"15mm Japanese School Girl Tank Crew" Topic

As Part of the Girls Und Panzer thread [on the Lead Adventures Forums] we are looking at sourcing some 15mm Japanese school girl miniatures that can be used as bailed out crew and tank commanders.

Eureka Miniatures has had the following added to their 300club.

http://eurekamin.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=87_194_202&products_id=12398

All you need to do is put in the amount you want no payment will be made until it is funded. The miniatures will cost around $0.80 AUD each.
depending on how many are pre-ordered will influence how many variants are made.
at present there would be 4 different girls with maybe a second set being made if funds allowed.

Currently we have almost 300 pre-ordered but need to hit 600 in total before it gets made.

If we had 35 guys each pre-order 10 each we would exceed the amount we need and the minis would then be made.

The cool thing is you could use these minis for any sci-fi or mech type game.
as far as I know they will be anime themed.

please if your keen to get some add your order now as this project will most likely be cancelled at the end of February if the 600 units is not hit.

if you do pre-order some can you post in here so we can keep it up to date. no need to know how many just that you have supported it would be great.

ok I got a reply from Nic. from Eureka Miniatures.

Dear Alan,

My apologies, we never make concept art for the Clubs, unless someone supplies it.
If the project gets up and made we would be looking at four figures, two to fit in hatches (ne full figure, one half figure), one to sit outside on the tank, and probably one running, to escape a burning vehicle.
If we get enough money to make more figures, we would increase those numbers.

Of course I would make those suggestions once the project hit target and if we received feedback saying that other poses were preferred or these were unsuitable, we would change the designs before we made them.

All the above is predicated on getting the numbers, and this is looking increasingly unlikely as time goes by.

All the best

Nic

So those who pre-order would get to voice their opinion on how the minis would look. But for me the minis should be something like this:

or this:

So if your keen to get some of these and support this we really do need more pre-orders. at least another 350 more if possible.,

Cheers
LGW

…something feels very wrong about this…

I'm already in for 60. That is probably 59 more than I will actually use, but if we don't reach 600 we will have to do the anglerfish dance!

Damn, I have 30 ordered.

BTW, any idea on sourcing 1/100 team logo decals?

====

Geoff, try this…

link

You'll get hooked. Yes you will.

"…something feels very wrong about this…"

Ummm…

yeah…

Certain questions I would ask, but then this thread would derail REAL quickly….

Just click on Taskforc58's link. Also available on Hulu if you prefer that.

link

It will answer all your questions. Just clear up your schedule first. :-)

Certain questions I would ask, but then this thread would derail REAL quickly….

Maybe it should be derailed.
This forum can occasionally come up with some pretty strange threads.

Japanese school girls?
Pathetic.

No really my glass of tea.

John T

No really my glass of tea.

If the initial order is successful we might be able to have them do a St. Gloriana pack next. :-)

This show was so ridiculous but then again, so is a lot of anime. That isn't to say that it was not entertaining. Glad to see the interest in bring it to the game table.

Pathetic?

Huh. I really enjoy watching the tanks in action. The mechanisms and functioning appear to be really accurate. Yes, there are significant, silly liberties on the way they maneuver.

The schoolgirl thing is a harmless and mostly ironic plot device and compared to a great deal of anime (most, actually), Girls und Panzers is puritan. 'Fanservice' is nonexistent except for one little scene where the teams are washing tanks and one is wearing a swimsuit.

Maybe it is my communist upbringing and Saxon mentality, but I have to agree with GeoffQRF; this seems a little strange.

Jurgen

If you haven't seen it – and it seems that is true for most (all ?) of the naysayers – then please watch it before you make judgement.

As Dr Mathias points out, the Schoolgirls are drawn decently. This is actually anime that you could watch with your daughter or wife.

Of course it is strange – that's what makes it interesting.

Okay, I'm in for 12. I thought I signed up for it last time this was mentioned but no trace of it. Thanks for the reminder.

Alan / LGW – do we know, or can we find out how many individuals have pledged ? From what I recall, there are two hurdles to a successful 300 launch – both numbers of figures and number of people supporting.

