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've been waiting for this, good start Richie. See you soon.

Roger.

Good look on such a large project

This promises to be a corker especially with all those zulus. Good luck with it Richie.
Gordon

Will there be "Zulus to the south west. Thousands of them" just off the base Richie ? This will be some thing else when it's done for sure. Mealie bags look superb

Steve

Quite the challenge Ritchie, sorry to hear your news but what an awesome tribute! I will be looking out for updates with baited breath, great subject and great size!
John

We missed you Richie. My condolences on your loss. A tribute piece is a great idea and looks to be progressing well. Something positive to focus on. Good luck with it.

Colin

My condolences for the loss of your father.

I'm looking forward to this, it looks quite something. Mealie bags most impressive.

Mike

My condolences and best wishes on this ambitious project.
Gerard

Sorry to hear of your sad loss and to learn of what must have obviously been a very stressful time.

You don't do things by half! This is a fascinating project. In concept and in execution. I, along with the rest of us wish you well with it.

If I can be of any assistance - simply ask.

So sorry To hear about the Old Man... I feel for your loss.
Glad to see you back at it though... and what a project to start on!

I will be following this closely... I always love your conversions

All the best

Colin

I am sorry for your loss to you and your family.
I look forward to seeing the Zulu battle scene, it will be very interesting

Sorry for loss, December 2013 was a hard month for the families of the modelling community. Looking forward to seeing you project progress.

Sorry to hear about your Dad Ritchie and I'm glad to see that you've reacted so well to the end of a loved ones suffering ........ does this make you the big banana now
A great way to remember him
Looking forward to following.
Regards
Derek

Richie has done an excellent job on creating this diorama so far considering what he has been through over the Christmas and New year period, I know his Dad was a big part of his world and this will be a profound tribute to the man.

The mealie bags look great, texture looks really good scale wise and you made the right choice by making them individually and stacking them.

Looking forward to seeing more mate, keep up the sterling work
Steve

Hi mate, you know my feelings on your dad's passing, and this is a wonderful way to honour him.
Fabulous start to a cracking project. Using the bandage on the bags was an inspired idea.

Regards

Ron

Hi All,
On behalf of my family and I would like to thank you all for your condolences, sympathies and support.

Anyway back to the modelling.
Roger, swralph, Gordon, Steve, John, Colin, Mike, Gerard, Athony, Colin, Daniel, Matt, Del, Steve and Ron thank you so much for your most gracious comments, I am humbled to have such comments from people I admire so much.

I want to kick off with my first two converted figure.... a 24th private swinging a Martini Henry as a club. I still have the hands/wrists to fix properly and may need a bit of sculpting to fix this. I also need to fix the foreign service helmet as I dropped this on the floor and chipped the edge. He will be on the edge of the wall having a go at a Zulu warrior. Therefore my second conversion is a Zulu Warrior raising his shield to deflect the blow. I have just realised I have not taken any W.I.P. photo's of the Zulu.
I may have a go at the drapery a bit more on the tunic, please feel free to comment as usual.
cheers
Richie

Superb challenge. Impatient see the result!
After all it is one of the greatest feat of arms of the British Army (Welsh thank you).

Glad to have you back, Richie! Really sorry to hear of your loss. This project looks epic, look forward to more!

Steve

A great start Richie,
Love the sacks, you had great vision to use the bandage.
The figures are looking great and I hope that you can fit them all on to the base,
I'll be glued to this following every step.
Good to have you back Mate,
Best wishes,
Keith