The Yasuoka Detachment of Masaomi Yasuoka

Masanobu Tsuji (wikipedia)

On June 1939 the Kwantung Army planed an offensive against the Soviets on Nomonhan. Following the plans of  Major Masanobu Tsuji, Kwantung Army commanding General Kenkichi Ueda approved the deployment of reinforcements on the Nomonhan area. As part of these reinforcements, the Yasuoka Detachment was created.

The Yasuoka Detachment, a powerful strike force under command of Lieutenant General Masaomi Yasuoka, consisted on:

• 3rd Tank Regiment.
• 4th Tank Regiment.
• 26th Regiment of the IJA 23rd Infantry Division. 
• 28th Regiment of the IJA 7th Infantry Division. 
• 2nd Battalion of the 13th Field Artillery Regiment.
• 24th Independent Engineer Regiment.

IJA 7th Infantry Division

Jacob Meckel (Wikipedia)

In 1895, the Japanese government started a reorganization process of the Imperial Japanese Army with the purpose of modernizing it. The army was to be modeled after the Prussian army, due to the German victory against the French in the Franco-Prussian War. Prussian Major Jacob Meckel was invited to Japan as military adviser to oversee the rebuilding process.

The first infantry division created following Meckel´s advice was the 7th Infantry Division, nicknamed as Bear Division, formed in Sapporo, Hokkaidō on 12 May 1888. Its original duty was the defence of Hokkaidō, and was garrisoned in Asahikawa.

It was originally a square division, meaning that it was formed by four Infantry Regiments, and with two regiments forming a Brigade. It was not yet converted to a triangular division until 1942. At the beginning of the 20th century, the 7th division components were:

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.

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.

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.