A fishy tale in Warlord China, Xiao Yú, 192x - 193x

I've been working on all this in earnest since last August, terrain, lore, armies, everything organized for Fistful of Lead, and Beyond the Empire. Some day.. some day I'll have enough army men for Setting the East Ablaze. 

Anyways, an introduction. The province of Xiao Yú, a microcosm of the struggles of Greater China, is a small forgotten land, tucked away somewhere north of Beijing, near the Mongolian Border, neighbor enough to Manchuria, somewhere in the lands of Rehe and inner Mongolia. The province takes it's name from the Xiao Yú River, an equally forgotten tributary that snakes off the northern hump of the Yellow River, past Shanxi and into the lands beyond. 

It's quite alright if you've never seen Xiao Yú on any map, the residents prefer it that way. Some say that it was the Germans who originally erased it from the maps around the time of the Boxer Rebellion, not in the typical Germanic fashion mind you - nothing was burned down - but rather, that their intention was to secure a secret stronghold should anything threaten their Oriental Colonies. A hefty pay out to the Qing in the twilight of the dynasty, a few borders moved on official maps here and there, a few records "lost" and some cartographers heads chopped, and an entire province was forgotten. The land is ignored by the larger warlords, who are either unaware of it's existence or think them to be empty frontier, and those who get too nosey end up catching a few silver bullets to buzz off. 

Despite all that, Xiao Yú is a very busy land, full of a wide cast of characters all vying for a slice of power and glory. The province is functionally controlled by Martial Chang, a mysterious man rumored to have once been a bandit, whose unfathomable riches are thought to be lost German gold smuggled out of Tsingtau on the eve of the Great War. He controls the province with the "might" of his "Provincial Self Defense Army" and a myriad of mercenaries, including westerns adventurers and a White Russian column under the command of Colonel Anton, the Iron Cossack. Changs primary foil is the Nationalist aligned upstart, General Tao, who is neither a Nationalist, or a General, and his Revolutionary Army of the Frontier. Tao and the RAF hope to wrestle the province from it's Warlord Leader, and bring attention to its existence to Chiang Kai Shek and his Northren Expedition, in hopes of being awarded stewardship.  

But that's not all, Comrade Feng and his Students and Peasants Red Union Militia have asperations of building a communist utopia in Xiao Yú, while Baron Takei and his Stormtrooper Brigade hope to snatch the province as a new colonial possession for Japan. Yakov the Animal of Amur and his Red Russian expeditionary force scour the country side, trying to track down any Tsarists seeking refuge in the region. A sizeable bandit force, The Yellow Locust Gang, lead by Four Eyes Chin plagues the woods, frequently scrapping with an army of anarchists and craven deserters, ironically called the New Xiao Yú Clique under command of "Field Martial" Ming the Renegade. Despite it's forgotten nature, no corner of China is free from Foreign influence, a small American owned Import Export company, CHOAM (The Committee of Honorable Oriental and American Merchants) and British owned Import Export company, FEAST (the Far East Asian Spice and Trade) both call Xiao Yú home, and thus are protected by Foreign soldiers and sailors. The USS Miskatonic, a relic leftover from the Germans and trophy of the Great War, sails the Xiao Yú river, while a British operated Municipal Police Force, mirroring that of Shanghai in organization but not in size, protects most expats in the province. Furthermore a German Expedition lead by the secretive Major Staubb searches the countryside, assumedly for lost German treasure, even a small band of hold out Qing Restorationists lurks with in it's borders. 

All that, and more to come. But for today I'd like to take you into the Capital "City" of Hong Yú. 

This is still functionally a WIP, I need to finish my scatter terrain, some cars, and some details on a few buildings. However, I'm very proud of all this and finally wanted to get it up on the blog. 

These buildings and other sundries make up the bulk of my terrain, but aren't everything. It's constantly growing, like a growth that should really get looked at. Most of these buildings are scratch built, a few others from Oshiro Model Terrain, and a few are even old plasticville O scale model railroad buildings such as the foreign styled Capital Building. The signage is mostly from the delightful Major Tom, though others were sourced from other depths of the internet, the whole thing, again, being completely inspired by his blog.  

This is  my first really large scale hobby project, my first wargaming table and terrain collection. I've been painting minis religiously for 9 years this year, but this, Xiao Yú, is the first truly large scale undertaking I've undertook. I hope you enjoy it. 

Last is a teaser, a WIP of my river, river gun boats and other watercraft, plus some other terrain that didn't make it into Hong Yu. I hope to have the river and ships done by the end of the month...