BRITISH PILLBOX, UNIVERSAL CARRIER WITH MMG, FLARE GUN AND JAPANESE ZERO

 More items for the Far East, scratch built a British Pillbox found in Malaya, Aussie Universal carrier with a Vickers, Figure firing a flare and a Japanese zero.

AUSSIE UNIVERSAL CARRIER WITH VICKERS MACHINE GUN 

This is a Warlord games vehicle, I scratch built the Vickers and enlarged the front firing port to fit the machine gun.
This vehicle is only available to the Australians.

All the figures are Perry 8th army plastics modified to fit the carrier. The driver is glued in place, while the other troopers have mini magnets glued to the underside of their feet/legs to secure them in the vehicle.

The vehicle crew consists of a Junior Leader and 4 crew, the Leader is the one pointing his finger.

FLARE

A bit of conversion done to get this figure into a firing position, 

You may be wondering why I have this figure firing a flare. We are planning to set one of the tables at MOAB to play the night invasion by the Japanese at Kota Bharu.
As part of the scenario the Allies will have access to flares to luminated the battle field to better target the Japanese as they break through the barbed wire on the beach.

The figure will be placed with the Allies as a reminder that they have access to this asset. 

BRITISH PILLBOX

Scratched built a copy of the same British pillboxes found protecting the beach at Kota Bharu.

Here is a image of a pillbox at Kota Bharu, it was large enough to house a section of infantry. 

Working out the floor plan of the pillbox. 

Paper template used to construct the floor using MDF.

The side walls of the pillbox ready to be glued in place.

Based, painted and flocked ready for the gaming table.

Interior 

Access door.

Firing ports 

Two large firing ports for 2 Bren guns.

Troops manning their positions

JAPANESE ZERO

This is Airfix kit of a Japanese Zero.
The Japanese air support in the Far East rules can  be quite detrimental to the Allies. 

Cheers John 

CANCON 2023- LARD DOWN UNDER - The Battle for Wau - Jungle Table

The second gaming table ready for Cancon 2023, for Len Tracey to host the Australians battling it out with the Japanese in the Battle for Wau. Once again all the terrain was scratched built by me, way back in 2018 for "Chain of Command a Pacific Odyssey" at Cancon 2019.  The only new item I have included is the burnt out Wirraway plane on the runway.

There is a mix of different terrain features on the table from, Primary and secondary jungle, Kunai grass, palm plantation  and home gardens.

I was going to purchase a 1:35 scale Wirraway plastic kit but the price put me off. As this was going to be a wreaked plane I opted  to make one from foam core cardboard and stuck the pieces together with a glue gun. 

Painted with Vallejo paints.

The Wirraway  on the runway, added a bit of white fluff to simulate it still smoldering.

Hope to post images of the battle once underway at Cancon 2023.

Cheers John

VICKERS MACHINE GUN manned by Australians in the PACIFIC

This weekend has provided me with some time  to finish off my Vickers Machine gun and progress further with my Australian Infantry Platoon as CANCON is getting closer.

I have scratched built the Vickers gun and converted Perry plastic  28mm figures as the crew. 

Japanese sniper in the palm trees has his sights on the gunner.

Completed Vickers gun with Australian crew.

Vickers gun with crew prior to painting.

The starting point of the scratch build.
 Once more  I used odds and ends of plastic,brass rods and whatever was lying around for the build.

On completing the Vickers , I moved onto converting  Perry's 8th army figures to man the gun.

Completed Vickers gun.

Green stuff putty was used to help with the conversion work.

I also modeled the spent ammo belt which runs out the other side of the MG.

Two crew members the loader with a metal slouch hat and other member pointing out targets.

The other 2 crew members, one opening a ammo case while the other is carrying in more ammo.

Figures and gun painted and flocked.

Gunner

I modeled the gunner in such a position, to portray him  blasting away at a target.  

I also constructed a Log entrenchment for the Vickers.

It's constructed with fallen branches off a tree in the local park , trimmed and super- glued in place. I also added some fine flock, this was a very quick build.

 

I decided to make the log emplacement without a base so that it would sit on-top of  and blend in better with the terrain on the gaming table.

I also made one for the 2 pounder gun I  recently constructed.

Here is the 2 pounder in place, if you notice I had to leave a gap in the front of the log emplacement to accommodate the chassis of the gun.

cheers John