Senkaku Project update

Before I get into the Senkaku Project update, which is a project that I am planning for Historicon 2024, I have a couple of bits of news to report. Both of them involve blowing my own trumpet a little bit, but hopefully regular readers of the blog will forgive this little bit of self indulgence.

The first bit of news is that following my modern naval game at Historicon, “The first battle of the war of Taiwan”, I submitted the game as an article to the Admiralty Trilogy Group. From conversations that I have had with them, the article will be published in the October SITREP. The battle pits a Chinese Type 55 and a Type 54A ships against two US Arleigh Burke ships in the Gulf of Aden in early 2024. I will give more details when the SITREP is published.

The second bit of news is that I managed to take home the GM of the year award from HMGS. This was a combination of winning best of theme for my Battle of Ravenna, Italian Wars game and the Best of Show for my Modern British Afghanistan game. I also like to think that my Cossack Uprising Project helped, even though it has never won an award. It was a great honor to receive this award as there was some stiff competition. Here is a photo of me with the awards.

Now for an update on my Senkaku project (before I get back to painting US Marines for my game at Fall In! in November).

The Senkaku islands are a small group of islands off the coast of Taiwan that are contested by Taiwan, China and Japan. They are uninhabited islands. The game is going to involve a small unit of Chinese infantry claiming the islands in early 2024. The Japanese are then going to respond with a naval and Amphibious assault.

1/2400 models

The game is going to be a two part game and have multiple scales. The first part of the game is to be a modern naval battle using the Harpoon V rules. It is going to involve the Chinese navy and Coast Guard defending the islands against a small Japanese task force with a tank landing ship. This battle will be played out in 1/2400.

The vessel at the top right of the photo above is the Japanese tank landing ship Osumi. It carries two LCAC and two Chinooks as well as multiple vehicles and marines. If forms the key component of the Japanese amphibious force for the game.

1/700 models

The naval game will determine whether the landing is within sight of land or is carried out “over the horizon”. It will also determine if the Japanese have naval artillery support.

When the naval battle is complete, the naval vessels that survive will then be represented by 1/700 scale models. Above is again the Osumi, but in 1/700 scale. In the photo you can see two small LCAC (Landing Craft Air Cushioned). The Osumi is the first of nine 1/700 models that I will need to build. I still need to paint the Osumi.

20mm models

These 1/700 models are a perfect size to represent the ships off-shore for a 1/72 (20mm) amphibious assault using Force on Force rules. I chose 20mm as many of the kits that I need are available only in 20mm. In particular the LCACs and the AAVP-7A1s are available. Here is a picture of the two LCACs that are still in the process of construction.

I still have a lot of parts to add to these LCACs which are about 14 inches long. I will also need to weather them. It has been fun building them and airbrushing the metallic paint scheme. I have also built three AAVP-7A1s in both out of water and in water versions. The in water versions still need some basing and wave effects, but I am waiting for my terrain mat to arrive so that I can match the water color.

Cutting down the AAVP-7A1 kits to make a submerged version was a bit time consuming, but I think the effort will be worth it.

The infantry, both Chinese and US (I will paint in Japanese uniform colors), also arrived. They are from Elheim. I managed to base them and clean them up, but I have not done anything else with them and don’t plan on starting to paint them before Fall In!.

In the image there are some Japanese FH70s. There are two in deployed mode and two in transport mode. The transport mode will be for carrying under the two Chinooks from the Osumi. Speaking of the Helicopters, here are the two Chinooks and also the VF22 for the Japanese forces.

Terrain

Finally, for the terrain, I have ordered a really nice coastal mat from Warsigil. I will then be constructing hills and some dense jungle terrain. I have also ordered a lot of scatter terrain from Anyscale Models. Here is my first trial attempt at the jungle terrain, which overall I am very happy with. I still need to make some tall canopy trees from scratch.

Now back to my figures for Fall In!

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