Warlord Release Afro-American and Japanese Soldiers

[joroas]

I can't help but applaud this release, not many companies produce non-white troops for this global conflict.

http://www.warlordgames.com/31005/new-nisei-buffalo-soldiers/

[Captain Blood]

Interesting, certainly.
Let's hope the faces are good and not caricatures...

The nomenclature is interesting... 'Coloured' infantry... That'll start an argument... 

I wonder why you only get 27 Japanese Americans but 28 African Americans?

[joroas]

If you use the language at the time, Colored would be the word to use.

[Plynkes]

Pity about the spelling fail, though, considering they are supposed to be African-Americans and not Black British.

[Hildred Castaigne]

A pity the figures themselves are a bit... well, see for yourself!

[flags_of_war]

Welcomed additions im sure. Especially for doing Italy with the Coloured Soldiers. Not sure they would have been high up on the list of plastics wanted.

I wonder how much demand there is for such figures to do them in plastic.

[Hildred Castaigne]

Welcomed additions im sure. Especially for doing Italy with the Coloured Soldiers. Not sure they would have been high up on the list of plastics wanted.

I wonder how much demand there is for such figures to do them in plastic.

It says over on the Warlord Games site that they are metal and plastic.
So they probably just added the new heads to their existing box of GIs.

[joroas]

Unfortunately, Hollywood and Elstree have airbrushed non-White troops out, there were large numbers of soldiers of other ethnicity fighting on all sides in the war.  Artizan have French North Africans already, but this is another step in the right direction.

George Takei, of Mr sulu fame, has been campaigning for a long time to have the exploits of the Nisei recognised.

Days of Glory, The Tuskegee Airmen and Only The Brave are all worth a view.

[carlos marighela]

I think Warlord are to be applauded. The 442nd RCT had an exemplary record of service in Italy with an amazing total of Medals of Honour and from their ranks they produced at least one US Senator.

By the by if you fancy seeing a great little black and white film that tackles anti-Asian racism in the US, try and get hold of a copy of  Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy in the lead and an all star cast including Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine. Tracy plays a retired colonel from the 442nd trying to track down the father of the Japanese American soldier who saved his life in Italy.
 
As for other folk being airbrushed out, well that may have been true in the US but not in Brazil, my wife's father served in combat in Italy in the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB) and he was black or, if you prefer, Afro-Brazilian. The Brazilian armed forces were not racially segregated, unlike their US counterparts. Maybe one day someone will do some specific figures for the FEB.

[joroas]

By airbrushed, Carlos, I was referring to WW2 films have an almost completely white cast..... 

[carlos marighela]

Yes, I realise that my friend. Actually taken quite a long time for there to be a decent feature film about the FEB in Brazil. This one looks promising, I'm looking forward to seeing it when it comes out.



US Army short on the FEB.

[Hildred Castaigne]

By airbrushed, Carlos, I was referring to WW2 films have an almost completely white cast..... 

Even now it is quite hard to find a place for minorities in war films.
Most units were segregated at that time, so when a writer wants to dramatise a true story of a (white) unit there is no easy way to write ethnic minorities into the story.

[Plynkes]

There is if you write it about the British Army. Obviously, prior to the mass immigration from the former empire that began in the late 40s, there weren't huge numbers of black Britons, but those who were here were not segregated in the military (same goes for the Great War*).

There were two black soldiers in the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry force that captured Pegasus Bridge, for example.



If someone made a film about that now, and included those two as characters in it, I bet the British papers would cry "Political Correctness gone Mad!"









*

2nd Lt. Walter Tull, The Football Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. Inside Forward for Northampton Town and Tottenham Hotspur. 28th April 1888-25th March 1918.

[meninobesta]

Am I the one that thinks that the racial differentiation, at least at this scale, can be done using just paints? after all the guys used the same uniform and equipment and, most important, they are from the human race (I guess you all have noticed that )

if these boxes were done as a form of tribute to those men that often are forgotten in the wargames table I can only applaud... but model wise (at least for me) they are a bit redundant

[joroas]

True, Plynkes, but huge numbers of Indian, African and West Indian troops fought for Britain in both wars, but they are rarely seen in any movie.

Yes, Meninobesta, you could paint them a different skin tone, but they would still be white soldiers with a paint job.

I think that Warlord have moved into new territory here, and well done to them.