mass spectrometry skills. I've tried to find figures with quirks that reflect the job or in jokes. This one has been a while coming. I had struggled to find a figure that called out to me that it suited this particular colleague, but finally, Bors did it.

Well here he is - hope my colleague likes him. If not,  I'll have him back!

I used a fairly dark, quite limited palette, with just a few bright colours to catch and match the green dragon on the shield (this to reflect my colleague's large collection of green dragons on his desk...). The base is a 2p piece, and the helm is from the GB Saxon Thegns, with the head itself ground out. Bors can grab it in a hurry and be fully armoured.

There's something I noticed painting this guy. It's really, really satisfying to work on an individual mini, compared to the batch production approach needed to get an army on the table reasonably quickly. Luckily, I've got a few other "specials" to enjoy!

Wargames Factory Ancient German Cavalry

I want a Strathclyde force for Saga. This is a very largely mounted force, and putting about thirty horsemen on the table can be an expensive option, so I looked around for ideas to build this force economically. I can convince myself that there is some versatility in this force by using it as reinforcements for Dux Brit (whether as British or Saxon core units, or as Germanic mercenaries).

I liked the look of Wargames Factory’s Ancient German Cavalry as the source for these troops. Twelve in a pack for about fifteen quid (at the time) was good value, and fully dressed (tunics and trousers) make them suitable for converting to other things.

I’d heard very bad things about WF’s products, so I was loath to buy these sight unseen. At Vapnartak I was able to pick up and look over a pack before I put my hand in my pocket and although you can’t do a complete review under these conditions, I was happy to take a punt.

You get eight sprues in a pack, four each of horses and riders, with three figures per sprue.

First, the horses. These are kitted in halves, with separate heads. You get three sets of bodies and four heads on a sprue, so the potential for variations is very large. Anatomically, I am happy with the models. Positions, poses and musculature all look OK, and the eyes are in the right place! These seem to be based on a shorter-legged, heavier-boned, more barrel-chested animal than Conquest Miniatures plastic horses. I’m pleased about this.

Horse sprue, front

Horse sprue, rear

The heavy-limbed "pony" phenotype is much more appropriate for Dark Age/Early Medieval context that the more improved breeds that Conquest use. Assembly is simple, and although the fit of parts is imperfect, it’s as good as that I’ve found with either Conquest or Warlord horses. The horses are modelled with simple bridles, a single girth and fore and aft saddle straps, of the type seen on reconstructions of the four-horn saddles associated with Roman and post-Roman cavalry in the pre-stirrup era. The saddles (on the figure sprues) fit extremely well onto the mounts.

The riders are kitted as bodies with the shield arm moulded in place, with separate weapon arms and heads. First of all, the riders fit beautifully onto the horses without lots of cutting and grinding (which is a novelty!). The figures are of a slighter build than GB plastics (or metals!) but are perfectly fine, close in shape to MDS Picts.

Rider sprue, front

Rider sprue, rear

Each sprue has three bodies, six weapon arms and NINE heads! Four have their hair in versions of the Suebian knot, one has an Imperial Roman-style helm, and the remaining four are generic beardies suitable for a wide variety of end uses. The sprue carries three short spears, which are useful, swords and knives which can be adapted (they are too early in style for my purposes as they are), two round shields and two hexagonal ones, the former great, the latter for the spares box, plus a horn and a horse skull standard!

Despite the slight dimensional differences between WF and GB plastics, GB heads seem to work with these figures to add some additional variety or to up-armour your riders with helms. The only issue is that GB put the socket for the join on the head, WF put it on the body, so a bit of work is needed to bridge this. I used a bit of scrap sprue.

A few dry fits suggest that weapon arms from GB Dark Ages Warriors will match up, immediately giving a further source of weapons and even more variation.

Casting quality is good, and the plastic is a nice, soft grade (less brittle than Renedra use for the GB figures) which is very easy to work with. Fit of parts varies - issues with the horse body halves are noted above, but the riders go together seamlessly. Cleanup is quick and easy - limited mould lines and no flash anywhere.

The sculpting is generally good. I like the folds in the clothing but some small details (hair, fingers,eyes) are quite "soft". However, I think it's fair to point out that many metal miniatures I've worked on suffer just as badly, but that anyone expecting Musketeer Miniatures quality is going to be sadly disappointed.

Here's one example I've put together quickly. He will need a little bit of greenstuff to sort out the head/body joint, and the filler on the horse sanded down (obviously!) but I think it shows the principle.

 Works for me

I'll post again once I've got some painted up. In the main, I would say I'm happy with these. They are perfectly capable of putting the force I want on the table at a very reasonably price, and I reckon they will look the business when they do. These don't fall out of the box and assemble themselves - they need a bit of work, but I like that work!

Merry meet again!

I got all livestock, I got all livestock!

In the words of the "Rock Island Line", I got all livestock.

The chaps at Irregular Miniatures are good for 28mm livestock. Have a root around on their stall, it's almost always worth it. One word of advice - there's always an odd item with more than its fair share of flash, so if that's what comes out, surruptiously put it back and get another one.

First up, pigs. I bought three and there really was very little to do on them. All the modelling I did was to add tusks to one (after all, you need a boar!) and prick up their ears (a few moments with the jewellers' saw and a smear of green stuff).

 Bacon!

They are (arguably) a bit fat and short-snouted for Dark Age pigs, but I'm happy. I haven't been able to find much evidence of what pre-modern pigs looked like. My guess would be they tend toward the appearance of wild boar, a bit fatter and a bit less hairy (after all if you cross a modern pig with a wild boar what you get looks very wild boar-like indeed!). So, the colour scheme is derived from the Tamworth - a very ancient and equally excellent breed!

Tasty!

Putting them in the pigsty I built here, which was the most difficult part. Cutting into the terrain and removing parts of the pig bases without damaging either was a bit tricky. Luckily, a bit of blending in and everything was fine

Next up, sheep. The assumption is that Dark Ages sheep are all, invariably, Soay clones. The (limited) evidence doesn't seem to totally support this. Also, sheep resembling "modern" breeds are well attested by the twelfth century, so I'm not too bothered.

Easier than mowing the grass yourself!

 I added horns, of varying length, to four out of the five, to give the sense of a variety of ages. A single base like this is just right as a target/objective in a raiding game.

Plenty of wool here

The inspiration for these is Cheviot or (especially) Faeroes - the latter are known for fleeces in a variety of colours (white, grey, light red, dark red, chestnut brown, through to black).

Finally, cattle. More or less everything about them is here, based on the last set I got. These will make a further (future) appearance with the four-wheel carts I'm making.

All-round view.

Given they are going to end up permanently attached to a couple of wagons, there's no point in messing about with any sort of clever basework at this stage.

Ten thousand beef and onion pies on the hoof!

Merry meet again!