Well here it is the first post, and what better day start the blog but on the 22nd of January. On this day 132 years ago the two of the most memorable actions of the Zulu war took place The Battle of Isandlwana and the Battle of Rorke's Drift.
It is the films made depicting the actions at these two battles that I watched time and time again while growing up, that are on the whole responsible for my Interest in the Zulu war and to a larger extent my interest in military history and war gaming.
So on to the project well this is my second attempt at playing the Zulu war , the first attempt with the black tree 28mm figures stalled very early on, only a handful of British line and about the same of Zulus were painted before other period caught my eye and the project was put on ice.
My Interest was re sparked with the introduction of a new company Empress miniatures and there new range of 28mm Zulu war figures, The sculpts looked superb but after doing a bit of research it was evident that the Empress figures were not really compatible with the Black tree figures that I already had in my collection so I was in a quandary about how to proceed this was quickly resolved upon visiting partisan and seeing the Empress figures in the flesh, the fist small batch of empress figures were purchased and the Black Tree Brits were put on E-bay. The Black tree Zulus being held back for now knowing just how many Zulus I was properly going to need just for small skirmish game.
The project was at this stage going to be a little side picking up the odd pack of four Empress figures and slapping a bit of paint on them in between my other projects, This all changed after a trial purchase of one box of the war-game factory plastic Zulus. Suddenly the prospect of being able to do the Zulu war skirmish with lots of Zulus was a real possibility.
So all other projects were put on a back burner and for the last year I have been “on and off “ busying myself with this project.
It is the films made depicting the actions at these two battles that I watched time and time again while growing up, that are on the whole responsible for my Interest in the Zulu war and to a larger extent my interest in military history and war gaming.
So on to the project well this is my second attempt at playing the Zulu war , the first attempt with the black tree 28mm figures stalled very early on, only a handful of British line and about the same of Zulus were painted before other period caught my eye and the project was put on ice.
My Interest was re sparked with the introduction of a new company Empress miniatures and there new range of 28mm Zulu war figures, The sculpts looked superb but after doing a bit of research it was evident that the Empress figures were not really compatible with the Black tree figures that I already had in my collection so I was in a quandary about how to proceed this was quickly resolved upon visiting partisan and seeing the Empress figures in the flesh, the fist small batch of empress figures were purchased and the Black Tree Brits were put on E-bay. The Black tree Zulus being held back for now knowing just how many Zulus I was properly going to need just for small skirmish game.
The project was at this stage going to be a little side picking up the odd pack of four Empress figures and slapping a bit of paint on them in between my other projects, This all changed after a trial purchase of one box of the war-game factory plastic Zulus. Suddenly the prospect of being able to do the Zulu war skirmish with lots of Zulus was a real possibility.
So all other projects were put on a back burner and for the last year I have been “on and off “ busying myself with this project.
Ok enough of the blabber time for some Pictures
What better picture to start with than the one I have used as the banner. Here we have the Empress miniatures
“Hollywood” Rorkes drift character pack, a must have pack for me as I just love the film.
here we have Private Henry Hook,Chard, Bromhead and Colour Sargeant Bourne.AKA James Booth , Stanley Baker,Michael Caine and Nigel Green
avalable from :
of course as well as the Hollywood charector pack Empress also do the "real " Rorkes drift charector pack.
containing the same charectors as the hollywood pack as they rearly apeared on the day of the action at rorkes drift , Chard, Sargeant Bourne,Broomhead and private Henry Hook.
Sorry for the quality of the picture with this one will look at putting a better picture up some sometime in the future.
well that will do for the first post,all that is left to do is to raise a glass in memory of all those fought on both sides in the actions at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift on this day 132 years ago.
I just discovered your blog from the TSATF Yahoo! Group. . . . So I've jumped back to this initial post and will read forward.
ReplyDeleteThose figures are lovely. I'm using the old "small 25mm" Ral Parthas because I had a lot of them from many years ago . . . but your 28s are making me drool.
-- Jeff
http://colonelhuds.blogspot.com/