Machine Gun Platoon!

The Japanese Machine Gun platoon is made up of a command team and two or four machine gun squads. Each squad is formed by a heavy machine gun (HMG), a gunner, an ammo carrier and a rifle man. In Rising Sun, the modeled machine gun is a Type 3 HMG. For tips on painting and basing the machine gun platoon, check this older post.

Machine Gun Platoon.

General Kenkichi Ueda

Kenkichi Ueda (ww2db.com).

Kenkichi Ueda (植田 謙吉 in Japanese) was born on March 8th 1875 in the Osaka prefecture. In 1989 he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy (10th class) and in 1908 from the Army Staff College (21st class), serving in the cavalry in between. After graduating he was attached to the cavalry staff. In 1918 he was assigned to the Siberian Expeditionary Army which was part of the allied powers fighting against Bolshevik Red Army in the Russian Civil War. In July 1919 he was promoted to colonel.

Ueda was again promoted to major general in August 1923 and appointed commanding officer of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade. In March 1929 he became commander in chief of the Japanese China Garrison Army based in Tianjin, after having been promoted to lieutenant general in August 1928.  

Machine Gun platoon: painting and basing!

The Japanese Machine Gun platoon is by far my favorite infantry/gun Japanese platoon. It is made of a small base command team and four medium bases with a heavy machine gun (HMG), a machine gunner, an ammo guy and a rifle man each. 

For the painting, I followed my standard described in an older post. I used some new colors: for the machine gun, a base coat of Dark Gunmetal highlighted with Oily Steel; base coat of Hammered Copper highlighted with Copper for the bullets. 

It is a shame that all the Gunners and ammo carriers have the same pose, but then I tried to base them in different positions. Since the HMG's are more stationary units than the regular infantry, I decided to add to the bases some sandbags. I followed the example on how to make sandbags in this Rust and the City post. Three rows of bags is enough to give a realistic look.

Green stuff sandbags added to the base.

Lieutenant General Michitarō Komatsubara

Imperial Japanese Army Academy, Tokyo 1907
(wikipedia).

Michitarō Komatsubara (小松原 道太郎 in Japanese) was born on 20 July 1885 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. He was the eldest son of naval engineer Goryo Komatusbara, and brother of Sakanoboro Komatsubara, who would become an Army Colonel.

In 1905 at age 20, Michitarō graduated at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy as member of its 18th class. In 1909-1910 he was assigned to Moscow as military attaché to Russia. There he gained knowledge and understanding of Russian culture and society as well as became fluent in Russian language.

Hohei Chutai Company Headquarters!

The Hohei Chutai company HQ is made of a Tai-I (captain) company commander and a 2iC (second in command) carrying the regimental banner.

Tai-I company commander.

2iC with Rising Sun banner.

IJA 23rd Infantry Division

Liutenant General Komatsubara.

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war in 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) underwent an expansion process that included the formation of new infantry divisions 15th, 17th 21st, 22nd and 23rd on 4 April 1938 in Kumamoto, on the island of Kyushu.

23rd division, nicknamed as "Sunrise Division" and commanded by Lieutenant General Michitarō Komatsubara, was assigned to Kwantung Army and based in Hailar, Manchukuo, with the duty of controlling the border between Manchukuo and the Mongolian People´s Republic. 

It was a triangular division, meaning that its infantry was grouped in three regiments. At the time of its creation, it consisted on:

Hohei (infantry) platoon!

The Hohei platoons are the core of the Hohei Chutai (Infantry company). Every infantry platoon is formed by a platoon commander and two or three rifle squads, and each squad is made of three rifle teams and a light mortar team.

1st Hohei platoon.

2nd Hohei Platoon.

Kwantung Army

Map of the area in 1921 (Wikipedia).

After the Russo-Japanese war, in 1905, Japan replaced Russia as holder of the Kwantung Leased Territory. One year later, the Kwantung Garrison was created to defend the leased territory, and was renamed to Kwantung Army in 1919, when it had a total strength of 10.000 men.

