Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 10) An odd bunch of a Japanese divisional staff car, anti-tank rifles and mules

 

The divisional stand is made from an Hotwheels car and plastic figures. The idea was to place a tank commander (Fujimi) presenting the report of the last failed tank attack on Guadalcanal (look at the map! Its Guadalcanal). The good thing is that the officers (Chinese Airfix copies) may also be pleased as it depends on the wargame result. 

The HotWheels car was this thing I found in a supermarket as it had potential to become a Japanese Staff car if you just consider the front. 

The usual wheels were replaced with 3d printed ones, a 3d printed canvas cover was placed on top and lots of Milliput was used on the back part of the car. Some plastic parts at the rear - fortunately they were plastic-  were taken out with a X-Acto. 

A small table was added and a hand painted map of Guadalcanal was glued on top. 

This is the kind of divisional stand I like to use in my miniature divisions. This one had this Hotwheels model trying to represent the Nissan model 97 staff car something I couldn´t find anywhere. 

I found this Matchbox Dodge 1940 in a 2nd hand fair and it quickly became a captured vehicle from one of the many US enterprises spread out in the Pacific islands. In fact I have very few transports for the Japanese infantry and anything closely suitable is welcome. 

The Japanese AT rifle teams are made from plastic figures firing the Type 96 LMG with 3d printed anti tank rifles and added bipods. The number 2 operator was generally firing a rifle and is now holding an extra 20mm cartridge box. 

Here they are finished. One will go to each battalion of the division. 

Inspired by the latest videos of Wargaming China a group of pack mules pulled by (left) the Esci figures using the rifle as a club; (center) the Airfix figures of the Jungle Outpost and (right) the Airfix figure running with its rifle in the air. The mules are from the Esci Italian Alpine set. 

Next:  a batch of Japanese coming from Assymetric Wargames, both 3d prints and Simon´s Soldiers or the beginning of the US Marines. 

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 9) The 7th Japanese infantry battalion and the Anti-aircraft artillery

 

I´m done with Japanese infantry as I finished all models in the stash with two battalions still missing.Years ago I collected enough Japanese figures to make a full Japanese infantry division but some went to my Tarawa board as SNLF and others, specially HMGs, went to the 1914-1940 French and a few other places. 

This battalion is mostly Atlantic with some Chinese Airfix (1/32 downsized)  copies as they are about the same size. In fact not all Chinese copies are this nice and the more recent productions being clearly inferiors to the ones from the 80s and 90s. The Atlantic figures are not much loved by PSR but mixed with others of the same size they look good. In fact the figures are very tall, not a Japanese thing of those days, but if placed in its own units they provide extra variety. The HMGs are the Type 3, very similar to the original Hotchkiss guns and came from the FFL Strelets sets with my own conversions for the firers. 

The resin 3d printed 20mm AA guns came from Asymmetric Wargames and are very beautiful in just 3 pieces. The crews are Modern Atlantic and are innacurate and small but fit nicely the small seats available. The puttees are non-existent and the helmet is missing the typical rim of the Japanese helmets. 

The Type 88 75mm AA gun is provided in two different firing positions which is a great idea. The figures are again Atlantic. 

Next: probably more Japanese artillery, Simon's Soldiers figures and staff cars, all from Asymmetric Wargames

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 8) 6th Japanese infantry battalion and 150mm and 70mm artillery

Asymmetric Wargames from Italy is a great place for you to get Japanese WW2 stuff both 3d resin printed and Simon´s Soldiers figures. They also have plenty other stuff for many wargaming periods and scales.  While the Simon´s (Japanese) Soldiers don´t arrive I added one more infantry battalion and six 15cm artillery pieces. 

This infantry battalion is made around the shirt order Matchbox infantry, with officers from Atlantic and a few Esci and Airfix mixed-in and my home made Juki HMGs. 

The firing Type 96 150mm Howitzer from Asymmetric wargames is a beauty that comes in two slightly different gun tube positions. The artillerymen are converted Atlantic. The dying figures got new arms and a shell and the heavy load and pain is visible in his bent neck. The snipers covered in leaves had these carefully cut out (Atlantic placed leaves only in the exterior parts of the uniform for you to cut it out if necessary) and the arms were repositioned in order to hold shells. 

