Figures from Wargames Foundry.
In my post when I outlined my "generic" Imperial Chinese Army for The Men Who Would be Kings, I outlined that I was going to use as my template Chinese Imperial forces that faced the Second Relief Expedition under General Sir Alfred Gaselee, GCB, GCIE. For purposes of my organization of units, I'm referring to my first 2 Infantry units and my artillery gun as belonging to the Resolute Army. An Army in the Chinese Imperial Army at this time could be anything from a regiment sized force up to a Brigade/Division. As is my usual practice when painting units or armies I am not familiar, I decided to do a few test figures to figure out how I wanted the units to look.
Military mandarins or officers wore a silk jacket in in various colors and senior officers wore predominantly purple. In addition on the front and sometimes the back, highly decorative embroidered cloth panels would be part of the jacket. In this scale, all you are getting from me is some "Chinese" lettering! Headgear was a Manchu hat often replaced with a bamboo sun hat in the summer with red tassels attached at the top.
Ready to fight enemies of the Qing Dynasty - both external and internal (though I think I need to add just a little shading to the face).
Next up will be my first Infantry unit which will be wearing traditional Chinese "uniforms" and once again is from Wargames Foundry Pack CH004 Chinese Musketeers. Even though they are carrying matchlocks, I'm going to pretend that they have a mixture of muskets with obsolete and modern breechloaders. The unit will be based on the above print. I forgot to mention that all of the figures were painted with a combination of Vallejo and Citadel Contrast paints.
Chinese Imperial soldiers always wore brightly colored uniforms which is one of the appeals of this period. The main garment was a loose fitting tunic of silk, cotton or linen usually bordered with a contrasting color. The tunic was issued by the unit commander but anything else worn under it was usually provided by the soldier themselves. Many troops wore a sleeveless surcoat (as above). Some "elite" units were more standardized than the other units depending on the money spent by the commander. On the chest and back of the tunic was a cloth disc, usually in white or yellow, which bore characters displaying the soldier's unit and commander and sometimes even position.
Typical headgear would be a turban worn in various styles or the classic Manchu hat. The black Manchu hat with a turned up brim and red crown were made from various materials depending on rank.
Infantry unit number 2 will wear a more Western cut of uniform though it retains aspects of a traditional Chinese look. With uniform colors you really can't go wrong; most units wore dark blue or various shades of blue. Contemporary Western observers (when I use the term "Western Observers" I am also including the Japanese), prints (both Chinese and Western) show colors of white, yellow, green, brown, red and dark red. You can't go wrong.
The above figure is Pack CH023 Ever Victorious Army Infantry. As mentioned earlier, most troops wore various types of turbans in dark blue, blue, black and red worn by regulars. Some of the Yung units (another post in of itself) wore turbans of yellow, scarlet and dark blue. My figure's uniform is a westernized cut of a double breasted silk tunic and decorative embroidered red panels.
Yep. I need to add some shading to his face too.
Since artillery crews are only 4 figures in TMWWBKs, I decided to knock out 3 figures and I'm going to add a 4th officer figure later.
This is another "Western" style looking unit in blue with red turbans and the traditional discs. Various pictures of the time show that even within the same unit, the discs may not be of a uniform design or attached in the same place. The Wargames Foundry pack is CH024 Ever Victorious Army Artillery Crew.
Don" bother looking up the Chinese characters; I made them up based on photographs and illustrations of the time and painted what I thought would look good at gaming distance.
Now it's time to get the painting assembly line going.
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