Preview WWII Chinese Rifleman

[Gary Childress]

I'm working on a WWII Chinese rifleman and would like a little feedback. I have an Osprey book showing uniforms of the Chinese army from 1937-1949. So far there are a couple possibilities I see.

1. Weapon: It looks to me like the Chinese army used quite a hodge podge of different weapons, pretty much anything they could get their hands on from foreign arms manufacturers to stuff they captured from the Japanese. A couple weapons I think might be appropriate are the MAS 36 (French) or the Japanese Arisaka rifle.

2. Uniform: Looks like the most popular colors might have been either a lightish blue/gray or tan. The German alpine hat seems like it was the most common headwear.

So far I have a couple candidates below for evaluation.



I'm thinking the lightish blue/gray may better set him apart from the Japanese.

 

[Jerry'sGoldfish]

i have no idea about these period of time, but the unit looks astonishing....

 

[Ares de Borg]

I'm thinking the lightish blue/gray may better set him apart from the Japanese.

This.

Good work!

 

[El Justo]

there they are thanks. couldn't see the images in the message you sent.

not sure of the color schemes the ROCs used although i'll defer to mr. osprey. he's pretty good.

i know that the weapons they used were a mix of american (newest), british (newest as well), captured japanese, and older german (army itself was modeled after hitler's army, believe it or not).

if you were to pin me down and ask which rifle, i'd say springfield model US since we were their largest supplier and they horded a lot of what was sent over the hump, that or the ROC officers sold it off and pocketed the cash. if no springfield, i'd say lee-enfield and then maybe german stuff. iirc, there were small amounts of soviet weapons also but they were older and they lacked replacements and ammo stores for them.

addit: the chinese also manufactured some of their own stuff but it wasn't nearly as prevalent as lend-lease stuff.

 

[T-mun]

Are you going to change his face so that he looks "more chinese" in the pedia pics ?

 

[Gary Childress]

Unfortunately I don't have a springfield. These are some of what I do have in bolt rifles:

SMLE
Arisaka
Mauser 98
MAS 36

If anyone happens to know where I can get a springfield for free I'd much appreciate it. I looked on ShareCG and Turbosquid.

 

[El Justo]

i wouldn't give him french equipment. they were having enough trouble to the south to equip chang and minions. maybe to the mauser but american or british rifles are probably more historically correct imo.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Excellent detail on that figure, Gary. I also think that blue will look good fighting against the Japanese units.

If you're thinking about making more than one, another alternative could be the German-equipped kmt troops, with steel pot and mauser.

 

[RickFGS]

Such quality, nice work!

 

[stico]

..........

 

[ShiroKobbure]

I like the blue uniformed unit, will it be civ colored?

 

[crazyanswer]

A national party soldier, nice.

About uniform:
They use both Yellow-Green (summer) and Gray-Blue (winter) colors.
I think your blue one looks well, that is what we see in most chinese war dramas.

About weapons:
Imported weapons as war proceeded: German - Soviet - USA;
Self-manufactured: 汉阳造 (copied from Mauser M1888 Rifle), 中正式 (copied from Mauser M1924 Gewehr)
I think Mauser rifle would be ok.

Hope these help.

 

[Gary Childress]

I don't know what kind of rifle this is. I found it at Renderosity among the freebies but I kind of like it. Put a makeshift Japanese bayonet on the end and it looks kind of cool I think.

 

[Delta_Strife]

Kinda reminds me of Lee-Enfield with the magazine chamber by the trigger.

 

[Ares de Borg]

Lee Enfield or Mosin Nagant, but my money is on the Lee Enfield

 

[Gary Childress]

Are you going to change his face so that he looks "more chinese" in the pedia pics ?

Sorry, in answer to your question, probably no. Once I crunch it down to 128 pixels the face isn't going to be very discernable anyway.

Delta sent me an M1903 springfield. Here it is. Which rifle do you think looks best?

 

[clamel]

Just great,
with any rifle I say.

About faces, I do think one should see the mold on his left shin

To be honest... aren´t we getting into the smallest of details. If he looks asian in the picture and more important in the game that must be very hard to see.
Uniforms, caps, rifles and movement when reloading rifles are more visual, so more important. Also some civ-color on the backpack perhaps, so that this great unit could be used perhaps not only for the Chinese.

Getting another great soldier from Gary is heaven sent.
Thanks mate you one of the very best soldier makers around.

Hmm why not realese both units. I mean the different color on the uniforms .... Please

 

[El Justo]

awesome, bro. i wouldn't mind two versions (springfield & lee-enfield) i will probably use the springfield version for my project. but agreed that it's hard to even tell at in-game scale etc. with that said, i think the colors in the animations are what stand out the most, blending in with terrain, contrast against it, and of course, the historical accuracy all of which Gary always captures so cheers

 

[Ozymandias]

I'm a fan of the first rifle (although I think it's probably moot at Civ scale) and definitely the pale, blue-grey uniform:


Best,

Oz

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

Mhh.. weaponry and uniform colour is a (very) wide field when the KMT is concerned. Practically they wore Tans, Dark Green or Olive, Blue-Grey, Light Grey and Khaki/Beige.

As other Chinese armies, i.e. those led by warlords would also wear tans a.o. and the Communist Chinese units would also overlap with uniforms in dark green and olive garb colour, I'd similarly suggest to stick to the light grey for Nationalist army or blue grey for political party troopers, as most iconic for the KMT. I'd recommend to use Khaki/Beige and Tan for warlords' units and to reserve the greens for the communist ones.

For rifles in early use with the KMT:
1) Chiang Kai-shek rifle
2) Hanyang 88
3) Karabiner 98 K

- 1 and 2 are of German supply or their license built copies/knock-offs and what the nationalists would be using early war and during most of the of the conflict. 3 for some few elite divisions.

- Less fortunate units would be supplied with captured Imperial Russian, Soviet and Japanese, French, Czech and even Mexican equipment as you already and correctly indicated...

- It was not before the very late and post war time that - as had been the case with German weapons early in the war, a mere few crack KMT divisions would get equipped with US weaponry.


A short list including the Springfield, M1 Garand/Carbine - and the lot ...