Early War Sikhs for Burma

The Burma project continues with the addition of a Sikh infantry section and some support units.

As with the majority of this project, the figures are from the Warlord plastic kit, with the addition of an officer from Artizan. The warlord kit is pretty limited on accessories, so the binoculars for the anti-tank gun spotter had to be pulled from the bits box. The 2-inch mortar arms seem to only work with the prone body, and the arm of the ammo carrier won't fit on the kneeling body, so you are limited with pose variety here. It's a great shame when compared to the knee mortar options available in the plastic Japanese kit.

The infantry section is built straight from the box without modifications, and as with the previous builds, looks reasonable enough for a cost effective option.

A Detour Through Ethiopia

 My tropical British force for Bolt Action will primarily be used in Burma and associated areas, but I wanted the option to use them in Africa against some of the other armies in my gaming group.  To help with that, I've added some troops specific for the Ethiopia/East Africa campaign.

First up are some some local Ethiopian/Abyssinian resistance fighters, produced by Empress miniatures.  The Ethiopian army was poorly equipped when Italy attacked, so most fighting was done by local tribesmen equipped with 19th century rifles, swords, and spears.

These figures were really well cast and sculpted, with a lot of character in each face. I highly recommend them.

Next up is another group of the 81st West African Division. The bulk of the troops are the Warlord plastics, with two white NCOs created from The Assault Group (TAG) Chindits.  The figures are close enough in style that they blend in well.

The A12 Matilda MkII is the plastic kit produced by Warlord. You get parts for 3 variants, and I've gone with the African version (minus a spotlight I lost cutting parts off the sprue). It's a really well made kit and includes decals and other support items.  The white and red markings associated with Africa were not in use by the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (4 RTR) in East Africa, so I have left them off. The dark tones in the African camouflage pattern seemed to vary between chocolate brown, a slate gray, or a dark green, and I've selected brown for this tank.

Finally, I have a South African produced Marmon Herrington MkII armoured car from Company B. Now I'm not sure if the MkII was used in Ethiopia or only the MkI, but since nobody makes a MkI, Company B's is the only option.  Sadly, it is not a very good one.  The completed vehicle seen here has been heavily modified by me to get it looking decent for the table.  The images of what you have to start with follow after.

What you start with is one of the roughest castings I have every purchased.  The resin portion was highly pitted, with unacceptable levels of resin build up in areas such as the spare tire. Details, such as door hinges,handles, and appropriate rivet marks, were also lacking The metal wheels and pintle machine guns (not used by me) were cast well enough, but one of the wheel axles was missing its end, and as you can see below, the Boys AT rifle and Bren gun in the turret were nothing more than twisted bits of white metal with no details. Who at Company B thinks this is an acceptable product in this day and age ?!?

First up in trying to salvage this monstrosity was about 3 hours of filling and sanding to deal with the rough resin texture. For some reason Company B provided 6 wheels instead of the needed 4, so I was fortunate to be able to saw off the resin spare and replace it with a metal one.

Trying to add the appropriate rivets over the car would have been a nightmare, so I skipped that and only added equipment hooks on the sides. Bits of card and wire were used to add in additional missing details. The final items of equipment hanging from the sides and the commander came from the bits box. As nothing could be salvaged from the turret guns, these were cut off and replaced with plastic barrels from the Warlord Commonwealth infantry sprues. There is also no pivot point for the turret, so you are forced to glue it in a static position.

The wheels were also a poor fit, with the front axle needing new posts drilled into it due to the miscasting, and the back wheels unable to fit in the rear wheel wells without padding between the axle and car body.

Final judgement is that the Empress, Warlord, and TAG products covered here are worth your money and time, but steer clear of this shoddy Company B product unless you are desperate and have the patience and spare bits to make it look presentable. 

Gurkhas and Sikhs for Burma

 My British 14th Army for Bolt Action continues with some late war Gurkhas and Sikhs.

The Gurkhas are from The Assault Group's packs SKU BPC013 and SKU BPC014, along with two NCOs built from converted Warlord plastic kits (British Infantry and Commonwealth Infantry).  While the figures themselves blend in reasonably well after being painted (Warlord's are slightly chunkier and have wider hat brims), the rifles are quite different between the manufactures and I wouldn't mix them. 

