Paul's Corner

[chrisswim]

The T-34 look great. Your eye to create the detail is excellent.
Looking back at the PzIV and Pz II with the flag are incredible.

[redleg]

Lookin good Paul! Please post some pics of your Check Your 6 game when you are finished! I have been eyeing that ruleset for a while, but I haven't pulled the trigger for lack of an opponent. The jets look great! I would also like to game air combat in Korea, but my interest is more on the Navy side.

The aircraft bases look pretty cool. Are those specific to the Check your 6 rules?

[Hoth_902]

Paul,
Nice work on the aircraft. Looks like your abilities are universal when it comes to painting military equipment. Thanks for sharing.

[Paul B]

Chris, Leg and Hoth, Thank you all.

Leg' Will post pics of the game, If every slot is used, we could have sixteen people playing with one plane apiece. I designed and made the bases specifically for the rules. It has two pointers so you can track altitude (blue) and speed (white). I also have a pointer (yellow) on the bezel that can be used to track a number of things, The square indent on the top holds an ID marker to tell which plane is which. The numbers on the dial go up to 8, 0-6 are in white, 7 is yellow, and 8 is red.



The clear tubes themselves fit into each other telescopically. They are in 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 inch sections that slip into each other like wings of glory pegs. The bases are weighted. I have had planes as high as 2 feet off the deck and have not been worried about them tipping over.



The planes have a small ring magnet on them, which attach to a steel ball bearing on the top most tube section so you can yank and bank.. This is version 1. I am already looking at improvements to the design.

[Paul B]

Sorry. This was a double post

[redleg]

Paul you are a genius! Those aircraft stands are amazing! I can't wait to see the improved version!

[chrisswim]

Chris, Leg and Hoth, Thank you all.

Leg' Will post pics of the game, If every slot is used, we could have sixteen people playing with one plane apiece. I designed and made the bases specifically for the rules. It has two pointers so you can track altitude (blue) and speed (white). I also have a pointer (yellow) on the bezel that can be used to track a number of things, The square indent on the top holds an ID marker to tell which plane is which. The numbers on the dial go up to 8, 0-6 are in white, 7 is yellow, and 8 is red.



The clear tubes themselves fit into each other telescopically. They are in 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 inch sections that slip into each other like wings of glory pegs. The bases are weighted. I have had planes as high as 2 feet off the deck and have not been worried about them tipping over.



The planes have a small ring magnet on them, which attach to a steel ball bearing on the top most tube section so you can yank and bank.. This is version 1. I am already looking at improvements to the design.

Paul… true genius, or at least very smart, brilliant!!
Very nice creation and explanation.
Thank you.

[Paul B]

What a long day. We had 6 people play in the demo at Rubicon Hobbies in Quekertown. The scenario was an unofficial sanctioned incursion into Chinese airspace. F-86E's from the 4th FIW bounce some MIG-15bis from the 518th Soviet Air Regiment stationed at Andong, China. The scenario began with a flight of 4 Sabres spotting a flight of 4 MIGs, at about 7000'. There was cloud cover at 9000'. We used Check Your 6! Jet Age. Three of the players (2 Soviet & 1 American) had never played. The others had 2 or 3 games under their belts. This was a straight up fur ball, with the Americans having better pilots, but the Soviets having a scenario advantage of extra victory points if an American crewman could be captured and paraded before the world press, and all but 2 of the 10 board edge sections were friendly edges. We started with 2 players on each side, and as more players showed up, we would give them either an American or Soviet section and give them the choice of entering on a friendly edge or dropping in from above through the clouds.

]
Turn 2 - the MIGs split into two sections, and the Sabres followed suit.

The right hand pair of Sabres, controlled by my son, was able to get an off angle shot at the right most pair of MIGs commanded by Nevin. Unfortunately, he missed, and at that moment a pair of MIGs flown by Patrick dove through the clouds overhead and tried to bounce his section.

Turn 3- My son's Sabres are about to get bounced, after shooting at a Nevon's MIGs.

My son's Sabres slammed their throttles to the wall to avoid the bounce, and broke right. Meanwhile, the left hand pair of MIGs driven by Devan split with one climbing right and the other going diving left. The Sabres on that side, flown by Mike, decided to wingover and go after Devan's MIG diving for the deck. At this time, a late arriving section of Sabres piloted by Greg begins to enter the game from the American friendly edge.


Turn 4- My son's Sabres zooming away on the left with Pat's MIGs diving onto his tail. Mike's Sabres in the center are turning and diving onto the MIG in the center. The lead plane of the late arriving Sabres can be seen on the right.

[Paul B]

Devan became fixated on getting his high flying MIG around on the tail of Mike's sabres, and flew into the path of Greg's late comers. My son, Konrad, pulled an Immelmann to engage Pat's MIGs, While Nevin tried to reverse and climb to swing in on my son. Mike seeing Nevin lose speed reversing let Devan's MIG dive away, and turned to pursue Nevin. Meanwhile, Greg went to guns on Devan scoring first blood.


Turn 5- Konrad's Sabres are far center coming out of their Immelmann to go head to head with Pat. Nevin's MIGs are to the right reversing. Mike in the center and left turns his attention on Nevin, while Devan feels the weight of Greg's .50 cals.


Greg letting loose with 6 Ma Deuce.

