Captain's Blog

Once again I return to the Soviet-Japanese struggle for Changkufeng-Khasan, 1938 on the Mongolian frontier thanks to Five Arrows Figures and Fine Art, who were in attendance at Cangames this year. This year at Cangames I parted with a few games that I had not touched in years and as a result, covered all my convention costs including 4 Japanese WW2 resin trucks that I purchased.

Among the items that Five Arrows sells are vehicles from Frontline Wargaming.  I purchased two of each of the following vehicles to beef up the mobility of my Japanese Imperial Army.

J1   Isuzu TX40 GS Truck (4-Wheeled 2 Tons Cargo capacity)
In August 1938 The first and second models of TX40 were completed at Kawasaki Plant.

Isuzu TX40 GS Truck

J2   Isuzu Type 94A/B Personnel Truck (6-wheeled)

Isuzu Type 94A/B Personnel Truck

As one of the oldest companies in the Japanese automotive industry, Isuzu traces its beginnings to 1916, the year Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. and Tokyo Gas and Electric Industrial Co. initiated plans for automobile production. In 1922, Japan's first domestically produced truck, a Wolseley model A-9, was completed. In 1934, after meeting Ministry of Trade and Industry standards, vehicles were renamed 'Isuzu' after the Isuzu River in the Ise Shrine area. This is the origin of the company name, which was changed to today's 'Isuzu Motors Limited' in 1949.

I found it really hard to find any information about either of these vehicles. IMO the history of the company seems to be very revisionist, commencing in 1949, with almost no motion of the war years.

It has been a while since I've blogged about the clashes between the Soviet Union and the Japanese Empire in the late 1930s. At some point last year a number of 20mm  early war Soviet  tanks came up for auction on eBay. They were resin casts made by Frontline Wargaming. I purchased two  BT-7 Fast Tanks (RUS 10) and two variants of the T-26 Light Tank (RUS-5 Model S/1939 and RUS-11 Model "B"/1933). The main difference in appearance of these two vehicles is the turret.

The only complaint I have with these models, is the poor state that the tracks of three of them were in. The tracks were very brittle and had crumbled to dust in some places. One track was broken into 4 separate pieces. To be honest, and to err on the side of the manufacturer I cannot state if this was a fault of the product or the previous owner.  After all, they were sold AS IS, so buyer beware. I can state the models I received were in their original packages and  were wrapped in bubble wrap in when shipped to me in a solid cardboard box,  The box itself was not crushed or dented.


As you can see I was able to glue the tracks onto the tank chassis, while it is evident that sections of the tracks are missing. This because they appeared to have disintegrated into dust particles, while aging in their packages.

All in all, I was pleased with the models. I was looking for something quick and dirty (i.e. cheap) to field against my Imperial Japanese Army. To add to the anti-Japanese coalition, I also put together and painted two 1/76th scale Airfix Models Sherman tanks. I haven't built models in years and in spite of being all thumbs, I wish I had the patience then, that I have now.It would have been a fantastic help piecing models together.

As I wrote last March (the Anatomy of a Small War Part 3), I needed to pick up some 20mm tanks to provide support for my Japanese infantry. This year at Cangames I purchased three Frontline Wargaming Resin Kits from Five Arrows Figures and Fine Art (www.fivearrowsfigures.ca), one of the dealers who was in the Cangames marketplace.

I purchased two J3 TYPE 97 STANDARD MEDIUM TANK (CHI-HA) and one J4 TYPE 97 SPECIAL SHINHOTO (CHI-HA) tanks. These were the first resin kits I dealt with. Reading on the web I found the wise advise that I should soak the pieces in warm water with dish detergent, and scub them clean with a toothbrush before rinsing them clean. Afterwards it was very easy to apply both glue and paint without worrying of the effects of the chemicals used to seperate the kit from their molds.



According to Wikipedia "The Type 97 medium tank Chi-Ha was a medium tank used by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second World War. It was the most widely produced Japanese medium tank of the period.

The Type 97 was initially equipped with a Type 97 57mm main gun. The cannon was a short barreled weapon with a relatively low muzzle velocity but sufficient as the tank was intended primarily for infantry support.

It also carried two 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns, one on the front left of the hull and the other in a ball mount on the rear of the turret. The latter could be remounted on top of the top of turret for anti-aircraft use. The turret was capable of full 360-degree traverse but the main gun had a second pair of trunnions internally allowing a maximum 10-degree traverse independently of the turret. The turret featured a small periscope for use when the tank was "buttoned up." On the front of the tank was a searchlight.

The Type 97 medium tank was manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (1,224 units), Hitachi Industries (355 units), as well as some limited production in Army’s Sagami Arsenal. A total of 2,123 vehicles were constructed from 1938 to 1943, of which 1162 units with the standard Type 97 and 930 units were the improved Type 97-kai (Shinhoto) version. The remainder was various specialized variants produced in small numbers, such as recovery, flail mine clearers, engineer, bridge layers, 20 mm and 75 mm anti-aircraft and self-propelled guns.

The shortcomings of the Type 97 with its low velocity 57 mm gun became clear during the Nomonhan Incident against the Soviet Union, where the 45 mm gun of the Soviet tanks outranged the Japanese tank gun, resulting in heavy Japanese losses. This convinced the Army of the need for a more powerful gun, and development of a new 47 mm weapon began in 1939 and was completed in 1941. This gun was based on Soviet 45 mm anti-tank guns[citation needed] captured during the Nomonhan conflict and was also influenced by the German PaK 36 37 mm anti-tank gun[citation needed]. Although it was a smaller-caliber weapon, the 47 mm gun's longer barrel generated much higher muzzle velocity, resulting in armor penetration superior to that of the 57 mm gun.



From 1942 onwards, production of the Model 97 was changed to use the new 47 mm gun, which also required a larger turret. The turret was taken from the Type 1 Chi-He medium tank to resolve this issue, and the new version was designated "Type 97 Improved Medium Tank" or Shinhoto Chi-Ha ("new turret"). About 300 of the older Type 97s were also upgraded to use the new gun. The 47 mm gun was easily capable of dealing with the armour of the American M3 Stuart, though had difficulty with the heavier M4 Sherman. However as the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff believed that any tanks fielded by the Allied nations would only be of the lighter types, the lack of capability against heavier armour was considered acceptable."