Damage Marker: Fire aboard! - Schadensmarkierung: Maschine brennt!

Michi had already built some missile markers for air to air missiles. Now it was time to make a variation for a damage marker to display a hit target.

Michi hatte ja schon zuvor aus Pfeifenreinigern, Stecknadeln und Münzen ein paar Marker für Luft-Luft-Raketen gebastelt. Nun war es an der Zeit auf dieselbe Weise einen Marker für getroffene Ziele auszuprobieren.

 

Target Locked On: Air-to-Ground Missions

I'm still engaged in modern air combat in the Vietnam era. In order to not just get stuck in dogfights and bring some variation to the missions (and honestly have some fluff for the battlefield), I made two small villages in 1/285 scale, 6mm. They are meant to be markers or waypoints that can be used for various air2ground missions.

STLs of the buildings by The Lazy Forger.
STLs of the tree tops by Goonmaster 3D. In fact, they are actually ferns for 28mm scale.
The tree trunk is a free STL from Thingiverse that I connected to the tree tops using Blender, scaled all the stuff down and then printed the completed trees in various sizes.

 

Navy and Air Force join arms in Vietnam

 

 

Michi has always admired those shiny polished silver jets from the early days. With the recent game of Target locked on it was clear that the skies over Vietnam were the perfect theater to field some more of those to fly aside the Starfighters. Here comes the famous F-100 Super Sabre!

 

 

The plane was 3D-printed by Doc in 285th scale from a downloadable file with a few own enhancements like the refuelling probe and additional fuel tanks done by himself.

The Super Sabre does not come alone: Michi was also given an extraordinary fighter bomber as well. The aircraft carrier based A-7 Corsair is equipped with another of Doc's very own loadouts to enhance it's range of flight (although only the inner and outer pylons allowed external fuel tanks to be refueled in flight, but not the center ones). The excellent model is painted in Navy livery from the first deployment aboard USS Ranger in Vietnam. 

 

 

 

Both single-engine aircraft are in the same scale, but the photos show the much bulkier appearance of the supersonic F-100 in comparison with the subsonic A-7. Although they were different generations of jet fighters they flew at the same time over Vietnam fulfilling their designated roles.

 

Weird World War Two: Superheroine and Villains

 

 

Michi has finished another commission for some pulpy WWW2 gaming.

 

Michi hat eine weitere Auftragsarbeit fertiggestellt.

 

 

Predator - Start of a long term project

'Predator' from 1987 was already a trend-setting genre film at the time, but no one could have imagined that it would become such an exciting connection between two franchises.

At first glance at the model design, it was clear to me that I wanted to do something with it. Papsikel's Kickstarter campaign then featured not only all the characters from the first Predator movie, but also those from Predator 2 and the explorer team from Alien vs. Predator. Of course, there were also a lot of Predator and Alien models and incredible more exciting stuff included.

So far I've only 3D printed and painted models from the first movie and I'm trying to find a rule system or adapt one, so that it represents my ideas and the feeling of the movie well on the gaming table. I have also designed a few event deck cards as prototypes, that represents the kind of style I'm going for.

So here is the project as it looks so far.

3D resin prints, STLs by Papsikel. Basing bits STLs by GoonMasterGames.

 

 

And here some of my prototype event deck cards:

 

Target Locked On: MiGs over Laos

Vietnam, 1967: 

2nd deployment of F-104C Starfighters was about to end. The Starfighters of the 435th TFS had flown 5306 combat sorties for a total of 14.393 hours of flight. Flight leader LtCol. Jack McNeill and his wingman Maj. Harvey Ross III were on patrol over Laos to cover the retraction of their squadron. They were the last pilots to leave the theatre. McNeill, call sign "Badger", was a Korea veteran with one confirmed kill, then flying the F-86 Sabre. He kept flying to retain his license, but usually hardly left Asian ground any more. Therefore his piloting skills had a bit of declined. His sidekick was an ambitious young Major whose abilities were excelling his own. Both were doing their job now at noon with the sun high above them and clear sight in every direction. 

Briefing:

It is the fall of 1967, and the F-104 Starfighters have been gradually withdrawn from their base at DaNang over the past few months and replaced by the much more efficient F-4s. The few remaining F-104s are sent out at dawn Nov. 2 to fly an air patrol mission on the border with Laos. Increased VPAF air activity has been detected there in recent weeks. Intelligence reports indicate that a delivery of Chinese-made MiG-19 fighter aircraft to the VPAF is expected. So caution is advised, the USAF does not want to lose any F-104s in their last mission in Vietnam.

Debriefing:

Starfighter pilots 'Badger' and 'MacKenzie' were about to head back to base from an uneventful patrol when two MiGs appeared.

'MacKenzie' approached the enemy aircraft at a hell of a pace, which broke left, toward the F-104, without disbanding their tight formation. But the Starfighter was far too fast for a clean shot from the MiGs and sped past the noses of the two Reds in the blink of an eye.
'Badger' took advantage of this distraction to pounce on the inexperienced MiG wingman coming from 3 o'clock. Although he failed to switch his Sidewinder on target, the unguided missile fired struck the MiG and the devastating explosion tore apart the fighter's right wing. Lt. Huanying didn't stand a chance. Whether due to damage to the aircraft or severe injuries to the pilot, the ejection seat failed to deploy.
Only a few seconds later, the remaining MiG pilot Ivanovich realized the hopelessness of his position against the two Americans and disappeared into the nearest cloud cover.

Final result:

USAF 3 Victory Points (Michi)

VPAF 0 Victory Points (Doc)

 

Conclusion:

Our first game with TLO was a complete success. The rules are clear and easy to learn. The complexity is significantly reduced in favor of playability, without losing sight of the essential elements of air combat. Flight altitudes, flight maneuvers, fuel consumption, weapon systems, and the different characteristics of the aircraft used are all included. The restriction to easy-to-use D6 dice mechanisms benefits the flow of the game, and pilot skill checks as a key element of each turn convey the importance of individual flying skills in the cockpits. All of this more than accommodates the cinematic style of play we love.

 

Epilogue:

Flight leader LtCol. Jack McNeill and his wingman Maj. Harvey Ross III safely returned to base after their final patrol. They were the last pilots of their squadron to leave next day. McNeill, call sign "Badger", could book another kill, confirmed by his wingman "MacKenzie". Although he was usually doing only office jobs on the flight base, he became a hero to his comrades due to that one single lucky shot. 

In fact it was the Major who had been the really heroic daredevil heading for the MiGs at Mach 1.5 and setting the trap. But isn't it exactly what a sidekick is for?