Rorke's Drift in 54mm: 2

By John 54 on the Miniatures Page has put up some photographs of a Zulu War game they put on at theMuseum of the Royal Logistics Corps in Camberley, Surrey, last weekend (annoyingly as it's only about 20 miles from where I live!). It looks great!

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x189/byjohn54/Rorkes%20Drift/

I have a box or two of these Call to Arms figures http://www.acalltoarms.co.uk/132_2.html somewhere in the loft and I might dig one out to paint for fun, as I haven't painted a 54mm figure for years.

A birthday anniversary

The site where Number 3 Column's crossed the Buffalo at Rorke's Drift on January 11th 1879

Today (January 11th) is my birthday and also the 130th anniversary of the beginning of the Zulu War in 1879. Lord Chelmsford's 5,000 word ultimatum had been delivered by John Shepstone, acting Natal Secretary for Native Affairs, to the Zulus on 11th December 1878 giving Cetshwayo 30 days to comply. January 10th arrived and went and no compliance was seen (or expected).

Col Richard Glynn of 1st Battalion 24th foot. Photographed in 1878

At dawn on January 11th Colonel Richard Glynn's number 3 column crossed the Buffalo River at Rorke's Drift. The column consisted of the first battalion 24th foot, seven companies of the 2/24th, a battery of Royal artillery, two battalions of the natal Native Contingent, some European Mounted Police and Volunteers, 2,000 oxen, 67 mules, 220 wagons and 82 carts. In just over a week's time the force would make camp close to a mountain called Isandlwana...

Back painting Zulus again..

I had a look at Empress Miniatures site again for the first time in a few weeks and saw that they had put some more stuff up on it. They also have some greens of some interesting looking British: artillery? rocketmen?

The best thing was that the Zulu command was out so I zapped off an order. I like the way they are highlighting the bare metal figures now; it really lets you see the detail.

My wife gave me a new daylight craft light for Christmas which I got round to assembling today. It's brilliant! I realise that the reason I haven't been painting much (other than the fact that I have spent three weeks travelling around North America) is that I couldn't really see to paint properly in artificial light but this gives a real white light. Now I have two lights either side of my painting area I should be able to paint in the evenings again. To celebrate I put down the base coat on my next batch of 20 Zulus. Maybe tomorrow I can do the black bits (hair and rifles). Doing 20 figures in a batch is a lot for me but with Zulus you need to go for mass not driblets!