My Rorke's Drift

[Iceman1964]

Everybody among us knows the invasion of Zululand and the two-days of Isandlwana and Rorke’s drift, and we have seen dozens and dozens of dioramas on these events.

Now it’s time also for me to do something about the waves of warriors with shields and wood maces against the red jackets surrounded in the Rorke’s drift hospital and supply point….

It’s a small diorama but very crowded, showing the wild fight at the mealie bags wall.

Figures are Italeri/Esci, Call to Arms and Hat, mealie wall is from Italeri. In the topic “my Zulus” you can find the work in progress with the details of each painted figure.

I Hope you will enjoy the show

Ciao

Enrico

[Peter]

Small but full of action! Excellent work Enrico!

[Santi Pérez]

A new masterpiece from your hands, Enrico. È molto bello!

Despite knowing beforehand what its individual elements were like, the end result far exceeds the sum of its elements.

Everything is perfect in the diorama: the balanced distribution and interaction between the different figures, the fantastic scenery, the very original base (although I prefer the classic symmetrical shapes, hahaha) and the not less great photographic report.

My very best congratulations, my friend!

Santi.

(With your kind permission, Enrico, I have saved all the pictures of your diorama. I'm sure they will be of great help if I ever decide to finish mine).

[Rich W]

Wonderful work Enrico! Lovely job putting this all together. Full of action and great use of your chosen poses.

[Kekso]

Fantastic

[Iceman1964]

Thank you all, guys, happy to see you enjoyed the pictures !
Santi, it's an honour for me if you will use my work for reference in your diorama

[k.b.]

I had actually replied to this thread soon after you posted it Enrico but it took me a while to finish writing and when I finally clicked ”send”, Bennos server had unfortunately stopped working and I lost everything. Aaargh!!!
So here I am again. Let’s hope it’s second time lucky. I absolutely loved this diorama of yours for many reasons but I think what impressed me the most was that you captured the feel of the Anglo Zulu wars very nicely. The ratio of redcoats to Zulu warriors was, at least for me, realistic and the 24th Foot figures themselves were beautifully chosen and placed most convincingly behind the mealie bags, each figure slightly different to the others, and let me say there were some exceptionally animated figures amongst them.

Oh no - looks like I’ve lost the link again (504 Gateway Time-out was apparently the motive) but fortunately I’m writing this in the notes on my iPhone so when the connection is restored I will copy and paste it over to my email before relaying it over to Bennos…..

The Zulus were represented delightfully as well with the different shield colours and varying headdresses and accoutrements that, even if not completely accurate, (in my considerable research and reference books on the period all seem to reinforce that most of the Zulus were without their cerimonial plumes and kitted out merely in cow tails on arms and lower legs, if at all). However, artistic license is fully justified as a way of beating the tedium demon when depicting so many similarly dressed warriors and there is surely no better way to differentiate between troops than adding ornate head-dresses. The Zulu figures available in 1/72 in all honesty are all a bit stiff when compared to the Brits which detracts a little from the, what must surely have been, an incredible frenzy in the real confrontation. If I had to find fault I would say the Zulus might have been more convincing if their skins had been varnished in gloss medium to represent the sweat which would surely have been a sign of their rapid advance and ultimate charge. Also think the blue of the 24th trousers was actually a very dark navy blue as opposed to the royal blue you have used here. And perhaps you could have removed some mold lines with a sharp knife. Nevertheless, that’s just my humble and honest opinion. Am sure there are others who might completely disagree which partly explains the magic of our hobby.
All in all I loved the sheer volume of your photos taken from every imaginable angle which adds greatly to the drama of the scene. Congratulations Iceman. You deserve a big CONGRATULATIONS for a delightful depiction of one of my favourite military confrontations in history.

[Iceman1964]

Thanks K.B. expecially for the comments about the faults, I always want to improve and they are welcome

About the sweat, you are right, at least in some zone I could have add some gloss, may be mixed with opaque brown to simulate the dust sticking to the humid skin, good suggestion for the future !

For the blue, I have tried highlighting on the upper side when exposed to sun... probably too much let's say that with the african sun the dark blue was quickly becoming lighter

About the mold lines, it's always a problem whith some plastics (typically the softer ones), it's really hard to cut or it's cutted also the skin below, I had orrible results on some face

Last point, I agree with you that this side is now hard to use, the server is estremely slow and waiting minutes to enter or refresh a page is really annoying. I hope soon it will be possible to have an improvement !