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I was just wondering what kind of selection there was out there for miniatures based off of Asian (especially Chinese) Mythology or History. There seems to be a lot of Samurai miniatures out there, but hardly anything that isn't a samurai. It looks like there's a company in China called Flying General Workshop who makes figures based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I can't seem to find anyone who sells them to the US.

Since this is a fantasy army I'm making, I'll probably end up using Wargames Factory's ashigaru for the footsoldiers, although I would appreciate some suggestions for making them look more Chinese in attire. I was thinking of using WGF persian torsos and legs with ashigaru bare heads and (?) arms to make monks or Immortals, but I would want to give them jian or tai chi swords...and I would love to have some ideas on where to find those or how to convert them. I would also like to have a kot of heroes with guandaos and other distinctive weaponry, as well as magicians and shen and such. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Bob

A quick googling for "28mm ancient Chinese miniatures" reveals the following.

http://www.renegademiniatures.com/regcws.htm
http://www.molniyafigs.com/newpage11.html
http://www.curteysminiatures.co.uk/
http://www.oldgloryuk.com/disp_items.php?c=83
http://www.eurekaminusa.com/search.aspx?q=chinese
http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/pages/page.php?Medieval-Asia-16
http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=68334#.UTYCtjCzfTo

I'm sure there may be others, but there's a good start. I left out results that only had Japanese figures as they are quite common.

http://www.bushido-thegame.com/

R.

http://www.amazon.com/28mm-Historical-Miniatures-Imperial-Spearmen/dp/B0046E4HDM
http://wargamesminis.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=282_284_743_1179
http://www.fishpond.com/Toys/28mm-Historical-Miniatures-FDY/9999192581715
http://www.michtoy.com/michtoy_search_products.php?Vendor_ID=&Types=&Scale=&Period=Ancient+China+%26+Japan&action=searchFOUR&Clearance=ON+Sale&Submit=Search

Helldorado Immortals

Fantasized Chinese. Will not fit with any of the "old school" (i.e. heroic 25mm) ranges mentioned by Eilif, however.

Bushido is Samurai-themed.

Kensei Miniatures http://kensei.zenitminiatures.es/en/
Legend of the 5 Rings. Clan Wars: http://www.veltd.net/zencart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=36
West Wind Productions http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=182
Malifaux
M.S.B.Toys (OOP?) http://www.shop.battlefield-berlin.de/index.php/katalog/nlayer/348-1-msb_toys.html
Hazgaard Miniatures (OOP), Okko the Game
a few OOP Samurai Goblins and Ogres by Rackham

and, as said, Bushido http://www.bushido-thegame.com/

The Assault Group has a great range of infantry/cavalry for historical chinese

Old Glory has a lot of different things from chinese to mongols

Indus makes indian figs

http://indusminiatures.mybigcommerce.com/

Ebob has some mongols

http://www.ebobminiatures.com/products/tribes.htm

Okko.

Bushido

Clan War

Kensi

http://cavalcadewargames.com/cavalcade/Fantasy_Armies_of_the_Far_East_Menu.html

http://www.blackhat.co.uk/online_shop/index.php?cPath=121_147&osCsid=4de5b3607126f30d0e8f47e16baf06ed

Thank you everyone! I really appreciate all of the suggestions. Some of these sets I had found before and forgotten the names, but most are new to me.

The Helldorado range Sentinel is exactly what I am looking for in a Celestial Guard or Jade Elite (or whatever you want to call it).
I'm in the process of getting all the Malifaux models that are Asian and not too undead.
I just ordered all the Flying General Models from MichToy, although they didn't have Guan Yu. Does anyone know where I can get him, or failing that, of a place that sells little Guan Gong figurines about 30-60mm tall?


Bushido has an awesome dragon, and the Shisa will make excellent temple dogs, far better than Reaper's Foo Dog. (Especially since I want one to go with my Harry Dresden model as Mouse.)
The historical minis are great and I will probably spend my next Birthday money on buying a bunch of them across many ranges.

Please keep the suggestions coming, especially for character minis or fantasy minis. Thank you!


Also, any suggestions for neat conversions? For example, how to make my (third) version of Izamu the Armor look more like Chinese armor?

