28mm Japanese Bunker

 28mm Japanese Bunkers

So I was trying to use up some of the bamboo rods I had acquired from the pound shop (I had bought these to make a tower / look out post -see an earlier blog entry) and I though I will do some mini bunkers and walls for our Pacific game. 

See previous video and Pacific posts.

                              

First coats done but still needs some paint touch - up but getting there..

                       

Making it - So out came my mini hack saw and I started cutting. I wanted just to experiment with a small low two man bunker (one with a small profile) and some "palm tree" like walls. 

So I cut the rods into sections. The walls had to be no bigger than than the palm trees we are using - but other than that anything goes...then hot glued them together. 

Below: the unpainted ones...

The bunker with an HMG sitting on sandbags (green stuff)  and two extra heads from my parts tray. and some plastic foliage..

I wanted the walls to look well weathered - so I added some ground foliage this will help melt it into our mat.

I wanted them to look rough, aged and uneven. But regular enough to butt together.

So the walls ended up four rods high with some shorter cuts on the ends (4 off). This meant the 28mm figure could use it as cover. They can be used in any format - in parallel or a single long line (with a bunker?).

Now the thing I was testing and unsure about was whether it would fall over easily and then might need a base of clear plastic - I did not want to raise it off the mat with foamboard or mdf. But to my amazement they actually stood up without an issue. We will test these out at our next Pacific outing. 

No base is required. So it will blend in nicely. You could even place gaps in it for gun ports.

These are really cheap to make and provide a second line or outpost surrounding perimeter for next to nothing.

Then I did some smaller spider hole like ones I had tried these before..

But as usual I got a little carried away and did 16 eek!

Step away from the hack-saw! LOL

But you get the idea...Japanese troops to be inserted!

ohh well better get some more rods then...

28mm Afrika Korp

Well this is a bit of of a departure (from the Pacific Theatre)... mainly because the Wargames Illustrated Magazine had a freebie gift this month and I got spue of German Afrika Korp.

                                     

Its a Warlord Games spue and has 6  figures to build. I haven't built any of these figures before so I did some research on the build and paint colours - as usual there were variations galore on the internet. The magazine also provides you with a list of colours but I felt that that was a little bit safe and I wanted to try something different.

So I opted to try out some contrast paint colours. This is how it went...after a white base primer.

                   

I have to say the head variations on this set are excellent. The face covering and goggles look the part.

Citadel contrast colours - the main green was Militarum Green and the yellow brown Skeleton Horde.

                   

I tried chipping and weathering the helmets up. .But I like the look of the contrast paint...it shades nicely then with a wash of Agrax Earthshade then a quick light dry brush of Iraq Sand. Its done.

                  
                                 ...and then did the arms bands and shoulder boards.

 

So I didn't do the helmet insignia as I thought it looked ok as is...

Overall I liked the effect of the contrast paint I think is makes the final figure a slightly lighter colour. I found that when using contrast paint -- less is more. Build it up in layers.

But I like it.   

CLAYMORE SHOW

 The Claymore Show at Edinburgh was great on Saturday....this is the first show in Scotland for years!

Show

I saw a nice looking Singapore game by Gothenburg Gamers. They were on 28mm scale and lots of teddy bear fur and headstones...yes headstones   AKA tank traps! They had some nice troop conversions on the board.  It was great to see some games in action again.

I bought some 28mm WW2 Japanese figures from Assault Group (for our Pacific Game) - I have to say these are great figures. I got some flamethrowers and a HMG type 90,  I also got some pack mules just to make up a supply train from Colonel Bill.

I did a small bunker to place the HMG into (just bamboo rods cut up and glued onto a base, added flock and usual "fish" plants). Looked quite good when I finished it.

You can see our full Pacific Game video by clicking here...

Its a jungle out there! LOL

I added some spare parts (rifle, pistol, boxes, sacks etc.)

Above: The pistol is on the left bunker wall- for when it gets to hand to hand.

The stubborn mule is being pulled by a Japanese handler. I contrast painted and washed the mules instead of painting them just to see how they would turn out. I have still to re flock the base after gluing in place the handler. I have still to detail the mules faces....

 I did some more work on the mules face, reigns and groundwork....

The other Assault Group figures were Flamethrowers.

and I did some Warlord Plastics

Used some green stuff around this guys helmet...and made the flag look battle worn.

 Remember to check out our Stalingrad game.

28mm Bolt Action Japanese Banzai

 Here are some more Japanese Warlord Figures in action...for our Tarawa Game 

(you can see our full video by clicking here... )

I have already built the standard pack  (and we have two other packets incl. the Jap marines) and so we wanted something a little different from these figures. .

So this figure is actually an American head on an Imperial Japanese body...with a explosive pack. The other is a Russian head on an Imperial body.

Charge!

I also thought a command post/section would come in handy

Did a an American Marine in combat with a Japanese guy - just to get some other poses for both models -  

I just got fed up with the ordinary Japanese Imperial Army builds.

I also tried to do a Japanese pilot from green stuff, arms, head and legs, parachute and goggles. 

I tried to get the flight suit and harness look. Warlord please sculp some pilots for us!!.

                                             

Ammo supply dump.

Type 98 Shi-Ke Artillery Tractor

                           I 3d printed this and then just added some boxes and then printed a sign for Ammo. The guys are just extra parts and green stuff.

3d printed a  Soko Sagyo Ki (SS-Ki) 

Its an engineering vehicle with three flamethrowers and HMG.

As i get to the end of the Jap figures - I wanted to use them slightly differently.. So I did an ammo dump with some guys unloading/moving crates..

But storage of this piece will be murder as its fragile

I also started to use up some of the Japanese spare parts for trenches etc.

With some trench damage markers...

I also printed some Kurogane Type 95 transport from Thingyverse.

Added a guy onto the back kneeing on an ammo box.