More 54mm - 1/32 WWII cheap plastics: The Pacific, p.1

Tennōheika Banzai! Banzai-Banzai-Banzai!

https://www.deviantart.com/leevancleefiii/art/Banzai-Charge-433473713

"I'll take the !@$#%*& with the sword, you get the guy with the flag."

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/the-horrific-mass-suicides.html

Not having anything in the way of British campaign memoirs, I decided to go back to a great book I was planning to re-read anyway [and had recommended to one of my 1SGTs recently], "Shots Fired in Anger".

"Shots Fired in Anger" is a classic, an unapologetic and wonderfully detailed account of LTC John George's fighting in Guadalcanal with the 132nd Infantry Regiment [an Illinois Guard outfit] and with Merrill's Marauders in Burma. He wrote this soon after the war, and it is impactful in its incidental contrast with today's literary styles, including war memoirs.  He doesn't wallow in gore or self pity, nor use foul language, nor does he gratuitously sexualize his account [all-to-common and contemptible trends in modern literature]. In short, this book IS of the time, in a good way, instead of just a distant reflecting on that time. I am considering reading it with my son.

The Guadalcanal portion of the book also has lots of pencil drawings and commentary about the Japanese Soldier, his weapons, tactics and habits, as well as an honest, unembellished account of LTC George's part in the fighting [and hilarious avoidance of fatigue duties]. He also includes the sort of details that Soldiers enjoy reading, like jungle survival and tactics, the pitfalls of institutional thinking and unnecessary sufferings of doughboy in every war. My local library has it, but it is pretty available at Abe Books and Amazon [CLICK].

In other literature, "Helmet for My Pillow" and "With the Old Breed" are also at my local library, and I've always wanted to read them. Still need to get at least one book on painting up my Japanese, and this project makes me want to get a Sgt. Rock omnibus or something - it's so "retro" 1970.

"The Pacific" Miniseries and "Hacksaw Ridge" are also in the video closet, and I've never watched them. While it is pretty hard to see videos these days due to bed times, our baby and noise levels, I definitely need to watch these soon.

So, there's some inspiration for this project, as well as it being a place I've never spent a lot of time.

As to project progress, it is shaping up quickly and nicely. The Japanese are featured in my previous post on these figs [CLICK]. The US, after some looking around, I decided to just use the ones we already had, and honestly a reassessment of them shows them to be a bit less characterful but still solid figs. In a way, it is sort of suitable for them to be a bit more drab - GI Authentic, perhaps?

Mr. Winkie and I have 12 poses that came in the bucket. Six are typical fighting poses, four are support weapons and two are support / leadership poses. As you can see immediately, the sculpting is deep and there's plenty of authentic looking gear on them, and the proportions are quite nice. My understanding is these are most likely Airfix knock-offs.


Two shootin' guys - the poses look natural, especially the kneeling pose which is how I'd shoot kneeling.

Stabbin' guy? Maybe he's shooting someone in a foxhole? Could also be peeking around a corner. His bayonet may have been left off the sculpted or cast copy. Grenade guy has a pose that reminds me of how I was taught to throw grenades, and has plenty of spare ones!

Crawl, walk, run - that's how we teach it in the Army, and here we have Crawling and Running guys. Again, very natural poses, nice proportions.

Boomer and Heat Miser, they are most likely to bust pillboxes and other strongpoints, as not many Japanese tanks around these days, but who knows? Maybe they'll head to France. Bazooka guy looks like he's just sighting out a target, not actually aiming at one since he's low [or on a hill]. Could be fixed with basing, or just ignored.

Grease-gun Gus and Ma Deuce, there to provide the firepower up close and far away.

So, guy on left could be any officer, or FO Guy. On right would be Obvious Commander guy. Interestingly, he's a left draw with his rather small sidearm. Perhaps a souvenir Jap pistol? Looks like a captain at least.
Overall, while these are a bit less characterful than the Brits and Japs, they are still quite good sculpts, well worth the second glance I've given them.

Another great piece of good fortune is that Decision Games has a solitaire game about Merrill's Marauders which I've now purchased, along with "Roger's Rangers: America's First Commandos" [CLICK] since I have the AIP F&I War figs which are really lovely sculpts [CLICK]. And I couldn't resist the operational level but highly rated Khe Sanh altho I won't be doing a miniatures game with it.

I really like DC's mini games and posted extensively on the Musket and Saber ones [CLICK] for which I re-wrote the rules...they were that much fun to play. If you want a copy of the re-write, just LMK. I'm hoping the Solitaire ones are just as good - they did get plenty of positives at BGG.

So, some fun figures, good books/video, and a quick-play solo game - this is shaping up to be a great, quick project! I already finished cleaning up these guys and they will be primed soon. The Heroes of Nippon still need to be cleaned.


and remember...there ain't no disputin', Putin is Trumped by Rasputin'!