If we are shy on quantity, but not number of backers, well, I'm likely not the only one who would up their quantity to see these get made.

CraigH,

You assume that we have not seen it. I watched a couple of episodes when it was discussed on TMP and never bothered with any more.

Jurgen

I don't really see how underage Japanese school girls have anything to do with historical gaming. Stuff like this is the reason why I stay off forums like War Thunder or World of Tanks these days. Can't visit a single thread without seeing anime and pony pictures. This is so disappointing.

As long as the next phase is something like Vampire Hunter D or some other such darker figure line. Some of the Japanese Anime is actually quite good. I hate to admit it but I loved Speed Racer when I was in 3rd and 4th grade. We didn't have cable back then and it was one of the regular PM shows on the few broadcast channels we got in Central Texas.

Omni, you will note that this is a miniatures site. We see fantasy, Sci-Fi and historical all here. Different strokes for different folks.

@OmniJackal then I guess you wouldn't like my daughter's six T-34/85's I painted up as my little pony friendship is magic and my son's Autobot colour schemes. As both not have a team each for the we are making.

As for the show my wife asked me if the kids could watch as she is well aware what most anime is like and I told her that in the first episode alone they missed at least 30 pantie shots which other types if anime would have had no issues showing. The shows creator was very strict on this matter and has made sure the his ruling is followed through.

The serious is a lot of fun and promotes friendships, responsibilities , and being strong girls who drive WWII tanks.

I needed an excuse to use my tanks as I had long ago ditched FoW and I have not play BGK/BGO so to me its a harmless bit if fun.

I will find out from Nic what the backer to qaunty ratio we will need. Once we get the project confirmed I will set up a poll for what style and poses we would like.

I am in for 60 myself as I have around 40+ tanks getting painted up into school colour schemes for our battles.

Thx to all those who have pre-ordered the minis. Please spread the word as much as you can.

Cheers
LGW

Wanting to game GuP tank action is the only reason why I have a 15mm KV-2. :D

@Lord, you are correct. It may be just a game but these men deserve more respect than this. I honestly don't see how most anime isn't banned as child porn. I watched one once where there were aliens in WWII and the girls had engines on their legs. Within 5 seconds of the credits starting it was nothing but panty up skirt shots of 12 year old girls. I'll take my leave of this thread and leave you guys to your borderline illegal fetishes.

Ah, he watched Strike Witches.

Girls under Panzers is harmless. We fetishise a lot of silly things, anyone checked the Needs more Boobies page lately? Or even the Modern boards?

Having said this, this ain't my cup o tea.

The funny thing is the actual school girls are not the main theme its ALL about the TANKS.

Its away to make this different from other t.v series. And there is no sexulising of the girls I think the most risque shot is of one senior girl in a bikini. Like I mentioned before the creator had forbidden anything that would be degrading or sexual.

I will be letting my daughter watch this show once the English dub is released next year.

Currently we are making fan based rules on the Lead adventures forum board. Its turning into a FoW tank aces with aspects from x-wing, blood bowl, and generic card games.

Currently designing data cards for each tank, damage cards, battle cards, upgrade cards, tank stats, various tokens, hidden tank cards, number crunching costs of each tank and the initiative for each tank.

Its coming along still early days.

LGW

Maybe it is my communist upbringing and Saxon mentality, but I have to agree with GeoffQRF; this seems a little strange.

GuP is *very* strange, but I thought the idea of tank dueling would be an amusing minigame to draw more new people in.

That's why I submitted this 300 club request in the first place. Also, note that the original idea is a couple commander halves, some 'mechanic' poses, and some 'bailed out crew' poses.

I'm sorry for being rude. To each his/her own. I just felt really dirty after watching the one I saw. Someone said it was Strike Witches and I do think that was the one. I'm all for gratuitous nudity just not when they're so young. If you guys say this one really is about the tanks and it's safe with Grandma in the room then I might check it out. Forgive my ignorance of the matter, I just hadn't heard of anything even remotely legal in the states coming out of Japan if it was animated.

I did watch it

And it is strange !!!
I do not find Japanese schoolgirl trope interesting.
Whether they ride a mech nor WWII tank

But de gustibus..
If you like them go for it !

