Second World War Japanese in 20mm

I have long had in interest in the Second World War in the Far East, whether it be the campaign in Burma or the long protracted Sino-Japanese conflict. The Japanese approach to war and the nature of the terrain meant the war in the Far East was very different from that in Europe or the Mediterranean, presenting unique challenges for all armies. 

Discovering the Chain of Command Malaya 1942 campaign was my original inspiration to put together a Japanese force for this theatre.

A great starting point and a rich source of information on the structure of Japanese ground forces can be found in the two 'Rikugun' books by Leland Ness. I was lucky enough to get them when first published. I say lucky because unfortunately, at the time of writing, these are out of print and now fetch quite high prices.

Since the publication of the Malaya 1942 campaign Too Fat Lardies have published the very comprehensive Far East Handbook for Chain of Command. This contains lists for eleven different Japanese platoons covering the period from 1941 to 1945 that would have seen service in Far East campaigns in places such as Burma, Malaya, Hong Kong and Java (a Handbook covering the Pacific campaigns and including the Americans will follow at a later date).

The platoons are based on those listed in the Far East Handbook. For the initial part of the war I have figures for the campaigns in 1942 based on this list:

The 1941-42 infantry platoon has three rifle squads. For these I have used mostly figures from the Eureka Miniatures 20mm range sculpted by Mike Broadbent, who also did the Australian figures in their range so they are a good match. 

The Eureka Japanese range is not extensive and is essentially made up of three rifle squads including an NCO and one Type 11 light machine gunner. All three squads come in the same set of poses, with the only difference being the head wear - the options being helmet with camouflage, plain helmet, or forage cap. 

I have based the figures individually except for two of the LMG crew which are based as a pair simply to make them easier to distinguish from the riflemen. Below is the set with the camouflage helmets.

The plain helmet set:

The Gurkha Museum has a Japanese helmet on display, but one can't help think that things did not end well for its previous owner.

Finally, the forage caps:

As you can see below, these are the same poses just with different heads.

The Imperial War Museum has a full Japanese uniform where you can see a few distinctive features including the forage cap and the leather ammunition pouches worn on the belt.

Also worth noting the split toe shoes which rarely seem to feature in miniature sculpts but were common footwear.

The Japanese had two versions of their light machine gun. The Type 11 was the most commonly used by the infantry as it was lighter than the Type 97 which was more often found mounted in AFVs and vehicles. It looks like most of the Eureka sculpts are the Type 11, like this one in the Palm Springs Air Museum:

The museum also has a Type 97 and this is the infantry version, as it's equipped with a bipod.

The Australian War Memorial Museum also has a Type 97 on display:

As does the Army Museum in Hawaii.

The Palm Springs Air Museum has a good selection of Second World War small arms (especially considering it is primarily an air museum). That includes a good range of Japanese rifle types:

Eureka also include standard bearers in each squad. I know Japanese made much use of flags but I don't believe they carried them right down to squad level. However the army list for Japanese platoons in the 1942 campaign includes fourteen man squads it was soon apparent that I would need every figure I could get my hands on. I found some nice images of suitably worn looking IJA flags by surfing the net. Once resized down to this scale I simply printed them out and used diluted PVA glue to attach and shape them.

Perhaps a touch ahistorical, but they add some flavour to the table.

Once I realised that large Japanese squads were not at all uncommon early in the war I knew that I needed to find a source for a few more figures. Rather than repeat the poses in the Eureka range I have found the figures from Simon's Soldiers (formerly Wartime Miniatures) a great addition and they helped to add the variety I needed.

With all the Eureka LMG gunners standing I also like the fact that the LMG team from Simon's Soldiers gave me a prone team who appear to be firing a Type 97 LMG.

As you can see below, the figures from the two different ranges match well together.

I also have some figures from the Early War Miniatures range, but I have mixed feelings about these. They seem to have come from different sculptors and so the quality can vary.

The two EWM figures pictured below match well with the other ranges. They are also nice sculpts, but sadly that doesn't apply to all the figures from EWM.

Originally I had looked at the EWM range because they had figures with submachine guns and I wanted a few of these to use when taking those weapons as support upgrades for the squad leaders. However I wasn't impressed with the sculpts at all, they were rather crude and as you can see from the picture below even a decent paint job won't redeem the SMG gunner.

Their LMG team were similar and I wasn't overly impressed that the loader for the LMG team is the exact same sculpt as the loader for the grenade discharger teams. In their case this looks like they are equipped with a Type 11 LMG. I painted them up and will use them as a spare team if I ever need one, but they won't be first choice.

