Japanese, WIP

Watching test cricket, smoking, drinking, and messing around with miniatures, joy! Here are a few pictures of my progress with the new Japanese.

I've settled on six battalions of infantry, plus the normal HQ units and engineers. If I get really enthusiastic I'll add the final regiment, full engineer and bridging elements to make for an entire division in CD terms; full strength artillery attachments, however will be more problematic as I don't have enough Japanese guns.

This battalion is made up solely from the Waterloo 1815 set

These are the MMG platoons for the infantry battalions.

Don't have enough models of them so have had to knock-up a couple of mortar stands, still have to tidy the waist on this one with green-stuff.

Here are the donor figures, many thanks to Paul from Plastic Warriors for these spares, couldn't have fully equipped the battalions with mortars or weapons platoons without them.

Another mortar knock-up, the tube is from an Italeri German figure set.

Anti-tank rifle platoons and gun crew stand.

This one is of the pole-charge anti-tank sections, one that I made, and one new one. You might have to wait awhile to see painted pictures, but we'll see how we go.

Was getting pretty desperate for MMG stands so this old Atlantic something or other stood in, it never had a head in the first place so I wasn't losing much. If I acquire some more MMG figures before paint time for this unit I'll replace it as the gun, crude and representative as it is, simply looks awful, anyway, we'll see.

More New Arrivals

I got a couple of sets of Japanese figures from my wife yesterday. I had said that I wanted Japanese but didn't specify the brand or anything else, so I was very pleased to receive two sets that I didn't already have. They are both Waterloo 1815 varieties and are very well sculpted sets. The first is a support group which includes an infantry gun, nice, and the second an infantry set. The former is close in style to the new Italeri sets, but mercifully not as big, whilst the latter is similar to Caesar's figures.

Poor picture, but it shows the size well enough.

I got this aircraft from my daughter, and as I didn't have any Russian ones it was a very good choice.

Last one, another from my daughter, and another I didn't have. She has certainly done well this year in getting me new and interesting stuff and long may it continue. I think I have about two weeks now to get some serious Japanese formations completed so the aircraft will have to wait, but I'll post you all a few pictures as work progresses. Hope you all had a good time for Christmas.

Best Wishes

Just spare a thought for those serving abroad and away from their families, would you? Religious or not these people deserve our consideration and respect. Best wishes, Al and family.

SDKFZ 251/

Here are most of my German carriers. I'd certainly like a few more of these, but for now I have enough to transport one company of panzergrenadiers plus engineers.

Some of these are unusually detailed for my standards, but alas others are missing the normal tools, machineguns, etc.

Didn't have enough decals to do them all but have started a small collection of these most useful things since.

I think this one's actual designation is 251/7 and is attached to one of the bridging companies from my engineer battalion.

They look alright when deployed as a company, I just need to add some more tools, etc to them. I'm also going to keep an eye out for some of the new fast-build types on my next visit to a city.

Early German Armour

All of these have featured in previous posts. They are three favourites from my early war German collection, which I intend to spend some time touching up over the holidays. Although I already have plenty to do already (an entire Japanese brigade for starters) these really need some time spent on them.

I've had this PI for ages, no idea of its manufacturer, I think the crewman is by Preiser. Most of my vehicles have some decal markings but I've never really paid that much attention to their accuracy. Since seeing some much clever and correct stuff on the Blogs' of others I have decided to put more effort into correct vehicle markings.

The 38t was not a great kit to assemble. Wish I had more of these but for a lot of my older stuff I just purchased whatever was available, and didn't really have battalion sized units in mind either. Again, don't know its maker.

Thinking back, this one may have been assembled with nail glue; incorrect markings already noted.

Pretty sure this one is by Matchbox. Hopefully my massive project list will be a bit shorter by the time I go back to work in February, but I may have added to it by then, also.

HaT ANZACs

Thought I'd show you some more pictures of these new figures compared with the first set; bit of trainspotting. The new ones are just slightly taller and chunkier, and not quite as crisp, but I think this has something to do with the current plastic of choice.

