Monday 9 November 2015

USUTHU! - Another Project Born...

'Zulu!' and 'Zulu Dawn' have long been my favourite films depicting redcoat action in the Age of Imperialism, and I have felt the itch to get some action going on the South African plains (and as any native Africans can easily be pressed into service for Pulp games, this is actually a no-brainer).

I have now set out to scratch that itch, first getting these books from Osprey:

(In Her Majesty's Name rulebook should be in the mail any day soon)
Heroes, Villains and Fiends contain rules for using Zulu in IHMN, so I expect to start making a Company or two of Zulus (unmarried and married springs to mind), and one of Brits, then perhaps expand by making Pulp Alley leagues of some of the other native peoples available (like Ngoni, Matabele, Pygmies, Azande, and perhaps some 'fantasy' cannibals and other imaginative Africans).

At first, I thought about doing Colonials in 1/72 plastics as I already have some Esci Zulus and British infantry for the Zulu War (1879), but there seems to be a limited supply of figures for this period; although a lot of sets have been made over time (notably from HaT), only a few seem available at the present.

So, I end up - as usual - collecting and painting 28 mm sized stuff, and as I remembered to have a box of these, I dug it out and have begun prepping a few redcoats.:



The models are not great, but I got the box as a freebie when ordering WGF's Republican (Caesarian) Romans, so no harm done in getting them a lick of paint so they can be brutally slaughtered by the natives of many a distant corner of the Empire.

I shall be basing them on 20mm washers, and go for a 'ready' or 'avancing' pose for as many as possible, as I really do not  like the sculpt of the firing right arm/hand - and I am primarily going to use these for skirmishing, so it only seems right to use poses better suited for open formations.

For the Zulus, I am almost set on getting the Empress/Warlord Zulu Starter Army, which should keep me occupied for several gaming seasons.

Just need to get that November paycheck...

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2 comments:

  1. Colgar610 November 2015 at 09:39

    Wow, those are some quite ambitious plans, aren't they :-) ? Good luck!

    I've got some Wargames Factory Zulus myself (for pulp/Tarzan games). They were very cheap but they're some of WF's earlier models and not quite the same quality as their newer kits.

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    1. Argonor10 November 2015 at 13:02

      Yes, probably too ambitious, but if I get some small-action/skirmish gaming going it should keep me motivated to paint a fem more Zulus now and then (and I REALLY need something to get me going, as I have painted next to nothing for the last 3 months), and there's nothing to spur me on as getting new toys ;o)
      The only other guy I know of having bought the WGF Zulus actually converted them to Morlocks, as he found them too ugly to use for his Zulu War project.
      As it stands, I only intend to paint this one box of Brits because I got it for free - the very hard plastic and the soft details, added to not quite convincing sculpts, are not a recipe I am going to use again; there's a lot of nicer options for the British out there (although I wish more troop types were available in plastic - even with 'The Men Who Would Be Kings' rules' six-man cavalry units, mounted units are going to be quite expensive to add to the force).

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