Chinese Army in 15mm - Part I

           I’ve been wanting to field a Chinese army -either warlord era or WWII- in some fashion for some time now, but hadn’t gotten beyond looking at pictures of other people’s miniatures. Ideally, I wanted to keep it in the 15mm range, but this didn’t seem possible. The only Chinese KMT troops in 15mm are by Eureka and they’re a bit too expensive for fielding a company or battalion sized unit. I had seen others use Battlefront's early war Germans and Hungarians, but I didn’t they looked quite right, and I wanted a mix of soldiers wearing hats and helmets.

           

            I recently revisited the topic to see if there weren’t any other options, and looking at the Chinese forage cap, thought it looked similar enough to the Finnish hat that I might be able use Finnish soldiers as a stand in.

The Finnish forage cap.

The Chinese forage cap.

                               

Coincidentally, Miniature Market was having a sale and happened to have Battlefront’s Jalkaväki platoons marked down to $12.00, so I took that as a sign. Even if it doesn’t work out, I am only out $12 and I’m sure I can find a friend to pawn them off on.

Battlefront's Jalkavaki Platoon (FI702)

                                                     
There are, however, some discrepancies that will need to be worked out. The main one is the Finnish jackboots -the Chinese wore puttees with either low boots or slipper-looking shoes (I have no idea what their proper name is). I could paint this part like a puttee, but I feel it would still be too noticeable, so my plan is to file the shaft of the boot down, and then wrap very thin strands of Green Stuff to imitate a wrapped legging. This may be more ambitious than I realize, but I won’t know until I try.

The are two other minor differences that require modification: the epaulets and helmet vent holes/lugs need to be removed. The Chinese uniforms did not have epaulets, and the helmet lugs were found on the German M16 & M18 helmets (as used by the Finns), but not the German M35 helmet (as used by the Chinese).

A Finnish soldier a German M16 at a rakish angle. Note the large lugs on the side of the helmet.

A German M35 helmet being worn in a more soldierly fashion. Notice the lack of epaulets.

There are some other very minor differences, but I don’t think they’ll be an issue at 1/100 scale. The Finns are carrying Mosin-Nagants, which I think look close enough to the Hanyang 88, the Chinese copy of the Gew. 88. The Finnish gear is different, but I think this can be changed enough with painting, or maybe even adding something here and there with a bit of Green Stuff. A few of the Finns carry the Soumi kp/31 machine pistol, but I think by removing the drum magazine, and adding a box magazine on the side, it can be made to look like an MP28.

MP28s being used by Chinese soldiers, albeit communist, not KMT.

           

The Finns came in the mail today, but I haven’t had a chance to look at them in detail. In my next installment, I’ll asses what can be done, and maybe have converted a few.