Elessar2590: The Fall of Singapore

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Project Entry by elessar2590

Wait We're Going Where?

August 15, 2023

Tutoring 7

Skill 7

Idea 7

4 Comments

I finally got back to this Project after a solid break from it. Much like the real life Australian Army this Project has taken a Pacific Turn.

With the upcoming release of the Too Fat Lardies Pacific Book a friend and I were talking and we decided that we were having a lot of fun playing Chain of Command in 1942 Russia why not do some stuff for the Pacific.

The minis were already half done and with the Australians in Malaya wearing the desert uniform I decided to change this project up. This is actually kind of neat since that’s exactly what happened to 8th Division, they were all equipped and trained for the Desert then in February 1941 they shipped off for Malaya to defend against a potential invasion by the Japanese. In December 1941 the Japanese invaded and the Australian’s basically got overwhelmed although there were some local victories like Gemas where 2/30th Battalion lost 88 men to the Japanese 5th Divisions 800 men in a crazy ambush followed by an insanely close ranged anti-tank ambush.

They fought a rear-guard action down the Peninsula and back to Singapore where the entire Division (minus the Commanding Officer who escaped by boat and left his enraged Artillery Commander in command) went into captivity. A third of them wouldn’t survive until the end of the war and many who did were basically destroyed by it.

A picture of that Tank Ambush, notice how insanely close the enemy got, I definitely wouldn't want to have been those gunners.

I had plenty of crew but I had given the gun to a friend for a project of his, 3D Printer goes BRRRR and in a few hours a 15mm gun was rescaled and ready to paint. Nothing is glued down, just a trial shot.

Australian's almost exclusively favoured the Brodie Helmet in Malaya so I did a bit of looking in the bits box and a bit of swapping with a friend to get all the heads I needed.

The Core Platoon. Three Sections of Ten Men, Boys AT Rifle, Light Mortar lead by a Lieutenant and Sergeant.

A Section. The Australian's used the same British 10 Man Section of Six Riflemen, A Two Man Bren Gun Team, a man with a Thompson SMG and a Corporal with a Rifle. The Australian Doctrine was to not just give the SMG to the NCO but to the man in the section who could make best use of it.

British Early War MMG. While Shorts and rolled sleeves were the most common dress there are pictures of men in long pants and unrolled sleeves.

An extra Light Mortar and a Sniper.

The Crew are Warlord Metals from various kits and the Gun is a 3D Print that I found for free on Thingyverse in 15mm and just scaled up.

Everything painted so far. I will hold off basing anything until I finish the Japanese then do them all together to keep it all looking uniform.

Speaking of the Japanese, they're up next. Warlord Metals with "Sons of Yamato" 3D Prints from the recent Kickstarter modified with some bits from the Plastic kit.