Hing Fat Chinese

Having read Paul Wright's wargame lists for Chinese armies I have decided to make some generic Chinese troops, starting with a 19th century emphasis. I have a heap of Hing Fat pirates (European style) so decided to use them. Why not as so far I have used these pirates for Renaissance, Mexican and Balkans types but not yet for actual pirates?

Some of the open vests I filled in. This took a lot of putty and stated to look a little like life jackets so I got lazy and just left some open although the Chinese clothing was probably mostly pullover. The caps were cut down to look like head scarves although some need more work. Another has some random plastic piece as a collie hat and another is made from putty. Another is a mandarin type cap, also from putty.Chinese troops usually had Chinese writing on their clothes to designate units. Often these were on white circles or squares on back and front of the upper bodies. - great targets for Japanese soldiers and others! Putty pig tails were added as these were ubiquitous for most Chinese men in this period. The shields were painted with my own monster design. It looks cartoony but so was the Chinese style.

This can be seen in one of the flags. The one with the weird looking tiger is copied from the Osprey book on Chinese imperial troops. It is a flag of the Formosan war in the 1880s against the Japanese conquerors. I have to still paint the green or blue (hard to tell) tiger's eyes. There is a black shape at the bottom of a flag which is either a cloud or a tiger doodoo. (Someone might be able to put me straight)The other flag is from 1850s to 1880s standards.

The skin color used was Games Workshop 'bronzed flesh' although it probably has a new name now. It is a less pinkish and more yellowish color but paler than what I usually use for Chinese.

I have grand plans for a large Chinese army to use in Boxer rebellion games (although the tiger flag is from an earlier war) and generic games against various Funny Little Wars armies..