IHMN Japanese Infantry

I have been over the past two years slowly painting and basing figures for use with "In Her Majesty's Name" (IHMN). Even slower than this process has been my updating of this blog with that progress. 

The basic Infantry Section

IHMN is very flexible in its approach to creating teams of adventuring bands for use in the game. One of the supplements for the first edition of the game "Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun" (SDRS) provides a basic list for a group recruited from the Japanese Army. 

I tried to replicate a uniform that captures the feel of the IHMN period rather than a perfect match for the Boxer Rebellion.

I did consider using the Red Box Japanese Infantry from their Boxer Rebellion range (PSR Review here), but I was rather unimpressed with the figures. instead I opted for using the metal Japanese Infantry from Stan Johansen Miniatures' Boxer Rebellion range (click here for more details).

A hastily formed firing line.

The Japanese lists in SDRS offer a number of possibilities for adventuring groups that allow a nice mix of traditional elements, modern elements (products of the Meiji restoration), and weird 19th century mad science elements. I am already starting on some steam powered walkers to supplement this Japanese force. 

Infantry cautiously advancing

IHMN also allows for the addition of Sumo Wrestlers to some of the Japanese lists, so I thought that these painted old Grenadier 25mm Sumo Wrestlers would be a prefect addition to the force mix.

Grenadier Fantasy Lords - First Series Set 178 Sumo Wrestlers

Even more imposing when provided with effective leadership!

I also think that the size difference between the 20mm Infantry figures and the 25mm Sumo Wrestlers helps create the fell that these wrestlers are at the top end of the human size spectrum - even to the point of being the beneficiaries of  cutting edge scientific discoveries from the University of Toyko that have surpassed the efforts of Dr Jekyll's original formula.

War at Sea

Waitangi Day saw Steve and I play another short naval engagement. This time we decided to play Axis and Allies: War at Sea, just to see how it went. A&A WaS is designed to be a quick and dirty system, but it does have a points system. We decided to go with 100 points each, with Steve playing the Japanese, and me playing the US Navy again.

IJN Battleship Yamato, Heavy Cruiser Haguro, and two flights of  G4M Betty  medium bombers.  A powerful  surface action group under Steve's command.

I first purchased my WaS ships back in 2008, during a trip to the United States. I had discovered their existence whilst searching for naval miniatures suitable for use in CD3 games, and found that they were modeled at 1:1800 - the scale ground scale used in CD. The idea was that I could use them to represent naval forces in amphibious games a mile or two off shore (36 to 72 inches), and have a target that was the right size to be caught in artillery templates.

USS Wasp, USS New Jersey, and a flight of  TBF Avenger torpedo bombers. 

By mutual agreement, the seas were flat and clam, although I don't believe WaS has rules for bad weather! The first turn started with both fleets closing for action, and both sides launching air attacks on each other.

Stat cards for the US fleet. 100pts well spent!

Opening moves. The IJN attempt a torpedo strike on the USS New Jersey.

Steve opted to have one of his bombers attack the mighty USS New Jersey, which resulted in it being destroyed by the New Jersey's AA fire. I had my Avengers attack the Yamato, causing minor damage to the huge battleship.

The second turn saw the fleets move even closer, Steve used his remaining bomber to attack the USS Wasp, which also used its AA to destroy the attacking bomber. My Avengers return to attack the Yamato, only to be driven off by the big ship's AA fire.

Meanwhile the USS New Jersey, and the Yamato exchange gun fire causing minor damage to both ships.

The Avengers sink the Haguro

The third turn saw me change targets for my next airstrike. I decided to attack the Haguro, and that decision paid off, with the Haguro being sunk by the Avengers torpedo attack.  The two battleships continued to exchange fire, with both ships firing broadsides at each other. New Jersey rolls well, causing more damage to the Yamoto, and being only one hit away from causing a critical hit and sinking her outright. The Yamato is more fortunate with its dice and gets the hits needed to cause a critical - sinking the New Jersey!

The  Yamato sinks the USS New Jersey

Turn four sees me attempt to sink the Yamato with another airstrike, before it can get the Wasp in range of its guns. I make a horrible mistake and use bombs rather than torpedoes, causing no damage to the Yamato.

