"1880's Chinese/Black Flag Figures" Topic

I am trying to locate figures for the Sino-French War of 1884-5. The French fought regular Chinese forces as well as the "Black Flags" who the French labeled as bandits, but who were actually an effective irregular army. For the Chinese regulars, the figures I know of are either too early: Taiping Rebellion, or too late: Boxer Rebellion. The Chinese, as well as the Black Flags should be wearing loose pajamas and conical hats and carrying modern (at least post flintlock) weapons. I'm interested in 25/28mm, at this point I am not too fussy.

Falcon Miniatures and The London War Room used to make dedicated 25mm French Indo-China ranges. The poses in Falcon's range were limited: usually two per troop type. I believe only the LWR range included Black Flag rebels.

Nick i had the same interest…i confirm what Henry Martini said…by the way some of our US friends can try to know the wereabouts of LWR moulds or even if the owner still have some stocks..i own a few samples of the Indochina range from LWR they were quite slim but 28mm and compatible with OG, Foundry ecc…a complte range of nice and very specificic minis including commands and musicians…in my opinion sme of the WF taiping range..i'm thinking at basic types baretorso and open handed could pass very well for Black Flags..in fact those BF were simply Chineese pirates…Have loook also at the Chinese Pirates set from Reviresco..nice multipose minis with separated typical/iconic coolie hats

ITALWARS, Thank you! I have some of the Reviresco Chinese Pirates, but I could not remember where I got them. Unfortunately they are no longer on the Tin Soldier website. I will contact the owner and see if they are still available.

Did you look at the Foundry Chinese catalog?

By the way, if any Falcon figures, a friend would be very interested.

Winston Smith, this seller on eBay has Falcon colonials. auction

I found the Reveiresco Chinese figures! They are on the Revieresco site tin-soldier.com under 1/64 Figures. They are called Chinese Irregulars. Perfect!

@Nick Stern
Hey, thanks for that link!

Look also at Castaway Arts Chinese

Durando, Castaway are nice, but they are not wearing the conical straw hat.

Hi Nick,

Last Stand Dan and I are working on the very same project now as well. We are planning on using his cool gunboats for the naval actions. Apparently we are all looking for Black Flag troops. My friend Pier (Italwars) has emailed me some good references and as you can see is working on this project and also searching for troops. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with troops wise.

Cheers,
JB

The new Osprey book on the Chinese Imperial army shows them wearing medium blue civilian clothes and a brown jerkin with a white circle with the Chinese character of their commander. They also wear larger than normal straw hats, not your normal conical hat, kind of like a Mexican sombrero with the crown cut way down. I just found these on the Caliver website, listed as Falcon Indo-Chinese Attacking and Riflemen

Since the bulk of my French are also Falcons, I am going to order a unit or two.

Here are the Reviresco Chinese Irregulars for camparison: tin-soldier.com/rpg5.html
I realize that they are not state of the art sculpts, but I am now 65 years old and I don't have time to wait for the perfect figures. Watch, the Perrys will now come out with the perfect figures…

I'm opinion the Falcon figures still have a certain charme…and , being chunky, once painted they fit well with modern ranges…..in their French Indochina range they have also a very useful Tirailleur Annamite running with rifle at trail..it's a very useful figure, it's little bigger than others and, being in Vietnamese traditional dress..with Kéo and baggy trousers i even converted some in Vietnamese/Chineese irregulars by substuing his rifle with a spear and pianting it in various colours

They do have a certain old school charm though, Nick.

Don't forget this Annamite Tirraileur from Forgotten Front Minis, also available from Caliver

I found a book on Amazon that may be of interest: Sino-French Naval War 1884-1885. It covers the land actions as well as the river and sea actions. Black Flags in Vietnam was a total waste of time, being mainly a political study of the period.

Nick, I read this post last night and ordered the naval book as I had an old Amazon gift card growing dust. Thanks for the advice.
Cheers,
JB