AZW - Zulus 1000 of em!

 Another 4 units completed for the Zulu army . Which takes me up to just over 1000 Zulus painted ./

‘Coming at You”

Beehive 

The Reeds

The White Tails

The 4 new units 

 

The full army 

The Horns of the Buffalo 

Not having to paint cavalry and artillery makes it a change alright 

Chest and Loins units 

Right Horn 

Left Horn 

I need to add some rifle armed skirmishers , and I have enough figures for one more unit and some commanders . But that’s enough for now I think . Martin and I are planning the campaign out at the moment.

Martins invasion forces are also completed 

Next solution is storage . The guys at Pendraken have made me up some Really Useful Box inserts so I can get 5 in 9 litre box

AZW - Many more Zulus

the Impi is progressing well with another 4 units being added. This takes me up to about 650 figures 

First up some commanders 

Cetshawyo on horseback with other foot commanders , and.another for commander . I have another 4 of these still to do . There is also a casualty marker piece of fallen Zulus. Of these bits are from Steve Barber 10mm. They are not a bad match with the Pendraken stuff and fill in some of the range gaps for me .

 

It’s been a productive week on the infantry side with another 4 regiments completed .

The first Veteran unit with mostly white shields. Uthulwans - “Dust Raisers”

The UVe - “Flycatchers”

The Indlondlo “Black Mambas”

An unmarried unit the “Leopards Lair”

 

The latest 4 laid out 

 

I have all the rest of the figures ready to prepare and basecoat to take me over the 1000 target and add another 4 regiments . Which should get done over the couple of weeks . I have other painting plans coming up so need to get these done .

We are tweaking the home brew set used for the mass Sudan battles and are doing a play test tomorrow.

So a few rough set up shots from today .

The local clergy in the form of the  De Witts having seen the increase in Zulu forces have a warning . “You’re all going to die !”

Anglo Zulu Wars . InGobamakhosi - Benders of kings .

 The next unit has been completed . This is the biggest Zulu regiment which was around 4000 strong in 1879 . As we are doing a ratio of around 1/20 it’s 200 ish figures . I am going with what looks good on a base so it took 212 . Laid out it has a frontage of 360mm , though could extend to 500mm+ if needed. 

 

It has a mix of 4 shield designs which I have recreated.

 

So that is now 2 of the 3 units for the left horn . The 3rd is under way . 

300+ out of 1000 

Anglo-Zulu War. Zulus - the start of Thousands of em!

 Doing an AZW project has been on the cards for a while. While in 28mm it would look epic - I have seen it several times at shows over the years. I wanted something that would not come with added storage wars. Compared to the Sudan it’s also more limited in scope , so 10mm seems the obvious route to go down . 

Friend Martin said he would do the Brits  and other pieces if I did the Zulus . At least it means no guns and cavalry etc . So the orders have been placed with Pendraken providing the majority - over a 1000 figures and another few 100 from Steve Barber . 

So the first Zulu regiment or iButho has been completed . We are using a rough scale of 1/20 .We  will do a campaign at mad friend Gerry’s Situation Room later this year . So to kick off here is the first one 

This represents about 2000 men from the uMbonambi from the left horn at Isandlwana . Its frontage is 16 inches so a decent size . 

These are an Unmarried regiment , and have black shields with some white spots 

I sprayed them with a colour forge Hyrax Brown rattle can . Then it’s a pretty simple and quick painting process:-

Base coat - Spray

Drybrush a lighter brown - I used Vallejo Flat Earth

Black for the hair 

Weapon colour - flat brown for the Knobkerrie and beige brown for the Assagie 

Loin cloth a lighter brown/khaki/off white 

Head dress and leg decorations picked out a lighter colour , off white 

Give em a thin brown wash 

Metals 

Paint shield back a light brown

Paint shield front main colour 

Paint shield decoration 

Varnish 

Overall it’s quick - took a full evening to do 100 of them after they had been base coated .

Basing is on a mix of 60x60, 60x30 and  30x30 . That will allow for base removal not any mucking about with casualty markers . 

 

I did the static grass direct rather making tufts . It uses 3 different grass , 2 are 2mm and 1 that is 1mm 

 

Another 12 units to do and they will be Washing their Spears.