"Han Chinese - Iron Ring Armour?" Topic

I have some ancient Chinese with iron ring armour to paint.

I cant find any references for these, what colour is the tunic that the rings are attached to? Are the tunics leather or dyed cloth?

I've seen pictures with it a very dark blue, but I cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Doug

projectmayhem,

It seems you are describing the Han Chinese figure from Hinchliffe based on John Greer's book. I recall from the book, the iron rings were fastened to a leather tunic. Leather could be dyed, so you have a variety of choice.

Cheers,

If they are Han red is the dynasty color.

Red is also a very popular military clothing color in Chinese history.

Black is another popular Chinese military color as is white.

Of course one of the problems is that Greer's book was … let's just say it isn't held in high regard these days and I agree with timurilank that the figures, old Essex 15mm or Hinchliffe 25mm were modeled after the Greer book.

If, of course, either of those are the range you have.

Oh, I should note that Essex's current Han line does not use Greer's book and is an excellent source of figures as we currently understand the Han to look.

Also Old Glory 25mm did a Han army. I believe they used Greer's drawings for their figures although much better sources had come out by then. Disappointing that. Unfortunately there are no photos on the Old Glory 25 site to determine if my memory is correct.

Thanks for responses. I decided to paint a mix of dark blue, green and leather brown, i thought the dark colours would contrast better with the rings.

For the rings themselves i decided to scratch of the primer back to bare metal.

well we have Han (Western) Ceramics of soldiers that wear red clothes under their black armor, black boots on the feet, and a flatcap fixed on the head with a red band but these are not the only colours they wore and by no means the 'only' or uniform armour/clothes.
We do have evidence for white, black, green and orange as well and Red and Black seem most popular, but there was by no means an Army Uniformity that we know of properly.
Interestingly green and blue seemed to be popular for breeches.

There is a "painting guide" in the latest National Geographic for the terracotta soldiers. Althought they pre-date the Han it may be helpful.