Tatty Tamiya tank terror twosome

Remember the mighty Soviet AT rifle team in the previous post?  Here they are in action against the Emperor’s finest, in the shape of a pair of Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks.

“But Tim” I hear you cry “you don’t use 1/35 tanks!”  True, but both of these came in batches of figures (so ‘free’ in wargamer economic terms) and, along with some other Jap armour I already had, will pretty well fulfil my current oriental armour requirements.
The Type 97 nearest the camera arrived already painted, so I have needed only to make some repairs and add markings. As the turret hatch was open (well, missing) I also added a commander, in the shape of the leg amputee from the Fine Molds set featured earlier. He seems happy enough with his new posting.
The other tank also needed a bit of work and the paintwork is all mine.

WW2 Soviet AT team - part 2

Remember these chaps from a few weeks ago?  Here they are again - now painted and based, and seen here on manoeuvres in the ‘garden’.  They are in training to repel an attack from Japanese armour. Hopefully quite light armour....

I think they’ve turned out rather well.

Japanese tank crew - part 1

The staggering output from the little corner of South Yorkshire which is forever Japan continues!
This is - as far as I can recall - the first Fine Molds kit I have encountered. I was prompted to buy it by the need for some crew figures for a couple of tatty 1/35 Japanese tanks I have awaiting my attention.

The moulding is very neat and the fact that the parts take a bit more cleaning up than Tamiya figures is hardly a serious criticism. The one legged officer is the result of my own surgery as I need him to fit into a turret hatch. The two seated figures are destined to admire the view from atop an SP gun.

Ki-15-I. Part 3

My 1/72 Mitsubishi Ki-15 is now complete - and rather striking it looks in overall pale grey.  What do you think?

Ki-15-I. Part 2

The build is complete and paintwork underway. While it dries I’ll look at the decal options.

Ki-15-I. Part 1

Not one of the higher profile Japanese aircraft, the Mitsubishi Ki-15 was nonetheless an important and quite successful recce machine for the Army in the late 1930s.

 I suspect that this Arii kit is quite an old tooling but parts finish is very crisp and fit very good. The poor alignment and gaps are all my own work...

 It’s a fairly basic kit - especially if you don’t bother with the internal details, so the build was pretty quick. Parts are included for various versions - different engine cowlings, propellers and cockpit canopies. I’ll be keeping it simple and going with an early version.

Oriental officer organisation

I picked up this rather nice Tamiya set a few months back with a view to adding tone to my massed ranks of soft plastic Japanese infantry. (see the previous two posts).
Although this kit seems a tad expensive at about £10, it contains, as well as the four figures, two chairs, two tables and a load of comms equipment and packing cases.

 I’m not convinced mine will look this good!

The chaps all assembled. I decided to have the two seated officers based with their table and a stack of packing cases, with the other two on individual bases. Painting will follow when the PVA dries.

More Jap chaps

While I was achieving a ‘quick win’ with the already painted Airfix Japs, I was also painting this batch. There are figures here from at least four manufacturers (from memory TSSD, CTS, Marx and Airfix).  They’ve been finished to my usual ‘basic but effective’ standard. 

I am especially pleased with the flags!

Airfix Japanese infantry

Aside from the few khaki painted chaps which came from a Sheffield club bring and buy, most of these Jap chaps came from eBay earlier this year.  Apart from some repair work to flaky extremities, my work was confined to basing and varnishing.  Considering their age - this set was originally released in 1971 - they remain delightful figures and are immensely useful for conversions.

Commando Raid

John ran last night's game.  It was a WW2 Commando raid based on a scenario in Don Featherstone's book:

This fine book is available from the History of Wargaming Project.  The objective (see first photo) was a dangerous-looking gun emplacement which I had sold to John a few bring & buys ago.

The field of battle.  Beach at the bottom, gun emplacement at the top.  The red markers are the possible locations of German units.

The landing craft silently grounded.  Some way adrift of our initial destination and right in front of a German patrol.  Bugger.
Luckily they didn't spot us and we crept ashore in three 3-man groups led by Martin (Group 2 - left), Jerry (Group 3 - rear) and me (Group 1 - right).  Jerry and I had concocted a plan before Martin arrived.  In fact since it worked it was all my idea...

 As Groups 1 and 2 crept stealthily targetwards a German MG position loomed into view.  Groups 2 and 3 tried to dispatch the crew with their knives - but their dice rolls indicated they had retained the rubber training blades. The Germans were overcome but not before they fired a burst.  Bugger again.

 While all this was going on, my Group 1 hit the Germans with some point-blank SMG fire...

 ...and soon overcame the defenders.  Demolition charges were swiftly placed.

Group 2 meanwhile was under fire from the village (off camera to the left).  Given that the other chaps were clearly happy fighting and dying Group 1 legged it towards the landing craft.

The surviving 5 Commandos (a 55% survival rate...) clambered wearily aboard the landing craft and as we pushed off...

...the demo charges detonated, securing a famous victory.

dh Sea Vixen

Hot on the heels of the Canberra, next to emerge from the pile of dust and plastic is this rather fetching Sea Vixen.  It's respectable appearance is no doubt helped by the fact that I neither built nor painted the thing...

Such is it's completeness that it retains a full set of wheels!  I think this is probably the FROG kit.

If it looks pretty sleek and modern this is understandable - it was only replaced in 1972 by the F-4 Phantom.

A cracking Canberra

The latest survivor of the celebrated Partizan ‘plane purchase is this rather tidy looking Canberra. I think it’s the FROG kit. Under the dust it was resplendent in a grey over blue finish, so my work has been confined to encouraging the remains of the undercarriage to fall off and then replacing the flaky decals.