On the Workbench

Another quick update. This is what has kept me occupied for the last couple of days.

Auxiliary cavalry for the 1879 Zulu War. Cleaned up and based fourteen mounted figures and fourteen dismounted figures over the weekend, and then gave then a coat of Chaos Black spray. In this little lot are;  Natal Mounted Police x4, Natal Carbineers x4, Buffalo Border Guard x2, Newcastle Mounted Rifles x2, Auxiliary Officer x1 and LtCol Durnford x1.  These are once again empressminiatures figures. The oval bases which the cavalry are mounted on are from warbases. Picked them up at the Reading show last year.

I suspect the next couple of months are going to be busy so I'm not sure how much painting I'm going to have time to do. But with these based and primed, at least I get on paint them when I do find the time.

A belated Happy New Year to you all. I'm not one for making New Year Resolutions. When I have done so previously I tend to either forget them or never full fill them as the year goes by. At the moment though if I had to make one resolution, okay maybe two...DO MORE PAINTING and STOP BUYING MORE FIGURES. Lets see what happens as the year goes by. 

Just a quickie....

Its been a while. But here are a few more Zulu's. November and December are always busy months, four family birthdays (including mine (yippee!), the run upto Christmas, blah blah blah! So consequently it took a little longer than anticipated to finish these models.  These are empressminiatures married Zulu's and with these dozen completed it now means that the twenty Zulu figures I originally purchased are complete. 

Once the snow has abated I will be able to use the workshop and take some better photos.

Zulu's Sir, 'ate of um!

In between making terrain, I've not been idle. These Zulu are coming along very nicely. Few more to do yet, quite a few more actually.

These are all empressminiatures figures. Have about another dozen or so of these to finish, then start on the Foundry Zulu's recently purchased at Derby. I'm interested to see how the two will mix together or not! The Empress Zulu's look quite slight next to the Foundry sculpts, but best to judge once I have painted versions of both.

Zulu- Just One!

By the magic of technology, this looks like it could be one of the Zulu's from the last post? Well I'd lying if I said it was. I finished this little fella about a week ago and have done a few more since.

My main concern with painting the Zulu was getting the black/African skin colour right. Or at least do it justice. So this was the test figure. I must admit most of my previous painting has been of white Europeans. Mainly because thats have been my area of interest, not because of anything more sinister.

I had an idea of what colours to use, and after some research on the 'net' to see how other people do it, I stayed with my initial scheme. Which to be honest wasn't to far off what other painters have used. Some of the best skin tones I found, involved eight or nine layers/glazes/highlights etc. of paint which I decided was just too much, even for me! Though the result was very good.

I am once again finding I'm using a limited palette, for clothing (what there is of it!) etc.. I seemed to have turned other a new leaf, I no longer have to agonise over what variation of brown or white or whatever colour to paint a loin cloth, they will all be the same colour-Oh the joy!

I seem to have caught the colonial bug at the moment. (Sounds nasty, what!).

P.S. Colonial bug is not a reference to Starship Troopers-you know who you are.

P.P.S. Yes this is an Empress Miniatures, Zulu. Follow the link on the right hand side if you would like to know more!

Return of the 24th.

I found these three lurking in a dark corner, based and undercoated, and looking a little bit lost. So I picked them up, brushed off the dust and started painting.

I've slightly changed the colours used on these three. Used GW's Mechrite Red as a base coat for the jacket and Dheneb Stone as the base coat for anything white. This certainly speeded up the painting process. Before I had been using GW's Scab Red as the base coat, which meant applying a couple of coats over black, before highlighting. Previously the webbing, helmet etc. had been base coated with Khemri Brown and then highlighted. I first used the Dheneb Stone on the clothing for the Apache and then washed with Graveyard Earth and then highlighted up. Also boots and anything else just going to be black I drybrushed with Codex Grey rather than highlighting the black. Overall I was able to finish these three much quicker than before.

And Yes I have broken my rule not to get sidetracked onto other projects!

Zulu All Dayer

So the all dayer game came and went. Victory to the British I believe.

