The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Nine

I wonder how many parts there will eventually be to this saga!  Anyway, I've been laid up with that lovely winter vomitting bug for the last few days.  In between calls on the great white ivory telephone I've made a little progress on the project over the last few days.  I've managed to paint another 16 unmarried Zulus and their InDuna.  Just another 16 to go and that unit will be done giving me 3 completed units of Zulus (2 unmarried and 1 married) which leaves me with another 2 units of Married Zulus to build and paint and one more unit of Brits.  On the subject of Brits, I finished the plastics from the original set as well. 

I then noticed that my "standard" basing mix was running rather low.  I decided that I would make up a new mega batch of basing texture.  The only problem is that try as I might, it doesn't match what I've been using so there will be a subtle difference next time I return to 1938 VBCW.  Some of you might think that it is far too green for the terrain of Zulu land but actually the battle of Rorkes Drift took place during the wet season and so was far more green and lush than the films lead us to believe.  This also has the added benefit that the scenery will be able to "double hat" for other periods such as 1938!  I'm not entirely happy with the colour but it'll have to do now that it's started going onto the masses!

I was also wondering what to do with all of those spare shields on the sprues.  I contemplated attaching them to the back of the musket wielding chaps but when playing around this just looked plain wrong.  After starting to work through the brilliant Black Powder rules I realised that I was going to need casualty markers and lots of them!  I've got to work out what to use for the Brits now . . . . .

Other than that it's just been tidying up loose ends and finally moving some of this massive set through to the display cases as the vanishing cabinet was choc a bloc with stuff.  I'm in the process of getting rid of the last bits of my fantasy collection on Ebay which has finally created a bit of space for this lot.  Anyway, I'd better get back to basing while I'm on a roll.  I really hate basing, I wish that I could do it as well as PanzerKaput does!

As a parting thought, is it any suprise that this chap is looking away from where his musket is pointing when the barrel is as wonky as this?

Hopefully I'll be back in work tomorrow.  The combination of the Falklands trip and 3 days sick means that my backlog of work is going to be horrific!


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The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Eight

My little trip to the Falklands wasn't entirely free of miniatures, I did take a few and some paints with me.  As such I now have 40 married Zulus and 32 unmarried Zulus painted.  You'd think that 72 Zulus plus their leaders would look like a massive lot.  Unfortunately it really doesn't.  I also got most of the way through another ten British infantry.  While I was away the mega cheap purchases from Maelstrom arrived so as well as the metal Brits from the original box I now have outstanding:

• 24 British Infantry (plus ten to finish).
• 32 Unmarried Zulus + leader (built and undercoated).
• 64 Married Zulus + 2 characters (still in boxes).
• Both main buildings, built but still in the process of texturing them up before undercoating and painting.

I don't think that I'm ever going to finish this project!

Here's the Zulus so far:



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Why it has been quiet and there's been no Zulu based updates . . . . . .

For the last couple of weeks I have been in the right hemisphere for Zulu based goodness but the wrong hemisphere to make any progress.  That said, I did get the opportunity to visit one of the best King Penguin colonies in the world.  As an added bonus I didn't have to spend 4 hours each way in a Land Rover and spend $300+ for my fare.  Instead I spent £15 and got there by helicopter . . . . . which was nice :)

Anyway, if this works then there's a few (of the 100s) of the shots that I took at Volunteer Point by way of explanation for my lack of blogging over the last couple of weeks.  That and the fact that I couldn't seem to access this site from the wrong side of the equator!

http://s575.photobucket.com/albums/ss197/mudcow304/?albumview=slideshow

The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Seven

Alas progress continues to be slow as I continue to be forced to work for the "living" that pays for my miniatures habit. 

The MDF bases that I ordered some weeks ago arrived today.  They are of very good quality, equal to the fine produce of Renedra in my humble opinion but slightly cheaper.  I spent a long time thinking about how I would base my Anglo-Zulu chaps and eventually decided that for Rorkes Drift I would actually mix the bases up a little.  I am planning to use the Black Powder rules that Warlord publish but would like to have the flexibility to use other rules if I so desire or the chaps from the club make me :)  As such I've gone for square bases with four zulus on each with a goodly number of single bases scattered amongst them for good measure.

Anyway, the last dregs of my current bottle of PVA were deployed to stick these chaps onto bases which will need a good couple of days worth of work to get them all textured and looking acceptable if not nice. 

It seems like I've been painting Zulus for an age and yet it seems that I really haven't produced much yet.

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The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Six

Work is back up to its usual tricks of keeping me away from the paint station.  However, over the weekend I did manage to get time to assemble the buildings from the set.  I was most impressed by the quality and how it all went together.  The instructions were okay, not brilliant but good enough.  The only real snag was that a sprue was missing from my set.  It was only a little sprue containing a small piece of roof and a ladder.  I emailed Warlord on Sunday and the missing part arrived today.  You really can't ask for better customer service than that!

