Tonkin or Sino-French war 1883-85

Last week I was busy sorting in all the uniform-plates I have collected about French colonial troops 1880-1910. As a lot of them were Tirallieurs Tonkinoese and Infanterie coloniale I wanted to know more about this subject. In French of course there is a lot of stuff available. Sadly just a little bit in English or German. An exeption here is Foundry books Indochina. Beside this I found this link which was very useful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-French_War

Take a look at all the closer descriptions of battles which you find at the end of the main text.

So what do we need for such a colonial army?

Plastics:

French infanterie coloniale - Esci and ACTA British infantry 1879 as well as Redbox French marine infantry Boxer Rebellion

French Foreign Legion - same figures

French Zuaves and Turkos - Redbox French infantry and every available Zouave in Fez or with a headconversion to a tropical helmet.

Artillerie coloniale - HAT British colonial artillery

Tirallieurs Anamite, Tonkinoise - well, none...:-(

Fusilier marines - Redbox Boxer Range

Metals:

Scruby - has everything, even the Tonkinoise:-))
Many manufactors who does British Zulu-war figures (Jacklex, Ral Partha, Qualiticast, Minifigs (old ones) etc.


Vietnamese - no chance, no manufactor so far
Black flag - maybe some Boxers
Chinese regulars - again maybe some Boxers


In the western world a forgotten colonial campaign (ok, not in France), this is a big teaser for me. So I want to try to create some armies in the near future. You have already see my bad try on a Tirallieur. Hopefully the next figures will be better.

If you have any tips how to convert more figures for this war, please make a comment for which I want to thank in advance.

But for now, just a few teasers.