David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Tuesday 30 April 2013

Imperial Japanese force for Bolt Action


My Bolt Action Burma 1944 project has almost reached tipping point, with more figures painted than in the lead pimple awaiting attention. I thought there might be some interest in seeing what I've completed this month, so here goes ~



 















 


















 


































 


















So far the figures are all from Warlord Games, many sculpted by my talented son Matt. I do have some figures from Brigade Games to add yet: namely the infantry gun and crew stripped for action and the mule handlers ~ though the mules are from Tiger Miniatures.

For many of my generation, born not long after the war's end, the Japanese as a wargames force can be a difficult issue, raised as we were on tales of brutal treatment and degradation of PoWs and fed films such as Bridge on the River Kwai. In the past few years, as followers of my Blog may recall, I was able to visit Tokyo and Singapore for a few days, on my way home from trips to stay with friends in Adelaide. The kindness of folk in Tokyo impressed me greatly and in Singapore I made a visit to the museum and chapel at Changi prison and to the Battle Box in Fort Canning Park, from where the failed defence of Singapore was 'directed'. Strangely perhaps, these visits seem to have laid these particular doubts to rest, or perhaps its just the passage of time. Either way, I am enjoying painting figures for this project and may even finish the Japanese this time ~ having abandoned a similar Far Eastern project a decade ago! I'll keep you posted on that, but for now I have some real life issues to deal with, starting with my cousin Pauline's funeral on Friday, so I'll close for now.

3 comments:

  1. Great looking army! Banzi!

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  2. Maji de Sugoii!!! Great Japanese WW2 stuff! I love the paintjob. For a moment when I stumbled upon your blog, I thought you collected GHQ wargaming miniatures and vehicles.

    In any case, let me just say, that you have great stuff and that I am a Super Modern Military Collector/Enthusiast/Wargamer. I would like to get more like-minded individuals and experts who love the military wargaming world to google connect with me and follow my blog as well as share comments and opinions with each other.

    I do hope you can check out my blog at www.toyconstruct.blogspot.com and let me know what you think of it and google connect with me. I would be so grateful!

    I really like many of Ur world war 2 miniatures, posts and collectibles!

    Cheers!

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  3. Matt continues to do great sculpts, and your dab brush adds a special touch to these figs. I can hear the Banzaiiii now! Pity those Chindits.

    ReplyDelete