W.I.P the Storehouse update 2

A very quick update tonight 

Over the last couple of days I have manage to finish all the clading and  I have given it a  couple of coats of paint.
Still need to give it a proper paint job , but first there are the doors and windows to finish plus the staircase on the side. Then work can start on the thatch roof

Terry

W.I.P the Storehouse update 1

Yesterday I Managed to spend a good bit of the day in the work room working on the storehouse, I started cladding the foamcore with linka only to run out of the pieces I needed.
I calculated that I had enough pieces cast to clad the storehouse, but I forgot to take into account the pieces I had used on the cookhouse and the experimental piece. So I had to switch to casting new pieces of linka.
 In between casting more linka pieces I.E while waiting to de mould newly cast pieces.  I managed to do the floorboards. As this was originally a storeroom before the Rev Witt turned it into a meeting room, I have made the floorboards a little rough as I imagine floorboards would be in a  provincial storeroom of the period.
Even though I had to stop to cast a load of new linka pieces I still managed to clad about 70% of the storehouse. Unfortunately though I will now have to wait a full day for the new pieces to dry enough for me to be able to use them.
After the cladding is finished I will then go around the building filling all the gaps where the linka pieces have not  butted up to one another fully, and then finish off the rest of the windows and doors.
 After that there is the outside staircase to be made and then of course I have the roof to make a start on.

The  Progress so far

just both sides of  the right side end wall 

and inner walls of the open storage area left to clad,

arial view. 

The amount of  floor space is beter seen from the  arial view, The proportions of the floorspace are larger than the real building. I have done this to allow for the larger bases that the figures have. This way two or more figures can be in the one room without there bases touching, important for close combat with some rules.

Hopefully the building will not look to large on the table

 
Terry

W.I.P the Storehouse

 I have not been able to spend much time on the project so far this week, but this evening I did pop into the workroom and made a start on the first of the main buildings for the Rorkes drift game.

Just the basic foamcore structure so far, I borrowed some silicone glue substitute  from my parents who make cards, and who recommend this glue for card craft as this was the ideal situation to give it a try on foamcore and see how it performed.
The glue is called Pin flair glue gel and it seems to be doing a good job. I have put it aside overnight to dry fully but the structure seamed quite solid after an hour when I went back to check that nothing had slipped out of place.

Tomorrow I will start the slow and painstaking part of the build, the cladding of the foamcore with the Linka sections; this may take a few days to do.

I will post an update in a few days

UPDATE 25th Feb : As I had to edit the post to insert the name of the glue I will take the opportunity to post a quick  update.  The glue has fully dried now and the bond is very good indeed I have removed all the pins that I used to hold it all in place while the glue dried, and there is no movement or loose joints. I will definitely look at buying a tube of this glue to see if it has other applications within  model making.

Terry

Collapsed Bell Tents for the Rorke's Drift game.

Collapsed Bell Tents , originally uploaded by MrTeld.

To complement the Rendra tents I posted a few weeks ago http://zuluwarminiature.blogspot.com/2011/02/renedra-bell-tents.html
I have  made four collapsed bell tents to be used in place of the four rendra tents for marking the position of the abandoned camp at Rorke,s Drift.
The tents will initially be used in the Hollywood version of the game as if memory serves me right the tents were just collapsed in the film.
With regard to the historical battle I am still trying to determine if the camp was fully struck or if the bell tents were just collapsed before starting work on the more vital barricades. Initially the plan was to strike the camp in preparation of abandoning the drift;

“I received a message from Lieutenant Bromhead, commanding the Company 24th Regiment at the Camp near the Commissariat Stores, asking me to come up at once.
I gave the order to inspan, strike tents, put all stores, &c., into the wagon, and at once rode up to the Commissariat Store and found that a note had been received from the 3rd Column to state that the enemy were advancing in force against our post, which we were to strengthen and hold at all costs. ”
John. R. M. Chard,
Lieut R.E.