Turn five sees the Wasp in the range of the Yamato's guns. My only chance is a successful torpedo strike with my Avengers...

The Avengers finally sink the Yamato.

and yet again my Avengers sink a IJN ship! So Waitangi Day 2013 had me chalk up two victories, in two very pleasant games using beer and pretzel rules. Not a bad way to start the years gaming, nor a bad way to spend a public holiday.

Victory at Sea

Having come back to NZ with a few new 1:1800 scale Axis and Allies War at Sea ships, and discovering that Mongoose Publishing are producing a range of 1:1800 scale ships for their Victory at Sea game, Steve and I decided to have a game on Waitangi Day. Waitangi can be translated from Maori as noisy or weeping waters, so a naval engagement seemed quite appropriate.

Two USN Cleveland class cruisers.

Victory at Sea is designed to be a quick fast play game, and it delivered! Unfortunately photos of naval games tend not to capture the nail biting tension that these games can generate. Victory at Sea lacks the detail of Harpoon, but it played fast and was fun.

CL- 55 Cleveland and CL - 57  Montpelier

The scenario generator gives ships a priority rating so my two Cleveland class light cruisers were rated at one point each for the engagement, with the IJN heavy cruiser Haguro being rated at two points.

Myoko class heavy cruiser Haguro.

The game started at 06:00hrs with calm waters and good visibility. My US cruisers started with the initiative and were able to detect the Haguro on their radars.

The game began with both sides maneuvering towards each other in order to bring their guns into range. The second turn had the Haguro take the initiative and fire first, only to receive minor damage from the USS Montpelier in return.

Haguro continued to close in order to bring its Lance Lance torpedoes into range. Haguro again misses the USS Montpelier, which also misses with its return fire. USS Cleveland is more successful with its broadside and inflicts more damage on the Haguro.

The Haguro continues to close to torpedo range while taking gunfire hits from both USN cruisers. Once Haguro is in range she fires her torpedoes into the USS Montpelier, crippling her. The USS Montpelier is also hit by the close range broadside of the Haguro's guns. USS Monpelier losses all her main armaments and starts to limp away.

Meanwhile USS Cleveland continues to engage the Haguro with gunfire, causing more damage to it as it begins to swing around to engage the USS Cleveland with the deadly Long Lance torpedoes.

Haguro sinks USS Montpelier.

Haguro then sinks the USS Monpelier with gunfire. The USS Cleveland is alone. Haguro's next broadside misses the USS Cleveland, but a torpedo strikes home causing minor damage. USS Cleveland's return fire causes more damage to the Haguro, finally crippling it, putting its Q and X turrets, and starboard torpedoes out of operation.

The USS Cleveland continues to engage the Haguro with gunfire, as the Haguro attempts to bring its port torpedo tubes to bear whilst returning gunfire. Both ships are taking a pounding from this fire, and it is now a race to see if the USS Cleveland can land the final blow before the Haguro can.

USS Cleveland sinks the IJN Haguro.

The USS Cleveland takes a risk and manuevers back around to the Haguro, in order to deliver a broadside. The broadside hits and the Haguro is destroyed! While that final move was successful, had the Haguro not been finally sunk, it would have surely sunk the USS Cleveland with its port Long Lances and remaining guns.

Chalk up a victory at sea for me!

Japanese Mules -a work in progess.

An indoor shot taken with poor light and no flash.

 Having acquired a number of Airfix Supply Mules from Glenn, I am making up a couple for use with my Japanese forces.  One of them was missing its load, so I decided to give it a new load of barrels from the bits box, and construct a carrying frame out of matchsticks. Because the barrels stick out from the body of the mule, I decided to base it on a larger base, rather than the normal 20mm x 30mm piece of MDF.

Outdoors with natural lighting - a much better photo.

The carrying frame is made from Beehive Matches - only the best for my mules!

The poor mule looks quite overloaded!

