From JohnM: Imperial Japanese Army (112 points)

As promised, next up is some IJA troops. I must say I enjoyed painting these much more than the USMC, not only because they were nicer figures but also because the uniforms and equipment have a bit more contrast. 

Here follow 2 LMG squads, as well as the senior leaders for a Type B Rifle Platoon, the organization most standard for the early part of the war up until 1942. The Grenade Discharger squad as well as the 3rd Rifle squad are almost done and I am quite confident should be ready for next Friday. Numerous support teams are half done and hopefully be finished by the end of the challenge.

These figures come from both Warmodelling and Eureka. I have put up some comparison photos. I also have a bit more of my terrain done which has been a parallel project. I am waiting for a bunch of bamboo that should arrive from China any day now (little plastic bamboo that is).

Any suggestion for a source of 20mm banners and tank insignia would be appreciated.

The hut is from Italeri, it was quite easy to put together. The bamboo tree is from Pegasus and the low bushes are from Gale Force Nine. The mat is from CigarBox. I might give it a little spray!

Squad 1 (Eureka) making it through the jungle heading out on patrol.

I went for quite a bright green for the camouflage on the helmet.  Maybe too bright for some but I quite like it. The old Citadel Goblin Green, a great colour. Washed with Citadel Athenian Camoshade.

Squad 2 (Warmodelling)

Rikugun Shõ-i and Gunsõ

Squad 1 (Eureka). The squad is made up of a LMG team with 3 crew and 9 riflemen as well as a Corporal. I need to get some 1/72 Japanese banners from somewhere.

Warmodelling on the right and Eureka on the left

The Warmodelling Japanese were much better quality than their USMC counterparts. They are quite similarly equipped but the WM are a little bulkier. I do like both but favour the Eureka.

I did like the WM LMG better so used him in the Eureka team.

WM on the left with Eureka on the Right

Great work John - more Pacific WW2 goodness.  It's neat to see these figures from Eureka - I had no idea they even offered them. I find Eureka has so many wonderful figures, but their kafka-esque web site often makes it impossible to find them, or even figure out they are there in the first place.  Also good to see the Warmodelling sculpts improved for the Japanese.  And the lighter green is excellent for the camouflage - I take the same approach.  Sometimes having the colour "pop" oddly reinforces its camouflage purpose.

That terrain is looking really sharp too - well done!  That is another 112 points for you...

From JohnM: USMC Platoon Pacific 1942-43 (192 points)

These troops were finished a couple of weeks ago, but the tufts to decorate the bases just arrived. This is about half of the troops needed for my Chain of Command USMC platoon for a Guadalcanal campaign. Most of the troops are from Warmodelling, but I supplemented the support teams with troops from the PSC US Heavy Weapons Box.

Squad 1: made up of a JL, a BAR and 7 riflemen.

Last year I put a lot of work in researching the WWII Pacific theatre (I knew absolutely nothing about this aside from reading Norman Mailer's Naked and the Dead many years ago as well as watching the The Pacific mini-series). My main goal was to put together a CoC Army List for the type D USMC organization. A Type E organization list already existed but this was quite different that what was used in the 1942-43.

Squad 2: ditto, in 1942 most men and officers carried the M1903, by the latter part of 1942, the  M1 became available.

I game WWII in 1/72, and in metals there is not a whole lot of choice aside from Eureka and Warmodelling. There are a 2-3 other companies who make metal figures but they all looked like grunting chimpanzees to me. I had bought a couple of boxes of Waterloo 1812 plastic figures, and they were quite nice but I really am not keen to use soft plastic. Lovely slender sculpts though and they have figures for both the USMC and the Japanese. I can recommend them if you want plastics.

I had used Warmodelling for my Winter War Finns, they are nice sculpts but the casting was quite poor. I had been assured that when Battlemodels took over that the all casts were going to be re-done. Unfortunately they were not and the models suffer from the same problem with especially poor faces and a lot of flash that is almost impossible to remove.

M2, 50 cal HMG, one of the few guns with AP ability. The gun is from PSC as well as the most of the team.

Anyway, I went ahead and painted them up and they look OK. I am still missing rifle, BAR and raider squads and these are on the way from Eureka Miniatures. These are much nicer figures, my Japanese Platoon which is next up on the painting table is made up of both Eureka and Warmodelling, the Eureka Japanese are quite nice and I am sure that their USMC figures will be equal in quality.

M1917, 30 cal MMG, the USMC support teams had big crews.

Each group is described in the captions and I did enjoy putting together the force.

Bazooka Team

M1919, 30 cal LMG with a 3 man crew.

Flamethrower Team

Forward Observer

Five man 60 mm Mortar team.

For those who are interested here is the list I developed for CoC, it has got big Rich's stamp of approval. You can download a pdf here and read about it's development here.

Well, more US Marines for today! It's great to see the Pacific Theatre of WW2 drawing more attention and interest all the time, and I'm sure these fine figures will make for a great force in Chain of Command (an awesome set of rules).  You've done some excellent work here John, between the camo and the groundwork, I can sense the heat, humidity and bugs of the Pacific...and considering the weather outside my house right now, you have no idea how nice that seems!

