Things have been super busy lately, but I found some hobby time the other night. I decided to do some minor conversion work on one of the figures that I found in California last week.
The shield was a spare that I had from a Zulu sprue from Warlord Games. The figure's hand was filed down slightly so as to make it appear like he was holding it properly. Nothing too fancy here, honestly.
I had a bit more trouble finding a proper weapon. I'd initially thought that I might give him a musket but couldn't immediately find anything that worked. But as it happened, I found part of a spear that had broken off a few weeks ago while I was working on my Army of the Dead figures. It'd disappeared underneath my desk until I happened to bend over to pick up a paintbrush (I drop stuff a lot). The spear just about the same length as the iklwa that comes with the Warlord set and fit nicely in the figure's other hand.
So with this quick conversion work finished, the figure is now primed and ready for painting. He's going to be my test Zulu figure; specifically a warrior from the unmarried iNdluyengwe ("Leopards Den") regiment (or ibutho). Per Shaka's military reforms in the early 1800s, shield colors and designs marked different Zulu regiments. The iNdluyengwe shields were black with a white spot on the lower half. Although they formed part of the reserves at the Battle of Islandlwana, they didn't see action and so pushed on to Rorke's Drift in order to "wash their spears."
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