Advice sought re 28mm Pacific War/Burma

[Sparrow]

Hi

It’s many years since I actively gamed WW2 but after a few recent games of Chain of Command I’m thinking of dipping my toe back in the water. In view of all the nice stuff out there I’m thinking 28mm and am looking at the campaigns in the Far East (not so dependent on AFV’s and uses some of the Vietnam terrain I’ve been slowly amassing).

I’m wary of plastic since I am worried about the fragility of bayonets etc (is this justified?) and am an old duffer (am I being too close minded?) so have been looking at the Assault Group range.

Could anyone kindly offer any advice as to how good these are “in the flesh” plus any alternatives ?

All advice v much appreciated!!

(PS as a big Empress collector in other periods perhaps their new WW2 range may extend this way one day? Well, I can hope can’t I?  )..

[commissarmoody]

Tag is good and the old bolt-action metals I believe are Paul hicks sculpts.
https://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/japanese-army
(just don't buy the plastic sets if that is not your bag, I am with you on not likening the fragileness of most plastics)
Also some of the Brigade games figs are not to bad looking. But you kind of have to sift thougth the images. I belive they have different sculptors with different results with in the same line. 
http://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/Japanese-battle-wornragged-Infantry-IV-4_p_3358.html
http://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/Japanese-Snipers-4_p_852.html
http://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/Japan_c_191.html

[matakishi]

I went with TAG and was very pleased with the miniatures. Although there weren't many options back then.

https://www.matakishi.net/burma.html

[Sparrow]

Thanks all - really appreciated!

[Quendil]

I have loads of TAG and love them. I have all their Japanese and Britain in the Far East ranges and would buy more if they did them.  I have just started getting some of there American Marines to replace my plastic Warlord ones and they are great as well .  I have some Warlord Aussies and Japanese which are good but still prefer TAG stuff.  I also have Artizan Aussies and Sikh troops which fit in well with Tag and Warlord (I get them from Great Escape Games).

[Rob_bresnen]

I would say TAG over Warlord myself. Especially the Japanese. Good figures, well sculpted and cast, and offering a pretty good range. They chindits scale well with the Wargames Foundry ones, which are lovely but a VERY incomplete range.

[Sparrow]

Thanks for steering me like this - v grateful to all.

[Johnnytodd]

I'm currently painting my way through a pile of Japanese from BrigadeGames - the early ones are Paul Hicks sculpts and are really quite good!  I'm hoping Paul resurrects this range and adds some news Japanese sculpts.   They are on the smaller end of current 28mm scale but not as small as Westwind or the old BattleHonors which are closer to 25mm

[Stavka]

I have a large IJA collection for the Burma theatre, comprising of miniatures from a number of companies.  These are mostly TAG, Warlord metals (and a few plastics), Brigade Games, and Westwind.

They all have their good points, and given a unifying painting and basing style they work well together. 







The LMG team above is a TAG figure on the left, Warlord Jungle Fighter on the right.



The Warlord Jungle Fighters are among the best of them, due to their posing, detail (they need careful cleaning up), and their choice of heads. Their plastics are useful and versatile too; I made a sampan crew using them, and this guy with a pole charge was easy to modify with some epoxy putty.





TAG are probably the easiest to paint, and I like their weapon teams.  They aren't cast with the puttee ties, though this is no big deal even in 28mm.

The Hicksian Brigade Games figures are very nice, smoothly-sculpted with great faces, and they do some wonderful ragged Japanese (which I mix in with with my Warlord Bamboo Spearmen as last-ditch defenders). However, the BG miniatures sometimes have delicate bayonets, the more vulnerable and fragile of which I replaced with lengths of pins.

I had to do the same with all the Westwind infantry, which as cast looked like they were using boxcutter knives for bayonets.  These are the earliest of the 28mm Japanese ranges, and they needed a lot of work.  Some of their heads were dreadful, so I chopped these off and replaced them with separate Jungle Fighter heads sold as extras by Warlord, which improved them no end. 

I like how they have turned out, but had I known the extra work involved I probably wouldn't have bothered.  However, the Westwind LMG teams are superb- really look the part, and although I haven't finished them yet they are proving straightforward to paint.

[Sparrow]

Thanks all - I really appreciate all of this. Plenty to think about! Some lovely looking minis you all have!