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World War II Burma for Crossfire
The Second World War is still keeping my painting and modelling interest at the moment so I'm going with the flow and launching straight into my Pacific War project. I plan to produce a company of British and a company of Japanese along with a bit of support for both sides. Because I want to represent some of the variety of the Empire troops in the region my British 'company' is made up of platoons from four different forces; Chindits, 14th Army and Ghurkas, all using The Assault Group figures and Sikhs from Artizan.
The Japanese all come from The Assault Group except for a couple of artillery pieces and crew from Brigade Games.
Finally, as I want to play out some American attacks on Pacific atolls, I will be painting up some US Marines. My existing US Infantry are going to be used for the bulk of the troops because I will need three companys to storm an atoll held by a single, dug-in Japanese company and I don't want to buy and paint an additional 100 figures. (Sorry to you purists out there.)
However, Marine forces have many more machine guns than Infantry forces so I'll be painting Marine figures for these. I've already got the miniatures, I bought them two years ago from The Assault Group along with their Iwo Jima flag raisers vignette. It's about time these all got painted.

The figures
Here's what I bought:
British Empire troops
1 Platoon of Chindits consisting of 3 stands of riflemen and a Platoon Commander.
10 figures
1 Platoon of 14th Army consisting of 3 stands of riflemen and a Platoon Comander.
10 figures
1 Platoon of Sikhs consisting of 3 stands of riflemen and a Platoon Comander.
10 figures
1 Platoon of Ghurkas consisting of 1 stand of riflemen, 2 submachine gun stands and a Platoon Comander. 12 figures
1 Company Commander stand. 2 figures
1 Chindit HMG. 4 figures
1 Chindit Mortar and FOO. 5 figures
5 stands of mules with Chindit handlers. 10 figures
Total 63 figures

Japanese troops
3 platoons of Infantry, each consisting of 3 stands of riflemen, 1 stand of knee mortars and a Platoon Commander. 36 figures
1 Company Commander stand. 2 figures
1 HMG. 4 figures
1 81mm Mortar and FOO. 5 figures
1 extra stand of rifles. 3 figures
1 extra stand of knee mortars. 2 figures
2 stands of Combat Engineers. 4 figures
3 extra HMGs for defensive firepower. 3 figures
1 Japanese Artillery Type 92 Gun and Crew. 4 figures
1Japanese Artillery Type 94 Gun and Crew. 5 figures
Total 68 figures

Total cost so far £190.70

Vehicles and other necessities
I've added a few extras into the mix in the form of a Vickers Light Tank MKVI and an India Pattern Armoured Carrier Vehicle from Chieftan Models. Bolt Action have supplied me with a commander for my Light tank as well as a British carrier - WASP flame thrower variant and a British Humber armoured car MkIV.
I haven't bought any Japanese armour yet because I can't decide which of the two available tanks I like. I'll probably end up getting one of each.
I'll be getting some Indian elephants from Ebob Miniatures and Osprey are sending me some books. I already have a Stuart tank from Brigade games which I bought about three years ago so I'm counting this as a freebie for this project.

All this adds £122.62 to the cost
Grand total £313.32

Because all the figures are supplied in multi packs both sides have a few figures that I have no immediate use for. Once all the 'proper' troops have been sorted out these extras will be grouped together and hopefully I'll get a couple of extra squads out of them.

Here are the first figures on the painting table, Chindits and 14th Army from The Assault Group. The Chindit platoon is on the left, 14th Army in the centre and the Company Commander and support weapons on the right. Each group is accompanied by faithful pack mules. All these chaps will be in a fetching jungle green.

Here are the Ghurkas with some extra Chindits below them. On the right is the resin Stuart tank from Brigade games and on the left the metal kits from Chieftan Models.

All these Japanese are from The Assault Group. This is a full company of three platoons plus the extra HQ rifle squad and a FOO for the mortar. There are three extra figures at the bottom of the photo that will allow me to have another extra rifle squad.

Here are the Japanese support troops. The three machine gunners in foxholes, the company commander and his bugler, HMG, Mortar, Knee mortars and flame throwers are all from The Assault Group. The two guns and the crewmen for them are from Brigade Games.