A third variant of the Type 96 is this one ready to be towed. 

Some prime movers are also on order to tow these ones. With some pity I found that no horse towed artillery was used in the pacific by the Japanese. They would have made a hell of a sight. 

These Type 4 150mm howitzer were also printed by Asymmetric. 

The last group of Asymmetric artillery is the Type92 battalion gun. The figures are converted Airfix with the converted binoculars and loading figures coming from an old and not particularly beautiful hard plastic set from Fujimi. 

Next: more Japanese

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 7) 5th Japanese infantry battalion

 

Now well into the 2nd regiment of Japanese infantry. I will not manage to finish the division in this batch as I need four more battalions and only have figures for two more. More artillery will arrive today so next post will be about it. 

Some of my scratch built Juki HMGs are already painted for this battalions. Fortunately they will be mostly inside bunkers as they will never win a modelling contest :)

Due to the high number of knee mortars the 81mm model was relatively rare in a Japanese infantry division. This one is the first addition. The mortar is Strelets and the crew is converted Atlantic and Esci. 

The small Japanese radio was glued to the chest of this grenade throwing Matchbox figure. The legs were placed in an upright position with the help of some heat and a rifle was glued to the hand and to the base for extra resistance. Most of the figures I´ve been showing you were already painted for many years and waiting to be properly based. Thus you can see some green pieces of uniform mixed with the Japanese khaki as the green color was aparently getting more common as the war progressed. 

Next: Japanese artillery and some more infantry

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 6) 4th Japanese infantry battalion, an unwanted guest and HMGs

 

One more Japanese infantry battalion in order to start the 2nd infantry regiment. Nothing new here, with the usual Matchbox, Airfix and Esci hard plastic. 

The unwanted guest is obviously this Marmon Herrington with Italian 20mm Breda gun from the nice people of Asymmetric Wargames for the first desert Rapid Fire! supplement. The crew is an old Airfix with bonnet and a Xan Miniatures figure. 

I was out of 7,7mm Type 92 HMGs and I cranked up these ones from 3d printed US Brownings with cut out ammunition boxes, plastic card tripods and elevators. The result isn´t a great thing as I was lazy to make them totally from scratch. The only good thing about them is that they are big which is not the tendency of most manufactures who make the Jukis very small.  The two HMGs to the left are Hotchkiss (very close to the Type 3)  from Strelets as well as the 81mm mortar. The crews are mostly Atlantic conversions with the HMGs firing figures made from torsos with burned legs and GreenStuff arms.

Next: More Japanese  

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 5) Third Japanese infantry battalion and the anti-tank guns

 

This third battalion has the company of 3d resin prints from Asymmetric Wargames in the form of 37mm and 47mm anti-tank guns and a Kurogane car. 

The infantry is more of the same with the usual conversions: a small radio, a rifle both on the cornet and grenade thrower and some foliage on the helmet of the grenade thrower. 

The Kurogane car is a small beauty and a few more will go to the command of each regiment. 

The guns were printed a bit on the big side something that Asymmetric Wargames is already solving. For that I used the biggest 1/72 Japanese figures I have, the Airfix cheap copies. These two are the 47mm type 1 guns. 

There are two of these figures that can be used as artillerymen, the 50mm mortar figure (cut of its mortar) and the charging figure. 

The charging figure can be turned to a kneeling guy by an anti-tank gun as seen here. Just be careful with the blade and the flame on your fingers. 

The type 94 37mm anti-tank guns got the same type of crew. 

Next: more japanese as more artillery is arriving and more infantry is being repainted and  based. 

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 4) Second Japanese infantry battalion (and this one is being observed)

 

The first battalion was calmly marching while this one is in action, something I like do with my units, that is dividing the figures by situations. Sometimes this get awkward as sometimes a marching battalion is called to charge, or vice-versa, but c´est la vie.

 The MMGs are Atlantic this time. The figures had to have their legs heated and bent in order to fit the 4cm base. 

Some scratchbuilding had to be done namely on the small radio on the advancing Airfix figure and on the Esci figure using its rifle as a club who became an ammunition carrier. 

