FMG - JAPAN UNITS

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?ze52tnzmztm
Good choice guys….

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?ztwdyu2oddc
And don’t forget Yamamoto and Nagumo!!!

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?juozgjumir3

@crusaderiv:

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?ztwdyu2oddc
And don’t forget Yamamoto and Nagumo!!!

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?juozgjumir3

Oh yeah, you’re another one of those guys who makes me jealous of your game pieces. Nice work.

If I had to choose, these would be my choices. I know that some of them are A&A OOB units, but I consider the FMG units to be replacements for the OOB units (for the most part anyway) and I would thus like some better quality iconic units:

CV - Shokaku Class
BB - I’m torn on this one; Yamato class were the iconic class of IJN BB, and would represent new BB production.  However, the Kongo class would represent the backbone of the IJN BB surface fleet; they saw far more action than other Japanese BB’s in 1942 (due to their greater speed). I’ll leave it up to FMG to decide what mold to choose, and I won’t complain about what I get… (Too bad FMG isn’t producing two BB molds per nation - each nation in the game would benefit from having a pre-war and modern BB mold, IMO).
CA - Mogami Class
DD - Kagero Class
SS - B1 Class
AK/AP - Standard Merchant - I forget the exact designation of the variant of which I’m thinking, as several variants of standard wartime production merchant and auxiliary vessels were produced under direction of the Japanese government during the war. The variant of which I am thinking was approximately 5,000 GRT, and had an aft-engine forward-cargo hold configuration; it was the same variant included in the original Silent Hunter game, although the displacement and dimensions from Silent Hunter were completely inaccurate. I’ll post a screenshot of the silhouette of the Silent Hunter Standard Merchant (taken from Hawke’s Silent Hunter ID Manual) at the end of this post, and try to come up with a better picture later.
Fighter - A6M2 Zero “Zeke”
Fighter-Bomber/Tactical Bomber - B5N2 "Kate - At this scale, the mold could also probable be the Kate’s late war replacement, the B6N2 “Jill” - slightly different tail and cowling, other minor differences.
Bomber - Ki-67 “Peggy”
Heavy Bomber (If produced by FMG) - G8N “Rita” or G5N “Liz”
Air Transport - L2D “Tabby” (US DC-3 Mold can be used here with 100% historical accuracy)
Tank 1 - Type 95 Ha-Go
Tank 2 - Type 97 Chi-Ha (unless FMG is aiming for a medium and heavy tank for each nation; then use the Type 97 and either the Type 3 Chi-Nu or one of several never-completed Japanese heavy tank prototypes).
Half Track/Mech Infantry - Type 1 Ho-Ha
Artillery - Type 90
Truck - I understand these will be generic, so I shall not list a choice here.

EDIT - Standard Merchant Profile from Silent Hunter:

Too me its best not to rehash Yamato but go for the iconic ‘pagoda’ style japanese BB. Yamato OOB could not be a ‘super battleship’ piece…

this idea would be followed for each new type allowing the OOB to be either tech pieces or early, mid, or late war substitutions or house rule pieces to add to the new set.

That way we don’t invalidate anything that was already made and FMG now has its own flavor and not a rehash of Hasbro pieces.

Of course in some cases this may not be possible, but try wherever possible not to duplicate.

I’m more of a naval/air tech buff, so I’ll let the other weigh in on tanks, artillery, etc.  But my votes for the rest:
Japanese Fighter: N1K (George)
Japanese Tactical Bomber: KI-45 (Nick) land-based ground attack heavy fighter (as opposed to another carrier based dive bomber), but if it must be a dive bomber, then the Yokosuka D4Y (Judy)
Japanese Strategic Bomber: Ki-67 (Peggy)
Japanese Battleship: Nagato class
Japanese Cruiser: Tone class
Japanese Destroyer: Shiratsuyu class
Japanese Carrier: Shokaku class
Japanese Submarine: OOB appears to be B1 class (they were all called I-___ and the B1 was most common).  I guess the I-58 (B3 class) is visually different, and it sunk the Indianapolis, so has some infamy.

Japanese Transport:….

@kcdzim:

Japanese Strategic Bomber: Ki-67 (Betty)

I think you might have made a typo here - are you talking about the Ki-67 “Peggy” or G4M “Betty”?

@AG124:

@kcdzim:

Japanese Strategic Bomber: Ki-67 (Betty)

I think you might have made a typo here - are you talking about the Ki-67 “Peggy” or G4M “Betty”?

Indeed I did, I was about to correct it and I noticed you caught me.  Blast.

I like the long bayonettes of the Japanese, so I hope the new soldier piece still uses that.  The officer/commander piece should have a sword, too.