@OmniJackal – I hope you would give it a try. You may still not like it, that's fair – watching a Hetzer 'drift' around a corner may not meet with everyone's tastes.

However, I would be very surprised if you found anything offensive in it.

Now I'm off to the LAF to see what they are up to with rules !

I got a reply back from Nic at Eureka

We are currently a third of the way [200 pre ordered minis and 60 of those are mine.] To the 600 total we need.
As for the minimum amount of backers it is 10.

We need 10 backers with 600 units before they will make the minis. As it is he is not optimistic we will get there. I really want to prove him wrong.

So spread the word go onto the LAF site in the modern/Post war section look for GuP are there any rules? Thread which I have created and check out what we have designed so far. Please feel free to add in any advice, ideas or options. We all want to get our tanks out and have some GuP fun.

LGW

I got hooked mostly on the tank anime, there isn't much risqué involved. I thought GuP it was well made and thought out. It could be a opening for kids (boys and girls) nobody gets killed in the show no matter how destroyed the tank is. Two sets with standing and hatch openings could easily be on order for anyone.

Just ordered 12.

Panzer Vor.

To each his own, as someone or other has said. I discovered GuP, and anime series in general, after ending up in the hospital for a severe health problem and subsequently losing my career of eleven years. That simple little show with the absurd idea that young girls operating tanks has become a martial art basically kept me sane and focused on something outside of myself during that dark time. The message of the series is so entirely positive I'm not sure what anyone would find objectionable.

It also has to be said that not all, or even most, anime is focused on sexualized characters and fan service. I'm watching two entirely non-military series now; Gingitsune (Silver Fox) and Non Non Biyori that are 'G' rated, involve girls in school, but have completely different themes. I myself wondered why so many of these Japanese shows featured primarily female characters, and came across an interview with retired anime master Hayao Miyazaki. He said something to the effect that as an animator, he could have a girls act and express emotions in a way that boys generally won't. Miyazaki felt girls are more interesting for the audience.

In any case, I'm putting in an order for several of the 15mm GuP figures.

@rvandusen hope your feeling better nowadays

I stumbled on to GuP by accident when I was searching for tank research and thought wow this would be great as a table top game. My kids bought into the idea as well both love tanks. Hence why my Daughter is fielding a Pravda Girls High School team painted in My Little Pony colours scheme and my Son has Autobots for his Saunders University High School team.

For me I have go with the Kuromorimine Girls High School [German tanks] the Jaktosota High School [Finn Tanks]
and a Pravda Girls High School team. I might consider doing a St. Gloriana Girls High School [British tanks] just depends on funds and if I can be bothered.

At present we are waiting for Season 2 to be announced nothing so far. So not sure what new tanks will be coming through. We have added in alot of tanks not shown in the T.V series but were in that particular nations forces. [eg M26 Pershing for the U.S team.]

so thx to the guys who have ordered some and fingers crossed we get there by the end of January.

LGW

Yeah, the thing to remember about anime is that (in Japan) it's a technique, not a genre. Saying anime is all about panty shots like saying that CGI movies all contain big blue chicks.

That said, it's worth remembering that Japan's age of majority used to be 13, so the heroes of coming-of-age stories (both raunchy and clean) tend to be younger overall. (I think it's 18 now, but cultural tropes take a long time to die.)

Finally, if you're looking for good, clean anime, let me recommend Shingu.

For decals, Company B has them: link

I've painted up the motley collection of Ooarai tanks plus St. Gloriana's unit so that I use them for wargaming demos at Comic Con.

Considering that the Russians vs Germans game I've run for the past two years attracts players from 4 to 20+, adding an Anime-based version will only bring more people to the hobby.

The anime itself has become very popular in Japan with Ibaraki airport and the real Ooarai both using imagery for promotional purposes. The JSDF even brought a tank to the village's GuP-themed spring festival.

link
akibatan.com/tag/ibaraki

Wyatt

At least the show doesn't feature anything with tentacles.

Didn't the japs use to have teenage girls as part of their periodic table?

Could be fun to paint. Keep us updated on the campaign!