Next up are some Artizan Designs Sikhs (packs SWW140 and SWW142) with some supporting Warlord plastics. The bodies are of similar proportions between the manufactures, but the Warlord figures will look slightly shorter if you don't add a base the same thickness as Artizan's. The guns are similar in style, though the Warlord Sikh heads have bushier beards and flatter turbans than their Artizan counterparts.

That said, I think they look reasonably well together.

Lastly, here's a side by side size shot: Warlord plastic with no added base, TAG, Warlord plastic with added base, and Artizan. I think they will all look fine together on the table.

More WW2 Bolt Action British Troops for CIB

I'm back with some more early war British troops for the China/India/Burma theater. As before, these were built using Warlord's plastic kits for Commonwealth and 8th Army troops.

First up are members of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st Battalion, from India. They were sent to Burma in early 1942.  I've added some leaves as camouflage to the helmets using green stuff, and the topees have the regimental red triangle.  The 2nd Battalion fought in Madagascar, and similar appearing troops from South Africa fought in Ethiopia, so this unit will be pressed into other theaters for gaming.

Next up are member of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, 4th Battalion, who defended Singapore in 1942.  They were unfortunately captured by the Japanese and used as slave labor on the Burma Railway. The helmets bear their yellow regimental flash as seen in the Osprey book "The British Army 19-39-45 (3)."  Similar looking troops were seen in Ethiopia, so this unit will also see double service in games. 

The last piece of of kit is Copplstone's Lanchester MkII 6x4 Armoured Car that I purchased years ago for my VBCW project. It's been painted based on the example seen at the Bovington Tank Museum. It was an old design by the time the war broke out, but equipment in Malaysia seems to have been limited at that time.

81st (West African) Division for Burma

 To provide another opponent for my Japanese army, I've decided to expand into Burma with a British Commonwealth force. While the white Chindit and Gurkha troops get most of the attention, I wanted to feature some of the lesser well known troops that also fought there. To start with, my first units will be from the 81st (West African) Division. 

Division Insignia. Source: Wikipedia

These troops originated from the Gold Coast (Ghana), Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, with some fighting the Italians in Ethiopia before arriving in India in 1943.  Troops originally arrived in Khaki Drill, but switched over to Jungle Green as supplies became available.

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Hermes' Wings + The Chindits

Source: Southeast Asia Library Group

To build my troops, I used the Warlord Games Commonwealth Infantry plastic set, with some bits from the 8th Army and British Infantry plastic sets. For the heads, I primarily used the Australians, as I figured the slouch hats were close enough at this scale. A few heads in helmets were mixed in, along with some bodies in trousers, to add a bit more variety.

The first infantry section I've assembled is meant to represent a newly arrived unit that has not had a chance to be reequipped. From my online research it seems like green helmets were more commonly seen in Asia, but as one of the above photographs shows a trooper (left side) with a light colored helmet under his netting, I felt it was feasible to throw a sand colored one into the mix.

The second section is one that has been in country for a bit, and has either self dyed some of their clothing or been partially reequipped with jungle green gear. I've also mixed the webbing colors, with some soldiers painted using the original Vallejo 884 Stone Grey as a base, and others now having 988 Khaki as a base. 

Trying to pick an appropriate "jungle green" proved challenging, as it seems there was a quite a bit of lot to lot variability, and problems with the color fading.  The dark green recommended by Warlord for chindits seemed to be factory fresh and inappropriate for the field, and others have recommended either a green grey or blue green grey color instead. Using a cast photo of "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" for reference, I opted for Vallejo 886 Green Grey and 920 German Uniform as my bases.

Source: Discogs

As mentioned before, I mixed in a couple of bodies from the British Infantry plastic set to add a bit more variety. The areas to attach the arms are different between the sets, and while I could get independent Commonwealth arms to look pretty good on the Infantry bodies, the combined arms did not work so well. The long sleeved Infantry arms are also much more slender than their Commonwealth counterparts, so you cannot use them on Commonwealth bodies without it looking odd. 

Compared to the Plastic Japanese set Warlord produces, I did not think this kit was as good.  The mold lines seemed more pronounced in the Commonwealth (and 8th Army) kit, and I felt that apart from the heads, the Commonwealth kit had less viable options for variety in it (there were a lot of strange arms that weren't so useful). Additionally, not all the arms sat flush on the bodies and some of the webbing limited the positions you could place the arms in.  This resulted in me having to do a fair amount of filling and trimming. But that said, I think you can still get a fairly decent force on the cheap by going with the plastic kits over metal.