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Bolt Action Japanese 1000pts army
Recommendations: 843
About the Project
Watching The Pacific TV box set with my son and seeing all the gorgeous US Marines Andy Zeck has painted made me reach for some old project ideas to get into some Pacific WW2 action. I have friends who have plans for desert British and British Burmese theatre bolt action armies, so fighting Japanese troops would fit fairly well as opponents. I will eventually paint up my own US marines but feel i can get the Japanese project underway faster. Including an FT17 is my deviation from historical accuracy and the list building in the game. The FT17 is a WW1 tank, the Japanese had some, but by WW2 they were just used for training and yet my army have gotten one and are desperate enough to field it.
Related Game: Bolt Action
Related Company: Warlord Games
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Completed
LMG Loader
Got this loader built and painted today.
Snipped the magazines off of LMGs on the sprue that i knew i wouldn’t be using.
There’s no need to have a designated loader model, but I just fancied making one.
This multi pose kit is really quite good and gives me lots of options.
Radio fail
I tried to make a radio set. Clipped from sprue and painted up…. And realised it was at least a third too small because their hands are too big for it. ?
Bury the hatchet
Really enjoyed this guy.
Gave him a very different knife / bayonet (strictly against regulations) – points for what war / army it comes from. (or even which sprue.)
Bit of base work with the hatchet buried in a stump.
Happy with the face and general look of this guy. ?
Managed to get an eye painted on this one. A lot of the heads in the box have glasses or squinting and shouting, but when i painted this guy the eye hadn’t accepted the wash very well. So the eye was marginally open and looked glaringly obvious he had no pupil. Had to do it and glad I did.
Storage.
Got a unit finished!
Plus started using a tool box from Lidl for my army. Even takes the armour easily. Only issue is the MMG team won’t fit. Have to keep flat, but otherwise should be an adequate transport.
Also finished more rifles. ?
Private Wang?! Hurry up!!
Hastily grabbing his slung rifle and bayonet as he tries to catch up.
Also started painting some of the riflemen’s trousers Vallejo Green Brown, for variety and because I have seen someone on Facebook using this paint as the primary colour for their Japanese army and it looked good.
And chipping away at the rifles required for the last squad of infantry. ?
Last hurdles - motivation...
Joined an Isolation Challenge Facebook page. Paint or hobby once a day and post.
Have used this ounce of pressure to keep building and painting the riflemen and it has kept up the momentum. Up to Day 9 without missing any days, so it seems to be working. ?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212698999957432/
It has become a little tiresome painting the same scheme over and over, but i have tried to vary the poses to keep myself engaged.
Sniper 2. This time he's serious.
I have been told that on some of the expansion list builders you can have multiple snipers in Japanese lists which seems thematic to me.
So with a bonus sprue i unearthed i am looking to make another sniper. This time i have looked on YouTube for inspiration and found out about the type 97 rifle. It was basically the standard Japanese rifle with a detachable side-mounted scope.
As i said before there is no sniper rifle on the sprue so i have turned to one of my British weapons sprues for a scope.
And after clipping and assembly the sniper has a scope. 
