Next, here are some Ki-43s of the 64th Sentai. The three with red arrows on the tail are of the 2nd Chutai, and the blue and white arrow is the CO of the whole Sentai. They were piloted by: Tateo Kato, 64th Sentai CO (white wing stripes), Saburo Nakamura (diagonal yellow fuselage stripe and white band), Masuzo Ohtani (diagonal white fuselage stripe and band), and Hideo Miyabe (white and red fuselage bands).
I don't have a Gunther Rall 109 at this point. I made some custom pilot cards for each country with him being one of them, but I have yet to do a paint job for his. If I end up acquiring more 109F/G models, I'd certainly consider it, though.
Up next, here are a few more 109s of JG/ 51 from the Battle of Britain. They are piloted by Werner Molders (<-+-), Victor Molders (Black 1), Ernst Wiggers (Black 6), and Wolfgang Teumer (Black 12). The three numbered aircraft are of 2./JG 51.
Last year, I started working on a way to incorporate night fighting into the game. Here’s how I’ve considered implementing it:
Initiative (See individual cards): Some radar-equipped aircraft have long-range search radars that enable them to detect enemies from a distance, which is represented as an initiative bonus.
Attacking: Aircraft suffer a night attack penalty of -1 on each die. Natural 6s are not reduced. *Note that some radar-equipped aircraft have detection abilities that ignore or reduce this effect.
Night-Specific Attack Modifiers: +1 to all dice if you are in climbing status and your target is higher in altitude (your target is “back-lit” against the sky)
-1 if target is lower in altitude (your target is more difficult to differentiate from the ground/sea below)
I started in with AAAF when it first debuted, and immediately liked the game. As much as I like it, I couldn't help but wonder if a few house rules could make a great thing even better. I found myself modifying so much that I ended up creating a full set of custom cards that were to my (and my play group's) liking. My key focal points were:
-valuing aircraft and pilot cards separately (to add more play options)
-redoing speed, maneuverability, hit points, and abilities (using objective standards like turn time, climb rate, cruising speed, and max speed, etc)
-redoing aircraft armaments (varying damage based on actual round effects, dice based on rate of fire, range values based on position of armament/convergences and with optional rules for limited ammunition)
-redesigned background as aircraft paint color or camouflage common to the country/branch of service, just for the for fun of it
I found that the thin layer of complexity added by adjusting aircraft stats was more than offset by the added fun factor (while still being easy enough for younger members of my game group to understand). I ended up enjoying the end result so much that I figured I'd offer some samples if anyone else would like to try it out. If there's interest, I'd gladly post more (and could extrapolate a bit more about methodology for anyone interested in that end of things).
Armament values are shown for each range, so "10-8-7" is "range 1 - range 2 - range 3." When necessary, I use dice of different colors or sizes to distinguish different calibers.
20mm does 20dmg per success, .50cal does 5 dmg per success
.50cal does 5 dmg per success
20mm does 20dmg per success, .303cal does 1 dmg per success
20mm does 14dmg per success, 7.92mm does 1 dmg per success
(tail is edited to avoid filtering issues on other websites)
20mm does 12 dmg per success, 7.7mm does 1 dmg per success
For today, here are some P-51s reposted from my old thread, but now with a better photo. This was my first or second set of repaints ever. I didn't get nose art proportions right on "Ding Hao," but I didn't want to make a mess of it by attempting to redo it.
They are piloted by James Howard (AJ-A), Richard Turner (AJ-T), Frank O’Connor (AJ-O), and Robert Goodnight (AJ-G), all of the 356th Fighter Squadron.
I got the rods on ebay a few years back. Technically, these were replacement radio antennae (I searched by number of segments and overall height to find what best suited me). I unscrewed the swivel joint at the base, glued a rare-earth ring magnet to the top of each rod, a coated steel ball to the bottom of each plane, and that allows for elevation and banking. If I remember right, they shipped from east Asia for about 0.79 each (magnets and balls from a company here in USA).
For today, here are a few A6M2s from the Tainan Kokutai. The markings are somewhat basic, but the pilots each have quite a story. They were piloted by: Saburo Sakai (V-103), Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (V-171), and Toshio Ota (V-191).
Next, here are some Ki-44s from the 47th Sentai, 3rd Chutai. I was unable to find names for any of the pilots - as with many records pertaining to WWII Japan, finding four matching aircraft proved to be a challenge in itself. I think it took more time to find the info than it took to paint them. Here they are: