7 Pound Mountain Gun

As I eagerly await my next arrival of Pendraken goodies I thought if post a little on the models bought.

Bought a pack of mountain guns from the zulu war range plus some actual Zulus to keep my painting varied.

A little on the gun itself...

Here's a picture of it being used by the Indian army, which it was most commonly used in.
What I love most about this picture is the fact the crews names are on the picture plus what religion they follow..

Developed in 1864 to replace the 6 pounder RML gun. With the main advantages were obviously the bigger shells used and the fire/reload time had dropped to 20 seconds.

Some made it to the plains of South Africa to face the Zulus and then take part in the 2 boar wars.

Bigger wheels were used to allow the guns to be drawn from a horse to make for quicker movement and not slow down the rest of the advancing army.

Here's a remaining example that resides in royal armoury in the UK.

Wargaming rules - October '13

RULES

The rules I've gone for were actually free...I'm a cheapskate.

Found them in a search for wargaming in the 1800. This is the site that lead to the actual rule set, here's a link:

http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk

Great site.

Stumbled across this set whilst searching...


http://www.colonialwargaming.co.uk/Rules_Models/Rules/BB1.htm


And there you have the rules I'll be using!

The First Arrival! - October '13

As the title says....

My First batch of British infantry has arrived!

So chuffed, the models look fantastic, pendrakens' services were top notch as well, the models arrived less than a week after I ordered them.

I got a pack of 30 infantry and a couple of tents for the gaming board to represent the British camp. Closer inspection of the infantry shown that there is 3 different poses. The marching and firing man were the bulk of the pack with 2 'officer' looking models which will do nicely for the command base.

Here's a couple of them...

Now awaiting arrival of new brushes and paints to get started on the painting!

Thanks for looking!

General writing - October '13

                                                                THINKING BIG.                                                                      

The actual plan is to collect the battalions/regiments to re-enact the Battle of Isandlwana then to expand my collection to the the second invasion where the British won and took revenge for the slaughter their fellow soldiers endured in the first invasion. (To clarify I will go into the history of the zulu wars in the next post) .

Once all these models have been painted, based and used on the battlefield who knows where my journey into the miniature world will take me. But right now, I know I've got a lot to do and a lot to learn.

FIRST UP 

                                         
                                                                  The British Empire


I need to dwell deeper into the actual battle itself and it's origins. Why did the British feel the need to colonise in Southern Africa, why did the battles occur. All these questions buzzing around in my head all whilst thinking of getting my hands on those 10mm miniatures!

British first found themselves in South Africa in the 1795 when the Dutch powers started to lose their grip. To use it as a vital point in which to trade with Asia, back then there was no man made canal to link the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean together at the north-eastern corner of Africa, and to expand their empire.
Britain had already colonised in the north of Africa so they were aware of the rich natural resources that the continent had to offer, which could also benefit trading.

The Zulus came from a small 'Empire' in South Africa along the coast of the Indian Ocean, as the British expanded across South Africa they inevitably came across the Zulus. Which then led to the Zulus wining against the British in the first invasion which started with the battle of Isandlwana.

And that brings is to what I want to learn most about!


I am still eagerly awaiting the miniatures and to save boring you all with more jibber jabber I'm not going to post another post in this blog until the first batch of miniatures are in my hands!

'Til next time!

1st post, Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Here's my first post and introduction of my blog as I dive into miniature wargaming (10mm to be exact) in specific the zulu wars of 1879. Bearing in mind this is more for my personal enjoyment as I learn more and more of the zulu wars, so if you, the reader, enjoy it then that's just a plus!

The general layout of the blog is taken inspiration from another miniatures blog,  the idea of adding in the history is taken from it as well but I had always planned on doing this as I learn more and more..

First up, is the battle of Isandlwana, personally my favourite as it shown the dedication the British had to their commanding officers, the soldiers had chances to leave yet they stayed and inevitably died by the side of their officer, heroic.

As it stands just now I've already ordered my first batch of  infantry and some scenery.

THE ARMY

Looking into the order, there was 2 regiments. 1 lead by Brevet Colonel Anthony Durnford and the other lead by Brevet Lieutenant Henry Pulliene, with additional Natal 'irregulars' and a small group from the 5th Brigade of the Royal Artillery.

Doing some research and here is the list of 'known' numbers of the British force.

2 seven pound guns with 70 men from the 5th Brigade of the Royal Artillery

5 Companies from the 1st Battalion of the 24th Foot regiment

1 company from the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Foot regiment.

Plus the Natal additions to the army

Still need to do research on exactly how many men were in a single battalion.

THE MINIATURE WARGAMING

To add to the 10mm scale, 1 base is 40x20mm meaning 6 figures per base, either 2 or 4 cavalry, haven't decided yet as there is only a few natal horsemen in the battle, or 4 for the Natal infantry base seen as they won't be lined as well as the British troops were. Staggered formation if you will. 1 figure stands for 3 actual troops so a 6 figure base is 18 men in real life (this is following the set of rules which I will talk about in another post!)
Plus separate bases for the Brevet Colonels!

To finish the first post, here's some artwork of a mid-battle scene.
Thanks for reading!