Given time it would have taken to ride up to the Store and back I am inclined to side towards the collapsing of the tents only.In time I plan to use them as markers in other Zulu war or Sudan games to replace the camp tents should the camp be over run. To that end I’m sure in time they will be of use in a Isandlwana game in the future

When I finally get around to buying another four of the rendra tents think I shall make another four of the collapsed bell tents to go with them.
Terry

Garden Walls, Meelie Bag defences, and Kraal’s

Garden Walls, Meelie Bag defences, and Kraal’s

Progress with the scenic’s required for the Rorkes drift are progressing at a steady pace the larger part of the time seems to be taken up with research to try and be as accurate as I can be given the limitations of gaming and limited modelling  abilities.  I started with the plan of doing all the smaller stuff first so as I have something finished and to spur me on with the project. To that end most of the smaller stuff is now finished although I am thinking at this time of re modelling the meelie bag walls as the ends of the casts just don’t fit together right without sanding down the edges.

Anyways on with the progress report.

One of the first things that you know you are going to need lots of for Rorke’s drift are Meelie bags. There are a few suppliers that you can get them from, But as usual I decided to make them myself , partly to maybe save a bit of money , but mainly because I like to build the scenic’s myself when ever I can. 

 Sculpy Meelie bags

The first test pieces were made out of Sculpy and came out really nice, but it was obvious that for the amount of meelie barricades needed making each piece by hand with sculpy was impractical as well as very expensive. So the next piece of meelie bag wall I made I used as a master for a latex mould.

 Sculpy Master and Mould

I used hurculite plaster for the meelie bags and so far I’ve had no breakages. The only problem is that I forgot to ensure that the edges were square. They are not and so I have to square off each piece I cast. I’m now considering making a new master and mould.

 Cast meelie bag walls

The Garden walls and walls for the Kraal were again made from a master and cast in plaster. The master for the walls did not fare as well as the sculpy meelie bag wall master.

It was a piece of wood with gravel pieces glued on with contact adhesive.

 Garden Wall Castings

 A lot of the gravel came away while de moulding the master. But I at least have a good mould, and this one at least has square edges thanks to the piece of wood.

Stone Kraal

 

The rough stone Kraal was made by simply super gluing large decretive stone gravel pieces to the base board and painting. 

 Rough stone kraal

So next up is to remodel the meelie bag wall and cast them, make up the biscuit box wall , again I made a master for this and tried casting them but I did not check the undercut between the boxes and the mould is unusable, So I will just scratch build them, and to make a start on building the hospital and storehouse.

All for now Terry

Cookhouse ,Latrine and Privy

I couple of months a go I made a couple of the small buildings in the rorkes drift compound. They were made initially as a small scale experiment to ascertain the suitability of some of the materials and assembly techniques to use on the main buildings.

The first building I made was the cookhouse this was made from hurculite plaster with Linka moulds and is a sealed unit. This building came out alright and will properly make it onto the table for the game. I really like linka for buildings as after purchasing the moulds the wall pieces are relatively cheap to make and being made of plaster are easy to cut, sand down etc.

  It was clear while making this building that linka on its own would not be strong enough for the large buildings, or for that matter small building with removable roofs for placing figures into. So after a bit of thinking another building was attempted to deal with the problems highlighted with the first building, the second experiment involved foamcore walls with linka cladding.

This building has been left with out flooring or roof for some time just to see how the walls themselves stand up to wear and tear and after a few months of kicking around the outhouse / workroom and then being given to my son for his Fallout game the result is in, The build is strong enough for the building of the storehouse and Hospital.

Another small building that was attempted to try out the teddy bear fur ”Thatch" technique was a latrine. My thinking was that the drift being a staging post for the column plus it being used prier to the columns arrival as a Church there was a good chance that a latrine may have been built.

But it seems I was wrong, although I have not found any accounts as to the size and build of the WC at the drift most plans and diagrams show a small privy, so yesterday I made a Privy

.