(I'm planning on adding tassels to his hat and weapon, with a different blade swapped from GW's Grave Guard. If I get ambitious, I'll replace his back banners with two Jian with tassels, his katana and wakizashi with an oxtail saber or some scrolls or something. I'm not quite sure what to do with his left hand.)


EDIT: Mother of Gord! Black Hat has a longma! I was going to convert one out of the Reaper Bones unicorn and the little dragon. Well, I probably still will, but I'm definitely buying the Black Hat version, too!

I forgot to mention earlier...

Flying general does 1/48 figures...not gaming sized miniatures. They are quite nice but you may not want to mix them with gaming miniatures.

Are they very fragile? If they can work as very large Immortals or something, I'll be happy. Unless there's a technical issue...

Also, where did you get Flying General Models? MichToy? I'd love to get some plastic infantry and Guan Yu. Mmmmm plastic.

One of my friends was doing a consulting job in Shang Hai and pciked them up for me from a local store there. I think that might have been before Michigan Toy Soldier had even picked them up...though I would need to double check dates to be positive about that. I have a link of a Chinese supplier on my home PC...but I dont have access to that right now. As far as I know there are no other suppliers outside of China though.

They are plastic - which provides a certain amount of durability over metal. Although they are thin, since they are a larger scale than gaming figures...the thin parts end up being about the same thickness as gaming figures (just you don't have the compressed distortions which you see in 28mm figures).

Personally, I prefer it and am going on 6 years now gaming in 1/48 (and to a lesser extent 1/72 and 1/144) scale instead of wonky sizes and have no intention of ever going back.

I'll see about flexing my Mandarin to see if I can find the link to one of the stores in China...if memory serves though, they are sold under a different name (or atleast a different version of the name) over there. A lot of these terms are somewhat archaic though, so the specific translations often slip as most my focus has been with dealing with tech related people and terms.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Got in touch with my friend who picked them up, and he said the name of the site was gu-zhan.com

The site appears to be expired, but it has bits and pieces on the Internet Archive.

You also might be able to track down the source through http://shop36186486.taobao.com/

That was their online shop, but it appears to have been shuffled as well.

Thanks for trying. I appreciate it.

It looks like I'll have enough other interesting new models to play with--er, paint in the meantime. Someone will probably start distributing them again eventually.

It sounds like you are more familiar with Chinese language and culture than I am. What translations do you recommend for Journey to the West or Romance of the Three Kingdoms? My copy of JttW was translated before TVs had color and the stilted prose and Wade-Giles names (when a name isn't just translated haphazardly into the nearest English square hole) really bug me. Where should I start getting into wuxia?


PS: I think I'm also going to include some Perry Minis Koreans in my fantasy Asian army. They look quite dapper.

Not an expert in Mandarin by any means. Like I said, mine is mostly related to technical issues when I have had to deal with Chinese staff or documentation. I can fumble through casual conversation without insulting anyone too badly, but beyond that - I stick to reading/writing tech manuals. My friend was born in Hong Kong though, so he might be able to provide a suggestion or two. I will bug him about it.

Koreans are a pretty good addition. They share many aspects with Chinese militaries of the time from my understanding - and they offer some variety as well to act as table dressing. It might be helpful as well to try to track down some expats in Asia as well. I know there are several different companies who distribute there who do not have a presence outside of their home country that might be interesting as well (beyond just the Flyinggeneral Games Workshop figures).

Last time I was in Japan, I brought home a suitcase filled with stuff from Wonderfest and the Game Market.

http://gamemarket.jp/index.php
http://wf.kaiyodo.net/wf/

@trelibras - Despite the name, Bushido is, in fact, generically oriental, not Japanese in theme.

R.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Not an expert in Mandarin by any means. Like I said, mine is mostly related to technical issues when I have had to deal with Chinese staff or documentation. I can fumble through casual conversation without insulting anyone too badly, but beyond that - I stick to reading/writing tech manuals. My friend was born in Hong Kong though, so he might be able to provide a suggestion or two. I will bug him about it.

Koreans are a pretty good addition. They share many aspects with Chinese militaries of the time from my understanding - and they offer some variety as well to act as table dressing. It might be helpful as well to try to track down some expats in Asia as well. I know there are several different companies who distribute there who do not have a presence outside of their home country that might be interesting as well (beyond just the Flyinggeneral Games Workshop figures).

