15mm Pacific War Complete

I probably could have got a few blog posts out of this batch of models, but I just got lazy. Plus, I don't believe people want or need an update from me every time I paint something. However, this last batch represents a milestone for me. It completes both my US Marines and Imperial Japanese Army forces!

Here's what I've got done. We'll start with the US Marines.

These are the various landing craft for my Marines. The top picture shows  all five LVTs. Leading the way (from the left) are two LVT 4 Buffalo, which are basically big troop transports with guns. Behind is an LVT (A) 4, which has the howitzer mounted in the open turret. The close up shots show two LVT (A) 1, Alligators, which have AT guns and MGs. 

The Alligators and Buffaloes were from Old Glory, and are solid resin pieces except for MGs and the turrets. The LVT (A) 4 is from Quality Casting. It's a solid hunk of metal, and was easy to assemble. My only complaint is that the deck and hull did not join and had huge gaps that required a lot of putty to fill.

You'll notice I slipped in some palm trees from Pegasus Hobbies. While I don't have a lot of jungle terrain, most of Peleliu was a coral wasteland of shell craters. Sure there was jungle, but most of my scenarios won't take place in them. So, the palm trees will do the trick for now.

Peter Pig 60mm mortar teams for the Marines. Nothing to write home about.  These guys round out the Marines.  I had forgotten to order them a while ago, and had to do a little catch up.

Moving on to the Japanese, we start with the armor.

The top picture shows two platoons of Type 95 Ha-Go tanks. These are the Battlefront models and as such they're on the bulky side. Assembly was easy, except gluing on  the MGs. These ended up getting glued to my fingers.

The second picture shows a comparison with Battlefront and Quality Casting. The QC tank is significantly smaller. It is also more detailed but a little bit more work to assemble than Battlefront. Still Battlefront leaves you no choice if you want two platoons, as they don't sell single blisters of the tanks.

Finally, here's the Japanese gun teams I needed. These are all Quality Casting models. I'll just say right away that these models suck.  They must be true 15mm, as they are tiny next to everything else I have, including Peter Pig.  The proportions are screwed up, too. If you look carefully, you'll find kneeling models that are as tall as standing models.  Really?

So besides looking like ass, they get the job done. The top models are Type 1 47mm anti tank guns and crew.  Beneath that is a 75mm mountain howitzer with extra crew. I did extra crew because some scenarios I plan to play call for larger than usual gun teams. Otherwise I added gun crews based on what their "normal" crew should be.

So that wraps it all up! I've been working on and off getting these painted over the last few weeks. Next, I'll play my first scenario with these forces. I'm excited to get them to the table.

I was going to take out all the models and do a nice group shot, but then realized what a pain that would be. So instead feast your eyes on a fuzzy, dark picture of both armies in their storage containers!