There's always more for the Far East

It seems there is always more that I can add to the Far East collection. That's not a complaint, in fact quite the opposite, I'd hate to think that any project is ever truly 'finished'.

Recently I’ve been playing the Driving Charge campaign set in the Far East and representing the British Line of Communication marker with a model of a truck. That worked well enough, but I thought it could benefit from a few figures to add more life and narrative. I was looking at the AB Figures range and realised an easy solution would be to repurpose their set of western desert tank crews refuelling to the Far East (after all, the desert uniform was essentially the same tropical uniform).

Given the LoC marker is normally placed on a road it made sense to base the figures to match.

The truck is a Chevrolet metal kit from SHQ.

Generally, the Line of Communications markers are more a feature of the early part of the war to reflect the way the heavily mechanised allied forces were so dependent on the roads. However, that changes as the war progresses and the allies shift to the offensive. That’s when the need for Japanese LoC markers can arise. For those I’ve decided to create two options, mainly because I had enough in the spares box to indulge myself. 

The first are a team of pack horses. These are a blast from the past for me, as they are figures from the old Airfix Jungle Outpost set. I picked up two of those on eBay a few years ago and the huts were the first of my Far East buildings. I wasn’t sure what to do with the figures, so they languished in the spares box. It wasn’t until publication of the Far East Handbook and the concept of Line of Communication markers came about that I could see a use for them. I thought they might also come in handy as an objective, or as a target for Chindit raids on Japanese communications. While the poses of both horses and soldiers is repetitive, I think they make for quite an atmospheric group.

I built a Hasegawa model of an Isuzu TX40 fuel truck for use as scatter terrain or another objective for Chindit raids, but it will also work well as a LoC marker. As I’ve done for the British the addition of a figure adds more to the narrative and brings the setting to life. This figure comes from the Orion Japanese tank crew set.

It’s a very useful set of figures.

It includes four identical sprues each with twelve different poses. They’re all well sculpted and offer a good variety of poses.

It includes a couple of figures that could be used to represent crew members bailing out. I’ve found similar sculpts of German and British crew figures from AB very useful for the game reports here on the blog and so it was an easy decision to paint up these two to serve the same role.

The US Marines sets from Eureka Miniatures make up all the figures for my marine platoon and I like them a lot. However I needed more BAR men to be able to field the late war platoons. Eureka very kindly allowed me to order specific figures rather than the sets of whole squads, so I took the opportunity to add a few more poses.

The main objective was to add the BAR gunners. Another six should give me enough even if there is little variation in the poses.

I wanted a couple of men throwing satchel charges and so ordered a few of the grenade throwers and converted two of them. I used Milliput and carried out a bit of very basic sculpting but they serve their purpose.

On the subject of knocked out tanks I haven’t had enough figures to represent Japanese tank killer teams. The one figure I do have is a good one and he is a man carrying a pole charge that comes with the Waterloo/Italeri Type 92 70mm battalion gun set. However it’s the only figure I have that’s specifically made to serve in that role. 

Simons Soldiers sells a good set of Japanese tank killer teams and they have a number of figures in dynamic poses that work very well. It’s probably given me more than I need but there’s nothing wrong with that.

While I had the order in with Simons Soldiers I added a command group. That provided a FOO operating a field telephone with an assistant as a wire layer. It’s a great touch and helps illustrate the point that Japanese FOOs are restricted to much less mobile means of communication.

The set also includes a couple of additional figures suitable for senior leaders.

I took the opportunity to also grab the last two 8th Army casualty figures they had in stock.

They will come in handy as currently I have only a couple of plastic figures that I converted from the old Matchbox 8th Army set.

There's no such thing as 'finished'...

We often joke in this hobby that a project is never truly finished, as if somehow it's not true, but honestly who are we kidding? I was going to start this post by saying I was getting around to adding some finishing touches to a few projects, but I suspect it would be far more accurate to say, I'm adding some touches to projects that will never be finished....

These are various things I've made and painted in the first half of this year but as small additions I haven't felt they justified a post of their own. In some cases they have made their way on to the blog as updates and additions to the various posts I have on my 20mm Second World War collection. So here they are all together in one place.

Knowing the Far East Handbook for Chain of Command was due for publication this year I looked to see what else I needed to add to the collection. I've been working on a campaign featuring the Chindits and as my Australians will also work as Chindits I've been keen to make sure I have all that I need. The bulk of that force comes from the 20mm Eureka Miniatures range but I liked the look of the Australian support weapons set from the small 20mm range at Wargames Foundry. To justify the order I added several other sets (well, as you do) and more about those in a minute.

The set includes a couple of Vickers MG teams:

This appealed because the only Vickers team in the Eureka range are wearing helmets and they are probably my least favourite sculpts in that range. The Foundry set also works better as the loader is actually feeding a belt of ammunition in to the gun and so looks the part. 

