Zulu Warrior Conversion Work

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."

Zulus in Southern California

Last week I went home to Southern California for my great aunt’s funeral. While there, I needed a diversion from the grief and decided to hit two game shops that I was rather fond of when I lived there: the War House in Long Beach and Game Empire in Pasadena. I’ve been on a bit of an Anglo-Zulu War kick lately and was about to place an order to Wargames Foundry in the UK before I remembered that War House had a ton of their figures when I last visited 7-8 years ago. So I decided to try my luck and visit them before placing an order.

Turned out to be the right decision! They happened to have two of the exact pack that I was looking for.

I’d been eyeing these figures as they have Zulus wearing captured British coats. I know these wouldn’t have been too prevalent at Rorke’s Drift but I just couldn’t resist,

In fact, War House had other Zulu packs as well and I decided to engage in a bit of retail therapy and clean them out. 

They also had some other fairly rare and unique packs too, so I got them as well. How could I pass up the chance to have a Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in my miniature collection?

After getting back to my car, I found this sweet little lady underneath it. She ran over to me and I lathered her with attention for the next 15 minutes. She loved it, and gave me purrs and air biscuits in return. It made me really miss my cats back in DC. 

An hour or so later, after stopping for lunch at Carl's Jr., I was in Pasadena. Game Empire has the best bits bin that I’ve seen at any game store anywhere and so I had to dig around it for a bit. Imagine my surprise when I found a familiar looking figure!

Yes, in the bin was an Empress Miniatures Zulu figure. But not just any one; he was wearing a captured British coat! I couldn’t believe my luck in finding exactly what I was looking for twice in the same day.

I also found this figure as well. Although he appears to be a generic African warrior, I think with some minor conversion work that he can be turned into a proper Zulu.

Overall, this was an incredibly fun day! It was nice to hit some of my old haunts and dig around looking for stuff. Not to mention finding exactly what I was looking for, as well! It was overall a nice way to get my mind off things for a bit.