Hobby models from Japan

[Luca]

Well, in these days I've a valid excuse not to post on the forum because I'm on vacation in Japan, visiting wonderful places while trying to skid typhons and hordes of passangers at the railway stations.

I thing I've noted of japan is that it is quite easy to find a nice hobby model store. Generally they're located in old dated commercial centers or commercial alleys, and are run by quite elderly people (and this speaks by himself about the status of the model hobby in this land. On the other hand, at any Toys'R'us store it's easy to find plastic models of robots and even the tanks of the anime cartoon Girls und Panzers). They have a huge range of stuff of nearly any scale, of any company, and with a great number of tools and brass etched details, mainly for 1:35 stuff and ships. As the nation of the glorious Kaigun, I think the japanese are simply mad with ship modelling, mainly 1:700 waterline by trumpeteer, but also other scales are used.

For example the 1:350 scale. I found it useful for our hobby (and easy to pack in the back pack). I bought some stuff of two japanese companies I've never heard about, pit-road and finemodels. I bought mainly what it seems accessories for aircraft carriers and cruisers. I bought two packs of japanese aircraft, which almost fit the GHQ scale, and a really nice set of which I'm amazed of thiny aircraft carrier deck crew, painted, which wave hands, wave flags, and make all the things crews would make on an aircraft carrier or on an airfield. Great. And cheap, some 1500 Yen if I recall (11 Euros aprox) for 80 figures. As 1:350 they are smaller then the usual ghq figures, but they are almost the same size of the AT gun crews or the mortar crews.

The other cool stuf they have here are the Castle models. I've already bought one last year (the Hikone castle, on lake Biwa), and they come in different scales. The hikone is 1:400, so close to GHQ scale. I bough it to game some day an "operation downfall" scenario, it would really give some touch to the board a real japanese castle. They are made by another japanese producers, Dobyusa, or something like that.

This was the happy part of the story, now comes the sad. I didn't see any miniature store, i think that wargame is not practiced in japan. I saw a lot of card stores, but none of miniatures, even those of war hammer or Fow.

I've still a couple of weeks to spend here, I'll try to look around for some lead soldier. I was at Sekigahara yesterday, and I was surprised not to find at the local museum a huge table with thousands of samurais in 24mm or at least 15mm scale. They had a great display diorama, with luminous squares and dots showing the vaious forces engaged in the different moments of the battle. I immediately tough to propose myself at painting those samurai armies, I think the head of the museum would have really appreciated the proposal.

So, we can say that Japan is still a land of great opportunities for wargaming, maybe they never get the right interest with the right time frame (Japan utterly lost the Pacific War and then became a pacifist nation), but maybe the effective wedge would be the samurais. And the ships!

[av8rmongo]

Luca,

I loved my time in Japan and as you say the hobby shops are simply fantastic. I found many treasures in Yokohama and Tokyo. I still use many of the detail bits intended for model robots, powered armor suits etc. for dressing up 1/2400 scale ships and 1/285 scale buildings and terrain.

I wouldn't exactly classify the Japanese as pacifists though. They are conditioned to reject their former Imperialist ways but from my close experience with their navy 2008-2010 they are easily one of the most professional and capable military forces in the world - whatever they are forced to call themselves. Far from rejecting warfare as a tool they actively and aggressively protect their airspace and maritime EEZ.

[av8rmongo]

Luca,

I loved my time in Japan and as you say the hobby shops are simply fantastic. I found many treasures in Yokohama and Tokyo. I still use many of the detail bits intended for model robots, powered armor suits etc. for dressing up 1/2400 scale ships and 1/285 scale buildings and terrain.

I wouldn't exactly classify the Japanese as pacifists though. They are conditioned to reject their former Imperialist ways but from my close experience with their navy 2008-2010 they are easily one of the most professional and capable military forces in the world - whatever they are forced to call themselves. Far from rejecting warfare as a tool they actively and aggressively protect their airspace and maritime EEZ.