Saturday 1 April 2017

Not all tanks are MONSTERS!

Firstly Let me say I am blindly groping my way into WW2 Pacific wargames. I am not going to say I KNOW much at all about the settings, battles or conditions they all faced. What I will say is that Late war Western front has for the moment lost its appeal, I have seen FAR too many battles which rely on super heavy Goliaths of tanks. So as a remedy I an dipping my toe in the pacific war.

I already have the Americans covered, Graham has the British so I am starting on the Japanese. Who knows maybe I may even think about the Chinese and the Russians and even the French (indo China) or Dutch. But Japanese is my starting point.

So starting with the Japanese here is an objective marker! A destroyed Te Ke (Type 97 Tankette). The model is by Peter Pig and a single piece Resin cast.  The colours of Japanese tanks and even aeroplanes are a NIGHTMARE to get correct. So if you disagree with my colour choices fair play to you you are probably right.

The Type 97 (Te-Ke) was very small. In PBI for  example it is classed as armour 4 and gun 5. Which means that a HMG can shut it down and penetrate the armour! In No way is this a Monster Tank. What is more I know no maker of 15mm Japanese Monster tanks like the 0-1 (Experimental).... which never saw production. To the right does show how small the tankette was. I call it a tankette and not a tank because it really is so small.

 When (if ever) I get some undestroyed versions I will go into the  Tankette details  But as this is an objective marker and not a functional vehicle I am sure you will forgive the delay.

The last Picture shows it with a Zvezda Elephant, and a QRF Short wheel base Landrover. so you can see it ois hardly much bigger than a landrover. Which if you live in England will bring home to you just how small it really is.

That is it for today. I do have some more Japanese 15mm on the painting table so expect some more soon.

All the best Clint

16 comments:

  1. Great project......although not one I have tried.😀

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    1. Thank you Matt. The joy is that it should (fingers crossed) take me away from the German big Cat tanks!

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  2. Lovely work Clint, I have to say that I know very little of the period myself, but have certainly watched some very entertaining films set in the era.

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    1. Thank you Michael. Indeed you are correct. We all know a bit, but most (Including myself) do not know a lot. It was not called the Forgotten army (14th army) for no reason.

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  3. I love the Pacific theatre Clint, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do. My own BA Japanese force has hit the skids at the mo in favour of other projects but I'll get back to it

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    1. Thank you Andy. I was just watching Battle report no 2 (Bushido) on Utube. This will not be a slow burn. I expect to be up and running y the autumn. (Time/money permitting). Some Japanese Mortars next and then some infantry guns I think!

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  4. Anything WW" at the moment is guaranteed to catch my attention Clint, and this excursion into the Pacific war sounds great. Its not an area I know much about either, so I'm looking forward to learning a bit about it with your postings too :-)

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    1. Thanks Simon I doubt you will learn much from me though.

      The Pacific is an area of WW2 that I have previously steered clear of. Mostly because of the lack of tanks! But also because of hoe the Prisoners were treated. But now I hope I am sufficiently mature to get my head around it and accept different points of view and cultural stances.

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  5. What a delightful little tank Clint - nice work :)

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    1. Thanks Tamsin, It was an Impulse buy, but I do realise that I need some objective markers as well. I can easily imagine any commander saying "Advance as far as the destroyed tank!" and all the troops knowing where exactly that would be.

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  6. Once again, I never knew such a thing existed. Whilst I do know a lot about WW2, I am not so knowledgable about the Pacific theatre.

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    1. Thanks Mate. That is exactly the same as Me. From my point of view (and only from my point of view) because there have been less films about it that have been Hollywood blockbusters as a child I was never drawn to it.

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  7. Turned out very nicely indeed mate.

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    1. Thank you Simon. I will need to start the main army soon.

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  8. I'm sure you'll enjoy your discovery of WW2's Pacific front.
    The tanks (sic) is a good looking model, shame really that it's only going to be used as a marker as it looks excellent.

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    1. Thank you Joe. In PBI you do need objectives so I am not at all disappointed in this. Also it was my first painting of a Japanese tank since I was about 12 and at that age you can guess the frightful mess. So It was good to get it done and finished. Tanks no matter how small are not really a major factor in the Pacific!

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