Zulu Dawn - 30 years in the Making

Zulu War Rules by Tabletop Games.

In early 1989 my Dad took me to a Wargames show in Manchester, where due to being on the Youth Training Scheme or YTS back then I was earning a meagre wage,and could buy my own Miniatures, So at this show I remember buying a Minifigs 15mm Starter Army Box set for the Zulu War from the Guardroom (which was based in Dunstable and we used to have pilgrimages to it every time I visited relatives in Luton) along with Tabletops Zulu war rules.  Over time the armies were added to, and from time to time were got out and tinkered with.  The mid 1990's saw an acquisition of the Principles of War  Rules at an event in Milton Keynes after seeing several players of the POW competition using Zulu and British armies, I even got my copy of the rules autographed by the writer and the armies grew a little bit more.  Again in late 2000 when I got a job on Security and was working the night shift (I was bored in my job) an effort to complete the armies just led them being only under-coated then put away, forgotten, only seeing daylight during tidying sessions. Well I decided it was time to finish it, so a concerted effort by me and much to my Dads annoyance as I took over the small dining table, With NCIS playing in the background and some mammoth painting sessions and Finally on Sunday with Zulu Dawn then Zulu playing on my tablet I finished painting and basing all my figures.

POW rule book

POW Zulu Forces

My First games with the Tabletop rules were okay until the Zulus got in close and personal, then for the life of me I could not work out how the close combat rules worked, even my opponents could not work them out.  Even though they were fun it always ended when the Zulus made contact. Then Came Principles of War.
Principles of War (POW), with their simplistic yet enjoyable rules that made the games even more enjoyable and playable to a conclusion.

POW British Forces

  The original army lists in the POW rules book gave the Zulus only 28 units, with the British having an extra mounted infantry instead of the Natal Mounted Infantry. Upon purchasing the POW Colonial Army Lists. The Zulus gained two additional units and the British Lost the 2nd mounted infantry and gained two Irregular Mounted Infantry units.

The pictures above and below is where I last left my Armies in 2000 with the British ready for action and a number of the Zulus based and under-coated.  Originally my army only consisted of figures from the Minifigs range. In the late 1990's some Naismith miniatures were added and in 2000 a bulk purchase of Irregular Miniatures Zulus finished of the army, although I do have a large surplus of minifigs, I prefer the Naismith and Irregular miniatures as they give a better feel of a Zulu army. The Minifigs ones all look like they are in Full special occasion regalia.

Naismith Zulus (Top left and foreground)

Minifig Zulus

Minifig Guns and Limbers along with a unknown Napoleonic Rocket and Limber.

Minifig British Infantry

Minifigs Wagon (top) and Naismith wagons, oxen and mules.

Minifigs Lancers and Naismith Mounted Infantry.

So that was the state of things. Fast forward to late January this year and Lilly Allen opens her mouth and claims that remembering Rorke Drifts Victoria Cross recipients is celebrating colonialism.  Less said about her personal agenda the better. The only good thing was that it peaked my interest in my Zulus. I had just finished painting some early war WW2 vehicles, so was still in a rare mood to paint something else.

A quick rummage in the Shed produced my Zulu war armies. A quick check of the base sizes and an order was placed with Warbases. And I then sorted out and started on painting the Zulu figures that were just under-coated. The first night I finished the first 12 figures. The Second night I finished 36 figures. After this I regularly came from work and painted some more. Realising that some of my earlier units were in 10's I reduced some of the later regiments from 12 to 10 and then started experimenting with the figure placement, as even though I had been happy all those years ago with how I based the Zulus, they just looked too regimented and neat.  After I did the first 7 units of the Zulus I started to get bored so I went back to some of the ready painted units and tarted 7 of them up. I then moved onto the British and touched them up adding some small details and readying them for re-basing. By the second weekend I was flagging. I was looking at the last 7 units and was thinking Oh feck now I'm bored. Then a miracle happened, my order from Warbases arrived and it allowed me to start re-basing the units. I then scattered them with model sand then used the army builder strong tone on the figures and flooded the bases to seal the sand. Once dry I then heavily dry-brushed the bases with Dark sand. But still I had 7 units sat there waiting to be done. I wasn't in the mood to paint them. But I thought I can not stop now, I can not put them away again as I may never finish them. Forcing my self to sit down on the Sunday, I opened my Tablet and looked on Youtube for inspiration and Lo and behold they had both Zulu and Zulu Dawn films on their. Well It was First Zulu Dawn and then Zulu and by the end of the two films I had painted the last 7 units and finished basing them.  All that was needed was for the varnish to dry and I could finish the bases, I also went back and touched up some of the units I left untouched. The following night saw all the bases finished and scattered.

So now onto the finished items.

Completed Armies in the Warbase RUB trays.

British Army

Command Stands

Artillery

The Artillery will be reinforced by a Gatling gun in the a few days time. The Rocket battery is wrong as it is a Napoleonic one as I did not have any reference of the correct one used.

Mounted Infantry and Lancers

The Lancers were originally in 3 figures per base but several lances were broken, so I reduced the unit from 9 figures to 6 figures.

Naval Infantry and Light Infantry.

British Infantry

After watching the film ZULU,  I painted 2 of the Infantry companies Pith Helmets; White, as a nod to the film. I also painted up a light Rifle company and a company of Naval Infantry Brigade so that I can swap out normal infantry if I wished.

Natal Native Contingency.

My NNC are portrayed incorrectly as being all Musket armed as per a picture in, at the time my only reference book showed a picture of a column of NNC marching all armed with Muskets. I only realised recently way too late that they should have been a mix of Mainly spear armed and some musket armed. I toyed with correcting the error but decided to leave the units as they are.

ZULU army,showing the Horns, head and Loins.

Irregular Miniatures

Irregular Miniatures

Minifigs painted in 2000.

So after nearly 30 years a project I started back in my teens has been finished to a standard I am very happy with.  I now can't wait to get these on to the table and get some games played. Especialy recreating Isandwana and Rorke's Drift.

J :)