"WW2 Japanese Figure Quality" Topic

I am trying to get started with WW2 Japanese miniatures but, having tried a few samples of the ranges on offer, I am disappointed with the overall figure quality that's around. Bolt Action are generally poor, Westwind and Brigade inconsistent and a little on the small side. Am I missing something? Is there a good range out there or does anyone know of anything in the pipeline?

Although I would love to get started with the Pacific Theatre, my wait continues…

The Assault Group. Match up really well with Brigade.

Battle Honors from 19th Century Miniatures. They have Marines and Japanese and just about everything else for World War II. They are an older range and haven't added anything in a long time and they don't promote themselves, but I think they are better than any of the current lines.

I am not sure what inconsistent means – please contact me here -

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And yes the Japanese are smaller than normal 28mm figures as they were much smaller than the Americans. Take a look at period photos and you will see the Marines towering over them in many cases by over a heads height. We actually only made the difference about 1.5-2 mm but that was by design as doing them to actual average heights of the time would have been a hard sell to the wargaming public.

I am wondering what you mean also. I have the Assault Group and BrigadeGames along with Company B's offerings and feel they are excellent.

Brigade and The Assault Group (in that order) are by far the best Japanese out there in 28mm. I'm another that doesn't understand your criticism of Brigade.

I have a lot of The Assault Group.

Out of the hundreds of figures in the range I know of one figure that needs to be remolded (which means the entire pack will be remolded this Spring.) It is a pose that is very rough on the molds and causes flash between a slung rifle and a helmet. Other than that casting should be pretty darn good unless one slipped by me.

All my 28mm figures are Assault Group and Brigade games, but Company B has some great support weapons and crew, Japanese soldiers on bicycles, and a nice range of 1/56th scale Japanese AFVs. Good stuff.

I think that Matchbox Japanese were top notch and wasn't Revell going to re-release them later on this year?

You may also take a look at Gothic Line. They're a small Portuguese company with an interesting and nice looking line of Americans, Germans and Japanese 28mm miniatures. You can see pics of their painted Japanese by scrolling to the middle of the page at the link below:

gothicline.webs.com

Unfortunately, I can't vouch for them because I've never had any Gothic Line miniatures.

SBminisguy – you do realize that BrigadeGames is the primary retailer of the CompanyB items in the states as we are partners on the Pacific War range? Plus we carry all their vehicles.

I'm a fan of Warlord's "Jungle Fighters" – mine are primed and ready for paint. I've sampled Westwind and find the faces so exaggerated as to be mildly offensive – but they do make a nice pack of casualties; Brigade Games are my favs – Paul Hicks sculpts – what can you say… And don't forget Pulp minis – their Japanese are….unique

Nexusstevie – mix and match and you'll be pleased!

I know what he means. The thing he forgot to ask is IMHO. I see all the lines he mentioned as very nice. He doesn't. So be it!

Any thoughts from you guys on good 20mm Japanese?

For 20mm Japanese-- Warmodelling, SHQ, Early War Miniatures, FAA, Sgt. Major's, Platoon 20, and Kelly's Heroes are all worth a look.

If you want to go with 15mm Eureka Miniatures has a good range as does Peter Pig and Command Decision

Lots of choice and figures and vehicles are basically compatible

Eureka

Peter Pig

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Fantassin 20mm Japanese soldiers look great! I hope to augment my SHQ with a box of these.

Ok guys, I appreciate all of the comments. I guess combatpainter is right, it's all about personal opinion really, another aspect of this hobby which makes it so great. I also agree with johnnytodd, there are some good sculpts in all of the ranges; it's just a case of mixing and matching. Finally, I would hate to offend any figure manufacturers out there and that certainly was not my intention anyway. You all do a great job and without any variation of styles, the hobby would be much less interesting indeed. I was just curious to know if there was anything else out there which I haven't tried as yet.

My first Bolt Action IJA figures were pretty good. I bought another box a year later and the same figures had lots of casting flaws and flash requiring some heavy knifework.

I have some Old Glory, and they are OK sculpts. The nicest ones I have are from The Assault Group.

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CmdrKiley, I wasn't aware that Old Glory carried 28mm Japanese figures.

Those would be either the Battle Honors line carried by Old Glory 15s, or the West Wind Berlin or Bust carried by Old Glory 25s, I think. There is no actual 28mm Old Glory WW II line.

The Battle Honours Japanese in 28mm are awesome (imho) – masses of variation in kit, pose and headgear give up to 70 unique figures in the range… and they've even been cast with nostrils… if they had lungs they'd move across the table on their own!

i have to say the Gothic line Japs are really excellent

full of life and well animated!!

The Assault Group and Brigade Games are excellent figs as well as the service. There is no US distributor for TAG so overseas shipment as far as I know. Lon at Brigade Games is reliable and good to do business with. I also echo comments about Bolt Action flashing. I had one fig that had the gun incompletely cast. TAG and Brigade Games compliment each other very well. Brigade Games Japanese are little smaller but they were in real life as already pointed out.

Loads of nice Japanese figures in 20mm, including the old matchbox plastics if you can find them and some of the Airfix ones too. They fit in pretty well with my mixed bag of metal figures.