Well here we go with part 2, the Japanese. These are also from Peter Pig, but whereas I bought the British as packs of figures, I got the Japanese as one of their platoon packs. They do 2 different platoon packs, one in cap and one in helmet and I opted for the cap version.
Getting this pack did mean that a) I got the correct number of figures for a platoon, b) it was slightly discounted (I think, I've not actually costed it out), but there is little variation in the figures. That is, if I'd bought the individual packs of figures I could've mixed them up with helmetted figures.
Anyway, on to the pcitures. Again, first up is a group shot of all the Japanese, including the casualties that were unpainted at the time, but I've since painted
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| Group shot of all the Japanese |
The first group includes the support weapons; the ligh machine gun team and the so-called 'knee mortar'. From what i've read though it seems to be more of a 'grenade-thrower' than a mortar. The LMG team has a very interesting quirk, I thought; the LMG has a bayonet attached, which is, IMO, a very telling point about Japanese tactics in WW2.
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| Platoon support weapons |
Next is a photo of the 3 infantry poses that exist in the platoon pack. As I said above, by getting the 'cap' platoon it restricted the poses to these three. Consequently, there are 8 of each of these poses!
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| Riflemen poses |
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| Command group |
Finally, the 3 poses in the Japanese caualties pack. I intend to get another couple (at least) packs of these, so that when the wave attacks come in, the British players will get a feeling of the pressure that they have been under, rather than just removing casualties and having an empty battlefield
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| Casualty poses |
I've just been looking at Bayonet Strength's pages on Japanese organisation and I think that the platoon is under-strength ... so may need some more minis. I'll keep you all upto date on developments.