My Cerise/Japanese Army

 I have almost finished my completely fictitious grey jacketed Japanese/Cerisians. Here they are with their buddies. The other regiments are more or less accurate for late 19th century to early 20th century Japanese troops. The exceptions are my multipurpose, multi-national marching figures in kepis and rear cavalry unit. These serve to pad out the army without me painting more purely Japanese units. However, these units do have some similarity to 1860s or 1870s Japanese troops that were, in uniform style, very much influenced by French uniforms. (They also had French military advisors, one who inspired 'The Last Samurai' American character).

  
                                               Mistress Chloe surveys the Cerisian army.

                                These are a multi-purpose cavalry unit, here pretending to be Japanese/Cerisians. They are Britains Detail US Cavalry on BMC horses. (I love those horses as riders sit on the saddles so easily) The unit was originally painted as Chileans or Argentinians.

  Most of the flags are from the Virtual Armchair General and are fictitious versions of the Rising Sun.

               The marching men are Hilco Hollowcast ACW painted as French/ACW volunteers, South Americans, etc, but here as Cerisians. (The Japanese infantry kepis were generally dark blue, not red). The machine gun and crew are from The Virtual Armchair general and are resin figures.

   Generally, I'd give the army two medium cannons. The crew are a mix of conversions and Virtual Armchair general figures. I need to double check the facing colors for artillery uniforms. The wagon serves me in many wars, including medieval fantasy and are converted from cheapo cowboy wagons with pirate barrels. The seated figures are converted from Marx Germans of WW2.

   The front cavalry unit is from The Virtual Armchair General. The front infantry unit is the latest unit I am finishing based on the original colors of the first Britains hollow-cast Japanese.

  The fellow with axe is from The Virtual Armchair General, given a Timpo axe. He is meant to be a pioneer/engineer/sapper. They had dark red facings. I'll be making some more.

      The diecast car for my staff car is unaltered and the Japanese did have black color schemes as well as olive green. I havent tried to match the car to a particular time. The figures are converted from the Marx Germans, but they are closer to 1/35 than 1.32, however, that does enable them to easily fit in the seats.

THINGS STIILL TO DO: The new unit and some topping up figures have been coated with thin coats of Modge Podge. In a few days I'll give the figures an additional coat of Crystal Coat artist's fixative. The bases are unfinished as I need to give them a wash of brown, some highlights and some flock.

  Future units:
                      More engineers

                       Artillery limbers (at present I use ACW ones, complete with ACW figures).

                      One or two more infantry based on the 1870s uniform style - 'cause I like 'em.

                      A cavalry unit also based on an 1870s one in green jackets with red trousers

                     This is a big maybe based on finding the right figures - a unit or two of samurai.

A NOTE ON HEADGEAR

The Japanese caps for late 19th century to 1900s had crowns that tapered up, unlike, say British peaked caps of WW1 that have more overlapping crowns. Later the caps became more like the British style.

  In the 1860s to 1870s, kepis were common and also a variety of weird looking caps including some that look like dunce caps and some that look like British helmets of WW1 and WW2. These non-kepi hats were mostly black. This means that ACW kepi troops can be quite useful and are a quick way to get the more Westernized uniforms for Japanese civil wars of that period. Some interesting conversions also come to mind.

  I do tend to get bored painting zillions of the same uniforms which is why having imagi-nations is handy - I just pick and choose. As you can see, though, I do keep a foot in depiction of historical uniforms. That is because most of my imagi-nations do use historical countries as starting points and might actually some time, if I ever have enough of imagi-nations - don't bet on it, wish to depict purely historical wars. 

  SIZE OF ARMIES

My minimum sized armies are hovering around eight regiments; that is Toyland sized regiments of 24 infantry and 12 cavalry. I do sometimes play with smaller armies and skirmish games but that is what I like to have available. My largest armies are my ACW ones where I have lost count of numbers. I'll have to count them again one day, but I never use all of them in one game.
  Then again, my ACW regiments often pad out other armies when I want larger forces.