Japanese Soldier Customs

| | | | | | |

ACTION FIGURES AT WAR

Imperial Japanese Soldier Customs

You might ask, why Japanese soldiers? I don't have any particular love of Japanese WWII military figures so this might be difficult to explain. They are different and not many out there so making one represents a kind of challenge. I think mostly my US Marines really need some opposition more than anything. I must admit though, doing all the research and building one of a kind stuff really is fun.

The group photo above was my second try at doing a squad of Japanese Army Soldiers. My first attempt was with old Formative figures and everything for them had to be hand made, that being back in 1998. This was my second round using mostly a mix of Dragon and 21st Century bodies. Now there was much more available although some pieces like some of the machine guns are still custom made pieces. This group shot is a wide mix of companies and customizers. Cotswold, Hasbro, 21st Century Toys, Brian Vota and others all mixed together and kitbashed. Today I have upgraded with alot of stuff from BBi, Auggie Romero at Battlegear Toys and at least one figure with New Line Miniature boots from Graham.

Although new Japanese Army stuff is very slow in coming I am sure there will be more coming in the future. I may not be done yet!

This was my first attempt at a Japanese tank commander (above). At the time I made this there was very little research material to go by. I had to ad lib a bit in the interpetation.

As you can see in the picture below. I was able to substancially improve on this figure as more reference/research material became available.

This is an IJA soldiers done with Battlegear Toys uniform and hat. New line Miniatures boots, BBi rifle/leggings and canteen. There is a good mix of quality gear in this figure.

August 2005 - This is a custom done using Battlegear Toys latest IJA uniform with improved (and real working ones too) buttons. Also BGT backpack and tent as well. The detailing on these items are pretty incredible. Boots, rifle, ammo pouches and canteen are BBi. The rice container is an old 21st Century Toys German Mess Kit that I repainted, reworked and added a new working strap on it. The shovel is a DML shovel with the blade trimmed to resemble the Japanese Army shovel.

How to Tie Japanese Leg Wraps (Click on this link)

Try this link to see my Custom Type 97 Light Tank

My Japanese troops are equiped with a good selection of various types of weaponary. I will get pictures of them as time permits. To date I have been using:

21st Century Type 38 Arisaka Rifle

Cotswold Type 99 Arisaka Rifle (currently trying to retire these)

BBi Type 99 Arisake Rifle (far superior to the Cots version)

Brian Vota Type 99 Light Machine Gun

Brian Vota Knee Mortar

Brian Vota Arisaka Sniper Rifle

Cotswold Nambu Pistol

BBi Nambu Pistol

Hasbro Type 94 Pistol

Taisho Model 3 Heavy Machine Gun (my own custom)

Type 96 Heavy Machine Gun (my own custom)

Other weapons

Cotswold Officers sword

BBi Officers sword

Brian Vota Knee Mortar rounds

Cotswold grenades

21st Century Toys grenades

Custom molded grenades made by Frank (sadly, now deceased)