Last time I was in Japan, I brought home a suitcase filled with stuff from Wonderfest and the Game Market.

http://gamemarket.jp/index.php
http://wf.kaiyodo.net/wf/

Thanks for the tips. I just realized that I do have friends who make trips to Taiwan and Hong Kong a lot. I am almost completely comfortable being that guy who bugs them into buying stuff (that isn't bootlegged DVDs for a change), so I'll look into my options. I'll also check out those links. Thanks.

The Perry Brothers have sculpted a nice range of Korean figures representing the Imjin War era (1600s)

Perry brothers have a few different historical series of asian cultures:

http://www.perry-miniatures.com/

Wargames Factory.

JWhex wrote:
The Perry Brothers have sculpted a nice range of Korean figures representing the Imjin War era (1600s)

Yeah, I'm excited about getting some. They look very good. Usually I'm not a fan of the Perrys' historical minis due to all of their plastic units looking almost as threatening as a high school marching band, but many of the Korean models actually look dynamic and fun.

Shingouki, I plan to base the bulk of my army on WGF's plastic samurai, ashigaru and so on. I'll probably add tassels to their hats and weapons for my personal "not-Cathay" tastes, but they are some great models as is. I emailed WGF, but it sounds like they have no plans to make any Chinese (or other Asian) historical minis.


In a related note, I want to convert my ashigaru guns into troops with crossbows. I have some GW dwarf and DElf crossbow parts and a bunch of Mantic dwarf crossbow parts. Which do you guys think will work best?

Also, does anyone know when Bombshell Babes are releasing their minis to retail? They have at least one mini that will work beautifully (eh!) for my purposes.

I hope it is alright to dig this up again, but I think its relevant.

http://watchfulistudio.com

have some nice models of the Warrying States period.


interesting in the short term:
their historical Warring states period models are now on kickstarter for a cheaper price together with their new terracotta warriors

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2104924145/28mm-terracotta-army/description

Fireforge has Mongols Mongol Horde

Zenit recently had a KS for the Empire of Katai (i.e. Chinese) to add to their existing Japanese-themed line. Maybe they'll take a late pledge?
Empire of Katai

The Empire, long united, must divide.
The Empire, long divided, must unite.

Opening of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Are all the Watchful Studio miniatures metal? I pledged in their first campaign, but I try to avoid metal now. I skipped on Zenit for that reason, but I'm eyeing Titanforge's resin Japanese fantasy miniatures.

Ancestral Hamster, I've got plenty of thos Mongols. I'm using the extra torsos in the heavy Arab cavalry kit on the Mongols to make heavy troops. Malifaux's Ten Thunders line provides a lot of elites and heroes, but they tower over the smaller scaled Mongols.

And no conversation about Fireforge's Mongols is complete without mentioning their cringeworthy faces. It's hard to believe those were sculpted in the 2010's.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
And no conversation about Fireforge's Mongols is complete without mentioning their cringeworthy faces. It's hard to believe those were sculpted in the 2010's.

Yes, those faces are straight from 19th/early 20th century "Yellow Peril" propaganda posters. I've built my set of Mongol foot (for Frostgrave actually), but am not that happy with those faces.

Wrath of Kings has an Asian inspired faction in the form of House Shael Han. They are a bit more steampunk, but for a fantasy army may work well. If you are looking for oni, the Children of Wrath would work fairly well. The dragon model is one of my favorites from the entire range. http://wrathofkings.com/ks/factions/house-of-shael-han/

I love some of the Wrath of Kings range. I bought three of the dragons and four (?) of the stone lions. The steampunk elements don't appeal to me, but many of those parts are easy to replace, and the rest can be sci fi'ed up. I also bought a bunch of Hadross minis to represent the Dragon King's shrimp soldiers and crab generals. Are Shael Han's newer heavy infantry mostly fantasy, or easy to convert?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Thanks for the recommendations, guys. Please keep them coming.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Are Shael Han's newer heavy infantry mostly fantasy, or easy to convert?
.

The dragon legionnaire spearmen seem like they would be fairly easy to convert. I haven't done much work with my second wave of Shael Han though. Just don't get to play with them enough to warrant it!

Empire of the Jade Triad. A mix of plastic and resin.