Chas Young provides an in-box review of the 1/35 scale Japanese Army Infantry by DML. Though out of production, it can still be found occasionally and worth looking into.

Link to Item



If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Good review Chas, Great to have the other associated reviews linked too. I have these in the stash somewhere as part of the Windtalkers set. Off topic but the resin figure included in that set looks more like Tom Hanks than Nicholas Cage

Nice to have this set reviewed. I built it back when it was first issued and found the plastic was v brittle - never found part of one of the bayonet scabbards and had to use a spare Tamiya one.

David

Japanese Infantry?
Must be Chas Good review buddy,
weapons moulded in hand, i can relate to that with that verlinden figure i have got going, but it shouldnt be to hard to fit new ones:)
all the best
james

I agree, the figure in my kit also had his thumb and finger broken off and missing. Like David pointed out, the parts in the Windtalkers set are very brittle. Gettin old...




Hey its my passion, my favourite subject. I just wish I had more time to sit down and actually do some modelling! Oh well, holidays are approaching...

Thanks for the feedback, it is really appreciated. There is nothing worse than spending hours writing an article and taking photos then to get no response.

Chas

good review, it would be nice to see some in gen 2 at some point

just a little off topic, does any body know if any body makes any marching Japanese figures rather than the in action ones

cheers

keith

Thanks Keith.

The most obvious choice would be Warrior's offering, but they are in resin and expensive!

Chas

Chas-- good review. Did you get the photos I sent of Pointe du Hoc? How is that project coming along?
DJ

Hi all,

An old topic I know but I thought it would be worth mentioning the following:

I recently bought another 'Windtalkers' kit and the Type 96 LMG also had the carrying handle missing. A coincidence? I think not.

I did some research and came across Micheal Bedard's review of the same kit, except it was the original 'stand alone' kit release. In the pictures I could see that the Type 96 in his pictures DID have a handle.

http://www.track-link.net/reviews/k1739

I cannot offer an explanation for this!

Chas

Marching Japanese infantry on the way from Fine Molds, as well as the Kurogane and motorcycle combo from Pit Road.

http://www.hlj.com/hlj_gallery2/v/ajmhs08/mil/DSCN5149.JPG.html

David

Nice find David, why doesn't anyone ever tell me about these things! Has this been submitted as a news article here on Armorama/HF yet? If not I might pass it on to Jim, unless you already have David?

Don't you just love their comment on these figures. Either that or they're sumo wrestling:

http://www.hlj.com/hlj_gallery2/v/ajmhs08/mil/Hasegawa+Sidecar+and+Kurogane+set+figures.JPG.html

Looks like they've spent too long on their bikes....

Picked the photo up in this thread from the AFV Forum. I'd seen the figures earlier on in a Japanese blogger's posting on the show, but the text there was all Japanese so I had no idea of the maker.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/127466&page=1

I so want a Kurogane (specially the version that appears to come with a 1/35th cat!)

David

It looks very nice but the warrior ones looks more better

I'm pretty sure the LMG in my Dragon set had the carrying handle - but the equivalent in my original-issue white plastic Airfix set was missing the hand-grip.

David

That is what we can expect in terms of quality since these are plastic, Warrior's are resin. I have all the Japanese infantry figures from Warrior (thanks to one of 'Q's online sales!). I decided not to review them as some good reviews already exist here and on other modelling sites.

David, is your kit the original 1994 release or was it included with the Windtalkers edition?

Chas

Chas, mine are the orignal issue.

David

Hi Chas,

have a look here

http://www.japanesearmorking.com/jak3.htm

Al

Hi Alan,

I have seen these figures before, I'm a bit put off by those prices though!

Interesting to see that the sculptor claims that:

These figures include scratch built ammo pouches, the only ones that are correct on the market!

Apart from the Airfix's kits missing the oiler on the rear pouches, I am not aware of any blazing inaccuracies on the pouches provided in Tamiya's or Dragon's kit.

Also, it is 'interesting' to see that this review has recently been rated 'not helpful' by somebody. Should I feel the need to rate a review poorly, I always endeavour to offer and explanation or feedback to improve the review in the item's thread. One bad rating isn't bad, but I would have liked to receive some indication of why the review was not helpful to this particular person.

Chas

EDIT: I have just received an email from Ted Dyer, the sculptor. He says that Dragon's, Tamiya's and Airfix's ammo pouches are too small! He has also told me that the bayonet frog and scabbards are also too small.

Not easy to find decent photos of Japanese equipment as most of the obsessing on the net is about rifles and swords, and not personal equipment. Found a site eventually which has some nice re-enactor shots like this one

http://tksu1co.fc2web.com/choheinanpou.html

David

Thanks David,

Very interesting and useful. You can notice that the pouches appear to be larger on the small Japanese stature. All three figure manufacturers have scaled down the pouches to 'fit' the Japanese size. I hope that Masterbox will notice this detail before they release their Japanese figures. Looking back on their in-progress shots, I noticed that the pouches are also too small.

Chas

Chas, if you plough through the site you get to this page which links to some excellent detail shots of various bits of kit, including the pouches and their interiors

http://tksu1co.fc2web.com/gunsouhin.html

But no scales to give an idea of the sizes......

David