The Zero is already OOB, isn’t it, so we should look for another fighter.  I believe the TAC plane needs to be a Naval plane, I guess a dive bomber since the torpedo plane would be silly attacking Calcutta.  For my part, I wouldn’t mind having a “land based” TAC plane and a navy TAC plane, but that will have to be discussed later.

I also don’t think we should duplicate any OOB ships.

I’m still trying to get my head around a Japanese Tank and Mech Inf unit.  You just don’t think about that much when you think of the Japanese war machine.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a special piece for Kamkaze attacks, such as a small plane on a stand in a shallow dive with a smoke trail?

The zero is probably the better option but my favorite is the nakajima KI 43 ‘‘oscar’’.
For the bomber, Peggy or Betty for sure….

For the warships, I agree with imperious leader.

EDIT - Standard Merchant Profile from Silent Hunter:
I took a look in my merchant marine and transport troops book.
haven’t seen any japanese transport like this one.

Anyway I have a lot of japanese and US stuff.
I want USSR pieces!!!

Infantry with winter uniform
Petlyakov PE 2!
Yak -1
T34-87 and SU 100!!!  :-o

I don’t want ANY overlap with ingame OOB pieces…

US will now have 3 different fighter sculpts (P-38 & F6F OOB/ P-51 or F4U - FMG) and Japan will have ONE sculpt? (the Zero… bla bla bla)

No overlap!

@reloader-1:

I don’t want ANY overlap with ingame OOB pieces…

US will now have 3 different fighter sculpts (P-38 & F6F OOB/ P-51 or F4U - FMG) and Japan will have ONE sculpt? (the Zero… bla bla bla)

No overlap!

FMG has never confirmed that their sculpt will be the A6M and have already expressed the desire to have completely distinct models from those of the game.  Calm yourself.

And that’s why it should be an N1K anyway, because the Oscar is not nearly distinct enough from the A6M (confused by pilots in the air, so even worse when reduced to game size). :wink:

Besides, eventually there WILL be overlap.  Germany only had one class of Aircraft Carrier.  And the closest Russia ever came to an aircraft carrier in WW2 was when they captured the Graf Zeppelin and later used as a gunnery target.

I know that FMG has stated that - I just wanted to reinforce the thought…

If anyone can get access to a copy of Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1809-1945 by Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel, and Hansgeorg Jentschura, there is an accurate line drawing of the profile of the Standard Merchant variant of which I am thinking. I, however, don’t have a copy of the book at the moment (hence my use of a ship silhouette from a subsim PC game).

EDIT - Never mind; after checking the said book, it appears that I was mistaken, as I cannot find the particular profile of which I was thinking. However, there are plenty of other interesting Japanese merchants from which to choose, including other Standard Merchants. I’ll post some links for consideration later.

I’ll also note that if FMG chooses not to produce another Zeke, my second choice for a Japanese fighter would be the NIK-1 Shiden-Kai “George.”

EDIT 2 - Here’s an interesting link to some detailed WWII-era Japanese transports, including both generic and standard merchants; it would be interesting to hear the opinion of FMG and some community members on some of these:

http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/modellist.htm

I don’t think the Shinano class is a good carrier for Japan. Sure it was big, but it also was designed as an aux carrier. It was never meant for fleet action. Plus the BB has to be a Yamato, so we’d already have the Yamato hull for the BB. I think the Akagi would be a much better choice for the CV than the Shinano. The Akagi is a very beautiful carrier.

@Tralis:

I don’t think the Shinano class is a good carrier for Japan. Sure it was big, but it also was designed as an aux carrier. It was never meant for fleet action. Plus the BB has to be a Yamato, so we’d already have the Yamato hull for the BB. I think the Akagi would be a much better choice for the CV than the Shinano. The Akagi is a very beautiful carrier.

The Shinano is the OOB mold.  I don’t think we need to worry about FMG molding another one.

More the reason to avoid repeating it.

Shinano was a one off ship converted from a BB. They made one and it got sunk before it saw combat and WOTC made a iconic piece out of it?

Nice move. All the reason to make real improvements with proper sculpts representing the famous units that saw action in many battles rather than ‘experimental’ types

@Imperious:

Japanese Artillery: Model 92?
Japanese Mechanized Infantry: ?
Japanese Tank:Type 97 Chi-Ha
Japanese Fighter: A6M2 “Zero”
Japanese Tactical Bomber: Kate
Japanese Strategic Bomber: Mitsubishi Ki-67 or Yokosuka P1Y
Japanese Battleship: Kongo class
Japanese Cruiser: Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser
Japanese Destroyer: Haguro class
Japanese Carrier: Shokaku-class Aircraft Carrier or Soryu class
Japanese Submarine: ?
Japanese Transport: ?

Yes, this is much better, pieces more readily used.

@coachofmany:

Japanese Submarine: ?
Japanese Transport: ?

Use the I-19 class for subs and the Kinau Maru class for transports