I assembled them using bog standard PVA.  Only when I tried to work out what the spare bits were for did I realise that they were actually glue spreaders that were supplied as part of the kit - a nice touch!  I've then started painting on a finely textured paint on the plastered areas, hopefully this will help to achieve the rough African look by the end.  At the moment it just looks a bit messy!  Oh and yes I did knock one of the pillars getting it out of the cupboard to take the photo.  Anyway, enough waffling, here's the buildings:

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The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Five

Not much of an update.  A reasonably succesful evening during which I was able to catch up on the ironing and knock out another ten married Zulus.  However, from every tiny acorn etc

Wish that my leave wasn't over and I didn't have to go back to work in the morning :(

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The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Four

Well the "opus" continues to prove to be of almost Biblical proportions!

I have spent much more of this period of leave doing things other than painting than I planned to.  It does mean that I sit here on my final day of leave a lot less stressed than I was a few days ago.  However, it also means that the project is taking a lot longer than originally planned. 

Over the last couple of days I have painted one Induna for the unmarried Zulus that I finished last week.  He actually has the wrong shield pattern as I only read up on the significance of shield colour for Zulu regiments last night.  As such he will eventually be the Induna for the 2nd unmarried Zulu regiment that I will be making and painting as soon as I get to them!  I've also nearly finished the first ten married zulus.  The first ten of forty that is!

I got home the other day to a card from the postie that they're holding a parcel for me.  I hope that this will finally be the bases that I ordered a few weeks ago as these chaps really need basing.  Anyway, here they are:

Induna:

Married Zulus:

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The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Three

Plenty of time has passed since my last post; sadly very little of this has been free time for me.  However, I have finally got the first 16 unmarried Zulus almost to painting completion.  I am waiting for the bases that I forgot to order to arrive which allow me to finish them properly.  However it would seem that the presence of the Zulu's or indeed their cattle has persuaded the British to form a square on their final redoubt!  (I have to add that the camera has been very kind on me and that the British Infantry look a sight better than they do in real life.  Who knows, maybe I've finally worked out how to use my camera after only 5-7 years!

Form a square!

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The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Two

In between roasting Donald Duck and Bambi the rather fine venison fillet provider I've not had much time for painting today.  However, I have now almost finished 10 British Infantry and the first 8 Zulus.  As well as the forty married Zulus in the boxed set I have recently received a box of unmarried Zulus.  This was then topped up again today by another unmarried Zulu regiment courtesy of my darling wife.  So that means that I have most of the scenery and just over 10% of my Anglo-Zulu war miniatures painted.  Still to go are:

• Both buildings
• The MDF wagon
• The water wagon
• The cattle
• Dead horse
• Terrier
• All the metal miniatures (8 Brits plus 2 Zulus)
• 10 more plastic British Infantry
• 40 plastic married zulus
• 56 more unmarried zulus.

This project might well last beyond this stint of leave!  I'd like to carry on painting now but I think that the results might be even worse than those shown below as the Champagne was opened at ten this morning - hic!

Anyway, they're almost finished, the Zulus need some attention from the washes etc as I wasn't as neat as I like, particularly on the "skirts" and I need to add leopard spots to some of the "bandanas".  However, I'm hoping that these messes won't show up too much as part of a horde of over a 100 Zulus!  Only problem is that I forgot to order bases so I've got to wait for them to turn up.  I'm looking at 4 zulus each on 50x50x2mm MDF bases.  I love Renadra bases but they'd cost too much for this many.  Any thoughts as to how these would work, especially with the Black Powder rules?

However, most importantly, Merry Christmas to you all and thank you for following my blog!  Hopefully I'll finally learn how to paint in 2012!

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The Horns of the Buffalo - Part One

It seems that man-flu increases my productivity. Please excuse the rather unsavoury carpet of my quarter but this lot is too large to fit into my normal photo studio thingy. He is the product of the last 30 hours (of which about 12 were spent sleeping and 4-5 hours on online research), they are painted, gloss varnished (for durability) then matt varnished, the flock and static grass are still to go but I haven't gone through the box yet to find something that suits both South African January and 1938!

Mealie bags and boxes - could represent an improvised barricade in most markets, factories or docks.

Bagged up wagon, not the best angle, please be assured, it is a lovely piece of scenery:

Better view of the wagon:

Dry stone walls, perfect for Blighty!

Renadra bell tent that comes as part of the set but they don't get credit (their customer service is A1 BTW):

This set is causing me storage problems though. This is the upper part of my painting station at the moment!

