Warlord/Empress plastic Zulu Warrior

I bought a box of Warlord Games new plastic Zulus last week and managed to get one painted over the weekend.  I will review the contents of the box another time but now I will just give my initial impressions.

Empress metal and Warlord/Empress plastic

Firstly, how compatible are they with my existing figures?  Most of my Zulus are Empress Minatures metals sculpted by Paul Hicks. Frankly, the latter are my least favourite of the four manufacturers  I own, although they are the most historically accurate as regards clothing; including, for example, the clay pipes that Zulu warriors often carried about their heads.  The anatomy of the Empress metals is rather odd but my real problem with them is their size: they just aren't big enough to be Zulus (European eyewitness accounts constantly refer to the large size of the Zulus).  The new plastics are much more imposing, however.

Wargames Factory and Warlord/Empress plastics

In size they are much closer to the Wargames Factory plastics but look less ungainly as Warlord have included the top half of the arm with the legs and torso sculpt.  The Wargames factory ones suffer from plastic figure zombie arms.  However, in order to achive a seamless fit of the forearms (which often include moulded on weapons and shields), they have added an armband on the figures.  These plain armbands do not appear on any pictures of Zulus I have ever seen and so historical accuracy has been sacrificed in favour of ease of construction.

L to R: Warlord/Empress plastic, Wargames Factory plastic, Empress metal, Foundry metal

The Foundry Zulus are based on Mark Copplestone's Darkest Africa sculpts and are the biggest of the four manufacturers figures but I think they have the micest anatomy and easily the most natural looking poses.

The Warlord figure was easy to paint although the armband on one arm didn't line up underneath.  I'm not sure about the textured shields either and I think I prefer the Wargames Factory ones which are also thinner.  The Warlord shields are as thick as a metal one.  I also found it difficult to position the shield in a way that the poor Zulu could actually see where he was going.  Also the bases are very wide which meant I had to place this first one diagonally across my 20mm square base.  Next time I will trim the base first.  The weapons for the Warlord figures are much better with the binding on the spears being modelled accurately (and uniquely for any of the figures I have).

I bought the married regiment with their headrings.  The unmarried figures are modelled in full dress which would have been most unusual for a group of warriors taking the field.  In their leaflet inside the box Warlord claim that younger warriors were more inclined to wear full regalia in action.  Frankly, this is nonsense and is typical of the GW-style marketing speak that we get from this otherwise estimable company.

I will try to get some more figures painted up and look at the full content of the box shortly.  All in all though, my response if favourable without them being, as I had hoped, perfect. Surprisingly I don't see myself abandoning the Wargames Factory ones I have (as I thought I would) but I won't be buying any more Empress metals, except for leaders and characters. 

Now all I have to do is decide which regiment this new figure is going to be the first of!

Some more British

I've managed to finish another half dozen British this month so I am progressing, albeit slowly and I have lost my fear of these figures.  Sometimes, when figures are very complex or detailed (as is the case, often, with Perry figures) I actually put off painting them.  Despite having finished a few of these I was starting to think about these like that.  The real issue is often between painting the initial "test" figure, on which I usually lavish a lot more time, and the rank and file.  However, in this case I am pretty happy with them and I think they look OK.  My main worry has been how to do the stained helmets but I have dealt with these by actually painting them white and...well...staining them, with a Citadel wash, Gryphonne sepia. 

I have another half dozen or so started now so will try to move these along a bit.  I have also now started the necessary Zulus to finish my second unit and will do those in tandem with the Darkest Africa askari, as they share a lot of colours.

I'm going to have to start thinking about how to organise the British and what units they will represent.

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!

10mm Zulu War

10mm figures by Steve Barber

I don't do 10mm figures on account of the fact that I can't see them to paint but if I did I might be quite tempted by this new range from Steve Barber models. http://www.sbarber-models.clara.net/main.htmlI know this firm best from its enjoyable Prehistoric Settlement rules. Barber's figures can be rather crude and many of his 25mm figures suffer from big head syndrome. There are the occasional figures with strange anatomy here but on the whole I think these are rather good.

I love the little Hales rocket team here!

Wargames Factory plastic Zulus

I, at last, managed to pick up a pack of these at Orc's Nest today. I have not been very impressed with Wargames Factory's output so far and had already decided that I wouldn't be buying their British Infantry. Mainly this is because Empress Miniatures British are so good (despite their four panel helmets), and the promise of the range is such that I wanted all my figures from the same manufacturer. The Zulus were different, however. I had seen some previews on The Miniatures Page and they looked..well pretty good actually.

Unlike the other figures from Wargames Factory these are packed in a bag with a card insert which has one of the most amateurish looking paintings I have ever seen on a commercial product. Plastic figures are more fragile than you would think so I am a bit worried by the bag but they seem to have got from New England intact.

You get five each of two sprues:

The first holds five different legs/torsos and 18 arms. 12 of the latter are right arms and six are left.

