Rising Sun in Toy Soldier Land

Yesterday I received the Armies in Plastic Japanese, Spaniards and War of 1812. The Japanese were, for m, the most anticipated and I have concluded that the ten boxes of these are not enough as I like them so much!

The officer figure waving his sword is nice, although I would have liked AIP to produce a running pose. The figures have moderately Oriental features, but not so obvious that they could not be used for European troops.

 I removed the swords from the officers. One will be replaced with a DSG sword so I don't have to worry about paint loss from an already silver coloured sword. The other officer  Has also has had his pistol holster cut down to an ammo pouch and his sword scabbard removed. He will be the flag bearer.

Later in the year the Virtual Armchair General will be releasing Chris's resin Japanese, which will include marching, cavalry, sailors and support troops. Another empire will be growing on my toy soldier shelves.

 

 

 

Above can be seen two regiments undercoated, one in white and one in black. The white ones will have white Summer trousers. The advantages of white undercoating is that it is easy to paint any colour over it. The advantage of black undercoats  are that you can leave black equipment as the undercoat and dry brush with dark grey before painting the rest of the figure. You can also leave black lines where useful. A disadvantage is that flesh, white and light colours may require two coats of the cover paint.

The flags are made from wire with the ends flattened with a hammer and then shaped and sharpened on the grinding wheel. Aluminium can is cut to one centimetre longer than the paper flags that will cover them; this is so there is enough metal to bend around the flag pole.

 

Below is the Second Guard unit with FLW flag.

 

 

 

I painted them with more 'yellow ochrey[ skin tones than Caucasion without making them look like yellow cartoon characters. I also painted the eyes to look Oriental but my camera is not up to showing that detail. The flag is a fictional Funny Little Wars one, which I think looks great.                              

My other guard unit did not sell on E-bay, which is a loss to any other collector of Oriental armies because instead of re-listing they will go into my own army.                                                            

Future projects: Two line infantry with yellow facings, another unit based on hollow cast Britains colours -which were actually not historically correct but look good, a grey coated Chinese unit from about 1920 which will also serve as militia for the Rising Sun, Italian volunteers in the Balkan Wars Greek army and Federale Mexicans. It may take a few months as half a dozen other projects are also on the boil.