So with all the small buildings having been made I can now start work on the main buildings.
 all for now Terry


P.S
The plan for the next post is the making of the Meelie bag wall, the garden wall and the small and large kraal,s

Rorkes Drift Wagons

zulu war wagons, originally uploaded by MrTeld.

I finely finished varnishing the wagons for the Rorke, s Drift game this morning, the green looks a little bright in the pictures due to the flash on the camera, the colour looks much better in natural light, but you will just have to take my word for that.

I went with the traditional Boer red and green colour scheme for the Boer wagons. For the general service wagon I went with vallajo military green. Having only found pictures of  general service wagons in this ww1 Green colour scheme and having found no data in my books  as to the colour of the British army livery during this period I went with what I could find.

Some of the pictures of  the Boer and general sevice wagons that I used for colour reference can be found at the following links :

 Boer Wagon
http://skilder.arkpark.info/album.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fmgbain/3122673091/

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-boer-wagon-in-kruger-park-image9794330

 General Service Wagon

http://s110605900.websitehome.co.uk/landwar/lww1-10.htm

 

General Service Wagon Mk1 Royal Engineers

General Service Wagon Mk1 Royal Engineers, originally uploaded by MrTeld.

Lt Chard Posing next to his new General Service wagon,  
Today I have managed to finish the construction of the last of the wagons for the Rorkes Drift game,all three still require painting but I feel quite pleased as this is another thing I can tick off the list of scenic requirments for the scenario.
I plan on using this one  in the Rorkes Drift game for the abandoned Royal Engineers wagon that was left outside the defensive perimeter on the other side of the rough stone Kraal.
As to the question of authenticity, well I have no idea if the Wagon General Service mk 1 R.E  was used by Engineers in 1879  but it just made a nice touch.
Line drawings for a lot of victorian Artillery and Engineer transport can be found at the following link :

http://www.palmerstonforts.org.uk/art/wagons.htm

Boer Ox Wagon number two

Boer Ox Wagon , originally uploaded by MrTeld.

I managed to make another ox wagon yesterday, just got to look at what colour to paint it now. This one is of a slightly different design to the first one. I think I will just paint it and leave it without any oxen so it could be used for defensive positions, I may in time make enough of them to make a laager only time will tell.

scratch build Boer wagon

scratch build Boer wagon, originally uploaded by MrTeld.

Today I have been busy making the first of the scratch built Ox wagons. It took a little longer to make than I expected and is a little on the rough side but I have learned a good bit in the making of this one that will help when It comes to making the next one. Hoping to be able to make a couple more over the weekend.

A few Rorke's Drift Characters

Today I managed to take a few more pictures of some of the characters I have done so far for the Rorke's Drift game, although I do plan on using them  in a lot of different scenarios in the future under diferent names.

Hospital defenders 

Privates Horrigan, John Williams, Joseph Williams

and Private Hook in shirt sleeve order.

 

Commissariat and Transport Dept.

Acting Commissariat Walter Dunne, Assistant Acting Commissariat James Langley Dalton 

 

Acting Chaplain to the Volunteers

Rev. George Smith

Natal Mounted Police

Troopers Green, Lugg and Hunter. 

plus a Sergeant who will be used in other scenarios

Commissariat and Transport Dept.

Acting Store Keeper, Louis Byrne.

and Pip the dog

Hospital Corps

Corporal Rowland Miller, Second-Corporal Michael McMahon and Private Thomas Luddington.

 Complete with two patients on stretchers one who is past helping.

plus a wounded Private Frederick Hitch of the 24th foot receiving treatment

The first of the bedridden wounded which I am quite pleased with, I may well have a go at making a mould of the next one I do, as there are varying accounts as to the number of bedridden patients in the hospital at the time of the attack.One account puts the amount as high as eleven another as low as three. Given the different figures given I will have a go at casting a dozen, I’m sure I can find a use for any I don’t use in this game.

Because we're here, lad. Nobody else. Just us.

Following on from the posting of the main part of the Zulu army painted up so far (I managed to find a few more in another box that I had missed) its time I posted the British painted so far.