The detail and accuracy of weapons and uniforms is still quite good. If I end up mixing these sets for any reason I'll probably trim the base from the new ones, which should make the size of them match just that little bit better.

The officer figure is a good addition, and is sculpted with a holstered sidearm.

There is very little flash on the figures which is good because the plastic currently in favour is rather unforgiving of slips with the blade.

There is a separate bipod for the Lewis Gun which is a nice feature, and the mortar already has a round in the tube, or about to be, which is another nice effort by the sculptor. I think this set is a very reasonable match with the first one overall, and would recommend it to other Great War enthusiasts. I'm sure these figures would also match well with most others from the range too, so there is conversion possibilities as well.

Latest Arrivals

Nice figures these, they compliment the existing set quite well in style. Painted versions to follow at a later date.

Scored this one from my good friend Dave Russell over the weekend. I'd like to get another two of these for my steadily improving late-war collection, but will see what Father Christmas brings first.

WW2 British

Late war British Infantry, mostly Revell, and probably the best set available for non-desert British forces. Generally I think UK figures are seriously under represented for WW2 and what choices we do have are quite old. I can't understand why there is no decent set of BEF for both wars?

I only have one battalion of this unit for late war games, as this period is not as interesting as others in WW2, to me that is.

This unit has in fact seen more games in the Korean War than it has WW2, but once I get a look at the new HaT weapons set I may look to beef it up a bit. If anyone has the ear of a manufacturer, other than Red Box, get them to put some BEF in the pipeline for us would you?

WW1 German Jaeger

This is about the only project I've found time to work on lately. These are very nice figures that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in the Great War. The first picture shows a command platoon from one of the line companies.

Rifle platoon from the same unit. All of them still need the odd touch-up here and there but this will have to wait for the holidays, which clearly can't come soon enough as I found myself looking at re-enlistment options earlier this week.

Here is the full company. I even painted the belt buckles on these figures which is highly unusual for me.

Last one shows the battalion command stand. This figure is an absolute classic and I have used it on several projects, including an NKPA command platoon for my Korean War collection. I think the uniforms, and particularly the head-dress, on these figures will lend themselves to a great many other options for German forces from both wars; field police, etc.

Earl Coversion Attempts

Found these in another folder whilst having a clean out of old files the other day. These stands are Russian engineers.

I attempted these a long time ago and have made some improvement since. When I put these together I didn't really pay too much attention to uniforms or equipment, just sort of stuck things together really.

Another one of those things where the practical doesn't meet the conception, still you have give these things a bash, and this is yet another unit due for the great holiday revamp of 09/10. I have 44 days of annual leave coming up, and intelligence reports that Santa is collecting things from my wish list as we speak.

Plastic Buildings

Just another couple of pictures of some buildings. These mostly have a certain European flavour to them but have been used in others theatres by necessity.

All are railway models of one sort or another. Multi-level buildings have had floors added, which makes for better gaming.

All of my buildings have removable roofs. They could probably be made to look a lot better than they do, but it's another one of those things I have on a long list of 'things I'd like to do one day' projects.

Bit more versatile this one, it most often finds itself on the Eastern Front for both wars. We did a couple of actions from the Brusilov Offensive last year in which it featured in both battles, once for the Russians, and once for the Austrians, nice to actually get to use cavalry for a change.

Cardboard Buildings

A few pictures of some of my card buildings. Most of them are very old, although they have stood the test of time rather well, and I wouldn't be surprised if many a gamer had a few of these in their collections.

This is probably the worst of them condition wise. Like all the others it has had its roof made detachable for the placement of infantry units inside.

This is a little big for most purposes but fits in okay if the built-up area is big enough.

This is usually a railway building but has also worked well in other functions. I would recommend these buildings because you often find the style of them fits in well with other stuff, and they are not expensive. I saw a model railway show in Europe a few years ago and the layout buildings were all of this type, and the model maker had converted several of them to very good effect; which I might have a go at myself sometime.

An old truck

I found this truck cab whilst leaving cricket last week, and straight away thought I wonder what this will go with.

Added a couple of wheels, deck, etc. Just couldn't help myself really, will post another of the painted variety later.