Kwantung Army was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and despite being under command of the Imperial General Headquarters, its officers were known for their insubordinate attitude referred as Gekokujō: "overthrowing or surpassing one's superior" or "rule from below".

How to base infantry units step by step!

First step is to glue the painted soldiers to the bases with Super Glue. Some miniatures require some trimming at the bottom of their bases to make it stand better. Try to arrange the miniatures so as every base looks unique.

Miniatures glued to the base.

After gluing them, an optional step is to fill the empty space between the soldier bases and the base holes with plaster filler. Then it is better to paint the filler in any brown color. You can skip this and fill these holes with sand instead.

Materials used for the basing.

Nomonhan Incident (May - September 1939)

Manchuria Map, 1939

Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931 and established the puppet state of Manchukuo. To the west, Manchukuo's border was the Mongolian People's Republic, the only communist state in the world at that time other than the Soviet Union and a Soviet allied.

In 1939, there were disputes about the border line between Mongolia and Manchukuo, with the Japanese claiming the border to be the Khalkhyn river (Khalkhyn Gol) and the Soviets arguing it to be 16 km east of the river, by the town of Nomonhan. These disputes rapidly escalated to what came to be known as the Nomonhan Incident in Japan and the Battle of Khalkhyn Gol in Soviet Russia.

Japanese Forces at Nomonhan (Pinterest)

On May 11th 1939, about 70-80 Mongolian cavalry men entered the disputed area to feed their horses. Manchuoko´s cavalry attacked and expelled the Mongolians back to their land, but Mongolians counterattacked on May 13th with greater numbers and the Manchuoko's men were forced to retreat. The Japanese deployed the 23th Division led by Lieutenant General Michitarō Komatsubara (under command of the Kwantung Army) and drove the Mongolians out. On May 28th, Mongolian and Soviet forces returned to the disputed area and defeated the reconnaissance regiment of the 23th division, causing the first major defeat for the Japanese.

How to paint Japanese Infantry step by step!

I used the following scheme to paint all the infantry, gun and artillery men for my Japanese army, with small variations for each kind of unit. It is inspired on the Flames of War painting guide but with several differences.

My painting method consists on painting batches of 10-15 miniatures, applying the same color to all of them before moving to the next step. I reckon this method is good in painting speed and reduces wasting paint. I also paint the miniatures before gluing them to their bases so it is easier to get everywhere with the brush. The detailed coloring can be found in the previous post.

First step is to prime the miniatures with the black spray primer.

1 - Black prime coat.

Color range for my Japanese army!

In this post, I will go through the color palette I am using to paint my army. I realize that some colors would be not 100% historically accurate, but I weight more the final look of the miniatures than the historical accuracy, and also try to keep the painting economical by using the same color on several elements.

• Color range:
• Battlefront Quartermasters Paint set:
•  Army Green
• Battlefield Brown
• Black
• Dark Gunmetal
• Dry Dust
• European Skin
• Military Khaki
• Skin Shade
• Wool Brown
• Worn Canvas
  
  

  

  Quartermaster set

  
  

Rising Sun!

The first Flames of War book featuring the Japanese army was Rising Sun. The book belongs to the early war period (1939-1941), together with Blitzkrieg, Hellfire and Back, Burning Empires and Barbarossa.

Rising Sun cover page.

Rising Sun includes Japanese, Finnish and Soviet lists and focuses on the following battles:

• Nomonhan incident (May - September 1939), a succession of battles between Japanese and Soviet troops at the border between Mongolia and Manchuria.
  
  

The beginning of the journey!

About a year ago, I decided to start a Flames of War army. After doing a little bit of research about the different countries and periods available, I was quickly drawn to the Japanese. Having enjoyed films such as Letters from Iwo Jima, shows as The Pacific and games as Medal of Honor Pacific Assault, the Japanese had always roused my interest.

Hohei Chutai (infantry company) with banner, HMG and Type 41 regimental gun.