I sympathize with your experience on the Warmodelling products - very, very unreliable quality and some abominable castings.  It's disappointing the commitment to redo the molds has apparently not been followed up. But good to see there are other options out there, and you have made good use of the US figures from Plastic Soldier Company. Thank you also for sharing this info on the Pacific for Chain of Command, I'm sure there are many folks who will appreciate it.

These lads will net you 192 points.  We are looking forward to seeing their Japanese opponents soon!

From GregB - 20mm German WW2 Infantry Support Weapons (26 Points)

20mm German support weapons, NCO and radio man

For my next entry I am back on to 20mm WWII (a figure size I am totally falling in love with).  These figures are metal castings from Warmodelling Miniatures. I came across these when looking for command models to round out some holes in Plastic Soldier Company's 1/72 German Infantry set (namely, a lack of senior offices) and so I ordered a command group, an MG team and light mortar team.

3-man MG team...I think it is an MG-42...

There is a senior NCO on a hex-shaped base, a radio operator, an MG team (I think it is an MG42, but I'm not sure - more on that further into the post) and a light mortar team. The uniforms are mostly pre-war, although the MG team seems to have gaiters, so perhaps more 1943 than 1941.

An early war touch - light mortar team

I found the Warmodelling stuff to be a mixed bag - I think the sculpts are top notch, but the quality of the casting itself is really hit and miss. The MG mount was a terrible casting, to the point where I cannot even tell what type of MG it is actually supposed to be (I think it is MG42 because the barrel seemed more rectangular than round).  The tripod was also a mess.

NCO with MP-40 and radio operator

These were very nice sculpts

Warmodelling seems to have a wide variety of sculpts, but the experience of the poor casting quality will have me moving along to other figure manufacturers - I'm going to try some stuff from SHQ next.

3 man MG team - the sculpt on the weapon and the tripod was very poor; the rifle on the extra crewman was also mangled

The kit on the backs of the crew castings was much nicer

There are seven 20mm castings and two (very small) crew-served 20mm weapons. These fellows will join the growing pile of 20mm WWII stuff, and I look forward to adding more as the challenge continues!

From Curt:
I'm really enjoying your love-in with 20mm WWII Greg. Like your previous entries, these are wonderful. I can see what you're saying about the cast quality of these as I had to peer close to determine whether the MG was a 34 or 42. I can heartily recommend SHQ and FAA (and of course AB) as I have had good experience with all of them. I look forward to seeing more from you after Christmas (and I think you need to re-evaluate for your next points target)!

From GregB - 20mm WWII German Infantry Platoon (84 points)

20mm WW2 German Infantry Platoon

My second entry for the Painting Challenge is a set of opponents for my first entry - here is a platoon of WW2 German Infantry.  With one exception, these figures are all from the Plastic Soldier Company's 1/72 Late War German Infantry box sets.  Some of these figures were painted prior to the challenge starting, but I finished most of them after I powered through the Russians.

The fellow in the front is a 20mm casting from Warmodelling - everyone else is plastic from PSC

There are enough figures for a full regular infantry platoon, three squads of 10 men each, each with a two-man LMG team. This PSC set has the same challenge as the Russians, in that the LMG figures are either prone (sigh) or marching merrily (useless).  But it is lacking in a figure that looks like a proper platoon commander/officer, so I ordered a metal one from Warmodelling.

One LMG per squad in this platoon of foot sloggers

The figures are based as the Russians, with NCOs on square bases and senior leaders on hex bases and everyone else on round bases.

Prone LMG gunners - a disappointing sculpt, but better than marching!

I find painting German uniforms to be the hardest part of collecting figures for WW2. Even getting the basic green/grey correct is tricky (at least for me), and once you advance past a certain period of the war a wide assortment of camouflage smocks and helmet covers start to appear.  Painting camouflage is tricky at the best of times, and with the Germans their 700 different versions of camouflage, I go bonkers trying to figure it out.

Different base types visible in this shot

In the case of these figures, they are wearing later war boots/pants/gaiters, and many of them also have some sort of camouflage cover on their helmets.  On most of them I attempted a weak copy of the most "standard" German camouflage that I could find, and on others I imagined that perhaps these covers may have been improvised at times, and I painted them a dark yellow.

Decent modelling of the German kit on these PSC figures

For their overall uniforms I used a few different types of green, grey and green grey to try and vary the appearance a little bit, and washed liberally with GW's Agrax Earthshade, with a few highlights picked up again following the wash.

There are a total of 27 foot figures and three two-man LMG teams.  Of this, eight foot figures and one LMG team were painted prior to the Challenge, leaving a net of 19 foot figures and two LMG teams, which I think works out to 84 points.

Up next is...I don't know, maybe more WW2, maybe sci-fi? I'm all over the place. 

From Curt:

Greg, I feel your pain with painting WWII German infantry as their uniforms were bewilderingly nuanced and complex. This being said I think you've done a fantastic job on this platoon. Like your previous Soviet platoon the shading is very nicely done. 

Figure-wise, I know Greg hates prone models but I must say it's nice to see such crisp modeling on the MG-34, especially the bipod - with many other manufacturers it's often a vague triangle, or you discover that one 'arm' is missing or misshapen. It looks like another good offering from PSC.

This mid-war German platoon will give Greg 84 points.  I looks like you're building up some good steam Mr. B!