Showing posts with label miniatures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miniatures. Show all posts

Monday, 16 May 2011

Warlord/Empress Zulu War plastic British




I've just come across these pictures of Warlord Games planned plastic Zulu War British which they are launching with Empress miniatures.  Apparently, these were on display at Salute but I never saw them.  I am not convinced I saw the whole of the Warlord stand.  It just seems to have been a few packs on a wall and a table, which was empty.  I was rather disappointed by it as I was looking for the new Hail, Caesar rules but never saw them.  Maybe I missed a bit.  Not sure.




Anyway, I am not overwhelmed by these figues as they have the usual awkward looking arms of many plastics.  Empress's metal figures are so superb, and you are never going to need that many British, that I don't see the point, really.  They still look like four panel helmets, though.  On the metal figures I have to file them all down and paint on the panel lines in the correct places.

More interesting will be the look of the plastic Zulus.  I haven't been too happy with the Empress Zulus but maybe the plastics will be better.  Due out in the Autumn, it seems.

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Two Bromheads!

Michael Caine as Lt Bromhead

I don't know. You wait ages for one Zulu Lt. Bromhead to come along and then two come along one after another!

After Black Scorpion's version of Michael Caine, in the cape he wears at the beginning of the film, Empress Miniatures have announced an excellent set of Zulu characters based on the actors in the film. They will be doing historical versions as well!


Left to right we have Private Hook, Lt. Chard, Lt. Bromhead, and Colour-Sergeant Bourne. Its difficult to see how well their faces have been captured but the painted version of Hook on the Empress website looks just like the actor!

James Booth as Private Hook

Stanley Baker (Chard) and Nigel Greene (Colour-Sergeant Bourne)

The biq question is do I wait for Salute and risk them running out or do I go ahead and order now and pay the postage? I may just wait, in that perhaps they will have the historical set ready for Salute too. In the meantime I can paint my Black Scorpion Bromhead which I received today. I am painting him as an exercise as he is much too big to go with the Empress Figures.



Black Scorpion's Bromhead. Already under way!

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

New Zulus from Foundry


Well, in something of an unexpected move Foundry have come out with eight packs of Zulu warriors sculpted by their new sculptor Ronnie Shilton (who sounds like a big band leader). I have to say that these look like excellent figures with beautifully rendered shields. At £10.75 for six, however, they are a lot more expensive than the Empress figures at £5 for four or the Wargames Factory ones at £15 for 30 figures. If you buy the deal you get 48 figures for £73.40 but for £1.60 more you could get 150 Wargames Factory figures!
It seems a curious choice for Foundry but then curious choices are the stock in trade of this once great company. All the warrriors are spear armed and it seems a shame that they haven't taken the opportunity to do some with rifles, which are sadly short in the other ranges; particularly shooting poses rather than waving rifles in the air poses. Something like Mark Copplestones's lovely Azande musketmen poses are what are needed for Zulu armies.


Nevertheless, next time I send in a Foundry order (and I've just had one back, annoyingly) I will order a couple of packs to see what they are like.

Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Zulus with Rifles from Empress Miniatures



It's always been slightly annoying that rifle armed Zulus weren't available seperately from Empress but now they have gone and rectified this with this very nice set. This is excellent news. Once I have finished my next batch of Beja I'm going to move back onto Zulus for a bit. I wasn't very happy with the way that the first ones came out so am hoping the next batch will be better.


Prince Dabulamanzi KaMpande, Cetshwayo's half-brother was the commander at Rorke's Drift and Gingindlovu. His troops have a wide variety of firearms.

The Zulus had been arming themselves with firearms for some time before the Zulu War. One contemporary report estimated that there were around 20,000 guns available to the Zulu at this time. However, it was reckoned that only about 500 of these were modern breech loaders. There were rather more percussion guns but most were old, often condemned, flintlock muskets. The British army recovered nearly 450 guns from the Zulus after the Battle of Gingindlovu but only five of these were Martini-Henrys (presumably captured at Isandlwana) with most being old British Tower or German muskets. In addition the gunpowder the Zulus had was very low quality and bullets could be anything from bits of metal scrap to stones. So although the Zulus had guns, they would not have been very effective.

Sunday, 14 December 2008

Zulu War in Toronto


I am currently staying at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto and was amused to see this Zulu War display in the window of the in-house cigar and pipe shop. Britains 54mm figures I think.
Spiffing!