The resulting conversion is very simple, and in is something quite different from the normal supply elements on the table. Two different types of barrel were used to add to the mismashed look of the element.  A rough calculation of the barrels containing around 158ltrs each, and having the weigh of the liquid at around 160kg (320 for both) and then adding in the weigh of the empty barrels, plus the weight of the carrying frame, puts the load in excess of the upper end of what a mule can carry - meaning that carrying this load long distances is going to be very bad for the health of the mule - if indeed the poor bugger can even move with the load! A more normal weight for a cargo load would be around 70kg. (according to the good folk at GDW, who give that figure in  Twilight 2000  Version 2.2  p.88, and other less game related sources on the internet.) The maximum load for a pack mule in the US Army during the Plains Wars was 275 pounds or 125kg. Odds are then, that the barrels are only around a quarter to a third full each, putting the load at a more practical level.

The other two mules are built straight out of the box.

All three stands await an undercoat of black spray paint.

 The Airfix Jungle Command Post set has always been a favourite of mine, as it is an excellent source of bicycles, boxes, another other fine items - as well as having a very nice native building.

Undercoated and overloaded.

A distance shot.

And the close up.

 So all that is left to do is to paint them up, flock the bases, and then get them on the table. Easy - unless I get sidetracked into another project.

EDIT: Drum volume changed from 200 liters to 158 liters, as I was using figures for the US 42 Gallon Drum. This makes the weight figures given make sense....

Japanese Pt. 4

Since I had the time, I thought I would post some more Japanese armour and other equipment, from my CD Japanese Army. First up are some Fujimi Type 41 75mm Mountain guns. These are ones that I acquired second hand some time ago.  These are the guns to go with the pack horses from this post. The guns are the only useful item from the Fujimi Japanese Infantry set, the figures are amongst the worse I have ever seen.

Four Batteries of Horse packable fun.

I am starting to put all my guns on bases to help protect the model.

 To get hold of these particular guns, I had to purchase an entire WRG Japanese Army. It was worth it to get the guns! Attempts to order in the model kit from a local model store came to a dead end as they were only able to order in a very limited range of Fujimi kits, and these weren't on the list. Fortunately, a friend teaching in Japan was able to track some down for me so I have a few more lurking in the plastic mountain awaiting construction. Still, for quite some time these guns were scarcer than hens teeth.

Getting hold of these guns was quite a mission.

 I have always liked my Japanese Army, as it allows me to field quite quirky forces with a solid infantry core. It also gave me an opportunity to make conversions of existing vehicles, like these two 150mm Ho-Ro SPGs. While only 25 were ever made (and in CD terms here are 10), the idea with my Japanese armour is to either field them in a manner similar to battalion guns (so they represent a section of vehicles, rather than a platoon) or give them the markings of particular units for use in different campaigns.

A side view of the beasts.

 These were converted from the Fujimi Ho-Ni 75mm SPG kit. The 150mm guns are cut down Roco 155mm Long Toms, and the plastic struts inside holding the guns come from the blade attachments of Matchbox Bulldozers.

The Front view of the Ho-Ros.

And the rear view.

 The paint job is unfinished, as I am still unsure as to how I want to finish them. My current plan is to assemble all my Japanese AFVs and then assign theaters and paintjobs from there. Of course not all my conversions are as reliable as my Ho-Ros. Two in particular are just plain wrong. I refer to my conversion of a Chi-Ha tank to a cargo/AA carrier and my conversion of a Ho-Ni to a self propelled heavy mortar.

Look it's a cargo carrier that never was!

And now it's a AA carrier that never was!

 The cargo carrier was an attempt to create a So-Da, which was a cargo carrier based on the Type 97 Tankette. Since the Tankette is damn hard to source in NZ, I decided to use a Chi-Ha from the bits box, and use the appropriate stats for the real vehicle, which are listed in 'Lighter than a Feather', the CD Command Post Japanese Supplement as being the Type 3 carrier. The AA carrier is based on an experimental vehicle which was also based on a tankette. It's a pure gamey fudge created to put balance into certain scenarios. The gun is loosely based on the Type 4 twin 20mm AA Machine Cannon. The barrels are far too long. The worst offender is the last... A self propelled heavy mortar. The mortar is meant to be the Type 3 30cm Mortar, but I always used the stats for the Type 98 250mm Mortar. The vehicle is very, very, loosely based on the Type 4 Ha-To.

And this didn't exist either!

And yes, that is a 40K Imperial Guard Mortar...

