Cangames - Report #3 - Blood Red Skies Mig Alley

Hello everyone,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets. Hot on the heels of my recent painting and interest in Blood Red Skies, both Blood Red Skies MiG Alley and Beyond, I had the chance to jump in on a game of BRS MiG Alley at Cangames. My buddy Duncan did an excellent job of GM’ing and had a great scenario for everyone to try their hand at. I have to say, I’ve been enjoying the air combat games lately, as well as the painting. Duncan’s game also gave me the chance to help him out with models and I got some of my recent works on the table.

The scenario for our game was inspired by some experiences of United States Air Force (USAF) Korean War bomber operations. In this case, we had a flight of 3 x B29s that had to get across the length of the table and exit on the other side. For this op, the US forces had 6 fighters as escort; the North Koreans had 6 x MiG 15s as the main attack force.

Looking at the far edge you can see the three B29 bombers in-line with escort fighters on their left (two separate 2 ship formations) and right (single 2 ship element). The North Koreans are at the lower portion of the picture…3 separate elements of 2 aircraft each). While the B29s were not completely helpfulness, they had turret and tail gunners, the kicker was that they would shoot at any aircraft that were within a few inches of their stand…without worrying about the friend or foe quandry…everyone was a bandit.

The view from the US end of the table…there are a few clouds over the area, and all aircraft start in the ‘advantaged’ position…i.e. nose up position.

B29s moving forward. The MiGs moving in hard to get shots on the big birds. The US fighters are working hard to get re-established on the tails of the MiGs after flying through their formations. If I remember correctly, there were some head-on shots, but nothing of consequence. Any aircraft that flies through cloud loses advantage and/or disadvantage and is instead neutral.

The bombers are starting to feel the heat…MiGs are on their tails and getting some shots on them.

The MiGs are hot on the ‘29s tails…the US fighters are turned around to push through the bomber line and engage the North Koreans.

Not a great moment for the US crew…bombers shooting everything up, escorts unable to get any hits on the MiGs, and the MiGs taking station behind the bomber line.

By this time, we have 1 dead B29…the other two have damage, and the NK’s are throwing out excellent dice.

The escorts finally take a couple of MiGs…but the NK’s are doing a great job…a second B29 falls out of the sky.

The NK’s spin in another 2 ship element into the fight.They make short work getting within range of the bombers and keep up the pressure. The final shot of the game as the last bomber takes 1 more point of damage…and succumbs to the relentless MiGs.

Blood Red Skies - MiG Alley painting

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets! I thought I would do a quick painting update post today with the last starter box of MiG Alley jets that I had purchased back in the fall. So far I had finished 2 boxes and also received a replacement MiG from Warlord cause of breakage issues I had with the first box I received. 

So all in all, I had painted up 5 x MiG 15’s and 4 x F86 Sabres. The painting overall went really well but the decals were rather finicky. So this time, rather than paint up my last 4 jets in standard colours, I thought that I would find some alternate schemes. For the Sabres I thought I would tryout the Northwest Europe NATO scheme that the Canadian Air Force used in the 1950s. It is only 2 colours so it was pretty quick to get on the jets. For the MiGs, I found a few references with colour plates showing a fairly wide variety. In this case I ended up adapting a 3 colour pattern used by either the Chinese or North Koreans during the war…and it wasn’t metallic or silver…so, bonus!

I figure that these will work well for MiG Alley and Korean War gaming, but should also work for some smaller scale Cold War and maybe Afropia air battles as well.

Enjoy.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4, +4 (BRS MiG Alley box)     

15mm          46    

28mm+          8

Fabricated

     

Bought        0 

Progress   +58

BRS - MiG Alley...and Beyond MiG Alley

Howdy folks,

I hope all is going well over the Christmas and holiday period for everyone. Continuing on with my latest distraction. Not only have I dipped my toe into the Korean War conflict with Warlord Games Blood Red Skies MiG Alley...I have also recently discovered Lead Pursuit Podcast who has license with Warlord to produce aircraft for said game. AND who also have license to produce aircraft for Blood Red Skies and Lead Pursuit's free expansion rules for beyond the 1950s. You can find them here, Lead Pursuit Podcast

I have 8 aircraft now, some A4's, a couple of F4's, and a couple of Mig 19's...these are 3d printed and are super super sharp looking aircraft. They are probably the cleanest 3d prints I've seen, and certainly some of the cleanest aircraft models I've seen. 

The models all came up very quickly, but I gotta say that right now my favourite are the MiG 19’s, they were the cleanest and took the paint really well. The detail and lining really came out well…I am somewhat disappointed with the F4 and A4’s, but they will definitely work for the tabletop.

Enjoy the pics. Take care.

Group shot of everyone…I painted up one of the MiG 15’s with a red nose after seeing a pic of the Soviet Air Forces paint scheme for their “advisors” flying with the North Koreans. I have one MiG 19 in plain gray paint scheme and the other with grey and green…both inspired by North Vietnam Air Force paint schemes. The pic includes aircraft from my previous post…the weather was above freezing today, so it was dullcote day.

The A4 tails were inspired by the paint scheme of the Skyhawk’s that were flying off the USS Independence circa 1965. I think I’ll keep them fairly clean, keep them rather generic for use with other Air Forces.

I am currently waiting for decals for the Phantoms, they will be getting the Sundowners tail…looks very cool and will really top of the F4’s.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          16, +12 (2 x Sabre’s, 3 x MiG 15, 2 x MiG 19, 1 x F4, 4 x A4)

15mm         214

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        24 

Progress   +252

Latest Distraction - Blood Red Skies MiG Alley

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your respective sides of the internets. So yeah, another squirrel moment…I’ve played a game or two of Blood Red kids with Mike and Duncanover the last year or so. Most recently we gave it another go to give Duncan some prep for a tournament that he had signed up for. Well, we got talking about the game and the modern spin with BRS MiG Alley and the expansion from Lead Pursuit Podcast, Beyond MiG Alley for Vietnam and 1960s/70s Cold War.

Anywho, long story short…I’m now getting into MiG Alley…sigh/lol. I recently picked up a box from Amazon and finished up the 4 aircraft that came with it, a couple of F86 Sabre’s and MiG-15’s. The box comes with the cards, models, and decals to complete the models, USAF for the Sabre’s and Soviet Air Forces or North Korean Air Force for the MiG’s.

Hope you enjoy the pics…it was a bit tricky getting the silver finish of the aircraft paintjob without just hitting them with silver…you know what I mean, an OCD sort of thing.

Enjoy.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

1/200          4, +4

15mm         134

28mm+       44

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        12, +4 (mig alley box) 

Progress   +172