Back to the War: 28mm WWII Japanese Infantry

I've jumped back into my 28mm WWII project over the last two weeks.  I've been interested in trying out War Against Japan, and I can't do that with all my Japanese infantry stuck in bags.  So I busted them out of their plastic prisons.  Here's a full rifle platoon all completed.  Click the picture for a better view of them.

There are three squads, each comprised of a squad leader and assistant squad leader, Type 99 LMG and loader, and nine riflemen.  Off to the far right of the picture there is the Platoon HQ with one officer and one man.  The other man is carrying a flagpole.  I've got to figure out what to do about that.  I guess I could go with a crappy paper flag.  But I'd like to find another way to do it.  Any ideas are appreciated.

So totally that brings me a full strength platoon of 41 Japanese infantry.  Here is a detail shot of some of the men, and one of the leaders.  I gave leaders red headbands for their caps to distinguish them from rank and file men.

These are all West Wind models.  I still have more models to add.  I have three mortar teams, two HMG teams, as well as 8 "Jungle Fighers/Snipers."  Once those are completed, I could pick up a tank and call this completely done.

But right now I'm filling in gaps in my US and German forces.  This week I managed to complete three German Riflemen with grenade launchers, as well as a one Panzerfaust and a German NCO.

The Panzerfaust is a West Wind model.  The four remaining models are all Victory Force miniatures.  I have to say that these Victory Force miniatures are outstanding.  I absolutely love these models!  I stumbled on them because only Victory Force sold single models with grenade launchers.  I wanted these for my German forces.  I also picked up a few for my US Rangers.  When I got them, they looked too thin and tall to mix in well.  But after I painted them, I was amazed at how good these look.  Also, while being a little bit on the tall side, they mix in with my Crusader models nicely.  I like these enough to consider doing my Russian army (which I haven't started) all in Victory Force and supplementing with Crusader.  But cost may actually prevail in that argument.

So that's all for now.  I'll polish off the fourteen or so models I have for the US Rangers and then probably move back to terrain.  I've got a lot of terrain sitting on my work table that I'd like to move to the game table soon.