Watchman

Italian Encounter 20201022 Allies: P-51 D Mustang Axis: Fiat CR.42 Falco P-47 D Thunderbolt Fiat CR.42 Falco P-47 D Thunderbolt Reggiane RE.2001 Falco II Reggiane RE.2001 Falco II It is a desperate time of the war for the Italians, throwing up whatever they had available, to halt the Allied advance. The Allies were closing fast. The RE.2001s tangle with the Allies while the CR.42s catch up, with a flank attack. Early on in the battle one of the P-47Ds explodes.This helps the Italians even up the sides a bit. Later on the black RE.2001 takes sufficient damage to knock it out of the battle. The two CR.42s, put a few rounds into the P-51D, they have done well to hit all three of the Allied planes at some point of the battle. The flying has been very energetic with several Immelmann maneuvers, tight turns, and stalls. Here a stall has a P-47D flying past the RE.2001 and placing himself in a bad situation. The results have become painfully obvious. You would think the Mustang would be in a world of hurt being out numbered three to one, but an Immelmann puts a CR.42 point blank in front of six .50 caliber machine guns. His plane shredded, goes down. Once again shots are traded with minimal results. The other CR.42 is not so fortunate in exchanging shots. Down to one on one, in the midst of circling one another, the RE.2001 gets off more shots with little effect. The final maneuvers with the Mustang pulling yet another Immelmann, finishes off the Falco, himself four hits shy of being finished off. This is the first Standard Rules battle, with one slight slip-up, I left out the special damage counters… next time though.

Newest additions: More HVAC(?) structures, and missile silo hatches... a rather hugh one for that bottom hatch. Some Ammo Bunkers (Suet containers that has an end shaped like a door when it gets added later) and another ATC/ADC command structure (Fig Newton container). These are from Nobel Knight Games clearance section and look more impressive as Ammo Bunkers. Maybe the others could be Maintenance structures or whatever, any ideas out there?

Command Bunker and ATC /ADC Control Center. Some what complete, until I think of more to add.

The containers are from cat food, cocktail sauce containers (Command & Control centers?) with cover (Missile Silo covers?) from take out. Added a SatCom dish, left over from the Shield Generator Tower, the back ring is where the surface radio antennas will be mounted. Mask packages (Classified). A cookie container, looks like a bunker of sorts. I will mount four more SatCom dishes on it.

This is the result of haste: The paint used, says to shake vigorously for one to two minutes. The first time I used the two minutes and the coating went on perfectly. The second time I did one minute and the plastic melted. Haste makes waste, although I may be able to use them as battle damaged Generator units.

More projects in progress with stuff I keep finding. Here another type of, maybe an HVAC, structure (a cat food container.) Possibly Command and Control structures (from mask packages... you know... the ones that say "will not protect you from covid.") Antennas (tooth picks that hold sandwiches together.) The tower being glued and an alert warning beacon (cap from revolution flea treatment for cats.) Also found two more generator sets (cupcake holders currently in the Kitchen sink being washed.) I now watch everything being tossed when I visit friends and family. You just never know, the next structure could be just around the corner.

This is the planned, final setup of the O-IFF/SIF RADAR tower and bunker.

Here is where I am at for the moment. The compass is rotating but not fast enough for the camera to show it. This could be an omni-directional IFF/SIF (Identification Friend or Foe/Selective Identification Feature) RADAR unit verses the old Earth directional rotating beam RADAR.

More trash picking... ah, excess material reserve stock. I located more heavy duty tubes, much smaller than the one for the turrets. So some construction paper, the tubes, and a malfunctioning dash compass components. let's see what I can come up with.

Complete...

Project "Turret Enable" has started. The top flange of the gun tower was cut off flush with the tower proper. The RADAR tower flange was shortened to 3/4". The tube shown in the last posting was cut in half and positioned over the respective towers for tracing the tube shape on the top edge of both towers for trimming. A fortunate find at work, was ready to toss the tube out, thought it would make a good storage tank. Once the tubes were fitted they were glued to the bases instead of the turrets. Here i am letting it dry upside down, allowing the extra glue to run down the tube and tower forming a larger bonding area. Here the scrap cut off will be used to fill in the corner gaps: More when completed.

