Targets Revised Down Already!

I think on reflection I was being a bit ambitious with the amount of figures I am going to paint , so the previous post is not set in stone!  I cannot see myself painting that many Redcoats ....but you never know.

I spent today working on the bases of my Zulus , I currently have 50 that just need the bases finished and shields, about 50 need a few bits of detailing and bases and shields and about 100 which are cleaned , undercoated and given a all over basecoat.Im hoping by next weekend to get the first 50 finished when I shall post some pics.I actually started these back in the autumn  so dont think Ive done this in the last couple of weeks! I have developed a speed method (well speedy for me) to paint the Zulus as I am keen to paint lots and get them on a table next year. I also have approx 50 24th foot half painted.

In a future post I shall consider the miniatures Im using in more detail but my Zulus will be a eclectric mix of the following ranges- New Foundry, Old Foundry, Rapier, Empress, Old Glory , Black Tree Design , Redoubt, Baker Company,Steve Barber Models and Wargames Factory. My unfortunate collecting habit makes me buy figures from different manufacturers even though I know they should not really be used together due to differences in size and style and I have got figures from all of the above and I even bought a few from Irregular, Minifigs and Hinchcliffe for the sake of completeness.

Till next time

Anglo Zulu War Targets

Here, for all the world to see , or at least anyone that reads this, I will set out my minimum requirement for the Zulu War project I have commecnced.
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.

Anglo Zulu War Project

I have had a hankering to do the Zulu War for many years, and now I have commenced the project .To be honest I first bought some miniatures for this period about 5 years ago at a bring and buy where I got a pretty good deal on some of the old foundry range of Brits and Zulus . Last summer I started buying Zulus and reading up on the period and since then have been accumulating more and more .
I have set myself a target of completing the project by this Sunday of next year , 22nd January 2012 , which will be the anniversary of the actions at Rorkes Drift and the battle preceding it, Isandlwana.
More details to follow shortly.

Lord Chelmsfords Expedition (1)

'AETHER    The final frontier. This is the voyage of Her Majestys Star Ship Prince Albert. Its five year expedition to explore strange new worlds and claim them on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (God Bless Her) , to seek out new species and civilise them in the British way, to boldly go where no Englishman has gone before.'

TELEGRAM
From - The Earl of Kimberley (Secretary of State for the Colonies)
To     - Lord Chelmsford (GOC Imperial Forces South Africa )

Sir
By command of Her Majesty the Queen (GBH) I request you to take all expediancy in raising a military and scientific expedition to our new empire across the solar sytem and beyond.
Her Majestys Aether Ship Prince Albert has been allocated for your use. Your mission is twofold, to consolidate our existing territories on Mars , Venus and Mercury giving assistence to our forces stationed there against aboriginal and earthen powers and to search out new planets  so far unknown and claim them on behalf of Her Majesty. Particular  attention should be shown to procuring any valuable mineral rights in the new territories  and to prevent access to them by other earthern powers such as the French, Germans, Belgians, Russians , Americans and Japanese (particular the Belgians!)
Due to the continued commitment of our forces across our colonies the Imperial troops available will be few in number but they will be equipped with our most up to date weapons invented at our secret research laboraty at ****** and manufactured at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. To provide extra firepower some troops from across our colonies on earth will be provided. You will also be accompanied by some of the leading lights in the military and scientific world. Some political , industrial and social factions will also be with you in your travels, be warned that the  insufferable woman Lady Busbridge has the ear of the Queen and elements of her reactionary supporters will be with you.
The aether frigate HMAS Swiftsure will bring reinforcements to your expedition as and when available.

Troops Allocated
X Company , 2nd Battalion 24th Regiment of Foot (commanded by Lt Bromhead)

17th Steam Lancers

Clockwork Engineers

Godalming Ladies Armed Militia



Martians seen again in Surrey

What have the Martians got against Surrey? First Horsell Common, now Cranleigh.

Here is a picture of my back garden this morning-

Last night Mors Junior and myself braved the snow and went to see Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds at the Brighton Arena   -  http://www.thewaroftheworlds.com/default.aspx

Normally less than a  hours trip, due to the massive 1/2 inch (sic) of snow it took almost four hours! Thankfully we left with plenty of time to spare and got there five minutes before the start. Two tee shirts and the very nice programme were bought. I have some Martians on order from RAFM which are based on the Space 1889 role playing game, these will be added to my Parroom Martians which I hope to start painting in the new year (which new year? I hear myself asking).

A Martian tripod advancing down my street

A flying machine attacking Mors Junior and Poppy

These images were created using my iphone and a new app available here - http://www.zgames.com/twotw

They have a game coming out soon too, cool.

Housework

Finally after months , maybe even years, of thinking about it I have finally tidied  my games/hobby room. Its still pretty congested but in a organised way, at least I can walk to the painting table without treading on something , although I normally paint downstairs in the kitchin but this involves lugging everything up and down two flights of stairs.

I have also organised my Victorian themed books , this bookcase contains all my uniform guides, steampunk novels , classic Victorian literature, rules and anything else which relates to the period and hobby I post about on this blog. Mors Minor did claim that the Picture Book of Dinosaurs was actually his but I set him straight!

Hopefully I can get going on my painting again, I have lots of partially completed units that I can get stuck into both for colonial and VSF. The lack of posting on my blog has not been due to a lack of painting (or indeed buying!) of miniatures and terrain but just time pressure. I intend to start posting again regularly as it acts as a spur to complete units. More to follow shortly.....

Such a long time

Its been a long time since I posted anything. Real life has taken up a lot of time during the summer, however I have been doing a blittle bit of painting. From a VSF point of view I have some German Marines close to completion, some mechanical men need basing , I have finished a section of Hinterland Lady Hussars. I have also bought rather a lot at Salute and Colours , I shall post some pictures soon. Africa seems to be taking my mind up at the moment and I have started a Zulu project , I will probably start a new blog for my African miniatures and leave this one to just VSF.