Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [8]

Here's the second section for the Japanese rifle platoon, which I assembled and undercoated over the weekend. The plastic figures are surprisingly time consuming to put together compared to their lead counterparts but they scrub up well nonetheless. The poses do look a bit exaggerated to be honest, unless you look at them at eye level when they have a lot of character and animation. I'll tackle some support units and a tank tomorrow...

Airfix 1/32nd Multipose Re-released

 

 

Those of you who are old enough to remember sticking these together back in the early 80's, will be pleased to find out that they're being re-released as part of the Airfix D-Day 70th anniversary range this year. At the moment, it's just the British infantry set but the Germans and Americans are on the way. I don't know if the Japanese or USMC will be revived but it's a good start, with some of the 1/32nd scale tank and vehicle kits possibly over the horizon too.

I originally wanted to use these for Normandy Firefight, alongside some of the Airfix 1/32nd scale soft plastic figures, but that plan was shelved when I googled for second hand kits and fell off my chair at the asking price! The now kits are priced at £9.99 so well within the affordable range, even if you only make four figures out of each set. I might give this another look as an alternative to 1/35th scale.

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [7]

 

Here's the sum total of my week's output for the Jap platoon, in the shape of a rifle section with LMG team and an AT team. Not a lot but I've been very busy, so at least it's something. I'll aim to get the second of the three rifle sections done this weekend and, possibly, another support unit of some sort. I have a Copplestone field gun that might well get a crew, if I can squeeze it into the schedule.

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [6]

 

I'm completely swamped with work at the moment, so progress on the Japanese has been minimal over the last few days. I have put together the first infantry section, a couple of figures at a time as and when I have ten minutes to spare. It should ease up next week, so I'm still aiming for most if not all of the units to be ready for painting by ther end of the month.

 

 To cut down on the workload, I've decided to reduce my sections down to twelve men and a junior leader, which means I'll have half a dozen or so fewer figures to assemble. It's not a great time saver but it will free up some figures for other things like support teams and gun crew. I've already stuck together a two man AT team and can add another two or three now I have the extra plastic.

 

Anyway, in the meantime, here's some nice box art to keep you happy.

Steamer Wars

 

I spotted this new set of WW1 naval rules on David Manley's blog and thought I'd take a closer look. My initial thoughts were that I could use the tactical element of the rules as a basis for my 1/200th scale Baltic Episode project, which would make use of the small collection of Langton torpedo boats and a large 1/180th scale plastic kit of a Chinese gunboat that I found in a discount store many years ago.

This would be a semi-historical 'role play' style game based very, very loosely on the Kronstadt raid. The rules look ideal for this but I'd need to work out some special rules for stern launched torpedoes and torpedo related damage, along with rules for night operations, searchlights and possibly even submarines. I don't think this would be too difficult?  

 

However, the campaign system in the rules also looks really good fun and I could actually just game that, using the new Tumbling Dice 1/600 scale models for Lake Tanganyika, as a cheaper option than the North Head Miniatures range. It would make a great club mini-campaign for a start and wouldn't require a massive amount of time and effort to set up.

 

Well worth five quid!

Chain of Command Far East British Army List 1941

 

I've been looking through the army lists posted on the Toofatlardies forum, with a view to putting together an opposing force for my Japanese. Although the Japanese are intended to go up against Andy's Chindits, I've always planned to use them for Malaya and Singapore as well. Now that the army and support lists are available, this is a feasible addition to the project.

 

 As part of this plan, I have already got a box set of Perry plastic Desert Rats and a very nice Copplestone Lanchester armoured car. If I can finish basing and undercoating the Japanese in the next couple of weeks, I'll take the British on holiday and get them sorted as well. In the long run, this means I'll be able to set up my own games at home and also offer other players a game at the club.

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [5]

 

Another very packed weekend, with much of both days spent at the local street festival, so progress on the Chain of Command project has been minimal to say the least.  However, I did get the very cool Type 95 Ha Go kit assembled and it's now drying off after an undercoat of GW Matt Black. A really neat little model but with an £18 price tag!

Japanese Reinforcements

 

 

I realised today after checking through my starter army box set, that I don't have enough figures to kit out my rifle platoon and, at the same time, to make up the support units I need including engineer or AT teams and a crew for my Copplestone field gun, let alone the knee mortar section.

 

To make up the numbers, I've ordered a box set of plastic infantry, which should provide me with the figures I need and give me some flexibility when putting together the support extras. In the meantime, I'll crack on with the three LMG squads.

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [4]

 

Still plugging away at the Japanese, with the latest addition being this 70mm pack howitzer and crew. There are five crew and a junior officer, which means that there's a fair bit of work involved putting it all together, much more so than for Bolt Action, for example. I'll be tackling the first LMG squad next, which consists of fourteen (!) figures, this time using the plastic ones which I'm hoping will speed things up a bit...this is taking ages!

Off Topic

 

That was a bit of a weird day.

 

I spent the morning at one of those 'professional' courses that you try to avoid, having been ordered to attend after ten years of blatant avoidance. The first 'workshop' involved a very nice but very young chap, guiding me through a 'how to' on Waterloo. He is, I am reliably informed, a bit of a teaching whizz.

 

This was fine up to a point but I was intrigued to discover that Proozia played a major role in the outcome and that Growchy ate a lot of strawberries, so it was all his fault (whatever it was that went wrong, that is?). Anyway, Victor Hugo knew all about it, so it was cool. I'm not sure what was going on  but the bit where I made a 'living timeline' wasn't too painful.

 

The rest of the day wasn't too bad and the lunch was very tasty. I caught up with an old colleague of mine, which was a very pleasant surprise, and also had a bit of a wargaming related chat with another local History teacher and all round nice chap, who was there for the festivities.

I do wonder why so much money is spent on these things, when you can pretty much work it out for yourself?

 

Anyway, the Ministry of the Interior is disconsolate after La Patrie went down to Germany...

Bof!

:O)