Honest, I really do have a job... An experiment with a cupcake holder. It was all the same color but was transparent at the bottom. I sprayed the inside with Almond colored paint and resulted in a two tone color. I will think of some function for it. So this is as far as I intend to assemble the "RADAR Tracking Tower" for the "Planetary Defense Guns." Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... both are supposed to be turret mounts... I was just thinking...

Western Front 20200827b Allies Bristol F.2B Fighter RAF 22Sqdn William Harvey Dennis Waight Airco DH.4 RNAS F.S. Cotton E.B.C. Betts Sopwith Snipe VVS R-K KA 1st. I.A. Grigoriy Stepanovich Sapozhnikov Axis Hannover CL.IIIa Liftstreitrafte Unbekannter Pilot UFAG C.I KUK Luftfahrtruppen Flick 62/S Unbekannter Pilot Siemens-Schuckert D.III Liftstreitrafte Jasta 15 Oliver von Beaulieu Marconnay The Axis and Allies initially are going head to head, but the Hannover Pilot breaks left with the intent of either breaking their formation, and if not then try to hit them in the flank. If possible getting the Allies in a cross fire if they continue to hold their formation. The Axis commence a right flank action and draws all the Allies after them. As the formations draw close, Oliver banks hard over to the left, during this time the Hannover is closing on the Allies rear. The Austrian aeroplane continues on but does not get the Allies to take the bait. The Allies immediately reverse course when Oliver gets too close. The Allies swarm Oliver, and to his miss fortune hit the fuel supply resulting in an explosion with no chance of bailing. As the remaining Axis aeroplanes close in, the Hannover pilot returns like action against the Bristol and flames him. After some more maneuvering the Austrian causes a fire on the Airco aeroplane which also ends up with jammed guns, but in return causes a fire on the Austrian aeroplane. The Hannover gets his turn and injures the pilot, but the rear gunner finishes off the Austrian, also in an explosion. The Hannover’s maneuvers bring him in behind the Allies. Evidently the Airco aeroplane has suffered more damage than is visible and continues on, leaving the area, resulting in the Russian and the Hannover aeroplane left, to carry on the fight. The end result of vying for a good shooting resolution, with both receiving damage, the Russian was out gunned, being taken out by the Hannover’s rear gunner. Condition of the remaining aeroplane. I think follow on battles I will show the status of each plane, even at the time of loss.

Well, I did it again. I just do not like non-functioning props, soooo, I drilled out the Satellite base and the pedestal and added an axle so the dish can rotate and I did not glue the dish to the base. It is hard to see but the upper curved part is crenelated so the Dish can sit on the base from 0° to 45° With these pictures you can see the Forest Green color better. So the SatCom and A/A guns are ready for action. Now on to the next Wings of Glory WWI report.

Western Front 20200827a Allies Morane-Saulnier Type N Eugene Gilbert AME MS 49 Airco DH.4 F.S. Cotton/E.B.C. Betts RNAS Sopwith Snipe Grigoriy Stepanovich Sapozhnikov WS R-KYKA., 1st INA vs. Axis Roland C.IIA Luftstreitkrafte F (A) 292B Halberstadt CL.II Luftstreitkrafte Schlachtstaffel 23B Albatros D.III Kurt Gruber KUK Luftfahrtruppen Flick 41J The opposing forces spot each other before crossing no-mans land. The Axis force is gradually shifting to the right and the Allies have yet to respond to the maneuver. After shifting right until almost abreast of each other and simultaneously banking hard left getting right into battle. Immediately Eugene is set on fire and his guns jamb. With the Axis banking right they take on Grigoriy and damage him enough to get him smoking, resulting in Kurt’s guns jamb as well as the Halberstadt’s. At this time Kurt unjames his guns. After maneuvering around, Grigoriy is injured. But his aeroplane has stopped smoking. During these passes the Albatross had taken so much damage his rudder was locked. The only way he could stay in the battle, was use the Immelmann maneuver. The Allies did not catch on to this fact with the other aeroplanes staying close. In the mean time, Kurt’s aeroplane’s rudder could not turn left. Here Grigoriy’s plane is actually under Kurt’s. Here is where Eugene exploded. Eventually Cotton’s plane starts smoking and his forward guns jamb. Here Kurt and Grigoriy face one another and Grigoriy’s guns jamb again. The Airco’s encounter with the Roland causes it to start smoking and eventually fire. Wow the Airco just blew up. Grigoriy has decided he has had enough of training on the Western Front, seee ya… Final results of battle. We also upgraded to the standard game.