Zulu War: Resurrecting the Impi...

All these The Men That Would Be Kings games have led to both George and I looking at conflicts beyond the Sudan we may have figures for, hiding in Lead and Plastic Mountain... For me this means  the French in Dahomey, the Maximillian Affair and, of course, the Zulu War.

The latter is next on the agenda as George has a box of Perry Miniatures British Infantry and I have rather a lot of sprues of Warlord's Zulus bought a few years back for (stalled) project based around David Bickley's Washing The Spears rules.

Over the weekend I dug out my boxes of Zulus and put some thought to using them in TMWWBK but still keeping them useable for Washing The Spears. To this end I have decided that I will form them into 32 man regiments for Washing The Spears and then split the regiments in two to make 16 man Tribal Infantry units for TMWWBK. As the latter requires casualty removal I will mounting the models individually and using sabot bases (yes, the approach I discarded four years ago and now have 60 painted Zulus on 80x40mm bases!).

So, after a couple of evenings of snipping and gluing I have now stuck together three Washing The Spears regiments of Zulus, which gives me six TMWWBK Tribal Infantry units, a 24 point Field Force (or should we call that a 24 point Impi?)

Unlike my Sudan/NWF British infantry, I have mounted the Zulus on one pence pieces as, having seem George do this with his Mahdists, it gives the Tribal Infantry more of a massed effect. I just need to buy some sabot bases from Warbases now and dig out that can of brown spray paint...

Zulu War: The Leopard's Lair

It has been far too long since I finished the uMbonambi regiment for my Zulu army, but at long last there are some reinforcements in the form of the iNdluyengwe (the Leopard's Lair or Den).

Another thirty strong regiment of unmarried Zulus, the  iNdluyengwe were raised in 1866 and fought at Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift, Kambala, Gingidlovo and Ulundi.

The miniatures are Warlord plastics with a metal Empress inDuna to lead them, base painted and then "dipped" in Army Painter Strong Tone. They won't win any prizes but en masse they look pretty good...

Zulu Army painted running total: 60/288 infantry

2014 Painting Target: 80/1000

Zulu War: The Evil Omen

Usuthu! Tremble white man as the uMbonambi march!

I managed to grab half an hour to finish my first Warlord Games Zulu regiment this lunchtime. Unfortunately the light is pretty crap so apologies if the pictures aren't too good (I have played with them in iPhoto but...)

This first regiment is the unmarried uMbonambi (The Evil Omen), raised in 1863 and present at Isandlwana (22nd January 1879), Kambala (29th Match 1879), Gingindlovo (2nd April 1879) and Ulundi (4th July 1879).

I have based them in groups of five on 80x40mm bases, apart from one group of two and one of three each on a 40x40mm base. Overall I'm fairly happy with them. They look good en masse but I think I can do better and will learn from mistakes. I am still debating some highlights but will wait until the weather (and natural light is better) before deciding whether this is necessary.

 Zulu Army painted running total: 

 30/288 infantry