1/300th Modern Aircraft Soviet and Non-nato

Long ago and far away in the distance of time and space I lived in Edinburgh. As a naive 20 something I found myself in wargames show no doubt arranged by the local club. I remember a large bearded chap selling me some Soviet Micro-modern  rocket launchers as I fondled a Soviet attack helicopter, insisting with all the arrogance of youth that despite  the manufacturer telling me what it was, it was in fact something different! Of course I was wrong and I am reminded of  the gentleman's patience with this foolish youth. No doubt he knew that the customer is always right especially if they are determined to part with their cash. Given the locale I suspected it was  Scotia Micromodels from whom I purchased my Kamov KA 50 but I cannot find either the rocket launchers or the Kamov on their site. Perhaps it was Heroics and Ros,  perhaps I will never find out. So here are some of my fairly old modern aircraft all of which would benefit from a repaint:

Ka 50

 I think these would benefit from a spray primer and using an airbrush for the camo, Brushwork just looks untidy when you're cack-handed and working too quickly.

One of my first modern aircraft - Hind D

I think this is wearing the colours of an Angolan Hind for my forces in  Southwest Africa

foxbat

MiG 25s are a pain to catch and make  good top cover deterrents for my Soviet forces- which is why I've got two...

another foxbat

skyhawk

I didn't know what to do with my Skyhawk; thank goodness for the Falklands conflict though I don't ever imagine wanting to refight it.

Mig 21

An Iraqi mig,perhaps  suitable for the Iran-Iraq conflict, but unlikely ever to see action on my table.

Mig 23

 Might have been more useful to paint this up a Syrian given the current shenanigans in the Middle east.

mig 23

And another example in Cuban colours

Mig 21

 And a Cuban  MiG, what-if  the cuban missile crisis had gone extra hot?

Yak 28L

I can't find any evidence of this aircraft being supplied to Syria  or any of the Arab league. I wonder what I was thinking of. Now obsolete, I wonder who should get ownership of this?

1/3000th Naval Modern

Hi ( and Happy Easter) ,
Spent last week with a good ( and now old) friend testing the GRASP rules I've written. The play-testing with different  periods and scales has  been a real help in tweaking the rules. We tried playing a Modern naval game where one element equals 1 real ship / aircraft, with a scale of around 1 inch to 10 nautical miles. The game was played over 3 nights, with a couple of turns per hour. I think the  game was resolved at around 6 turns. It might seem 2 turns an hour is not much although much of the time was spent discussing what was working, alternatives and stopping to eat toast.

Now I must have bought these at least ten years ago and after one  long-winded attempt at Harpoon (3 hours to track and resolve one torpedo firing) I knew I needed something that was quicker, less fussy around insignificant differences and generally easier for my shrivelling brain. So, after playing with two Leander Class ships and 15 phantoms on the British team v a much larger Soviet team, a grand tactical subset of the rules is in progress ( just means some of the extant rules can be  ignored).

Having lost the entirety of the Soviet air cover to  F4Ks I decided to paint up the  rest of the figures I had and post them up here. If I get carried away and start playing naval games a lot, I'll create a new sub blog link on the right of this page.



First is my  UK fleet circa 1980 something,

So at the rear are my three Victor bombers intended to act as K tankers ( supply is a integral aspect of the GRASP rules), on the large bases furthest away - two Leanders, then two Leopard Class , and   three Trafalgar class subs. In front are ten Phantoms.

Looks like I need more practice at painting these tiny ships and trying to get realistic water effects.

Second is the Soviet fleet:

As you can see there are two distinct sea colours. As ever I  never manage to get the basing the same after a long break.

These are the Kashin and the Kashin Mod. with their attendent Kamov helicopters. I'm thinking about using a hole punch to make some clear discs for these...

This is the Moscva helicopter carrier at the front and behind is the Kiev aircraft carrier.

 Three Myasishchev bombers equipped with what looks like very  capable low altitude  navigation.

Three Akula class (rear) and three Tango class subs. looking at these I think theres a small improvement on my first effort (at the  very back).

I tried  painting the subs  a dark 'german' grey with an Army Painter dark wash over the top. I mixed my own sea green colour for the bases, which means - yet again, I will  have bases of a different colour next time :(

 and a gaggle of Beriev ASW aircraft.

 Ten (one is hiding) MiG 25s, although I used some of them in the test as SU33s. ( I got their stats wrong and the F4Ks made short work of them!)

Lastly, A line of Yak 38s already for action, although I've just checked my references and I need white tail tips and intake leading edges. Ho hum, back to the  paintshop...



Thanks for  looking :)