Usuthu!

I just finished reading the old Osprey campaign series book Zulu War 1879: Twilight of a Warrior Nation. It was fun because it was one of the earlier ones that not only covered the entire campaign but also included tips on wargaming the campaign in the back! They later published campaign series books on Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift and there are also a number of men-at-arms, warrior, and elite series books on the period… most of which I just picked up off of ebay and will be on their way shortly…

Here are a couple samples I’ve painted up of a few of the recently arrived Zulu War figure:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The two British chaps are from Black Tree Design and the Zulu/Natal Africans are from The Foundry.

The fellow with the red headband was mixed in with a lot of Zulus with Firearms I picked up off ebay and is actually a member of the Natal Native Contingent – who fought on the British side. I’ve only done these figures with firearms as the all the Zulus that showed up in the first batch came sans spears. I will have to manufacture a few (~140 – 110 for Zulus and another 30 for some Masai I picked up around the same time). I’ve also since ordered a couple lots of Black Tree Zulus which come with their spears cast on (I’ll probably end up painting them first).

The Black Tree British have funny pith helmets – as you can see, they have a line of piping (or something…) down the sides where, presumably, the seam of the cloth would go…? It looks kind of odd to me and I’ve not seen any pictures that show any sort of thing on foreign service pattern helmets at that time… so I think I’m going to shave them off the rest of the figures I have. I may have to just paint on some seams… Anyone out there know what this is all about?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More African stuff – whether tribal warriors of one sort or another, or askaris, or imperialistic European types…

I think I may need some more storage bins…