The Foundry set also includes three prone Bren teams and once again their inclusion of a specific figure as the No2 holding a magazine makes for a better set (Eureka don't provide a specific figure for this and I have been using a prone rifleman instead).

Otherwise the Foundry figures are a very good fit with the Eureka Australians and they make a handy addition.

172 Scale Miniatures also do a range of Chindits. I particularly liked the look of the command group as I don't have enough suitable figures for these. These give me a senior leader, junior leader, medical orderly and a radio operator who can work as a forward observer.

These are nice sculpts, but perhaps a bit on the small side when compared with Foundry and Eureka. Not enough to make them unsuitable to use though.

As part of the order for Wargames Foundry I also picked up the British support weapons set for NW Europe. This gave me additional prone Bren teams and a 2” mortar team. As much as I like the AB Figures sets I felt I could do with more teams in firing poses rather than moving. This set fills that gap nicely.

This set also includes two Vickers MG teams but as I have enough of those already for my Chain of Command games I've mounted these on 40mm round bases themed for my Crossfire urban tables as I needed a couple for my British company.

While I was attending the CanCon show back in January I picked up a few more British figures from the AB range from the Eureka stand. These are also in prone or defensive type positions. Aside from liking the figures we have planned to follow the Operation Martlet campaign with Scottish Corridor. That latter campaign puts the British primarily on the defensive and so I thought these sets would come in handy.

The set also includes a kneeling 2” mortar team so I think I'm now well and truly sorted for 2" mortars!

As part of the Foundry order I was also tempted by the German support weapon set as it includes a 50mm mortar team. While that weapon tended to be phased out as the war progressed they do still appear in games set during the later years of the war and it's the one weapon AB doesn't include with their late-war Germans.

The set also includes a couple of MG42 teams in walking poses. While the men carrying the guns may prove less useful, the extra ammunition carrying figures are always very handy to make up the numbers in machine gun teams.

Last, but not least the set includes a tripod mounted machine gun team.

Well, that's not quite 'last, but not least' as far as Foundry are concerned, because I also bought the Russian support weapon set.....I just haven't got around to painting those yet!

As part of my Fallschirmjager project I had a few outstanding figures that needed finishing off. These included an MG42 team from Simon's Soldiers.

Also a few casualty figures from AB.

For heavier support I've also added a Pak40 team. In this case the gun is from Zvezda and the crew are from Simon's Soldiers.

In the same order from Simon's Soldiers I also included a few additions to the Volkssturm force. A couple of figures to make up a forward observer team.

Also a set of crew for another Pak40. Once again the gun is from Zvezda and the crew are from Simon's Soldiers.

From 172 Scale Miniatures I've added an armoured D7 bulldozer. I know the standard D7 saw service with US and British forces in several theatres but from what I understand the armoured version was a very specific adaptation by the British with the D-Day landing in mind.  

For the Far East 172 have an Indian pattern carrier which was based on the CMP truck chassis and used by the Indian Army.

I picked up this Type 2 Ka-mi Japanese amphibious tank at a bring & buy. It's a pre-made kit in plastic but other than that I don't know the manufacturer. Not sure it will see much use on the table but I couldn't resist adding it.

Making aircraft is a good break from vehicles and not something I do often enough. They can make for scatter terrain or objective in games but I also like to feature them in the AARs here on the blog. In Chain of Command air support is abstracted into a pregame phase so there is no need to represent it on the table. The Blitzkrieg 1940 Handbook introduced the Stuka Bombardment and I made up a model so we could represent this in the photographs. I've always felt it does a great job of adding to the narrative.

The new Far East Handbook includes mechanics for something similar with a Zero Attack for the Japanese. Like the Stuka this Zero is one of the new tool Airfix 1/72 scale kits, which are lovely models.

The handbook also includes a Hurribomber attack for the British and so it was only right that I include one of those. This Hurricane IIc is from Hobby Boss and comes with decals for a squadron based in India. Unfortunately I'm not totally happy with how the white recognition stripes have turned out on the wings, I've made them a bit too wide, but it will serve its purpose.

While I was in the frame of mind to make aircraft I also put together two of the recently re-released Airfix 'vintage classics' kits. These date from the 60s or 70s and while they are of their time they hold up reasonably well with a bit of work in construction and a decent paint job. 

The Brewster Buffalo served in British and Australian air forces in the early part of the war, however they are likely to feature in an air support role in a game. Most were shot out of the sky by the faster and more nimble Japanese fighters, but I thought one might have a role as scatter terrain in a Malaya game or something similar.

On the other hand the CAC Boomerang while obsolete in a fighter role was to see service in places like New Guinea in a number of ground support and spotting roles. While its performance at high altitude made it unsuitable as a modern fighter, it's very good performance at lower altitudes meant it could still play a role. Perhaps in the forthcoming Pacific Handbook there could be a role? Who knows, but it was enjoyable to take this old kit and try to see what I could make of it.