The second sprue holds 14 heads (2 with headdresses) six married and six unmarried heads. This means that you can easily field a force of each from one box.

There are 9 distinct heads, which is pretty good. This sprue also holds six shields, two of which have spare assegais attached. There are also three arms holding rifles (two Martini-Henrys and one flintlock) plus one each of a seperate Martini-Henry and a flintlock. There is one seperate belt with a powder horn. There are five longer throwing assegais and five of the shorter, stabbing Iklwa plus two knobkerries or Iwisa.

I quickly assembled one this evening to compare it to the Empress figures and I have to say that I am impressed. The anatomy is very good; probably better than the Empress figures, although the heads are slightly bigger and, indeed seem to vary in size. The arms have that slightly uncomfortable look that stick on arms always have on plastic figures but they are not too odd looking.

Heightwise they are slightly bigger than the Empress figures but this is no bad thing. Many of the contemporary accounts of the Zulu War written by British troops commented on the size of the Zulus; these were big men. The Empress figures are smaller than their British counterparts however.

The best thing about them are their weapons, however. Nicely in scale and nicely modelled. Best of all are the shields which are much thinner than metal and are also modelled to show the characteristic wavy surface of the hide shields: a really excellent job with fine rear detail too.

In conclusion, and rather to my surprise, I can see myself buying a lot of these whilst still using Empress figures for characters. I will try to paint one up to see what he looks like over the forthcoming Bank Holiday weekend.

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.

Salute giveaway figure 2009

Black Scorpion have just put their Salute 09 giveaway figure up on The Miniatures Page. The theme of the event is going to be the Zulu Wars, which is good news! Its quite a nice little vignette and its good to see the Zulu Wars becoming popular again: these things do go in cycles. One thing, though, I can't understand why people keep painting the helmets of the British as if they had four panels.

This foreign service helmet is, I believe, a genuine 1879 one from the 24th foot. It quite clearly has six panels. Never mind, the panel lines are never as much a feature as painters make them out to be, given the scale of a 28mm figure, so it should be easily sorted.

More Zulus on the way..

Heads you lose..

I have nearly finished my first sixteen Zulus from Empress miniatures. They aren't perfect but look very good en masse. The faces are good, some very, very good. They are a little small some of them, compared with the British, and the anaotomy is not as good, say, as Copplestone's Ngoni (particularly the arms and legs). The real problem is the chest area where the relationship between the deltoid, pectoralis major and clavicle is not quite right. Odd, as the sculptor has modelled the stomach area really well and caught that pot-bellied look from contemporary photographs. Still with a shield and weapon it shouldn't be too noticeable.

Empress have come out with two more releases in the last few days. Firstly, some Zulu's with the classic cow-tail decoration on arms and legs. I am going to use these as unit leaders as in battle these decorations were unlikely to be (but not never) worn. Secondly, a set of British heads, four with Glengarrys and four with the (white) helmets with badges on (as seen in the original film Zulu and also worn by the 99th foot). This deals with the issue raised by Lt Col Mike Snook, in his review on the Rorke's Drift VC site, regarding the trumpeter having a helmet cover, which didn't come in until later in the campaign.

http://www.rorkesdriftvc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1301

I have ordered two packs of the cow-tail Zulus and the head set. My experience co far with Empress is that their dispatch is very fast.

At last a promising range of Zulu War figures.

The new Empress British. The painter did a great job. If I can do half as well on mine I will be pleased!

As I noted on the introduction to my Sudan blog it was the film Zulu that got me into colonial wargaming and I painted a lot of those Revell plastics. I never found a satisfactory range in 28mm. The two main rivals, I suppose were Black Tree Design and Redoubt.

Black Tree Design have a wide range of poses but the anatomy of the figures is variable: some are excellent, some are a bit odd. The real problem with them is the strange interpretations of the helmets with odd ridges on them where all there should be are seams.

The Redoubt range is also comprehensive as to different troop types although their are less poses of individual infantry. The figures look quite old and on the internet anyway look a bit indistinct in their sculpting and casting. One of the reasons I like the Musketeer Miniatures figures so much, even though they are rather exaggerated compared with, say, the Perries, is that you know exactly what you are painting.

So I was delighted to see a new range of Zulu War figures by an equally new company called Empress Miniatures. http://www.empressminiatures.com/ These are sculpted by Paul Hicks, who is rapidly getting up there with the best sculptors on the planet now. They look a bit chunkier than my usual taste (but that is often the result of the photography) but are very crisply sculpted. I immediately ordered one of each of the four packs that have come out.

The owners (who claim to be women, which is unusual in itself) say that the range will be complete for all troop types in the war. Sensibly, they are going for a release schedule of first some redcoats, then some Zulus, then back to British again, so you can build an army and its opponents at the same time.

I know these will distract me from the Sudan but I have always wanted to do Zulu War British!

The first Zulus are up on the site too now and I just took delivery of a batch of those as well.