Sunday, 1 February 2026

From AdamW: In the jungle, the mighty jungle......15mm Jangalis 370 pointed.

This weeks entry is ten units of Jangalis for my Dunsterforce campaign.

I'd be surprised if many of you have heard of the Jangalis. They were the fighters of the 'Jangal (Forest or Jungle) movement'.  This was a movement setup against the monarchist central government of the Sublime State of Iran in Gilan and lasted from 1915 to 1921.

In October 1915, Mirza Kuchik Khan, an experienced activist in the pro-democracy and nationalist Constitutional Revolution, launched the Jangal movement, which was broadly religiously Shia Muslim, in the forests of Gilan, demanding autonomous status for the province, an end to central government corruption, an end to foreign interference in affairs of local peoples, and land reform.

The British didn't get on to well with them and after a failed assassination attempt on Mirza, they were not to keen to allow the British, in the form of Dunsterforce, to pass through Gilan on their expedition.

I have gathered the figures from a variety of sources, to represent the varied dress of the Persian/Trans-caucas people.  There is little information available, but I have gone for a non-uniformed force with a variety of dress and headgear.

The majority of figures are Blue Moon 15mm from their North West Frontier range, mixed in with some Peter pig Russian civil war figures and the odd minifig.  There is a pack of Blue Moon Cossack Guards, who stand head and shoulders above the rest.

My first pic is a cautionary tale. When picking up a can of varnish, make sure it is varnish and not white undercoat.  I know I have been inspired with all the winter units being posted, but I wasn't really wanting to start an army.




After much swearing and repainting, here they are all ready for action. I tried to get a few close ups as well as the usual bulk pics.






Become we come to the points, I wanted to share a tip that may help anyone new to painting an irregular force to get a nice variety in colours.

I always stick 6 figures to a wooden tongue depressor stick. Traditionally the way to paint a mixed force was to mount the figures of the same pose together and then paint every fifth or so jacket with a colour throughout the army. Then repeat with another colour and so on.
Recently I have found it quicker to mix up the figures on a stick so they are all different poses or clothing etc. (depending how many different figures you have).

The idea is to then paint all the figures on one stick the same colour scheme ie the same colour jacket, another colour for the trousers etc. There  may be some added variance if they have a colourful hat, or are in shirt rather than jacket, but in general they are all dressed in the same coloured clothes.

This process is repeated across the army with how many colour schemes you fancy, for example I think I used eight different jacket colours and six different trousers. Combine that with hat colours and great variance is made very easily.
 
When they are all painted, mix the figures up again and you are done . I have found this a  farquicker method and I've ended up with  no two figures the same.

Points
180 15mm figures @2pts = 360 pts

One squirrel.

That should me through my target :)

Not sure I'll have the next lot of figures ready for next week as I'm away this weekend, but I will try!

From DaveD. Oh these are right up my Back of Beyond street alright . Nice to see a decent mass of them too .i think your process for painting them and mixing it work is a great idea -its worked well . 370 it is . Indeed that is you through your target - time to double I say !









23 comments:

  1. Great force, Dunsterforce is a really cool campaign

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    1. Yep. I read it years ago and found it interesting and was inspired by the scenario book that came out.

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  2. Wonderful bit of history only to be matched with these figures. I've done a variant to the depressor stick approach myself (with many Hagen-Dazs-sticked figures still awaiting my attention in my hobby room to this day...) Well done, Adam.

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    1. Collecting Hagen Dazs sticks sounds more fun,,,

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  3. A great looking force. And thanks for the tip, I'll be careful to avoid adding accidental winter camo to my figures.

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  4. Nice looking army. I needed a moment to compose myself after the first picture. 🙄 I too did a lot of swearing when that happened.

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  5. Nice work, thanks for the stick tip.

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  6. Very nice - I am amazed how you pump these out! Dunsterforce is indeed a fascinating side show.

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    1. Thanks. I kind of enjoy the mixed units nowadays more than the regular ones. It can be a slog doing 180 at a time, but as you get close the end it becomes enjoyable.....apart from basing..I hate basing!

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  7. So, carefully painting each miniature differently, and then spraying them all white? :D Jokes aside, great looking minis and a good reminder to always test the spray can on something else before targeting the minis.

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    1. Yes...I;m glad I had some time to repair them :)

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  8. Excellent work, and I feel your pain on the rattle can failure. I knew about Dunsterforce, but didn't know there were jungles anywhere near them! I use paint stir sticks "acquired" from DIY shops selling house paint.

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    1. Yes. There was a real mix of terrain in that region from jungle to desert!

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  9. I had never heard of these, very interesting! The figures look great Adam, nice work.
    Martijn

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  10. Nice stick tip. Great looking force despite the spray can fubar.

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  11. Thanks. I should never do it again

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  12. Sorry to hear of the unintended cold weather front that came in! Lovely work on the figures though

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