ZULU Nation

 

ZULUHospitall

Alphonse_de_Neuville_-_The_defence_of_Rorke's_Drift_1879_-_Google_Art_ProjectThought I would post a few pictures of an ongoing project of mine. Years ago at the “HISTORICON” wargaming convention I picked up the “Old Glory” 15mm “Rourke’s Drift” ZULUHospitall3set. It’s a great set with all the buildings and figures you need to do the classic battle of the ZULU war where around 120 British Soldiers held of over 4000 Zulu warriors. The British finally defeat them and force their withdrawal!

ZULUHospitall2

Well it sat on my shelf for over 10 years without me painting it! Just to many other shiny projects got in the way….well I finally decided I was not going to ever do it and offered it for sale! it was bought by a good wargming buddy John Curran. Unfortunately John then convinced me to paint it on commission, dang I sold it because I did not want to paint it and now I was…lol!

ZULUMain

ZULUMain2Johns a good “egg” and has given plenty of time so I thought I’d put up some pictures of my progress for him as well as let those of you thinking about buying the set see them out of the box and painted! Below are the “Cook house”, “Kraal”, and the “Redoubt”

ZULUKrallThe castings are all pretty good and require only a little work to make ready for paint. The roofs do need a bit of work and I installed some little balsa wood blocs to keep the roofs aligned properly. I also hand made the porch roof supports on both buildings. The colors are as close as I could determine from evidence and I painted it with a fair amount of weathering. The casting were all washed, primed with automotive primer, painted, and thumbs_rorkes_drift-0001then coated in clear gloss followed by some matte spray.

Cant have “Rourke’s Drift” with out “Zulu’s” here are a few “regiments” married and unmarried. The different “Zulu” regiments had different colored and patterned “cowhide” shields for unit identification.ZULUfig2a

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For now they are being stored in a custom case made out of an old wine box. So we have four 24 man regiments.

ZULUfig2  ZULUbox ZULUbox2

 

 

 

William The Conqueror a Norman legend!

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So I have not been posting here as I’ve once again made the mistake of checking out a cool internet game….yes and like all they SUCK you in and you suddenly find huge amounts of time have vanished along with some cash! Internet games can be fun but they are also frustrating as they are built to keeping you reaching for that goal that once you obtain immediately opens another goal you must obtain, it does not end…. The part that bothers me the most is that when I turn off the PC I’m left with nothing to show for all my efforts, perhaps some good times, but still no tangible, material, items….. With Miniature Wargaming you have not only the fun but are left with beautiful miniatures that will be there every time you open their box!

Ok, so enough of that! Since I redid my site a few months back I have been putting up content both new and lots of “old” stuff from my previous site. I thought I had put this guy up but perhaps it was only on the Lead Adventure Forum “Dark Age Challenge”?

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Well either way here he is “William the Conqueror” or as his friends (not where he can hear them!) and enemies call him,

“William the Bastard” leader of the NORMANS and my favorite SAGA Warband. I took a bit of time on the Normans and wanted to have a real “standout” leader base. I decided to stay with a “Gripping Beast” figure for him to keep consistent with the other figure sculpts in this army. The “Gripping Beast” William figure is probably one of the better named characters, in the line and I had a few ideas for making him really stand out.

Nor113a

Well article writing is a funny thing since as soon as I think I have all the info and pictures ready I start writing and find I can’t “find” something! I can’t find the original picture of the “Gripping Beast” unpainted figure I used for William! I believe it is actually an “Odo” figure or one that could be used as either. I do remember than the figure came with a “Mace” and that would be correct for either William or Odo. If anyone has a pic of this figure please send it or a link! So any way I changed my figure to have a sword in his hand. I also modified his horse by cutting his front legs off the base and the also cutting out a bit of the rear legs to allow it to be posed in a rearing up/jumping position. Under “William’s”  saddle area was heavily cut and filed so he was leaning into the horse in a more forward position. This did two things, first he did not look like he was about to fall backwards off the now “rearing” horse and wit a bit of bending/cutting of his sword arm he looks like he is taking a swipe at a ground target.Nor113f

 

Now to give him a “ground” target I chose an extra damaged “foundry” Viking I had lying about. The Viking had a busted/miscast arm and after a bit of hacking away with a “xacto” knife I had him posed to appear as if “William” had just knocked him off a rock and was about to make sure he was finished. Many warhorses in the day were trained to stomp enemy foot troops and I have shown “Williams” horse doing this with terrible effect!

Nor113cShield is hand painted and lions are thought to have been a device used by him although the “shield” would probably been red I chose Blue/White to have better contrast with the rest of the figures colors (red cape)

The little “mini” diorama was fun to build and I think it came out rather well. It sure scares the enemy!