This Hasegawa Curtiss Seagull was bought on a 2nd hand fair and its a useful and colorful thing for Guadalcanal as it continued to serve as observation aircarft even after the introduction of the Kingfisher. 

Next: some days off and then Japanese artillery, probably. 

Rapid Fire! Blitzkrieg in 20mm - Additional German bycicle fusiliers, artillery and staff cars for the 18th ID and 7th PD

The bycicles convinced me to add all other things: The bycicle Fusiliers are necessary for the OB of the 18th ID together with Staff cars and artillery limbers mentioned in the RF! Blitzkrieg battlegroups for May 1940; the 20mm Flak gun is the last piece missing for the Flak battalion of the 7th PD that wreaked havoc in the ranks of the Matildas in the Arras action.

The Cadillac 1941 from Matchbox is the closest I could find to the Opel Admiral and this photo made me buy the two toys in a local supermarket. 

The wheels were replaced by some better ones from Airfix and Matchbox as the original ones are generally what spoils these kind of models. Some 3d resin extra jerrycans were placed copying the original photo as they also help to disguise the different front of the Cadillac in relation to the Opel. 

So together with some ACE staff cars already made I´m more or less done with these kind of vehicles for the Panzer Grey period. 

The Hat box of german cyclists was once again (after the Slovaks) used to make these German fusiliers using BlueStuff as the matrix and two component resin as the filler and lost details with Milliput. The original resin heads, turned into blobs and were replaced by Esci DAK heads. 

Together with the resin contraptions a few more dismounted cyclists were made using old Atlantic, Airfix and Esci figures. 

"- Hey Hans, is it us overthere on those bikes?

- Of course not Helmut! You are on too much Pervitin!"

After another moment of fine poetry lets have a look at limbers. There were still three Revell limbers around without horses, wheels or figures that must have been used somewhere else. I coupled the limbers with Napoleonic horses, wheels of unknown origin (some are 3d printed) and figures from FtF. The horses had to have some Milliput extras as they were demoted from the fancy line cavalry to the hardships of horse artillery. 

Limbers on the wargames table or even on a shelf, like mostly my case, are always a nice sight. The card bases were strenghtened with super glue. 

In the end you have some reasonable looking limbers to pull guns from the 75mm caliber to 150mm. The harness was heavily transformed and reduced in lenght as I didn´t want the huge final model that Revell offers even if its the correct one. 

One more Zvezda 20mm Flak 38 was added and this one will be closer to the 7th PD assets as it concludes its Flak battalion. The standing figure to the right is FtF. 

Next: More Slovaks or reinforcements for the 1944 British airborne division. 

The video on battle of Little Bighorn in 20mm (part 13)

In the last few 3 months I´ve been around Little Bighorn 1876, something I wanted to do for decades by now. The miniatures are plastics, Revell, Atlantic, Italeri, Airfix and Giant. The US troopers of the 7th Cavalry are all conversions of ACW or Cowboy figures while the Indians are more straight forward figures painted straight from the box. Built on purpose to this terrain is the river and the Indian lodges. I still need plenty of Indians - around the double - but the stash I had is all made. The basing is according to the excellent set of rules Battles for Empire II.

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 11) - One more Sioux/Cheyenne foot warriors batch

 ... and probably the last one, at least in the near future, as I´m out of Indian figures. Including the two last US cavalry companies still on the making, I have around 400 figures total for both sides. The US side at LBH had a total of around 700 men (and one boy on vacations). At a ratio of 1 to 5 you need 140 figures which I already largely overcame (also due to have the same figures both mounted and dismounted), but on the much bigger Indian side, of say 1800 men (a ratio of close to 3:1 in favor of the Indians), you need 360 figures from which I only have around 210, and that is counting with this group, still far from the aim. 

The figures are my remnants Revell, Atlantic and resized Airfix. There is an obvious exaggeration of feathered bonnets here, even if these were not exclusive of chiefs, but they were important as I was running out of figures and the feathered bonnets give lots of colour to the group. With so many feathered bonnets no one visiting my collection can call them Egyptians or Celts. The kind of thing that happens quite a lot :). 

All stands got spray primed with terracotta from Spectrum also in order to get the skin indian color something that speeded painting  a lot as skin color is dominant here. 

Next: last companies of 1876 US troopers.