I count 7 people just on this thread with orders in. Are there more at LAF? We have to be just about at the 10 order criteria, so now it is just getting to 600.

See my previous post.

That's why I submitted this 300 club request in the first place. Also, note that the original idea is a couple commander halves, some 'mechanic' poses, and some 'bailed out crew' poses.

That makes for 8-10 Girls per Panzer, and that's what I committed to.

I've heard a lot of things get called "wargaming" and many of them were an incredible stretch to be considered so, but this really takes the cake

I'm in for I think about 25 figs I think I'd have to recheck. I did my order a while ago.

any other place we could post this to that might get some more interest???

@HistoryPhD its about tank battles using tanks from WWII the fact that girls are driving them is irrelevant it could have been a T.V series about Clowns driving WWII tanks it wouldn't have altered the fact its about the tank battles. The Girls just fill in the gaps between the battles.

plus its a marketing ploy in Japan.
Young girls+tanks = young boys buying more tanks…

LGW

> Young girls+tanks = young boys buying more tanks…

I have bought more 1/35 tank model kits since GuP than I have in the 10 years before.

Good for

if you need a young girl to sell a tank to you..

Yeah, I did watch the video. I still don't get it. In fact if anything watching that made it worse…

Panzers and Lees fighting together?

"Get in the Panther… "

"Panzers and Lees fighting together?"

Since the protagonist school is by default "Japan", I think their junkyard assortment of international early-war tanks is sort of a comment on the overall state of WWII Japanese armor: you couldn't even field a plausible tank-do team with it.

"Young girls+tanks = young boys buying more tanks…"

That's not really how the market works over here. A tame high school show like that is built to appeal to both sexes. If anything, it is an effort by the show's sponsors (big scale model companies) to draw girls into the hobby. Interior dorm shots are full of model kit boxes laying around everywhere.

Kind of a boring show, but neat concept. Would certainly be a neat challenge to paint up tanks 'clean' and anime-style.

Why are they in sailor suits if they are driving tanks? Do they drive the tanks into the sea and duke it out underwater?

They are all so long-legged and wearing incredibly short skirts with hemlines about three millimeters below their crotches. I keep telling myself this is wholesome but my mind keeps rejecting the notion. If my daughter ever wore a skirt like that, I'd lock her in the basement until she reached menopause.

Sailor suit is actually a fairly common style of school girl uniform in Japan in real life.

link

The main School or heroes are not based on Japanese there is a school that already does that.
here is the list of the 16 schools from the T.V series. And their school emblems.

List of schools
[6]Anzio Girls' High School : Italian themed academy; defeated by Ooarai in the second round.
[9] BC Free School : possibly Canadian(?) themed academy; defeated by St. Gloriana in the first round.
[15] Blue Division High School : Spanish themed academy; defeated by Jaktosota in the first round.
[4]Bonple High School : Polish themed academy; defeated by Pravda in the first round.
[14]Chi-Ha Tan Academy : Japanese themed academy; defeated by Kuromorimine in the first round.
[16]Jaktosota High School : Finnish themed academy; defeated by Kuromorimine in the second round.
[2]Koala Forest Academy :Australia themed academy; defeated by Viking Marine in the first round.
[13]Kuromorimine Girls High School : German themed academy; defeated by Ooarai in the finals.
[5]Maginot Girls' Academy : French themed academy; defeated by Anzio in the first round.
[8]Ooarai Girls High School  : mixed themed academy; Tournament champion.
[3]Pravda Girls High School  : Russian themed academy; defeated by Ooarai in the semi-finals.
[10]St. Gloriana Girls High School  : British themed academy; possibly defeated by Kuromorimine in the semi-finals(?).
[7]Saunders Girls High School  : American themed academy; defeated by Ooarai in the first round.
[1]Viking Marine High School : possibly Swedish(?) themed academy; defeated by Pravda in the second round.
[12]Waffle Academy : Belgian themed academy; either defeated by Yogurt Academy in the first round or defeated by St. Gloriana in the second round.
[11]Yogurt Academy : academy whose theme is unknown; either defeated by Waffle Academy in the first round or defeated by St. Gloriana in the second round.