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