Rick!
Glad you posted here - first off, great game, and good luck in any future print runs.
I really think your game will live and die by it’s plastic pieces - and my humble suggestion is to mirror the new Axis & Allies colors (From A&A Pacific 1940, and soon A&A Europe 1940). That gives plenty of color options, and it allows players to mix and match old and new warfare pieces.
I will glad to be of service in helping you find good models for the pieces - I do like your overall map color scheme, maybe tweaking the countries a little bit to have China take a bigger role.