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A break from 1938 VBCW

Gentlemen, I am pleased, even delighted to report that yesterday I took delivery of a rather large parcel from some chaps in Nottingham.  This will mean that apart from finishing off some defences/objectives I won't be painting any 1938 minis for a while.  However, instead I will be painting Zulus, thousands of them!  Well, ok 40-60 Zulus plus some British infantry and some lovely lovely scenery.  If only I actually had some leave over Christmas to get things started rather than loads of time at work :(

The Belgian Detective

Here's a little chap that I found at the back of the painting cabinet.  I'm rather pleased with him.  I have no idea how to fit him into 1938 VBCW other than as a random civilian but if nothing else he'll look nice in the display cabinet!

Overlord Improvised Armour Conversion Kit

Back at Border Reiver 2011 I picked up one of the Improvised Armour conversion kits by Overlord that Solways crafts and miniatures offer for sale.  I put it together and part painted then didn't get round to doing anything with it for months.  There's a theme developing here today isn't there?!  Anyway in a moment of cheesy madness I decided that this would be Jack Jone's van.  I'm hoping that the decals aren't so bad that people can't draw the link.  I can't remember which type of Lledo vehicle the kit is designed for but it's certainly achieved a rough and ready improvised look on the Model T ford van that I used here.  This vehicle will either deploy as part of the Longhoughton Defence Volunteers or as part of the Ashington Coal Collective.  Probably the earlier rather than the latter.

BUF Adler Armoured Bathtub

This is a German Adler Armoured car from BEF Miniatures (now part of Warlord Games) that I picked up a while back, built, part painted and then never got round to finishing.  Well this afternoon I finally got round to printing off the decals to finish things.  The kit is exactly the same as the original except that I swapped the heads out for ones that I had in my bits box.

I wasted a small fortune in smudged decal paper until I remembered to adjust the paper type.  They're far from the best decals that I've ever made but they're getting better, I just need to use a better graphics app in order to be able to print at the level of detail that I want.  Anyway, here it is, far from the best that I've produced in a while.

The World's Smallest Wargame?

I've been clearing through the painting cabinet today and come across a couple of oddities whilst doing so.  This would appear to be the smallest wargame in the world.  I've not seen a smaller game - have you?

Yes that is a 1p piece!

Zulus

"The Sentries report Zulus to the South West . . . . . thousands of them"

An immortal line from one of the greatest films ever.  The big question is - has anybody seen the new miniatures from Warlord Games and Empress Miniatures in the flesh?  This set is seriously tempting but I need to know about the quality of the miniatures before committing to spend this much on them!

Some Very British Civil War Characters

These are 3 characters that I recently purchased from Artizan Designs.  I think that they are really fabulous models.  Really well sculpted and cast - a complete joy to paint.  I bet that you can guess which one is my favourite!

I'm thinking about forming a new faction for 1938 VBCW of brigands hiding in the Cheviots and subsisting their life by raiding the local countryside in the same way that the original Reivers used to.

More Northumbrian Police

I bought these chaps a few weeks ago from Artizan Designs.  They are absolutely lovely miniatures to work with, they come with hardly any flash or mould lines and they were really enjoyable to paint.  The big debate is whether or not they can be used alongside my other Policemen from Reiver Castings as they are actually more like 25mm rather than 28mm.  Also the quality of the sculpt and casting is not as good on the Reiver miniatures but then they cost less than half as much so it's not surprising.  Anyway, enough rambling, here come the fuzz!

Just in case you were wondering how distinct the difference was between the Artizan and Reiver miniatures . . . . . . here it is although I must say that the photo makes it look a little worse than it really is (plus I hadn't finished painting the Artizan one when I took this photo.

Dreadfleet - Part 3

Well, I finally got round to playing Dreadfleet last night.  A couple of friends came over.  The girls watched Bridesmaids and we played Dreadfleet.  Well, I say played. . . . . .

None of us had found the time to read the rules so a lot of time was spent working them out; concurrently a lot of wine was drunk.  After a couple of hours floundering we were getting into the mechanism.  It's not a bad game, the scenarios seem good.  It's certainly not a simple game to play and at points can seem a little over complicated but I reckon that will go away with more games.  It is a great looking game though.

One thing is for sure.  Wine and wargames are a dangerous combination judging by the state of everybody's heads this morning!

Artizan Designs Maquis - also perfect for 1938 VBCW

I can't remember when I picked these guys up but they have proven to be really lovely miniatures and persuaded me to order several more packs from the Thrilling Tales range that Partizan offer.  They are very well sculpted and cast and I think that they've painted up rather well without much effort.

The other miniatures that I have from Artizan have now been prepped and undercoated and are awaiting the attention of my brushes.  There are a couple of section of Police from the Long Arm of the Law range as well as a couple of packs from their Very Private Army Range.

Field Communications

No military operation is likely to succeed without effective communications and as I was already ordering the British Casualties pack from Great War Miniatures I decided to add these guys too.  I decided that the chap with the binos would be more suited to being a Royal Artillery Forward Observation or similar rather than another scaleyback.