"Why are there so few Ancient Chinese Bldgs. in 28mm?" Topic

There seems to be a PLETHORA of buildings for Ancient & Medieval Japanese (Samurai) gamers, but WHY are there so VERY few options for buying Ancient Chinese buildings in 28mm?

Oh, and YES El Guapo, I DO know what a "plethora" is!!

They built bigger?

What!?!?

I thought most of the Asian buildings were being done for 28mm, or bigger, instead of 15mm.

Dan

HUH!?? I was asking about 28mm Ancient Chinese buildings (terrain), not 15mm!!

In any case… The only 28mm Ancient Chinese buildings (terrain) of which I am aware are:

a) Three (3x) buildings and some city (fortress) walls, towers, and a single "gate" offered by 1stCorps. These, upon comparison to extant artwork (and the relevant Osprey volumes), date to the Song (Sung) era (ca. 1000AD), but could plausibly be used right up to the modern era;

b) About a half-dozen or so buildings and a set of "garden" walls and gates offered by Oshiro that by analogy to the 1stCorps pieces also date to the Song (or maybe the Tang), and can be used right up to the modern era as well…

So, these two vendors really offer MEDIEVAL Chinese buildings… "Who," if anyone, offers ANCIENT Chinese buildings???

Part of the problem could be a lack of evidence of what they looked like, if you're asking for Warring States era stuff.

Many gamers will be OK with something that looks like something out of a Hong Kong movie for a game set in the Qin Dynasty or earlier, which means most of the buildings/towns are much newer. Song/Tang, most likely.

Lack of demand.

Found this though, from Warbases
link

Come in Nighthawk: "HUH!?? I was asking about 28mm Ancient Chinese buildings (terrain), not 15mm!!"

Yes. And I said I thought most of the Asian terrain was already being done for you 28mm gamers, or bigger! I wish there were more of those same buildings being done for 15mm instead. :)

Here's one for 25mm-28mm, though the fella uses 32mm on tall bases which makes the building look small:

link

All I did was do a Google search for:

Ancient Chinese buildings 28mm

Dan

Build from scratch, man! You're a miniatures gamer, aren't you?!?!

- Ix

No, I couldn't do it either. Chinese buildings look hard.

Does any of this help?

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TMP link

Dan

The fancy woodwork in Chinese windows really lends itself towards laser-cutting, and I think there are some folks that just do the windows, to attach to your own scratchbuilds.

Not that I can find any with a quick google…

I also have some "wooden puzzle buildings" (die-cut balsa plywood) that were pretty nice. I bought mine from Decors Miniatures (http://www.decorsminiatures.fr/category.php?id_category=77 ), and they are very nice to work with. They sent me an email saying that it would be cheaper to ship direct from the factory instead of from their store in France, and asked me if that was acceptable.

This should be just about right for 28mm minis:

These are actually better suited for 15mm, but I'm not across recently released puzzle buildings so they may well be good for larger scales.

Maybe it's because one of the larger game companies has a set of Japanese rules out but no one major company has a set of Chinese rules out?

It's worth checking out Aliexpress – the Chinese site I bought one of these – you can see by the details it is a cut above other laser cut balsa kits.

link

Sorry scale is 1/50

The ratio of 28mm ancient Chinese buildings to 28mm ancient Japanese building is probably related to the number of available 28mm ancient Chinese miniatures and 28 mm ancient Japanese miniatures.

So it's demand.

It's worth checking out Aliexpress…..

Yes it is….thanks for the link.

You do need to be picky, though. Some of the 3d puzzles I bought were better for 15mm or even smaller scales. Those were the more Tibetan-looking buildings, though.

I haven't seen the particular model sold in a while, but there is a great traditional/ancient Chinese house kit out there, as a complete walled compound. It has servant's quarters up front, West and East houses, and a North house for the Patriarch of the family. The whole thing is sorta based into a single piece, but would need to be put on a separate base to deal with the tabs on the bottom of the walls. It even has lights and battery boxes inside each building!

This is from the same seller on Aliexpress again the scale stated is 1/50

link

Again this is much better detailed than the usual balsa ones and at a reasonable price

The last one is a nice find, although, as indicated, it is as per an ethnic minority's architectural tradition.

Minority isn't a word I'd use to describe the Chinese! ;)

Ha! Ha! Ha! There are ethnic minorities within China, in this case the Miao, who are not the same as the Han majority…

Just as not all East Asian countries' architecture can be well-represented by a one-design-fits-all "Oriental" range, so an undifferentiated "Chinese" range would not be representative of the architecture of the many ethnic minorities in China, nor even of the varied regional architecture of the mainly Han parts of China.