The project is twofold really , firstly to complete all the miniatures and terrain required to reenact a campaign based on this book by Roy Jones and Mark Fastoso.
This book is produced by Skirmish Campaigns http://www.milminusa.com/skirmcamp/scmain.htm#cc , I have the Abyssinia book and the Tanga 1914 elite campaign and found them really useful. The Zulu war contaigns 11 scenarios form the start f the conflict hrough to the final defeat of the Zulus at Ulundi. The rules suggested are the Sword and the Flamewhich I own a copy of , with some modifications of which the most significant is 8 man units for infantry.
The miniatures required to complete the scenarios are as follows.
BRITISH INFANTRY
48x24th Foot , 40x3rd Foot , 8xRoyal Engineers, 8xNaval Brigade, 64x80th Light Infantry, 32x90th Light Infantry,16x60th Rifles,32x13th Light infantry , 16x91st Highland Infantry ,32xNatal Native Contingent , 16xSwazi Allies and 13 characters.
I do not envisage doing all the Light Infantry units as 80th LI can stand in for the others. This leaves a total of 261 infantry.Blimey!
BRITISH CAVALRY
15x17th Lancers, 6x1st Dragoon Guards, 6xMounted Infantry, 6x Natal Mounted Police, 6 x Colonial Volunteers, 6xNatal Light Horse, 8xBakers Horse, 8x Border Horse, 8 x Transvaal Rangers, 8 xNatal Native Horse, 8x Frontier Light horse, 6xRaafs Transvaal Rangers and 4 mounted characters.
I have not yet worked out where I can double up on units, there must be some although a couple of the scenarios require mainly cavary units.So at the moment the target is 96 mounted, double blimey!
BRITISH ARTILLERY/GUNS/WAGONS
4 x 7lb RA guns with 3 crew, 3 x 9lb RA guns with 3 crew, 1 x RN Gatling gun with 3 crew and 1 x RN rocket tube with 3 crew, 5 Wagons.
ZULUS
49 with muskets , 140 with hand weapons, 16 with rifles and 6 mounted.
TERRAIN
A 6 x 4 terrain board, Rorkes Drift Buildings , Zulus Huts.
I built a 8 x 4 terrain board about 4 or 5 years ago to go with my sons Christmas present of Warhammer Fantasy Battles which I had painted for him, it was meant to represent Skull Pass and although I was happy how the figures came out and I made a few errors with the board which is split into 4 x 2 ft sections. I think I can quite easily use adapt this to use for this project , however it will need some surgery to it, I will also need a extra 4 x 2 section. I will post pics of this when I am working on it.
I purchased a damaged Rorkes Drift set from Redoubt Enteprises at the Warfare show at Reading , here is a link to the item http://www.redoubtenterprises.com/shop/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=1355&category_id=40dc45d55f84bfb2a599af2e28a41e36
The roof of the hospital was split in 2 and some floors had broken off, I havenow repaired the damaged parts by pinning and glueingthe rooof and floors using a two part epoxy glue,it seems to have come out ok.
In front you can see some not yet completed Zulu huts , I have about 10 now plus a few other bits and pieces to form a Kraal (Zulu settlement) again I will post more info when I am working on them.
Here are the barricades which came with the set, I dont think theres enough for the board Im planning and I will ahve to order some more.
At the back is the toilet, kitchen, oven and the redoubt.
The second part of the project is to paint the defenders of Rorkes Drift on a ratio of 1 to 1 , and to name each of them! Most of these will already have been painted for the campaign , but will probably require an extra 40 miniatures.
So, thats a brief summary of my target for this year, whether I complete it im not too sure, it would be achievable if I didnt paint anything else, but I do intend to carry on with my VSF forces.
Next post will be about the miniatures Im using for the forces.
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