Newsletter 04.11.2011
Neuer Newsletter
New: Napoleonic Russian 1809-1815 command pack!
Adding more variety and options into your Russian army is this cracking command pack. Based around the 1809 shako the pack also includes a mounted officer. See what else is included in the set here.
As you can see, the miniatures come with separate heads and right arms allowing lots of variation in your units. These are compatible with the plastics and the other metal sets giving you immense scope for individuality.
Fresh from the talented twins at Perry Miniatures come these marvellous new plastic cavalry and you can
place a pre-order for them now!
The box will contain 14 Hussars, including an officer and a trumpeter. Included are five variants of head gear in the box (all figures have the variants) which will allow you to make up British, KGL and Hanoverian Hussars from 1808 to 1815. Within the variants areincluded the very tall early fur cap used by the British during the first years of the Peninsular and strange peakless castor cap which seems to have been an emergency replacement for it before the peaked shako came in.
In the pictures most of hussars are shown without their haversacks and canteens, they will in fact have them on the finished models. You can place a
pre-order here in the webstore.
Pre-order: Rorke’s Drift set!
Oh, you like the Anglo Zulu War, do you? Then rejoice for
we have the ultimate Rorke’s Drift set for you! As we previewed last week this set, produced alongside Empress Miniatures, contains everything you’ll need to refight this most famous of Zulu War battles. Don’t take our word for it though – have a good look at what is on offer. And
don’t hang about as supply is likely to be limited…
Our brief preview of things to come for the Anglo Zulu War project we are producing in conjunction with Empress Miniatures has certainly got you all excited judging by the correspondence we’ve had! To keep your excitement levels high we’re bringing you more details of the line and also giving you the chance to ensure you get hold of our Rorke’s Drift set – supply is bound to be tight on this boxed set as there is an amazing amount of stuff included. Don’t hang around and miss your chance ahead of Christmas!
There are, in essence, two products: ‘Rorke’s Drift’, and the ‘Horns of the Buffalo collectors set’.
Rorke’s Drift
• Laser-cut wooden Hospital building with ‘teddy bear fur’ thatch.
• Laser-cut wooden Storehouse building with ‘teddy bear fur’ thatch.
• Resin Wagon Barricade
• Resin stone wall Kraal (4 x 6″ sections)
• Resin biscuit box barricades (2 x 6″ sections)
• Resin biscuit box/mealie-bag barricades (3 x 6″ sections)
• Resin mealie-bag barricades (3 x 6″ sections)
• 20 plastic multi-pose British Line Infantry
• 40 plastic multi-pose Married Zulus
• Metal mounted Zulu InDuna
• Metal Zulu in British jacket firing Martini-Henry rifle
• British characters: Lieutenant Chard (Royal Engineers), Lieutenant Bromhead, Colour Sergeant Bourne and Private Hook.
At the heart of the Rorke’s Drift set are the two main buildings – the storehouse and the hospital. These laser-cut wooden buildings have been designed and manufactured by our old pals at 4Ground. Each building is capped off with laser-cut ‘teddy bear fur’ which acts as thatch for the roof. The interior of each building is fully realised and even has wall sections that pop out to simulate firing positions broken down walls, etc. The roofs and upper floors lift out giving you total access to the building interiors. We’ve drawn on some of the most noted experts in the world in researching this set and what you have in the box is the definitive Rorke’s Drift!
Also included are several finely sculpted resin barricades. These are a mixture of biscuit boxes and mealie-bags and again we’ve drawn on eye-witness accounts and expert opinion to ensure we bring you an historically accurate rendition of the battlefield. A focal point of the defence were the barricaded wagons and we include this in the set also. The final resin components provide you with the stone wall Kraal.
Of course, you’ll need miniatures to fight over this amazing terrain and we include 20 of our brand new plastic multi-pose British Line Infantry and 40 of our new plastic multi-pose Married Zulu figures. The British are led by historical representations of the legendary Chard, Bromhead, Bourne and Hook whilst their Zulu counterparts are led by a mounted InDuna and there is also a metal Zulu wearing a looted British redcoat and firing a Martini-Henry rifle! The metal figures are all supplied by Empress Miniatures.
You can pre-order this set now for £150. The resin components will be made available separately in the New Year some time but you save £52 against buying the contents of the box separately.
Estimated release is week commencing 5th December – earlier if we can!
The contents of the Rorke’s Drift set as outlined above plus:
• 5 extra resin mealie-bag barricades
• 1 extra resin biscuit box barricade
• 4 extra biscuit box/mealie-bag barricades
• 1 extra resin wagon barricade
• 2 extra lengths of resin walls
• Resin broken down walls (6 x 6″ sections)
• Resin mealie-bag redoubt (2 x 3″ x 6″ sections making a 6″ square redoubt)
• Engineers wagon
• Water cart
• 6 plastic fences (3″ sections)
• 4 x plastic bell tents
• Resin Cookhouse
• 6 metal African cattle
• 3 x resin ovens
• Resin Water Closet
• 1 x metal dead horse
• 1 x dog (Pip the terrier)
• British characters based on the film ‘Zulu’: Chard, Bromhead, Bourne and Hook (all made by Empress Miniatures).
The ‘Horns of the Buffalo’ collectors set includes the Rorke’s Drift boxed set and builds on it with even more Anglo Zulu War goodies! In addition to more barricades and walls we also include broken down walls to represent the second Kraal. Also included is one of the key features of the defence of Rorke’s Drift – the mealie-bag redoubt!