I have painted up just over 50 British so far ... Much more of a slow slog to paint compared the Zulus. The good news is that this as the amount required to play Rorkes drift with TSATF rules... Hurray!!!!!.

The bad news for me is that I decided early on that I wanted to have a go at doing the British at 1:1 with the Zulus regenerating as required, So as to save money on the Zulus, plus there is no way my table or wallet will accommodate 4500 Zulus.

In the mean time while painting up the remainder of the British I can make a start at scratch building the station at rorkes drift and hopefully have a test game or two. In reality I think the painting of the British will be done before the buildings, I have made a start and done the cookhouse and outhouse and part of the meelie bag defence so some progress has been made and I will post pictures of them soon.

Been blabbering on again time for the pictures

Empress Miniatures figures firing line

Empress Miniatures  " at ready"

The above is the line figures painted so far the charector figures will follow tomorrow.

Terry

The sentries report Zulus to the south west .......... Thousands of them !!!!

Ok maybe not thousands of them, or for that matter hundreds of them, but the few that I have finished painting.

  From the title of the post you can properly guess that  thescenario im working on during the first part of the project is the battle of Rorkes Drift. As such this first lot of Zulus have been painted to represent the amabutho present at the battle, at the moment the individual Ibutho are all approximately 30 to 40 figures strong, This is only half of the amount of figures required for the scenario so upon completion some of the Ibutho will be considerably larger which will be more in keeping with the actual deployment on the day.

 Uthulwana 

 Or the "dust raisers"  which is the rough  translation of Uthulwana  which numbered approximately 1500 men on the day of the battle. Made up of mainly wargames factory plastic zulus with four black tree uthlwana in full ceramonial dress. There are another 20 black tree uthulwana figures partly painted at the present time awaiting finishing, the Ibutho should number 60 when completed .

Indlondlo

The "Horned Vipers"  the smalist of the amabutho present on the day numbering aproxamitly 900 men . At the present time there are 37 figures in this ibutho again the main bulk of the figures bieng used are the plastic multi part wargames factory figures with a few black tree and empress figures mixed in. This regiment only requires another 3 figures for its final strength of 40 figures.

Udloko

The "Savage Fighters"the younger of the ringed or "married" regiments of the loins or resurve,  this Ibutho made up the main part of the force that attacked rorkes drift numbering aprox 2500 men , at the moment this is only 30 figures strong, a third of the required strength another 60 are reqired to bring this up to the right strength. At the present time another 30 are in the painting que and are part painted. 

Indluyengwe

"Leopards Lair " or the Spots  the Unmarried or unringed  ibutho which was part of the loins or reserve of the army numbering approximately 1000 men on the day, I have not counted the figures but I think there are 40 figures give or take one or two , Again we have the main part of the regiment  being made up of wargames factory Zulus with a few empress, black tree, and Redoubt figures. The main part of the Zulus with firearms in the above picture is from Redoubt. 

This Ibutho is at the present time finished having the needed number of figures, but I will in the near  future separate off the redoubt  figures with firearms  to use as a separate skirmish unit , so there will be the need for other 10 or so figures to complete the regiment.

IzinDuna

Last but by no means least the Induna or commanders and witch doctor

Renedra Bell Tents

I was hoping to post a brief overview of the project and the current state of affairs with a few pics but unfortunately the weather has not been great and this resulted in bad lighting for taking good pictures, so I will hold off and wait till there is better light for that post. In the mean time a snap of my attempts with the renedra plastic bell tents from the Perrys.

I purchased the 19th /20th century Bell tents which includes 4 tents, 2 camp beds and a fire. This at the time cost £6, quite a lot cheaper than the resin equivalents available.

I am quite pleased with the results and will be buying another set soon, they are quite small, though just about right as a small bell tent when used with the empress and foundry figures but may look to small with larger 28mm figures. They would also work very well as the larger 14 man bell tents with 20mm figures.

Terry