ZULUS TO THE SOUTH WEST, 562 OF THEM

Growing up with GW I always wished to get into historical gaming one day and it would be the Zulu War that I would want to do. Thanks to a certain movie I saw as a kid I always found the two sides involved as fascinating. A modern army vs a medieval force that as we saw at Isandlwana could still win. When Warlord Games teamed up with 4Ground and produced the Rorkes Drift set I knew the time was right. I started collecting the wonderful Empress Miniatures Zulus but being metal would be very expensive to complete an army with. Luckily Warlord created plastic kits which saved my bank balance although my wife got suspicious that it was taking me a long time to paint that box of minis not realising I’d done about 8 of them. The task was tedious at times painting so many but I began to look at the different regiments and shield colours and some of the flamboyant dress worn by some unmarried regiments. I learned how to speed paint and when I got to the end I was ready to loose my love of the period. Than I got them all out on the floor and had that same wow feeling I had as a kid when the Zulus appeared over the hill in the film. Now I feel I have enough miniatures to give any game involving Zulus a bash. I’m currently rebasing them for use in Skirmish games as well as mass battles. It was a shame the Perry miniatures range was released after I had finished. I have painted 562 Zulus which around the number of wounded at Rorkes Drift and more than the Zulu 351 dead at the battle. Puts things in perspective when you see that many of individuals down on a table.

I some how managed to convince my wife they she would love to have our honeymoon in South Africa. She could see all the sights such as a two day stay around the major battle sights of the Zulu War. Good to have an understanding wife.