Talking of grenade dischargers, a squad equipped with these makes up the fourth squad of the standard Japanese platoon with three grenade discharger teams. Eureka do a nice set of the gunner and loader but they do it only in the one pose. It's a good, dynamic pose but given the teams all act together in the one unit that means during a game they will be close to one another and it looks a bit repetitive.

Simon's Soldiers make a grenade discharger team and that's allowed me to introduce some variety into the squad.

This gives me a total of five grenade discharger teams, probably more than I will ever need. That said I do know that the SNLF Marine platoon had four grenade dischargers in their squad. I suspect this was to make up for the lack of other support firepower given their amphibious landings meant they travelled light and with little additional artillery support.

 

I've used spare figures from various weapons crews to make up the four man teams for each grenade dischargers and one of the prone figures with binoculars from the Waterloo set makes for a good commander for the squad.

The grenade discharger is a fairly large weapon and I think the Eureka version is a better size than the one from Simon's Soldiers, which seems a little on the small size. Here are two that I found on display in the Army Museum in Honolulu.

The Australian War Memorial Museum also has a few on display, including this one with a mannequin which gives a good idea of its size relative to the man firing it.

On display is the canvas bag used to carry the weapon which is something that I've never seen before and can't ever recall seeing modelled on a miniature.

The basic Japanese infantry platoon has two senior leaders, a Chui (second lieutenant) and a Gunso (sergeant). The Gunso operates as an inferior senior leader (having only two command initiatives rather than the usual three). Then there are four corporals, one to command each of the rifle squads and one to command the grenade discharger squad.

The Eureka range only include a NCO/Officer figure with a drawn sword in similar poses. I have three based as squad corporals and one as the platoon senior leader.

The officers carried finely crafted and expensive swords, often family heirlooms like the one below on display at the Australian Army Infantry Museum.

The corporals were equipped with far more basic and utilitarian swords and as the war progressed these became more and more basic in construction. The Frank Patridge VC Military Museum in the small rural town of Bowraville in New South Wales has several where it is easy to see the lack of refinement in their construction.

Similarly the Gurkha Museum has two that show the same difference. The one on the top is that of a NCO while the far more intricately decorated one below is that of an officer (both were captured by the Gurkhas in Burma).

So while the squad corporals did indeed carry a sword they were also armed with a rifle. I have these three NCOs with rifles which come from SHQ. Some people find the SHQ figures rather slim when compared with other ranges but I find these don't look out of place with the others I have.

To add variety to the senior leaders I have two from the Early War Miniatures range, one with a pistol and one with a sword.

While it's difficult to distinguish exactly what pistol the officer is carrying above it is most likely to represent the Taishu Nambu 14 automatic pistol like the one below at the Australian Army Infantry Museum.

To differentiate the Gunso (the inferior senior leader) from the platoon leader I have used a kneeling NCO figure from Simon's Soldiers who is holding a rifle and has his other hand on the hilt of his sword 

The full platoon leadership is made up of the Chui, the Gunso, the corporals of the rifle squads and the corporal in command of the grenade discharger squad.

The Green Jackets Museum has a number of Japanese rank badges on display which I've vaguely attempted to reproduce in miniature on these various officers and NCOs.

That covers the core basic platoon, which as you can see is a large four squad platoon. Support weapons and teams come from a number of manufacturers.

Eureka have a Type 92 medium machine gun team. 

There are only two crew figures supplied with this gun and so additional crew members are made up using figures from various manufacturers.

Here's a Type 92 MMG that's in the Army Museum in Honolulu.

I managed to find an excellent set of plastic figures and weapons to fill a number of gaps in the support lists. This set was originally produced by Waterloo 1815 but is now more widely available under licence from Italeri.

This set contains two sprues with enough to build two Type 92 70mm guns (called M92 Light Howitzer by Italeri) with their crews. In addition there are two rifle grenadiers, two tank hunters with pole charge, two Type 92 20mm anti-tank rifle teams and four figures with binoculars. All in all, a very useful set of figures and weapons. 

The crew figures are very versatile and they have been put to use manning a number of different guns.

Here I've used the crew for a Type 41 75mm Mountain Gun, like this one in the military museum in Beijing.

The tank hunter, anti tank rifle and rifle grenadiers are all very common support elements.

A flamethrower was one outstanding addition to the support lists and this one came from Simon's Soldiers.

Ironically I have found a crew from Simon's Soldiers my preference to crew the Type 92 70mm gun that comes with the set.

Having said that, one of the prone figures with binoculars from that Italeri set makes for the perfect gun commander.

I've seen a few of these guns. This one below is in the Army Museum in Honolulu and has the metal wheels which match the Italeri model.

This one below is in the military museum in Beijing and has spoked wheels which marks it out as an earlier model. They were replaced with steel wheels after troops complained the noise from the squeaky wooden wheels was a threat.

