This product is sold unpainted.
Additional images.
1 and 2. Chinese Regular Army figures, painted and unpainted.
CHINESE ARMY FIREARMS AND GRENADES
In the latter Nineteenth Century Western observer, Isabella
Bird noted that many men were still armed with matchlocks, old muzzle-loaders,
jingalls (see below), and even spears and ‘bayonets fixed on red poles’.
In 1882 the decision was made to adopt the Mauser system.
However, modern weapons of many types were issued indiscriminately so that
sometimes as many as three or four different makes of rifle could be found
within a single company. For example, troops serving in Taiwan in 1894 had an
assortment of Lee Enfield, Martini-Henry, Mauser, Peabody-Henry, Remington,
Spencer and Winchester rifles and repeaters.
This was a logistical challenge. To alleviate the situation
the Chinese authorities decided to provide mixed ammunition rather than withdraw
and redistribute weapons. A Western observer noted that:
‘Cartridges of 20 different sorts and sizes were huddled
together without any attempt at classification, and in one open space all sorts
were heaped on the ground and the soldiers were fitting them to their arms,
sometimes trying eight or ten before finding one to suit the weapon.’
Cavendish records that when the troops were being shipped to
Korea ‘the ammunition was thrown out on the docks of the transports, and
each man had to sort out the cartridges which best suited his particular
weapon, and many were to be seen whittling down the bullets to get them to
fit’. Much of the ammunition issued prior to the war were 27 years old.’
Jingalls. Jingalls (or Gingal derived from
Hindustani) were an assortment of large calibre matchlocks with barrels 6-10 feet
and sometimes 14-16 feet long, with a calibre of more than an inch. They could
be breech or muzzle loaded with a range of 500-1000 yards. Some Green Standard
companies were equipped entirely with Jingalls (a company had 20, split into four
sections of five each).
Stinkpot. The Chinese version of a grenade being a
hand-hurled earthenware jar in a cloth bag with a joss-stick fuse. It was much
used in the defence of forts and in sea fights. It was filled with powder,
sulphur small nails and shot.
Taken From: ‘Armies of the Nineteenth Century: Asia, 2: China’, Ian Heath, Foundry Books, 1998
Jacklex Miniatures, 20mm metal wargames figures, Chinese Army.