Limbers/Wagons/Mule Train/Painting Horses.

I was going to put these in as several different posts but they all sort of link up together so I have decided to put them all in one post.

Here is how I paint my horses. Probably not as quick as the wipe method using oils but still gets fast results with a reasonable standard. I start off with a white primer and then on this occasion I have painted in bridles and saddles using Foundry Charcoal Black 34B. You don't have to be to fussy painting this on as any mistakes get covered up when painting the horse flesh.

I have then painted in any other little bits prior to painting in the horse flesh.

 Then comes the horse flesh. On this batch of horses and mules I have used Games Workshop Scorched Brown, Foundry Bay Brown 42B, Conker Brown 54A, Chestnut 53A, Quagmire 63C. I have just painted on one thin coat.

I then give the whole figure a wash with a mix of Winsor & Newton Acrylic Flow Improver and Artist's Acrylic Oil, Raw Umber.

The figures have then been glued to some 'Warbases' long bases with enough room left for the limbers and guns. As you can see in the previous pictures, I had already glued the figures to smaller bases at the very start, as they would have been quite difficult to paint up if I had glued them all in situ on the larger base first.

The bases have then been covered with tile grout, PVA and sand, painted, flocked and then the flock dry brushed.

The first up is a Perry Miniatures mule team and wagon from their ACW range with a converted driver to use for the Zulu war.

These are Wargames Foundry(nearest) and Perry's British Napoleonic Horse Artillery Limbers with Empress Miniatures Zulu War British guns. In an earlier post that I had done on Zulu War British artillery, Michael Awdry mentioned about limbers for the guns and had put a seed in my mind, thanks Michael. Empress Miniatures don't make the limbers but I had a couple of horse limbers from my Napoleonic lead pile which I thought I could use at a push if I didn't glue the riders to the limbers and horses.

    

I also needed a mule train for my Zulu War Rocket Battery and again at a push I thought I could use the mule team from Perry's Carlist War range. The mules are carrying a mountain gun but I did not want to remove this as I also wanted to use them for my NWF and possibly Sudan collections. It was really just the figures that needed converting along with the ACW wagon driver. I did a few head swaps and used some green stuff to lengthen their coats and give them some epaulets.    

I have recently painted the Napoleonic crews for the limbers and guns, so I will be showing these in a future post.

ZULU WAR Characters and Extra's

The following are figures from Empress Miniatures and Redoubt Enterprises and the larger bases are from Warbases.

The figures below are converted from Perry Miniatures ACW camp set. I had done a post on these a few months ago with a couple of the figures and the rest I was going to use for my NWF project. I decided in the end to use all of them for the Zulu War as I needed a lot of figures for the large Isandlwana camp scene which I have done and you will see in a future post.

Next week will be a couple of teams of horses and limbers for the Zulu War British artillery. I will also be covering how I paint horses.   

Supply Dump

I needed some ammunition dumps for my Isandlwana camp to help fill out the area and also somewhere for my ammo runners to head for from their parent units.  There will be five individual camps within the main camp and each of these will have an ammunition dump and wagon. They will be NNC, 2/24TH, RA, Mounted, 1/24th, plus HQ. 

The materials I used - balsa wood, green stuff, kitchen roll (paper towel), PVA glue, tile grout (which I find better than filler as it dries really hard and doesn't flake off or crumble) and sand.

   The red flags indicated it was ammunition and I believe the flag for artillery ammunition supply was blue and red, so I may have to re-paint one of these.

'Ammuniton Runners'.

I have made up some 'ammunition runners' to use when the British start getting low on ammo at the battle of Isandlwana. As the defenders deployed away from the main camp these figures will be used to run back and forwards trying to keep their units from running out of ammo.
Four of the figures are from 'Redoubt Enterprises' and the other two are from 'Empress Miniatures' character pack. The bases are from 'Warbases'

The shirt on the cook (Empress Miniatures) I copyied from Dave D at 'One Man and His Brushes' blog.


        

'Going To Ground' Markers

I plan on using markers to signify my Zulu's 'going to ground' when they come under fire. I will place one of these markers in front of a unit that has come under heavy fire and failed its morale test.

The following pictures show the materials that I used for these.

I originally planned to use a box of plastic Warlord Zulu's to make my markers. I was going to convert the figures so that they would be crouching down behind cover. In the end I decided against this, as I like my terrain to be as versatile as possible. By placing a couple of casualty figures on the marker works for me and I get to use the marker as just a general piece of rough ground and I can also use it for other periods.     

Where Eagles Dare.

Well, I am back from my holidays in Austria and one of the highlights for me was visiting the location of the 11th Century Castle, Burg Hohenwerfen, in Werfen 'Where Eagles Dare' was filmed. It was actually filmed in several different parts of Austria and the film studios back in Blighty.

When you get off at the quiet little train Station in Werfen, (we were the only ones) there is a small bridge in front of you which crosses the river and ahead is the village of Werfen, whilst to your right in the distance is a truly magnificent site of that famous castle that we have all seen every time we watch the film.( It made me feel like I had been here many times before even though it was my first time.)
The bridge looks like the location where Burton and Eastwood are walking across the bridge and get stopped and asked for their passes by the German sentry?????? (There is no official guide for the making of the film at the location just the castle itself, which is a bit of a shame.) 
The village main street I believe was used for some scenes in the film but the guesthouse was from a different village. There is no famous cable car leading up to the castle as this was also filmed at a different location.

This picture is taken from the bridge and you can see the castle in the distance with the mountains to its right, where you have Burton and Eastwood looking down from the mountains through their binoculars.

The photo above shows another view of the same mountains from inside the castle.

The next picture shows the court yard inside the castle. In the film you see the garrison line up waiting for the helicopter to arrive and land in the court yard.

 
I should have done my research before visiting as I was trying to work out whilst standing in the court yard where the radio room was in the film????? I have ordered the DVD of the film and the novel by Alistair Maclean from Amazon and will be viewing the scenes in a lot more detail having visited.

They do a very good guided tour of the medieval castle and its history which I enjoyed but apart from a film clip on a loop in one of the rooms of the film 'WED' there is nothing to help with trying to find out where all those famous scenes took place, IE climbing up the outside of the castle on that rope, which window and room was used????? This would make a great little tour package visiting the different villages that were used for filming, the cable car location, a guided tour of the castle purely for the 'WED' film and the airfield at the end of the film.       

The last two pictures show the entrance to the dungeons. You would have been thrown through this hole and if you managed to survive your 9 metre drop, that is where you would have stayed in darkness until they decided to lower a rope on a winch to fetch you out. The longest surviving prisoner apparently lasted seven years but was mad and blind by the end of it.

More Zulu War, Terrain and Napoleonics coming up in future posts.