 The point of making the vehicles was to create something to fill the gaps in my Japanese forces using what resources I had available, and at the time, the very limited reference material available. Both of the reference links I have made in this post are to pages from Taki's site, which I view as being simply outstanding in terms of quality.Taki is a very trustworthy source on Japanese military equipment, and if you have an interest in WW2 Japanese equipment, and haven't visited his site, I strongly urge you to do so. As to the future fate of the two conversions that never were, I will probably still use the cargo carrier, but stop using the AA mount, and plan to massively rebuild the Mortar carrier into an actual  Ha-To.

Japanese Pt. 3

These Japanese mounted stands came about as a result of me wanting to create some mounted Command stands, FO/Spotter stands, and Patrol stands for my Japanese. The inspiration for this came about from seeing a photo of a mounted officer leading his troops marching through China in the 1930s. So I looked through my bits box for spare Airfix and Esic horses and started to build some up. Various Airfix, Esci, and Hong Kong knockoffs were cut up and combined to create the riders. Naturally, the saddles and tack is completely wrong, and red saddle cloths are a product of my imagination. Actual research suggests a natural/tan colour when on was used. However, red does go faster  look good and give a uniform appearance to the nags!

None of these guys are Baron Nishi. 

Being able to have some variety in my Command stands has been a mixed blessing, as having Command, Spotter, and Patrol stands mounted tends to gain unwanted attention.

Blurry horses, well focused Italeri box. Sigh...

That's better! I find painting dark brown on a undercoat of black makes a nice horse. Plus it goes well with the red.

Sword waving stands tend to used more as patrol stands. The figure on far right is the mounted officer from Airfix Series 2 French Foreign Legion set. He has been remounted on an Esci horse and was painted up at the same time. 

One thing every Japanese WW2 army needs is bicycle mounted troops. I made mine by using Airfix bicycles, metal bicycles from unknown manufacturer that I acquired second hand, and my favourite Hong Kong knock off pose.

Gasp! A genuine Airfix soldier in the line up!

The metal ones are much larger.

Each one of these stands represents a platoon of infantry that has acquired bicycles by fair means or foul. While Japanese troops were issued bicycles (6000 per division according to Tsuji), they also used impressed civilan models for parts and replacements. Bicycle mounted troops were used in some Cavalry regiments as a reconnaissance element due to a shortage of horses. Infantry units during the Malaya campaign used bicycles to help speed their advance towards Singapore, but bicycles were used extensively in other theatres too.

Japanese Pt. 2

Leva Products used to make a set of resin 1/72 Japanese Infantry Equipment. This set contained lots of fiddly little resin bits that could be added to figures to make specialists, or to just jazz things up a bit. To add to the fun, none of the equipment was identified or came with assemble instructions.

Some Esci Japanese Infantry. The one on the right has gotten a resin Type 100 flamethrower.

As having flamethrower equipped stands are often useful in CD, I based these guys up as a stand of engineers that could be attached as needed.

The rear view showing the distinctive three cylinders of the Type 100.

 

 

The infantry weapons set also included a Type 97 20mm Anti Tank Rifle. The Type 97 has both AP and HE rounds, so the CD3 stats of not letting Type 97 stands fire on infantry  is wrong. My house rule is either to give it a 'P', or a 'P+1' rating, to reflect actual usage. As with all house rules this is subject to negotiation, thus there being two 'P' ratings.

Gunner is a converted Matchbox Japanese Infantryman.

Number Two is a Esci Japanese Infantryman.

Leva also included two Model 93 13mm Machine Guns. One of mine is currently awaiting repairs, and the remaining one has not yet been fitted out with crew.

This stand has got its P+1 rating, but is sadly lacking a crew.

One of the real gems in the set is the Model 94 90mm Mortar. 

Model 94 Mortars. Crew are (left to right) Hong Kong knock off, Esci, Unknown, Airfix.

Rear view of same, the mounted stands behind are for another day.

Also included in the set are some Model 11 37mm Infantry Guns. I enjoy fielding these as they add more variety into a force.

Model 11 37mm Infantry Guns. Crews are a mix of the usual suspects.

Under CD, the Japanese have a great deal of manpacked support weapons, which allows them to move rapidly into position on wargames tables with vehicle  unfriendly terrain.