Japanese Paratroopers

The Japanese had both Army and Navy Paratroopers in World War Two.  The ones above are Japanese Army Paratroopers.

These are Japanese Navy Paratropers.

The Japanese did use paratroopers in combat in the Pacific during World War Two.

Japanese Navy Paratroopers took part in the battles on the Dutch East Indies in 1942 with two operations one with over 800 men and the other one was just over 600 men.

The Army Paratroopers also participated in operations in the Dutch East Indies and later in December 1944 in the Philippines.  Like many paratroopers they suffered from high casualties and lack of numbers and transport.  They staying operational in the Philippines until the end of the war in small numbers.
 

Type 97 Tank

Orion 1/72nd scale Japanese WWII tank crews with a Filament Fighters Japanese Type 97 tank.

Tanks require a lot of maintenance and constant attention to stay running.

These tanks were quite the terror in China where the Chinese almost never had armor or anti-armor weapons.

Some troops rest while others work.

Three supervise while only one has a shovel.
 

Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank

 

Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank used by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two.

More than 1,100 of them were made between 1938 and 1943.

They participated in combat in China, Philippines, Corregidor, Saipan, Guam, and Okinawa.

This 3D printed model in HO 1/87 scale comes unassembled in gray plastic.

It is sold by Filament Fighers from Fidelis Models.

I painted it green without first using primer paint.

I will get a few more and some will be camouflaged.

The tank was intended primarily for infantry support and the gun suffered from short range and poor armor penetration.

The leaning here is caused by the angle of the photo, not the tank!

Crew was four with a bow machine gun and a rear turret machine gun.  This kit is easy to assemble and will be a great wargame model.

Japanese Tankers

The uniforms are very Japanese looking.

But tankers of all nations have to lug heavy Jerry cans.

Note the goggles, very nice.  Flags used to communicate without radio.

Even with a radio the flag is instant and not subject to jamming or interception like radio.

Casual moments.

Both are looking, one of the left is leaning on the tank fender.

More action poses, running towards the tank.

Firing the pistol at the enemy.

Seated on the tank, and getting a drink of water.

Seated figures are nice because you can use them on the tank, or in the back of trucks, or in offices, or as vehicle crews.
 

Submachine Guns and Rifles

Soldier with his rifle at the ready and soldier firing submachine gun over his head.

I am not a fan of this pose, firing an automatic rifle from behind cover and not aiming the weapon is more of a post-WWII era pose.  Troops who are interested in putting out a lot of fire in the direction of the enemy but not wanting to expose themselves to fire in order to aim are more related to troops with low morale, and minimal training.  I remember seeing a famous photo of a US soldier doing that in Vietnam from the bottom of a trench.  It's also not unusual to see "terrorists" firing that way.

Light machine gun and reloading.

I like these to poses a lot.  Troops on the move often fire their light machine gun from the shoulder and since the Japanese machine gun has a box magazine it makes it easier to do without the awkward belt.

Tossing a grenade and firing the submachine gun from the shoulder.

Two very good poses, particularly nice to see the submachine gun pose after the other rather poor one.
 

Six Zeros

Working on six Japanese Zeros at a time.

Mass painting of the crew figures.

Trim each part off the sprue and line it up for assembly.

Here the fuselage and wings are on.

Aircraft is manned and ready.  Well, ready for the landing gear, prop, and canopy.
 

Zero

There are a lot of people who have the hobby of collecting unassembled model kits.  They used to have three or more shows per year of hundreds of vendors who would get together in Southern California and sell kits to collectors.   Some collectors only collected the box, and did not care about the model itself.   So it was a good place to find inexpensive models, without a box, or inexpensive models with a damaged box.  Knowing that I would not have much money when I retired, but would have lots of time, I purchased several hundreds of kits with the intention of building them when I retired.  I have already built at least fifty kits in the last four years since I have been retired.

My recent project has been to build some of my World War Two Japanese aircraft.  I have built enough of the 1/72nd scale Zero kits that I can now build them without using the instructions.

So I have laid out five unassembled 1/72nd scale Japanese kits to build at the same time.

Plus one on the work bench.

So I opened the packages, and inspected the models.  I was missing a couple canopies and a few other bits.  These kits are likely 40 years old as they were used when I got them maybe 20 years ago.

I will paint the aircraft interiors.

And I have to find pilots and paint those and glue them into the seats.
 

Emily

I have spent several weeks working on a giant WWII Japanese flying boat.

It's a great kit from UPC probably made 50 years ago.

I like the little extras like the aircraft tug, crewmen, and ground crew, two figures.

Instructions are easy to follow.

Plane is 1/72nd scale plastic.