"Starting a Nostalgic and Pacific war project" Topic

Hi guys

As a kid growing up in the 70-80s I imagine like many of you, I grew up on Airfix, Esci and matchbox figures, I was lucky enough to have every WWII figure set at one time or another, losing my collection in a fire in the 90s, until now I have avoided the nostalgia bite because I have over the years bought many of these subjects (European theatre) and have them in my stash, I generally use metal figures and only use plastics when I'm doing heavy conversions e.g my Gebirgsjager or winter Fallschirmjäger armies, however, recently I have seen some Pacific war projects using Airfix and matchbox figures that have given me that nostalgic kick, mostly because I haven't owned these Pacific war sets since being a kid as I have concentrated on the European theatre.

As I have had the Pacific war on my to do list for a while now I'm taking the opportunity to start it and combine it with a Nostalgic project, the nostalgic project will be to paint at least 1 of each pose of each WWII set from these 3 companies, starting with Japanese and Aussies, I recently purchased the Airfix and Esci/Italeri Japanese sets, if anyone has a set of 1 of each pose of the Matchbox Japanese and Australian available for trade (I have the Airfix Australians on their way) PM me.

The Airfix Japanese were one of the first sets I owned, I loved these figs as a kid, I was maybe 5-6 years old, I had those and the US marines (I have the marines in my stash somewhere) later I had the Esci and matchbox Japanese and Australians, these 2 sets still have very good moulds, the Italeri figs have almost no flash and thankfully are cast in firm plastic, the Airfix figs are in their usual softer plastic, I remember many of the Airfix figures getting brittle as a kid, I'm hoping they fixed the plastic and this is not still an issue, I'm going to try and give them the best paint job I can, looking forward to this project.

I'll be adding metal and resin figs to the Pacific project, I will also be doing my usual mix of 3D printed and built model kits for the vehicles.
link

I hope you find somebody willing to part with some Matchbox Aussies and Japanese. Those are two pretty hard to find sets and usually fetch big bucks on eBay …

Yes, so do I, I'm hoping there is someone who wants some 3D prints.

take a look at the quite wonderful US AND Jap 3D designs done by Studio Historia. They are very nice, and some really oddball stuff. note- this month 20% off the individual files, but it may be worth it to just buy the entire package.

I look forward to following your progress on this project.

The Japanese were the first Airfix box I bought, costing all of 50 cents US (back when keyboards still had a "cents" key). I do not know if the Japanese got a redesign, as did the Affrika Corps, 8th Army, and several others. Yours look like they are a slightly darker shade than mine.

Hmmmm . . . a nostalgia army. Wonder what I would want to choose.

Best of wishes with your project!

Grelber

I'm doing the Pacific in 60mm. Figures from Expeditionary force. It's a nice skirmish size. They do Japanese, Australian, British, Scots, and Indian troops. They also do Americans from their WWII range. Figures are flash free and made of strong plastic.

Hi Dan,

I'm pretty sure I have both Matchbox sets but I will need to go through my storage. They probably have pretty rough paint jobs from decades ago but you are welcome to them. Hopefully they don't have the plastic rot that many of my original Airfix minis have suffered over the decades…

Have you looked at the BMC Japanese and Marines ? Not bad sculps.

"Hi Dan,

I'm pretty sure I have both Matchbox sets but I will need to go through my storage. They probably have pretty rough paint jobs from decades ago but you are welcome to them. Hopefully they don't have the plastic rot that many of my original Airfix minis have suffered over the decades…"
Hi mate, yes I'm interested, my email Dan.dunbar(at)hotmail.com replace the (at) with @, we'll work out a swap or something, not worried about any paint, thanks.

" Have you looked at the BMC Japanese and Marines ? Not bad sculps."
Is this message aim at me? Aren't BMC 1/32? My nostalgic project will cover figs I used as a kid, I never had bmc figures.

Best wishes for your nostalgia project Dan. I'm sure it will be satisfying.
---
Have you seen?
link
Scroll through the posts to find air and land actions we've done here in 2024.
---
and
War At The End Of The World, Douglas MacArthur and the
Forgotten Fight for New Guinea. 1942-1945 by James P. Duffy published in 2016.
---
When I was a boy my father and I watched Victory at Sea on television. After all those years ago, I returned to being interested in WWII Pacific Theatre history, miniatures and gaming.
---
Good Luck,
Bill P.
Chronicler for The Adventures of General Pettygree
---

Thank ge2002bill, I'll have a look.

My bad. Thought you were looking for the larger scale :/ Yeah, BMC came out later.