Kawasaki Ki-32

Having need of at least one Japanese Army light bomber I naturally ended up with three!  As well as the Ki-30 mentioned earlier I picked up a pair of these Ki-32.  Unusual among Japanese aircraft in having an inline (rather then radial) engine, the -32 looks to me very 'late thirties.'  The fixed undercarriage was used as it was felt that the simplicity and strength outweighed the drag issues.  In fact the Ki-32 was faster than it's contemporary, the Fairey Battle.

Like the Ki-30 kit, these needed a lot of taping and holding parts in place.  The panel gaps would be issues for proper modellers but you know by now that my standards are reassuringly low!

Unusually for a 1/72 kit, the wheels have separate rubber tyres.

Paint.  I'm doing one in overall pale grey and the other in this early pattern three-colour camo scheme.

Mitsubishi Ki-30 part 2

More progress with the Ki-30 now. Having left the glue to dry on the wings and tail a base coat of pale sand was applied. There are plenty of paint options but I’m sticking with an early version. 

Thannuris 528AD again

 I had left the game from Sunday set up and today Simon joined me to run through it.  He too is experienced in the ways of Command & Colours Ancients and was very keen to try this version.  

Simon opted to lead the Persians which left me as Belisarius. And rather apprehensive after the game on Sunday!  This is a far more brief report as we were focused on the game mechanics and decision making. 

Unpleasantness soon broke out on the Byzantine left. The Persian caraphracts took a bashing and their general died!  

There were still plenty of Sassanids galloping about and my chaps were soon under pressure. 

At one point the Sassanids were ahead by five banners to two - six being needed to win.  These being desperate times I took some wild risks and sent my right into action, with Belisarius (on white horse) in the middle of things. This got my up to five banners and which point the affair hung in the balance until some further desperate cavalry charging clinched the narrowest of victories. Phew!

A great game - and thanks again to Simon for the sporting spirit which which he approached it. 

Mitsubishi Ki-30 - part 1

A relatively unknown aircraft as it was very much yesterday’s news by 1941, the Ki-30 was in widespread use by the Japanese Army in the late thirties. 

This AZmodel kit looked pretty good on the sprues and the parts moulding was crisp. 

Fit was OK but wings, elevators and undercarriage legs had no locating slots or pins. So everything needed holding in place while the glue dried. Sadly I didn’t do too well at this as the wings are a bit squint.  Ah well, them being ‘gull’ wings helps to hide this!