I found myself oddly struck with a desire to make a Chinese nationalist force for WW2 (Chain of Command, 28mm). I did some research and read When Tigers Fight (Wilson Dick) and Khangzhan (Leland Ness, Bin Shih) both of which I recommend. When Tigers Fight is a readable account of the second Sino-Japanese War which truly started the Pacific front of WW2 in 1937. Fair warning: it was a deeply unpleasant conflict. Khangzhan is effectively the Bible of Chinese forces through the Second Sino-Japanese War and WW2.

China faced trouble without and within for the whole of WW2 and several years after. The decades leading to WW2 were part of the Chinese Civil War of the early 1900’s and indeed, both the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War 2 were truly just chapters in this broader conflict.

Losses were immensely high and brutality was perpetual. Studying the conflict between the Japanese and the Chinese means studying mass war crimes the likes of which give me pause when considering making the corresponding Japanese force. I say this as a person who has a German force already. Perhaps I’m being a bit namby-pamby, but I’m sincere–it is genuinely tough stuff to deal with.

I’ve built a temporary list for them in Chain of Command until the Far East supplement releases later this year. They’ve yet to see the table, though.

Either way, it made for a fun project with a lot of research having gone into it. My uniforms aren’t perfect, though. I went with the very early war blue uniform just because it stood out versus my other WW2 forces. Really, they should be more of an olive drab with more inconsistent uniforms.

The tank chosen is a T-26. Honestly, the Chinese were severely lacking in tanks and I don’t plan to bring more than one per battle. I may produce an M4A4, which the British supplied to the Chinese late war. Otherwise, best as I can tell, their most numerous tank was the T-26. Not much to write home about, but I do like Soviet tanks, so it was fun to build and paint.

The tank is from Rubicon–no need for a review. They’re all top notch.

The infantry are from Eureka Miniatures. I consider them to be the absolute best option for WW2 Chinese and they are, indeed, excellent. Easy to clean, great sculpts, and generally avoid feeling too “stereotypically” Asian. I’ll likely go Eureka for my inevitable WW2 Japanese later this year.

Without further ado, here’s the shots. Enjoy!