"Sino-Japanese Battle in 54mm -- 1937" Topic

Here are some photographs from our game awhile back of the fighting between Japanese and Chinese forces in 1937.

link

Figures and smaller vehicles are 54mm and 1/32 scale models by 21st Century Toys, BMC, CTS, Marx, and Armies in Plastic. The Type 97 Japanese Chi-Ha tank by Tamiya (1/35).

Photos by Ray.

Table, terrain, and Japanese forces from the collection of our host, Ron. Chinese forces from my collection.

I've got some of the Chinese. Unfortunately, they command such a premium now. If I ever decide to do something with them, I'll have to flesh them out with some Germans. Who are you using for the Chinese in German helmets? I don't think anyone makes 54mm Carden Loyds or Vickers 6 tons, nor have I been able to find a reasonably priced FT 17.

I've got a few Italians as well, so I can do some Japanese-Italian street fighting like in Tango's link.

The Chinese in German helmets are by Armies in Plastic (Great War German infantry in Stahlhelm).

Pit Road out of China makes a nice Vickers-Crossley armored car in 1/35 scale hard-plastic. It is a well-designed kit, but requires some patience on the build. I have mine assembled and base-coated, but not yet completed.

I believe HobbyBoss, also a manufacturer from China, has the Vickers 6 ton in 1/35 scale.

I tried building the FT-17 -- Japanese Ko-Gata 1/35 version; by RPM (out of Poland) once, but it is a rather difficult build with an incredible number of very fine plastic parts. I gave up about half-way through, but hope someday to make a second attempt at completion.

The 1/35th scale kits are slightly under-scale when compared to the 21st Century Toys and AiP figures, but nobody seemed to mind too much during the game. For our purposes, they mix in well enough.

The Italians sound like a neat idea -- certainly something out of the usual, and well worth the effort. Good luck!

I thought the Germans looked familiar; I have some in the basement some place.

Thanks for the tips on the AFVs. I really dislike building 1/35 scale tanks (there are too many parts that I just don't want to mess with)but I may not have a choice.

Gorgeous painting on the figures, the table, vehicles, etc. Impressive work. How big is your table? I've done 54mm games on both a 21'-square garage floor, and a 9' x 5' Ping Pong Table (much easier on the body). Thanks! Cheers!

The table is 12.5' by 6' -- multiple smaller folding tables placed side-by-side.

Wish I could take credit for the painting. Many of the Japanese infantry, and the Chinese in light blue uniforms with the British-style tin hat, come painted by 21st Century Toys, sadly now out of production. Some of the blue-uniformed Chinese I did convert, giving one-in-ten a sub-machine gun.

The Armies in Plastic WWI German infantry were fun to paint as German-trained and equipped Nationalist Chinese.

Playing on the garage floor sounds interesting, but how did you avoid stepping on the figures?

Makes me recall the old "Twilight Zone" episode, where the young couple awakens the morning after a night of heavy drinking, only to find themselves trapped in an alien race of giants' model train layout. Squish!

We walked very carefully. We had cardboard buildings, made out of boxes, with paint cans for refinery tanks. The floor was bare. The hardest part, was getting down to move, then standing back up to walk around. Our set up was crude, by comparison, but the fun was there -- my son's reminisce about it still, 10+ years later. Cheers!

Nice! Just picked up some OWN Figures of Chinese in German helmets for this and some Back of Beyond games as Government and or Warlord troops… could use the AIP Germans to supplement them to of course. They are rather heavily equipped for the Chinese of the period, which was why I wanted some of the OWN figures.

OWN figures?

Are those the multi-part plastic figures from China -- Second Sino-Japanese War?

Yes, that's the ones. Very nicely done – animation and sculpting is excellent.