Sunday 29 September 2019

1904 Jacklex Russians and Japanese Prepare for battle - at last!

For those of you who also look at our sister blog ‘All Things Jacklex’ you will already have heard of the saga of Jack’s Japanese Army.  Briefly, we have been looking for this army for the last 8 years or so.  I had been desperate to photograph it for the blog and to have a game with them fighting the Jacklex 1904 Russians. 

The Japanese had been used against my Zvevda Samurai following the release of the film the The Last Samurai and then been reflagged as Mexican Federal troops to battle Jack’s 1916 Americans.  After which they simply disappeared.  The only conclusion was they were somewhere in the dark reaches of Jack’s loft.  Anyway,  Jack’s daughter decided that the conservatory where Jack now does all of his modelling and where we occasionally have a game, but almost always sit and have a coffee and a chat needed a good tidy up.  In his conservatory is a cabinet with his 54mm figures and underneath it and behind a pile of books she found the Japanese.  These had been literally inches and at best 4 feet away from us for all of the 8 years we had sat and discussed where they were!

I grabbed them and Jack's Russian Army and have set up our first ever 1904 Japanese v Russians game in the 20 odd years we have known Jack.  Originally the the Japanese were heavily outnumbered and whilst they have a number of machine guns, they were at a disadvantage, so I put them behind earthworks.  However, with the help of Mark Lodge the new owner of Jacklex Miniatures who very kindly provide me with a painted unit and a couple of units of Blue coated Japanese I painted some years ago and a new unit painted with my doggy eyes.  I have managed to bump the Japanese infantry up from 3 units to 7.  The Russians have 10 although 4 of them are 'large units' for our in house version of Black Powder with all the firing and fighting bonuses that come with it.  So the Japanese may be a little too safe now behind their earthworks.  They are however heavily outnumbered by the Russian cavalry.  There may have to be a couple of minor changes before the games starts.  We shall see.

Next week or so is a bit manic with a cataract operation and then a trip to the Oncologist to check on the cancer and the week after I am going on a family holiday to Portugal. I still hope to be able to meet Bob for a game before then, but just in case,  I thought I would wet the appetite by showing the game in its starting position and some of the units. 

The Russian right wing:








The Russian centre and artillery



The Russian left wing



Inspirational ride about by the Russian Commander


The Japanese positions:


Right wing:
held by cavalry; artillery; a machine gun and hastily raised units of Japanese in their blue uniforms.





Japanese centre:
held by infantry and entrenched gun and machine gun.  The Bellona gun position is almost as old as the figures!




Two newly arrived units wait as reserves



The Japaneses left wing:



I

17 comments:

  1. The armies look great! Must be very satisfying to see them finally facing each other.

    Now the suspense while waiting for the first die to roll.

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    1. Absolutely, 8 years of frustration and great to see them at last taking on their real opponents. Fingers crossed for the Russians against an increased Japanese force.

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  2. Great game, and very nice figures (especially the Russians)! I appreciate this. Sadly, Russo-japanese war is very underrated stuff for wargamers.

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    1. Jack can't remember why he made Russo-Japanese war figures in the first place but they do look great. Lots of precursors to WW1, machine guns, barred wire, trenches but none of the Powers seemed to take notice of the problems.

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  3. Great armies, but i have one
    question.
    Black powder in 20 century. Is it good rules for age?

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  4. Good armees, but i have one question.
    Black powder in 20 century. Is it good rules for age?

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    1. I get your point, but we have used the machine gun rules and they sort of work. Don't want anything too devastating. We have used them for late 19th century and we are only 4 years into the 20th century. We will just have to see. Provided they give a feel for the period and give us an enjoyable game that's all we are really looking for. It may not work but we will give it a whirl.

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    2. Oh. It is good for me, because i will play BP rules in 1880s. Versus Ultima Oriente stratevists hordes)) Thanks

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  5. Lovely! I've never seen Jacklex figures in the flesh, much less forces of the Russo-Japanese War. These armies look terrific.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  6. Glad you like them. Jack painted almost all the Russian Infantry and the khaki Japanese nearly 40 years ago, I added a few and most of the blue uniformed Japanese. They are available again in the most comprehensive range since their original launch. You can get a full list and prices from Jacklex Miniatures info@jacklexminiatures.com. Well worth getting the list just to look through.

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  7. Lovely armies and I like the defensive positions.

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    1. Hi Norm, glad you like them, the defensive positions are home made. I used coffee stirers, Das modelling clay and the Rendara gabions. Think they came out okay. The 'destroyed' sections are to substitute for a normal section, being the same length.

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  8. My appetite is well and truly wetted ! , brilliant looking armies .

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  9. Glad you like them as I have said in response to other posts, the range is being re-released and Jack and I have been able to fill in some of the gaps which weren't available or which Jack made just for games we played. Mark Lodge the new owner of the Jacklex range also has plans for a number of additional figures and pieces of equipment and his work so far, the Russian machine and the Pom Pom gun look terrific.

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  10. Mark sent me a list to whet the appetite last week but this has convinced me to prepare an order. Superb! I vaguely remember a solo game using cards and Jacklex Russians to play a night attack in an early Miniature Wargames. I’m sure at the time they were the only Russo-Japanese figures about in any scale.

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    1. The list is really good and some exciting new additions and ranges to come. The website is up and running www.jacklexminiatures.com

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