Japanese infantry soldiers are remarkably hard to find in the world of military models. They are literally the forgotten army and with such a chronic shortage of Japanese infantry models, any collections that do appear on the second hand market are immediately snapped up by eager collectors. Thankfully, the Japanese Airfix soldiers kits helps to fill the gap in the market for those who enjoy war gaming and collecting military models.
The set was first released in 1970 and has since been re-packaged many times. Although the set originally contained 12 figures, this number has since been reduced to 6. The Japanese Airfix soldiers infantry set is made in 1-32 scale. All of the figures are very malleable and easy to pose. Weapons, equipment, and all body parts have been molded separately by Airfix to allow for extra options by the modeler. Each figure can easily be trimmed, reshaped, and carved. Collectors can also add extra bits to the figures using modeling compounds.
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US $16.00
The Airfix Japanese Soldiers 1/32 kit comes with detailed instructions as to how to pose each soldier authentically. The kit is labeled as “Mulitpose” and six possible poses are detailed, although there are plenty of other variables available to resourceful modelers and war-gamers. War-gamers can manipulate their soldiers into a crouch, prone, standing, and kneeling positions. There is also a charging soldier and a sword wielding officer pose detailed in the comprehensive instructions.
The Airfix Japanese soldier kit contains six sets of legs including feet, six torsos, twelve arms including hands, and six heads. An Airfix Japanese infantry 1:32 review describes the level of modeling detail very acceptable despite the length of time since the kits were first offered for sale. The review goes on to state that torsos are well molded with a great deal of attention paid to clothing detail such as belts, collars, pockets, buttons, and folds within the clothing. The legs in the kits are very detailed, although some of the folds are a bit over the top. Molding lacing's on the legs look very blobby and out of place, but the leather style boots are well done.
The kit also contains a painting guide using enamel paints and also includes six display bases for the serious modeler to stand their figures on while painting them.
There are a great variety of weapons included with the Japanese Airfix soldiers kit and quality of the detailing on each weapon is excellent considering the age of the kit. War-gamers can choose from an Officer’s swords, a pistol, three Ariska rifles, and SMG, and an LMG. There is also a strip of Plastic card included in the kit to enable modelers to create extra parts for weapons and equipment.
The kit contains loads of extra equipment so that entirely authentic battle scenes can be recreated with attention to detail. Helmets and caps fit on to heads nicely and there are plenty of ammunition pouches, field packs, respirator bags, tools, water bottles, bayonets, and many other small additions. There is also a list of decals included in the kit to enable gamers to achieve truly authentic figures for their battle scenes.
