Chinese army in 1980's in 28mm?

[brunei35]

Do any of the manufacturers do a range of models for the Chinese Army in the 1980s and if not anyone have any thoughts on what could be converted? Having got a platoon of the excellent Eureka and Mongrel Miniatures Soviets I find myself with no opposition and do not fancy building my own Afghanistan or Cold war European force. Thinking a few 'what it' border conflict solo games.

Thanks

[carlos marighela]

Alas not and I have tried to spark some interest. The forthcoming Rubicon Vietnam war North Vietnamese are a potential conversion source. A ridiculously high proportion seem to be wearing tunics as opposed to shirts, making them less than ideal for PAVN. You would need to source GK80 helmets or Mao caps. Rubicon are tooling Type 63 APCs so maybe, one day they might make Chinese infantry.

For the two piece camo suits you could proxy the older Eureka Musorians, albeit the webbing is wrong and the helmets would need filing to get the shape of the Chinese version or use plastic Japanese helmets as rough proxies.

It’s a pity nobody makes the PLA as they are a fascinating subject and a Sino-Soviet conflict was in many ways more plausible than an attack on NATO. Some years ago I spoke with Kosta at Eureka and he was vaguely interested in doing Chinese in propaganda poster style heroic poses but nothing came of it. Maybe Empress would contemplate further opposition for their North Vietnamese.

[commissarmoody]

Just had a discussion with a buddy about this the other day and Carlos pretty much offered everything I was going to say for conversion fodder. And that would be cool to see a Sano-Viet war line from Empress in the future. 

[Kourtchatovium104]

You're right, it would be a great idea. I would love to see a game starting with the Damansky/Zhenbao Island conflict.

[brunei35]

Thanks for initial thoughts.

[carlos marighela]

Well, thinking outside the box, another potential foe is Iran. There was a shoot down of Iranian AH-1 helicopters that strayed into Soviet airspace and despite some arms deals, Khomeini’s Iran and the Soviet Union were far from being best pals.

The Eureka ZANLA troops are easy to convert into AK wielding IRG, just add M1 helmets or  attach tinfoil/putty headbands. I did about a squads worth a few years back.

The Underfire range of West Germans might be a source for G-3 armed Iranians.

[brunei35]

Thanks Carlos, good idea. Will go and do some research

Brgds
Tony