"Chinese Warlord painting tips..." Topic

I am prepping a Chinese Warlord army for use with CLA and Warhammer Great War and I am curious what colors would be appropriate and if there would be any variety in uniforms/colors etc… within an "army"?

Thanks!

Some of my units are in tan/camel and some are in grey. Within a unit, I give some different colored tops or pants, just to keep me from becoming bored. Plus, I like the mangy sort of look for the Back of Beyond.

Good question – I really like the Copplestone Back of Beyond range and have a mid-sized and growing Chinese Warlord Army – I really like the figs and there are some others out now, including Pulp Figures

In theory, all the Warlords were actually part of the Chinese Republic, with troops from the North wearing grey or grey-green padded jackets and trousers and troops in the South wearing light cotton uniforms in grey or khaki drill – the branch colours were all the same, i.e. red for infantry, yellow for cavalry, blue for artillery and white for engineers

I have essentially two armies – a Northern army in grey and field grey, many of them with fur hats, and a Southern army in khaki – I have some variance within a unit for trousers, and I do add extra kit (the Copplestone 'big swords' and umbrellas are handy for that) – as well, I add the odd European advisor – as well, I have a few peasant units a la Boxer Rebellion with varied armament, rifles and spears – they are mostly in while with red sashes/headbands, etc and with some Chinese lettering on their chests (it helps to work at a university – my Chinese friends told me how to write "brave" in Chinese characters)

This way, I can mix and match units within the army depending if they are fighting each other (then I stick to grey versus khaki), versus rebellious peasants, invading Japanese or European devils

Any way, they are a great army to paint and fight

Frederick -
Do you know if machinegunners were artillery or infantry for their branch of service color?

I went for a khaki colour for most of my army but mixed in a few grey uniforms within the units to give some variety

Photos of most of it here
link

KT- I believe the machinegunners were part of the artillery branch

I made up 3 armies with various uniform shades. These have been in many CLA games.

The Blue Army
picture
the rest are here, more Blue, Gray and greenish Khaki, a brownish northern group, and the student militia
link

Knight – Good question – I have always assumed that they were infantry and painted them accordingly

I have just ordered a new reference book on the period and, when it arrives, I will check it out to see if I am dead wrong or not

Bob – great minis!

I forgot to mention all painting done by Fernando

There are currently two (2) Osprey books covering the armies of the Chinese Civil War and the war against Japan. Both are IMHO excellent guides to the sheer diversity of appearance of Chinese soldiers during the period 1911-47, and are worth every pence.

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Wow! Thanks everyone for the responses… lots of good info! :) Bob, I recognize some of the same Old Glory Mexicans I also intend to use as Warlord cavalry and infantry. ;) :)

I agree the Ospreys are a great buy

As to the machine gun question, I have a pic of a soldier with a light automatic weapon with red collar tabs (infantry) – they were assigned (at least by the KMT) to one per platoon – for the heavy machine guns, they were a fair bit less common – I have another reference to check, but I suspect that Auton is right, the heavies were likely to be artillery

Auton 1 and Frederick

That was my guess given the scarcity of heavies.

I understand the blue uniform was an early period winter uniform, but considering most armies in the field, I'd not be surprised to see it in summer or in the late period.

And whatever Bob and his Dog did not want, I bought from him some time ago, and now have four armies – a Northern one in fur-lined headgear in grey-green, a North/south one in grey and peaked hats, a bandit force, and Mongols.

I'm switching the mounting scheme to indiviual bases which fit into 2-4 fig trays, so I can game both skirmish (Great War, Price of Glory) and armies (Piquet).

Thanks Bob!