The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum also has an earlier model with the spoked wheels.

Early War Miniatures make a Type 94 37mm anti tank gun with three crew and I use the additional crew figures from Simon's Soldiers to make up the remaining members of the crew.

Here is a Type 94 that I found in the collection of the museum in Beijing.

Also one in the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum which unlike the one above has wooden spoked wheels. 

The more powerful 47mm AT gun first appeared in 1942 and proved much more effective against allied armour. This gun and all the crew are from SHQ. As I've mentioned, I find the SHQ figures slimmer than those in other ranges but when grouped together on their own in a setting like this I think they don't stand out as that different. Regardless they always paint up well and look the part.

I've seen a couple of these gun. One in the Military museum in Beijing.

And this one at the Army Museum in Hawaii.

Bunkers play a key role in any Japanese defensive position and the Far East Handbook includes a number of specific rules covering their use. I scratch built several to cover those and there is a more detailed post on how I made them here. The first two are small LMG bunkers that will be used for squad sized defensive positions.

These were supported by individual weapon pits for the riflemen of the squad, sometimes referred to as spider holes. These would be positioned in mutually supporting positions close to the LMG bunker. 172 Scale Miniatures make a set of these and all I've done is put them on slightly larger bases so that I could texture the terrain to match the bunkers. 

To have enough to make up positions for two squads I also scratch built a few extras making use of left over figures from the spares box. Some of the figures are from the Waterloo plastic Japanese infantry set while those with the camouflage helmets are from 172 Scale Miniatures.

The second bunker type is slightly larger than that for the LMG and houses an MMG team. The MMG barrel is another spare from one of the plastic figure sets.

Of a similar size is a bunker to accomodate a small anti-tank gun. Once again I've raided the spares box for a suitable barrel.

Last, but not least there is a double bunker that can house two teams.

You'll notice that the bunkers are set very low in the ground, as they would have been historically, which means there is no room inside for figures. So I've created a holding box for the occupants so we can track casualties and shock in the course of a game. 

The Italeri figures with binoculars have come in useful not only to fill the role of commanders of gun crews but also for a Japanese themed jump-off-point.

The Japanese were also equipped with SMGs. These are available in the support lists as an upgrade for a junior leader. I have also discovered that the platoon HQ in a SNLF unit included three men with SMG who accompanied the platoon leader. I wanted to add these to the collection but I had trouble finding suitable figures. As mentioned earlier, at first I settled for the SMG armed figure from Early War Miniatures, as that was the only one I could find in 20mm. The sculpt didn't look great on their website and my suspicion was confirmed once they arrived. Nonetheless they seemed to be the only figures available and so I painted them up. I based some as junior leaders and others as regular infantry. Fortunately, someone directed me to 172 Scale Miniatures, a manufacturer I was unaware of, and they have a lovely set of eight figures armed with SMGs. These were not only better looking sculpts, they would also give me a greater variety of poses.

These all carry the Type 100 submachine gun, one of which I found on display in the Australian War Memorial Museum (you can see in the picture below above the light machine gun).

I think the marked superiority of the 172 Scale Miniatures figures can be seen in the picture below.

The figures with rocks on the base are to mark them as junior leaders, those without rocks are other ranks. Those can fill a number of roles including the three man team that accompanies the senior leader of the SNLF platoon.

These are a great improvement and now give me a number of different figures from various suppliers to use as junior leaders. 

The 172 Scale Miniatures range also included sets of two prone snipers. My understanding is that what the Allies often considered 'snipers' were simply normal riflemen firing from concealed positions. These men were not necessarily even marksmen and yet the perception remains that the Japanese made a greater use of trained snipers than was actually the case. 

Despite this I always find a few prone figures useful, even if only for additional crew members for the grenade discharger teams.

 

I find casualties figures particularly useful for the pictures for the AARs of our Chain of Command games that you can find on the AAR Pages. These are a set that come from SHQ.

The most common Japanese tanks for most of the campaigns I want to cover are the Type 97 Chi Ha and the Type 95 Ha Go. Not many Japanese tanks survived the war but I've come across a few in various museums.

The Tank Museum at Bovington has a Ha Go in good condition.

I also found one outside the Army Museum in Honolulu.

The Australian War Memorial has one with an interesting history. It was one of two Ha Go to land at Milne Bay in New Guinea and fight the Australians there. Both were eventually bogged down in the mud and abandoned. They were well documented at the time and the picture below (from the AWM collection) is one that often appears in reference to the fighting in Milne Bay.

I'm not sure which of the two tanks was sent to Australia but the museum has restored one of them. The lighting for the display is very atmospheric, but not the best for photography.

