15mm Chinese - Update

Rebased T'ang Chinese Militia

Having completed my T'ang Chinese back in June 2019 I thought that I had nothing more to do with the army. Upon reflection I decided that I didn't like the uniformed look that the Chinese Militia blocks had.

see blog entries

https://drewjarman.blogspot.com/2019/01/late-tang-chinese-part-7.html

and

https://drewjarman.blogspot.com/2018/12/late-tang-chinese-part-5.html

for the original units. I decided that I will rebase them and took half of the completed elements to mix up the colours to give them that irregular peasant look. I still have another 24 bases to mix up but for now they can wait.

Thats all to blog for now 

This brings the painting tally so far for 2022 to

240 foot [72 elements]

9 Feature Pieces [9 elements]

24 Rebased elements

15mm Chinese - Penultimate Entry

15mm Chinese - Part 23 Mounted Infantry [III]

Todays offering is the penultimate entry for my Chinese Army project. Its the last of the Mounted Infantry from Outpost Wargames Services Sui & T'ang Chinese Range. They are Code STC8 Mounted Crossbowmen. I had already painted up two elements as Reg Cv [O] but these are the balance of ten bases to act as Mounted Infantry Crossbowmen. Mounted Infantry appear in a few lists and these are done generically enough to work in the armies I have built. I can use the two other bases to make up a total of twelve bases if needed.

Outpost STC8 Mounted Crossbowmen

Last up because I hate having left over wasted figures I have a few Legio Heroica Mongol cavalry. The figures were incomplete so I had to add shields and lances from my spares box but they will slot in nicely with the Mongol units I already have to use in the Yuan Chinese army. They were a pain to assemble despite being very nice castings.

Legio Heroica MON08 Cavalry

Legio Heroica MON09 Horse Archers

This means I have now virtually completed my Chinese armies. I just have to do four Black Powder Artillery bases for the very end of the Yuan Chinese army date range and base up some leftover but already painted infantry. There are still some Khitan Liao and Mongol Cavalry to be done for allied contingents but it will be good to finally come to the end of this huge project.

I already have a new army project in mind but I might take a break before starting this one to concentrate on completing some other outstanding tasks.

Painting update

This now brings the painting tally for 1st January to 15th May 2021 to:

185 infantry & 4 war drums [63 elements]

154 cavalry [49 elements]

12 Bamboo & Paper Lions [8 elements]

3 elephants [3 elements]

Plus I have rebased

32 elements of Pikes

4 elements of Psiloi

50 mounted elements

15mm Chinese - Part 20 Elephants & Firelances

15mm Chinese Part 20 - Elephants & Fire Lances

As part of my purchase from Evil Gong of Australia I decided to obtain three of their Southern Dynasties War Elephants Code EGC5 War Elephant. The elephants came in multiple pieces consisting of, body, head, two different types of tusks, howdah, umbrella canopy & four crew, It took some careful cleaning to ensure that the tusks actually fitted onto the head and each standing crewman had to have their bases trimmed as small as possible to ensure that actually fitted inside the howdah. I painted the crewmen in identical uniforms whilst varying the colour of the elephants body cloth for variety. The Southern Dynasties get the option to use one elephant whilst the Southern Han within the Late T'ang & Five Dynasties list get the option to take up to three elephants.

Evil Gong EGC5 War Elephant

Part of my original purchase for my Late T'ang army was mounted crossbowmen they are primarily for use as mounted infantry elements but the list requires two elements of Mounted crossbowmen classed as Reg Cv [O] so I have painted up two elements in a special uniform to represent this option. They come from the Outpost Wargames Sui/Tang range Code STC8 Mounted Crossbows. These are two piece castings and were very clean. I shall paint the other figures in a variety of colours when I eventually do them as mounted infantry.

Outpost STC8 Mounted Crossbows

The Sung Dynasty seemed to love Black Powder Fire Lances They had mounted and foot troops equipped with fire lances. They seemed to fall out of favour with the collapse of the Sung Dynasty and the Yuan used limited numbers of infantry with fire lances. For some reason DBx grades these cavalry as Reg Kn F rather than the more usual cavalry despite the fact they were also equipped with bows. Khurasan Figures make both in their Sung range. The castings were very clean and required minimal cleaning up.

Khurasan SUNG-FIRE-CAV

Last up for this blog entry are the Sung Fire Lance Infantry rated as Irr Ps X in the Sung list. I painted them in matched pairs of elements which will enable me to swop around the bases depending on which command has them in. The castings were very clean and required minimal cleaning up.

Khurasan SUNG-FIRE-INF

This now brings the painting tally for 1st January to 7th April 2021 to:

185 infantry & 4 war drums [63 elements]

80 cavalry [24 elements]

12 Bamboo & Paper Lions [8 elements]

3 elephants [3 elements]

Plus I have rebased

32 elements of Pikes

4 elements of Psiloi

50 mounted elements

15mm Chinese Part 19 - Sung Generals & Militia Drummers

15mm Chinese Part 19 - Sung Generals & Militia Drummers

Having been working on Chinese figures almost constantly since June 2020 I am starting to become a bit tired of painting them. I still have 6 batches of figures left to do so I am finally getting to the end of the Great Wall of China. Its been an interesting project to do during lockdown as its an series of armies I had never thought I would ever own. 

This blog entry is a sort of Heinz 57 Varieties write up as I ended up using most of my left over infantry oddment figures to create some essential missing elements. The end results are quite nice and I am impressed on how they turned out. I did have to sacrifice a single Reg Bd O Element to give me the armoured swordsmen. I had only recently created it from four spare Outpost castings I had left over! I painted every casting in these pictures except for the four Outpost Wargames Swordsmen.

Four Evil Gong infantry with a Khurasan War Drum with Drummer, these are Irr WWg I or DBE Bge

Three Outpost infantry, one Essex Peasant & a Khurasan War Drum with Drummer

Three Essex Infantry, a Khurasan War Drum with Drummer & homemade flag.

One Outpost Warrior, two Essex Infantry, a Khurasan War Drum with Drummer & homemade flag.

Three Khurasan Warriors & nine Essex infantry as Sung Infantry Command Reg Bd O

Museum Miniatures Naphtha Throwers left over from two IE18 elephants Reg Ps X

I had to have a break today so quickly based up some more British Napoleonic infantry but even this didn't end the monotony of endless Chinese troops.