Following on from my post a few days ago about some photos I had found of a colonial Anglo-Zulu War game in the mid-1980’s, my friend who provided the armies then still has them! And as it turns out recently he had had them out of their storage containers for the first time in a long while to check their condition and do a bit of a review. He even took photos, so with his generosity, here’s some photos of the full 1/72 plastic colonial wargaming army collection we used for games in the mid-1980’s through to the very early-90’s.
The full army of my friend Wayne arrayed above – top left & centre are British, Egyptian and Indian Army troops, top right Zulus, bottom right North-West Frontier Tribesmen (Pathans / Afghans), bottom centre Sudan Mahdist Forces (Dervishes, Fuzzy-Wuzzies, etc), and bottom left the artillery park and pack animals.
British ‘Redcoat’ infantry – these are the classic ESCI Zulu War range figures and there are the equivalent of 9 units of 24 figs each, plus 2 mounted officers and their bugler to command any British army.
Below to the top left is a (Muslim) Bengal Lancer Regiment of 3 squadrons (of 8 figs each) plus a mounted Bengal Lancer Officer to command the Regiment. These figures are converted from ESCI Waterloo French Polish Lancers. In the top centre is a unit (squadron) of British Lancers (10 figs & Mounted Commander) – these are conversions using ESCI Zulu War British Infantry Casualty Figures, mounted onto assorted Airfix Cavalry Horses.
Above Top right are converted Airfix Waterloo British RHA Limbers with ESCI Zulu War British Crew, and below right more ESCI Zulu War British painted up as Royal Artillery Crewmen (16 figs enough for 4 Guns or Gatlings, and an Artillery Commander group of 3 foot figs plus a mounted Artillery Office in the centre).
Above, clockwise, starting at top right: Gurkhas (24 figs) in green converted from ESCI ACW US Infantry; Egyptian Army Sudanese Infantry (24 figs) in khaki-brown believed similar conversion from ESCI ACW US Infantry; British Highland Regiment (24 figs) in Indian Army khaki mostly converted from ESCI Napoleonic Highlanders (from the Waterloo British Infantry) with head transplants from the ESCI Zulu War British (some converted the other way by adding kilts to Zulu War British I believe).
Continuing clockwise on the left Sikh Indian Army infantry (24 figs) in Indian Khaki converted I believe from ESCI Waterloo British Infantry again; Muslim Indian Army infantry (24 figs) in earlier Bengal yellow uniform converted from Airfix Waterloo French Light Infantry (I think); and the RN Naval Landing Party (20 figs) in white converted from Airfix WW1 Germans.
Above & below, Egyptian Army Infantry (20 figs), Artillery Crew (12 figs, enough for 3 Guns/Gatlings), and 2 Officers. Infantry and Officers are from the ESCI ACW US Infantry, Artillery Crew are converted from the Airfix Waterloo British RHA crew.
Zulus – from the ESCI Zulu Warriors. About 375 figures all up! That’s about 14 units of 24 figs, a unit or units totalling 31 figs of dedicated rifle & musket men, and a couple of extra stands for commanders (2 x 4 figs).
Above: the Sudan – large groups of Mahdist Ansars (Dervishes) left and centre, and on right the cavalry.
Wayne did the Mahdist cavalry above by cutting various ESCI Muslim Warrior figures off at the waist and combining them with assorted ESCI Napoleonic Cavalry and mounted figures. There’s also a couple of Mahdist Arab camel riders converted from the old Airfix Arabs & Foreign Legion sets amongst the Mahdists – but they may not be present in this photo.
The Mahdist Dervish & Fuzzy Wuzzy Infantry are mostly from the ESCI Muslim Warriors Pack, but may also include a few ESCI Crimean War Russian Infantry conversions. There’s 399 foot figures, including 16 units of 24 sword & spearmen figs (incl. Fuzzy Wuzzies), and 15 figs of skirmishing riflemen. The Cavalry above totals 48 figs (so 4 units of 12 figs each) plus a handful of camelry figs as mentioned earlier.
The North-West Frontier (NWF) Pathan / Pashtun / Afghan tribesmen – vast bulk (possibly all) are converted from ESCI Crimean War Russians – this was the second native or tribal army Wayne built after the Zulus – hence the conversions. Approx. 418 figures in this army being 17 x units of 24 figs, and about 10 assorted leaders and snipers (jezzails). By the time Wayne did the Mahdists above in the later 1980’s ESCI had released their Muslim Warriors pack.
People may notice that many of the figs are painted in old-style bright enamels and have a semi ‘toy soldier’ look. This was deliberate as Wayne was following a technique popular at the time to use gloss enamel paints try and stiffen and reinforce the plastic figures to both stop weapons and such bending and curling over time, and to minimise paint flaking off. I must confess I used a similar technique on some early WW2 armies of Airfix Figures – I had the classic original 21st Army Combat Group in Normandy 1944 painted an enamel green not far off Wayne’s base colour on the Afghans above! In theory you can then coat the figures a couple of times with matt varnish to take the high gloss of the figures – note the difference in appearance of Wayne’s Sudan Mahdists’ (his last army in this collection and possibly painted with a different technique) versus the other earlier figures (which used the earlier technique and depending on your tastes may still require additional matt varnishing).
There were subsequently alternate techniques for plastic figures, which everyone is probably well aware of, such as painting with diluted PVA glue or high gloss varnish prior to undercoating, and similar, to achieve the same result.
The artillery park: above is a Gatling Gun converted from an ESCI Field Gun (probably from Crimean War Russian pack), and below the full array for use by all forces/sides as needed.
Left to Right: 3 assorted carts (2 are scratch built using wheels from old ESCI or Airfix artillery guns); Second row is 2 home-made bullock drawn artillery limbers (again wheels off old artillery used in these), 4 improvised Artillery Caissons (I believe these are conversions from the Airfix Waterloo British RHA set’s guns); Third Row is a homemade RHA Rocket Launcher (with rockets), 3 Light Artillery Limbers (these are the classic Airfix Waterloo French Foot Artillery limbers), and 7 assorted pack mules from the classic Airfix sets (like German Mountain Troops, Japanese Infantry, etc).
Fourth Row is from top 2 field guns for natives (not sure what pack these are from – probably ESCI ACW), 3 Light Field Guns for natives (the classic Airfix Waterloo French Foot Artillery), and 2 ‘Pack’ or ‘Mountain’ Guns (not sure what pack they are improvised from) plus 3 pack mules carrying a completely disassembled mountain gun. Below is assorted artillery camp flotsam and supplies (ammo & shell cases, cannon balls, barrels, and general camp baggage).
Lastly the front row (on right) has 6 Guns Medium Field Guns (top 2 might have barrel conversions to howitzers) plus a seventh damaged/knocked out medium gun and the Gatling Gun conversion (8 in total all from ESCI Crimean War Russian sets).
ESCI Figure Packs
Here’s some pictures of some of the classic ESCI figure packs from the 1980’s that Wayne built these armies with:
The ESCI Indian War Khyber Pass British Infantry was a very late release so doesn’t feature much in the armies pictured above, although Wayne apparently did include small numbers late in the 1980’s – he commented it was a very disappointing set as 50% plus of the figures were just sprue repeats from the existing Zulu War British Infantry pack.
So that’s it – quick stroll down memory lane from almost 40 years ago – Wayne still has these armies and plans to use them and is happily adding to them, he commented “And God bless Hät – their figures are totally compatible with the ESCI ones and complement them well. Unbelievably good range of figures now.“
If you haven’t already check out the other pics from one of our early Anglo-Zulu War Eighties Wargame.