Richie
A Fixture
Hi All,
I have not been very active over the last few months as the run up to Christmas was extremely busy and then on Christmas Day my Dad's health deteriorated catastrophically so much so he succumbed to his long term illness of cancer and passed away on New Years Day. At least now he is at rest and out of his constant pain.
Therefore whilst on bereavement leave and waiting for the funeral, I decided to plan and start this project as a bit of a tribute to the "old man." As it was him who first took me to see Zulu at the pictures when I was a kid and also to the brave Zulu Warriors and Defenders of the mission station who fell in battle.
ANYWAY IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU HAD YOUR ZULU FIX.
The Defence.
A lot of my inspiration for this comes from reading such books as Eyewitness In Zululand - Walter Dunne's account, who was at the defence and Padre George Smith of Rorke's Drift, Rorke's Drift by Bancroft, Rorke's Drift By Those Who Were There and Ian Knight's wonderful works. I have looked at most of the great paintings and illustrations of the time by such artists as Lady Butler & Alphonse Du Neuville and I cannot help but be inspired.
I plan to have about twenty 120mm scale figures packed onto a base 9.5" * 11" and nearly every one with be converted. I do not want to make it a pure line of red coats of the 24th as so many other units were there. Therefore it is my intention to have the following defenders.
Natal Native Contingent *2
Natal Mounted Police *1
Chard
Padre George "Ammunition" Smith
24th Foot shirt sleeve order *2
24th Foot in tunics * 3
2nd Battalion, 3rd (East Kent) Regiment of Foot (The Buffs) *1
Zulu Warriors *9
If I have anymore space I might try and squeeze in another Zulu, Army Medical Corps or Commissariat figure.
I was given the John Chard figure from Rob at Imperial Gallery and whilst I started that build thread, I have decided to incorporate him into this dio. and make a slight modification on him. I am going to raise his arm to the firing position.
The build.
Firstly a few people to thank up front in terms of this long term project....Ben for Chosen Man who will become my N.M.P., Mark S in Oz for the figures, Steve Readdie for his constant support and watchful eye and Harry from our club who's help with the composition was invaluable.
Oh yes and my missus for putting up with the stream of constant packages coming throught the door. Thanks Love. xx
I have individually constructed 27 mealie bags for the wall section five high to chest height. I made these using DAS modelling clay and wrapped these in a fine open weave bandage to texture and doped these down with PVA. Just need these to fully dry out and then undercoat.
For the wall section I used DAS again to create the brick work over balsa wood and backed this with a stiff card for some rigidity.
cheers
Richie
I have not been very active over the last few months as the run up to Christmas was extremely busy and then on Christmas Day my Dad's health deteriorated catastrophically so much so he succumbed to his long term illness of cancer and passed away on New Years Day. At least now he is at rest and out of his constant pain.
Therefore whilst on bereavement leave and waiting for the funeral, I decided to plan and start this project as a bit of a tribute to the "old man." As it was him who first took me to see Zulu at the pictures when I was a kid and also to the brave Zulu Warriors and Defenders of the mission station who fell in battle.
ANYWAY IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU HAD YOUR ZULU FIX.
The Defence.
A lot of my inspiration for this comes from reading such books as Eyewitness In Zululand - Walter Dunne's account, who was at the defence and Padre George Smith of Rorke's Drift, Rorke's Drift by Bancroft, Rorke's Drift By Those Who Were There and Ian Knight's wonderful works. I have looked at most of the great paintings and illustrations of the time by such artists as Lady Butler & Alphonse Du Neuville and I cannot help but be inspired.
I plan to have about twenty 120mm scale figures packed onto a base 9.5" * 11" and nearly every one with be converted. I do not want to make it a pure line of red coats of the 24th as so many other units were there. Therefore it is my intention to have the following defenders.
Natal Native Contingent *2
Natal Mounted Police *1
Chard
Padre George "Ammunition" Smith
24th Foot shirt sleeve order *2
24th Foot in tunics * 3
2nd Battalion, 3rd (East Kent) Regiment of Foot (The Buffs) *1
Zulu Warriors *9
If I have anymore space I might try and squeeze in another Zulu, Army Medical Corps or Commissariat figure.
I was given the John Chard figure from Rob at Imperial Gallery and whilst I started that build thread, I have decided to incorporate him into this dio. and make a slight modification on him. I am going to raise his arm to the firing position.
The build.
Firstly a few people to thank up front in terms of this long term project....Ben for Chosen Man who will become my N.M.P., Mark S in Oz for the figures, Steve Readdie for his constant support and watchful eye and Harry from our club who's help with the composition was invaluable.
Oh yes and my missus for putting up with the stream of constant packages coming throught the door. Thanks Love. xx
I have individually constructed 27 mealie bags for the wall section five high to chest height. I made these using DAS modelling clay and wrapped these in a fine open weave bandage to texture and doped these down with PVA. Just need these to fully dry out and then undercoat.
For the wall section I used DAS again to create the brick work over balsa wood and backed this with a stiff card for some rigidity.
cheers
Richie