Plastic Bell tents and wooden fencing lends more weight to this being a military encampment. For added flavour of a working settlement we have several metal animals in this set – 6 African cattle, a dead metal horse and, of course, a dog (Pip the Terrier).
What kind of Rorke’s Drift set would this be without the characters from the 1964 film ‘Zulu’? We’ve included metal representations of the actors portraying Bromhead, Chard, Bourne and Hook.
There are even more resin additions to the camp – we have the cookhouse and it’s ovens as well as the WC outhouse. Cap this off with a metal water cart and wooden Boer wagon and you have everything you need bar the African sun and the chants of the impis!
You can pre-order this set for £275. This saves you 88.50 on buying the components separately! Estimated release will be week commencing 5th December
** Due to the sheer amount of awesomeness crammed into these large sets of Anglo Zulu War goodness the weight makes shipping them out very pricey for us. So, we’ve had to increase the shipping costs to customers outside of the UK – select the relevant option in the dropdown menu in the webstore **
Place your
pre-order today so as not to miss out on these outstanding terrain sets!
As we mentioned in last week’s newsletter we’ll be bringing you weekly news about our new Anglo Zulu Wars range – a range produced hand-in-hand with Empress Miniatures. This week we can offer you pre-orders on the first plastic set to be released –
unmarried Zulus!
The first plastic set we’ll be unleashing on the wargaming world is our unmarried Zulus boxed set. As you can see from the miniatures above (expertly painted by none other than Andres Amian Fernandez) there is bags of character and movement in the set. What you can;t see is the sheer number of head and arm options available on the sprue. Aside from the plastics each box will contain Empress Metal miniatures to add further value to the set. Each boxed set comes with enough plastic components to make 32 Unmarried Zulus and a metal InDuna miniature – a bargain for £20!
Usuthu! The feared Zulu warcry of ‘Kill!’ shouted by hundreds of brave, fierce warriors would put fear into the hearts of most men. The men shouting this battlecry have a lot to prove as they are the unmarried warriors of the Zulu impis. Zulu tradition held that until they ‘washed their spears’ in the blood of an enemy of the King they could not choose a girl to marry, so closing and killing an enemy ensured a bride and a greatly enhanced status. These young bloods moved swiftly in extended order, sniping with their selection of antique firearms or hurling long spears some 30 yards with great accuracy.
Although generally stripping down for close quarter fighting, a Zulu dressed in full regalia was an awe-inspiring sight, with monkey tails, otter fur, cow tails and crane feathers creating a look that might overwhelm a foe by looks alone.
Warlord Games give you the chance to field whole unique regiments or to field some of the more traditional units, and however you assemble and paint them they will look a brave sight on the battlefield. Take out a pre-order for these superb plastics right here, right now!
Uniforms of the Landwehr
Adding to his excellent article on the Uniforms of the Polish army in the early stages of WWII, Vince Rospond has turned his attention to matters Napoleonic. Have a look here to see what Vince has to say about Prussian Landwehr uniforms…
The Landwehr was the equivalent of the “home guard” created in March 1813 in response to the Prussia battles for liberation following Napoleon’s defeat in Russia. Initially they were armed and uniformed in whatever material and equipment was at hand. This caused some of the initial units to be clothed in shoddy cloth, antique weapons and pikes. As equipment and supplies became more plentiful the quality of their uniforms and arms improved. The Landwehr created 149 battalions formed into provincial regiments. For the most part they were untrained, too old or too young, but eventually they were able to hold their own against formed units and helped overwhelm the enemy in numbers.
The uniform consisted of a blue or black Litewka – a full skirted, double breasted jacket whose length varies between the mid-thigh and the knee. There are reports that the Litewka could be grey or brown as well. The collar and sometimes the cuff was in the provincial color. According to Nash, there was a tendency to use shoulder straps to indicate the seniority of the regiment as in the regular army – the senior most white, then scarlet, yellow and light blue. By 1815 the regimental numbers were supposedly embroidered into the shoulder straps.
The pants were usually blue for the winter months and white for the summer, but supply limitations could throw this out the window and add greys and browns.
The headgear was usually the Schirmütze – a peaked cloth cap, the band of which was in the provincial color. The black and white Prussian cockade was usually in the front on the band, but appeared sometimes on the side. Most often the top of the Schirmütze would have a cross similar to the iron cross in white with black piping. The edges of the cross said, “mit Gott für Konig und Vaterland 1813”. By 1814 the piping around the cap would also be in the provincial color. British sugar-loaf and French shakos were also worn with the same Landwehr cross. Any of these could have been worn with a waterproof cover.
Footwear was either shoes, boots, clogs or barefoot, with or without gaiters.
A rolled blanket was often worn over the left shoulder for protection. An axe was sometimes worn over the right. Straps and belts were usually white canvas, but black leather could be worn if handy.
Officers wore the regulation infantry kollets with the collar and cuffs in the provincial collar. NCO’s had normal rank indicators in white tape around the collar and cuffs. Musicians had red and white swallow nests on their shoulders.
In 1813 the provincial colors were:
Province – Facings – Buttons
East Prussia – Orange-red – White
West Prussia – Black – White
Brandenburg – Brick red – Yellow
Pommerania – White – Yellow
Silesia – Yellow – White
In 1814 they added the former Westphalia provinces of:
Elbe – Light blue – Yellow
Westphalia – Green – White
Rhein – Crab red – Yellow
Knötel pictures a jager detachment for the 4th Westphalian Regiment which was uniformed in a dark green Litewka, pants and Schirmütze. The belting was black, as is typical for jager units. The color and cuffs had gold Swedish lace and the green Westphalian base color.