[Paul B]

Turn five ended with Konrad and Pat trading spitballs, and the American's ahead in points with Devan's MIG damaged.

Seeing Devan's two MIGs heading for the deck, Konrad winged over to the right to pursue him. Nevin went on the defensive as Mike's lead Sabre overshot the merge. Pat saw an opportunity and dove onto Mike's trailing Sabre, and Greg surprisingly left Devan's crippled MIG go, and headed toward the center of the furball.


Turn 6 - On the left Pat's pair of MIGs diving on MIke's straggler. Just to their right, Konrad's Sabres are diving onto Devan's MIG, who is about 3000' below the fight. In the right center, we can see Mike overshooting Nevin, who has turned to reengage Konrad. In the foreground we see Greg's two Sabre heading to the middle of the table. Devan's damaged MIG is out of frame to the bottom right trying to get lost in the ground clutter.


Close-up from Pat's angle as his MIGs line up for the kill..


A view of the table from the American friendly board edge. From Left to Right, Greg's Sabres heading to the middle. Mike's trailing jet getting pounced by Pat. Mike's lead plane about to overshoot Nevin's pair of MIGs. Devan's lone MIG crawling its way back up. His other MIG is off frame to the right screaming toward a friendly board edge. Konrad diving to get Devan, and Nevin turning to help Pat.

[Paul B]

Pat ended up fluffing his shot. At this point in the game, I walked away to get a cookie or two, when I came back it was the beginning of turn 9. By then, Greg had turned into the fight lining up to close on Nevin's trailing MIG. Mike's lead Sabre had just gone head to head with Nevin's leading MIG. Mike was shooting blanks. Nevin missed, but ran out of ammo, but bluffed that it was only a jam. Pat had gotten behind Mike's trailing Sabre and had splashed it with a massive burst of cannon fire. Konrad had split his section up to turn back onto Nevin's trailing plane, and the other to follow Devan's lone MIG


End of Turn 9 - A view from the American friendly corner. From Left to Right: Pat's MIG's are climbing to gain energy. Mike's last Sabre does a split s to avoid another head on exchange with Nevin's MIG, which is out of ammo. The bluff worked. Greg's two planes closed on Nevin and hit it causing airframe damage (Nevin's MIG has the red pencil behind it in the center). Behind them in the back right, Devan;s lone MIG reverses to shake Konrad. On the right, Konrad's other Sabre has turned around realizing that he can't catch Devan's other MIG.

[Paul B]

The next turn saw both sides regrouping. During this time, I reminded the Americans that they had dropped their tanks prior to the fight, and had to get off the table in three turns or they would end up running out of fuel and would be considered loses for the game. At this point it was 5 points for the Soviets (one downed Sabre with a skilled pilot) to two points to the Americans (two damaged MIGs, Devan's which flew off the table, and Nevin's who was desperately trying get off the table).

The next two turns saw Nevin's damaged plane heading for the table edge, but he got disoriented and mistakenly was flying for the American corner. Mike had gotten over his panic, and maneuvered to cut-off Nevin's crippled plane. Meanwhile, Pat's and Nevin's remaining MIG formed up to go after one of Konrad's Sabres, which had turned to take Pat head-on. The other continued to climb trying to get on Pat's tail as he flew by. Greg fearing running out of fuel turned to head for home.


Start of Turn 12 - From Left to Right; Mike's remaining Sabre, came out of is split -s and is trying to cut-off Nevin's damaged MIG from getting off the table. Three MIGs forming up go head to head with my son. Devan's plane in the background heading for the board edge. Konrad's one Sabre setting up to get o n the MIGs tail as they go by. Konrad's other Sabre gang head to head. with three MIGs. Greg heading for home.

At the end of the turn, Konrad damaged one MIG, but went down having been hit by a a burst of cannon fire. The next turn had Konrad's remaining Sabre perform another Immelmann to damage Nevin's other MIG as it flew past straight and level. Pat seeing the trap, power dove below Konrad's plane. Nevin's damaged MIG tried to make an extreme turn right to avoid flying off an enemy board edge, and broke apart. Its damaged airframe gave out under the high G's it tried to pull (failed piloting check during an extreme turn with damaged airframe).

The next turn had both sides turning and diving for the safety of their board edges. We called the game at that point with a narrow victory for the Soviets 10 to 8.

[chrisswim]

Awesome. Looking game, and set up.

[Paul B]

Chris,

Thank you sir. Everyone had a lot of fun. We were probably the loudest table at the demo day with all the laughing and cheering going on. It did generate a lot of interest in micro armor. Several people asked where they could get the planes. I promptly directed them to the store owner, who was already thinking of carrying micro armor. It also introduced me to a few historical gamers at the store that I had not met. Which prompted a conversation of getting some regular gaming schedule set up. (fingers crossed)

On the downside, the altitude pointer on the flight stand was too small to be useful. The ball mount worked fine, but it was difficult to set the planes at the same angles to depict degree of yaw and bank. I'm working on another version now that will have sockets to hold numbered chits to indicate altitude in addition to the rods, and a magnetic mount for the planes with level , 30°, and 60° angles. Printing the prototype as I'm typing.

[redleg]

Fantastic AAR Paul! Looks like it was a great game! Your aircraft look pretty amazing ad I love the aircraft stands.

Is that a single hex mat that you are playing on? About how long do the turns take? Is Check Your Six a pretty fast-paced game?