Black Powder Zulu War

For the last 2 weeks or so I have been repainting and painting 1/72 British and Zulus to run a Black Powder scenario at the club. The Vimeiro scenario played well using BP, so I decided to run out my colonials after also watching Zulu again (for the 20-odd time). I have the Colonial Campaigns Zulu War scenario book which is really excellent

and helps to focus the modeling. I am going to run the Isandlwana scenario. While that battle is ostensibly one-sided and not much fun to game, the scenario is well thought-out and should provide a challenge for up to 5 players.

It requires of course, some stalwart British infantry, here painted as 24th foot with regimental and Queen's colours (Esci 1/72)


Some Natal native contingents, these were tribes that allied against the Zulu (Esci 1/72 Zulus painted with red head feathers, native contingents wore a red headband).


I picked up a new box of British mounted infantry (Hat 1/72) which will not factor into this scenario, but are very nice.


And I painted-converted half of them into Natal mounted police, which do appear in the scenario:

The artillery is a Napoleonic 9lber with US civil war crew. I head-swapped the crew for tropical helmets to make them look British, and I doubt any of my mates can tell the difference between a 9lber and the correct 7lber...


There are also some wagons to represent the baggage train, which is a Zulu objective. The Conestogas are from Imex and are excellent, the field forge is Hat (French Napoloenic).


I just need to finish off another 24 Zulus and this one is ready to go. I also need some 1/72 tents. Any suggestions?

Up next: Zulus.

Montrose is almost upon us!

Today I just about finished off my Scots ECW army, which has clearly morphed into a Montrose-Royalist force. I complete a 24-strong Irish Brigade of shot, hard nuts these blokes were:



Led by the fearsome Macolla "the devastator" with his Claymore:

Macolla can also be accompanied by a lifeguard of 6 knuckledragging highlanders, so I did another highland warband unit with Claymores and lochaber axes. I am not sure how this army will fare against a more conventional pike and shot force with strong horse regiments. My plan will be to use terrain as best as possible and hit his foot units with my warbands very quickly early on.
In other news, because we are insane we adopted a 4th cat. His name is Harry ("Prince 'arry") and he has bonded with our 4 year old male Charlie (Prince Charles? no wonder I am playing Royalists!). Not more than a day in the house and they have already perfected synchronized sleeping:

Highland warband for ECW

Since returning from Chile I completed my first Highland warband for ECW. This is a combination of Old Glory and Foundry figures, swords and targes plus some longbows. They look fierce!


Lots of animated poses, quite characteristic of Old Glory. This is quite a good range, their pikmen are also very good. I have a pile of them on my to-do list.


I chickened-out on painting tartan kilts and trews though. And really, tartan kilts didn't quite exist yet at the time of the ECW.
But there was lots of other fun going on at my house this weekend...

Next up: Some dragoons and another regiment of foot for Dave Senior...

More ECW

Today I knocked off the lifeguard cuirassiers of the Earl of Essex for Dave Sr. This is work I am doing in exchange for lead. I reckon Dave gets a pretty good deal since I paint one figure for each I receive in exchange. I wouldn't want to figure out how that works in terms of hourly wage...

They are Renegade, quite big, but they are very nice. So nice, I don't want to give them back to him...


Dave just needs to base them and hit them with some dullcote, and away we go.

EWC Update

Last week I completed another regiment of Covenanter foot, these are Renegade figs, very nice figures, but also very large.


Although I think they don't match up too badly against Warlord plastics for size:


As much as I like the Warlord figs, these Renegades have better detail (deeper folds, etc) and look great painted. They weigh a ton though!

I also knocked off a DBA army this weekend. These are early medieval Poles, a very nicely balanced army with knights, bow, spear and a few other bits.

I might manage another mounted ECW unit, this time cuirassiers, for Dave later this week, but on Friday I am flying to South America for a weekend conference in Chile. So back again in October..

New ECW, DBA Campaign begins..

Over the last 10 days I have been knocking off some ECW stuff for Dave Senior in exchange for metal, so far I did a cavalry unit for him and am working on a greencoat infantry unit (Parliament), these are Foundry figs, a bit small and not as clean as some I have worked on...


Here are some Old Glory Highland cavalry I received in exchange, this is a really nice line of figs, great animation, lots of character, nice horses. I like the fella waving the pistol butt


I also painted a Warlord games Montrose figure that I quite like, I am leaning towards a Montrose-themed Scots army for myself


And some Warlord plastic ECW cavalry done as Scots lancers. Boy, these are great figs, I really like working with the plastics, they take paint so well and are easy to work with, convert, etc.


On another note, first turn of the 1066 DBA campaign kicked off and I ended up with one additional territory out of Mark's hide, but on balance Bob was the big winner after picking up 8 prestige points by some canny play and timely 6s. Not sure I would want to be the frontrunner so early on....

WHFB First Blood

Kevin and I had a go at WHFB today, 1250 points of my Empire versus his Lizards. The synopsis:

- Stegadon stomps Flagellants then gets a cannonball between the eyes
- Saurus runs into the pointy end of a large halbard block after getting shot up badly
- Skinks run circles around Swordsmen and are the only surviving reptiles at the end
- Slann casts a couple of humdinger spells then self-immolates on a miscast. Phew!

What a blast, from my perspective, gunpowder is good, but I need to learn how to counter some of that powerful magic. The Arch Lector was very useful, until he died. It was a close run thing.

I finished some more handgunners and swordsman over the weekend. It is interesting to compare the different eras of GW figures. Here we have 3 generations of swordsmen, from left to right, oldest to newest:


They clearly trend towards larger swords, more dynamic poses, and lots more bits of esoteric details like scrolls and skulls. The animation is mostly good, but I don't care for the extra bits of fluff.

Similarly, for gunners:



Again, more dynamic poses, but they are trending towards the Village People with some of the fluffy bits, big silly guns and over-animation. I think on balance I like the previous edition (middle figures) the best.