I bought a set of Japanese model tanks on eBay several years ago. These were already painted and required very simple assembly. While not the most detailed kits I picked up three Ha Go for a very reasonable price and with a bit of detailing and a new paint job they were fine for gaming.

A variant of the Ha Go was the amphibious Type 2 Ka-Mi which added flotation devices among other features to the HaGo to create a vehicle for the naval landing forces. I picked this up the model below at a Bring and Buy so not sure who the manufacturer is but it makes for a very distinctive looking AFV.

The Type 97 Chi Ha is harder to find but there is one in the museum at the Yasukuni Shrine museum in Tokyo.

There is also one in the military museum in Beijing.

The model I've been using for my Japanese force is the venerable old Airfix kit from the 1970s, which I think has held up very well considering its age. I have a couple of those.

The Type 97 Chi Ha was upgunned later in the war and given a larger turret to house the more effective 47mm gun. This was known as the Shinhoto Chi Ha, where shinhoto translates as 'new turret'. This one is from 172 Scale Miniatures.

For earlier in the war and mainly for China I have a Type 89, this is a more modern and detailed plastic kit from IBG.

The Tank Museum in Bovington has a complete Japanese tankers uniform on display.

I also have three Type 94 tankettes. Also known as the Te-Ke these were the most numerous of the Japanese light tankettes, with many more built than the Ha Go. Most were used in China in a reconnaissance and infantry support role. While not well armoured the Chinese infantry had little that could penetrate them. They also saw action in the conquest of Java and Timor as well as Burma and the Philippines. These are resin models from Milicast.

To get some idea of quite how small these tankettes can be, here are they are alongside a 20mm figure.

Late in the war the Japanese also developed a self-propelled gun that could serve as both artillery and a tank destroyer. The Type 1 Ho Ni used the Chi Ha chassis and mounted the 75mm Type 90 gun. As far as I'm aware these were only encountered in the Philippines. I bought this very cheaply on eBay as a pre-painted model that needed simple assembly. It lacks the detail of plastic or resin kits but works fine for gaming.

The Japanese made a lot of use of armoured cars, particularly in China, but I've had trouble finding models of these. They did acquire a Austin armoured cars although I'm uncertain if they saw much use after 1940. This is an Austin MkIV model from Master Box.

There is an excellent example of one of these in the Tank Museum at Bovington.

While there is not much need for soft skin models for skirmish level games trucks can be useful as either scatter terrain or for scenarios that involves escorting convoys etc. I acquired a few Lledo die cast trucks and have mostly converted those into commercial vehicles for the Far East. I had one left over and decided to paint it up as a Japanese captured/requisitioned vehicle that could be used for Chindit games set in Burma.

Hasegawa do a very nice Isuzu fuel truck that includes a trolley and petrol barrels.

IBG also do an Isuzu truck. The kit includes a full engine and so it seemed a shame not to have it visible.  In this instance I've made it up as one that has broken down.

The diminutive Kurogane car is an unusual looking vehicle, almost toy like, although it was the very first four wheel drive car to be in service in any army. This one is from 172 Scale Miniatures.

For non-mechanised transport I have this team of three mules and their handlers from the 172 Miniatures range. I have in mind these might work well as one of the targets of a raid behind the lines by Chindits in Burma or by Chinese Communists in China.

The Far East Handbook introduces a Zero Attack as a Japanese support option. Like the pre-game barrage it is an abstracted portrayal of disruption to deployment caused by an air attack. There is no need to represent it on the table but if you read my AARs for our Early War campaigns in Europe you'll see I like to represent the Stuka Bombardment in the photographs and so I intend being able to the do the same for the Japanese. For that I have one of the very nice new tool Airfix 1/72 kits.

There is a Zero on display at the entrance to the museum at the Yasukini Shrine in Tokyo.

Last, but not least, I like to have patrol markers themed for all my nationalities and the Japanese are no exception. These were designed by John Bond. I print them out and attach to 40mm MDF round bases.

Many of these figures and models can be seen in action in the game reports for the Chain of Command campaigns that can be found on this page. 

They were used to play the Malaya 1942 campaign against the Australians. This was a tough campaign for the Aussies who had to try to hold back the Japanese with only limited resources. 

It proved very enjoyable and tactically challenging for both sides. You can find the report for the first game here (and then follow the links at the end of each game report for the rest of the campaign).

They were also used to play a Chain of Command campaign that was published in an issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine entitled Last Stand on Opium Hill and set just before the fall Singapore. This time a unit from the Malaya Regiment was trying to hold back the Japanese tide on the outskirts of the city. You can find the first game report here.

You can see several of my other 20mm collections for the Second World War by clicking on this link 20mm Miniatures.