An enjoyable game, which saw the British under pressure from massed Zulu impi's from the start. As overall commander, I decided to move from column to line quickly and hold off the attackers, and once driven off began a steady advance towards the Zulu kraal at the far end the table. The kraal was an objective but the sheer number of attackers (or are they defenders?) meant it was going to be impossible to reach. Even as the British advanced, further Zulu impi's massed behind the ridge line poised to attack.

The British forces consisted on the right wing of One company (Co.) of regulars, one Co. of Naval brigade, one 7pdr gun, and a unit of Natal Native Contingent. The centre consisted of two Co.'s of regulars, one gatling gun, and a unit of Natal Mounted Police. The left wing consisted of three Co.'s of regulars, one unit of NNC and one unit of Natal Mounted Contingent. The Co.'s were in groups of ten figures with the mounted units being 6 and 8 figures respectively.

The Zulu were grouped into units of generally 30+ figures.

My right wing commanded by DS, did as I expected he would and stoically held off wave after wave of Zulu's. The left commanded by SR and son, were the last to arrive on the field and rushed to cover the left flank which they did admirably. At one tense moment an impi out flanked them and almost threatened the baggage train at the rear of the British line, but a brave charge by a unit of NNC saw them off followed by successive volleys from regular British infantry. The center was commanded by ML, who drove off the approaching impi's, and despite displaying the same traits as Captain_Nolan, managed to curb his enthusiasm to hold the line. But once the order to advance was given he threw himself at the nearest impi, and after some desperate hand to hand fighting this brave British officer went down under a hail of assegai. With the sun already having set the British held the field and the last impi's were forced to withdraw.

Others might dispute this version of events, but thats what happened as far as I am concerned. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera so no pictures. I'm sure a full report will appear on the Evesham Wargames blog soon.

I did find at times not having a specific unit to command other than a couple of officer figures, that I did not have much to do. BUT, since orders could only be changed by sending runners, with written orders, then at times I did feel the pressure. This command and control system did work well, though I would probably liked to have had one more runner (rather than the two I did have).

If played again then I would like to see the Zulu, having the number of reinforcement roles curtailed. The three Zulu commanders each rolled for reinforcements which was decided on the die score. I am not actually sure what they needed to role to receive reinforcements but, perhaps if the Zulu C-in-C rolled only, then the Zulu's would have been less in number, but this may have resulted in a game with more manoeuvre, and the Zulu's using the terrain to their advantage perhaps, rather than continuous mass attacks. Overall this was my only criticism of a excellent game.

I must not forget to thank SS, MA and PB who did an excellent job of keeping the pressure on the British forces.

24th Foot (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment

Some further photos of my 1879 Anglo-Zulu War British. These have now been varnished and bases flocked. In all I have completed 22 infantry in about a month, which is pretty good going (for me!). Tomorrow they will have their first outing. An all day Zulu War game is planned at the club. So I will get to use these for the first time and play a Zulu War game for the first time.


I stepped up to be C-in-C, mainly because no one else volunteered, so should be an interesting day. New figures, new period and a new rule set.

These two fella's will be used as runners. The plan being that I will issue orders as events unfold and will hopefully get them to the individual commanders, to save the day! Personally I think the Zulu players are gearing up to make life hell for the British!

I'm quite pleased with these figures even though it felt like 'speed painting' for me at times. I generally like spending a little bit longer on 28mm figures than I did on these. Which is why I have probably enjoyed painting the 15mm figures recently, I don't tend to be so fussy on the detail on them. I also had no reference books to work from on this project so thank you to Paul and Ade from the club for answering my questions on uniform details. I intend to have a break from the Zulu War for a while and get back to my Flames of War project. Though not for too long Empress are releasing new figures every day!

ZULU'S

Well actually Anglo-Zulu War British infantry, for the 1879 war. Another ongoing project, and one I'm enjoying at the moment. The figures are empressminiatures and very nice they are too! I intend to add a few more in the coming year, as budget allows.

The figures need to be varnished and the bases completed with static grass, plus a few may need a little bit of reworking. On closer inspection the eyes on some are a little scary!