Questions pertaining to the battle of Rorkes Drift

Hello all,

Iam currently in the long process of creating a diorama of the battle of Rorkes Drift. The diorama has taken a back seat to my painting of Napoleonics for wargaming purposes.

1.I have all the Ospreys on the Zulu War and am wondering if I should take them as Gospel?
2.For the most part Zulus did not wear full regalia into battle. would there have been some with the leopard headband or full regalia at Rorkes Drift?
3.Uthulwana married white shields. i have also come across info where they were white with red patches.
4.Indlondlo married red and white spotted shields
5.iNdluyengwe unmarried black one white spot. i have also read they had the white spot on the lower half of the shield
6.uDloko married, red with one white spot

7.One of my main concerns is the terrain. If anybody has pictures of Rorkes Drift in January i would love to see them or if you have any info or if the movie Zulu is a good representation of the terrain. Please let me know

8.officers would have had gold chin straps. i have seen leather and gold for the infantry. do you know the color of the infantrys chin straps?
9.officers helmets were white but the infantry were tanned. correct? i know they tanned them from their experiance in the Boer war, just making sure the garrison had tanned helmets

10. The wagons were not tipped over. What was the coloring of the wagons? I have seen green and brown. Were the wagons like the ones in the movie zulu or more like the ones that i have on photobucket?

11.There is a picture of four figures, can you name them?

The pictures i have on photobucket are not an accurate representation but only preliminary work for i have to do a lot of modding of figures and all the research involved for I do not want to make a mistake that i could have avoided. I need to fade their uniforms and get them to museum quality.The terrain piece you see is what i had used for wargamming and am now using it as a rough draft. My plan is to allow the figures to be moveable so as to be able to represent any time of the battle instead of being fixed in place so that is why you may notice some figures have white bases under their feet. The zulu shields i have started bending to create a more realistic look as well as inking them to give them that sweat look. I have started modding zulu poses so as to give them the look of crawling, different melee poses and overall changes to them so as they dont look all the same. The picture of Schiess is a figure I had made many years ago and will not be in the diorama. Schiess will be but not the figure i had created from the movie Zulu.

Thank you all.

https://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu107/songofonions/

Hi Gunga Din. I think Joe would be able to help. And there is a disussion somewhere on the forum with refrence to the terrain in January, Neil has been to R.D quite a few times in January so he would be able to give you accurate details.

Dave

Hi
I hope I'll be able to help, but it seems you pay alot more attention to detail the I do.

The regular infantry helmets were died a beige colour with tea or coffee and had no badge on.

I beleive the officers had white helmets with the badges.

The terrain, as neil said on a different post was very grassy, about knee high, unlike in the film ZULU.

The four figures you refer to in the photo, I beleive are left to right
GEORGE PADRE SMITH-He distributed ammunition.
REGULAR INFANTARYMAN
This one could either be Chard or Bromhead-I would say CHARD
COMMISARY DALTON

Must say great work so far!

Hope this helps

Joe

Nice work Gunga Din.
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Hi Gunga Din,
I think this page will help you with the shield colours and patterns.
Just click the link scroll down until you see the shields with the regiments under them.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://members.tripod.com/kriegsmann/z1.JPG&imgrefurl=http://kriegsmann.tripod.com/Iklwa.html&usg=__pa5Muc5aYFDKNEx2sOCIPubkPQY=&h=423&w=933&sz=154&hl=en&start=4&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=GEPL4VolSNjAXM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=147&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dzulu%2Bregiments%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

thanks joe

The four figures you refer to in the photo, I beleive are left to right
GEORGE PADRE SMITH-He distributed ammunition.
REGULAR INFANTARYMAN
This one could either be Chard or Bromhead-I would say CHARD
COMMISARY DALTON

The one who you say is regular infantryman is Bromhead. The picture is not at the right angle, sorry. I cut off a pistol holster from one of my ACW figures adding it to his uniform. I remember reading that he fought with a sidearm and a Martini Henry. Chard is correct as well as the others.

Hi All .
The book I have is by Osprey , Elite Series , British Forces in Zululand by Ian Knight and the colour plates by
Richard Scollins .
My Picture has six individuals at R.D .
from left to right
1 / Surgeon Reynolds
2 / Act Assist Cmsry J.L.Dalton.
3/ Col- Sgt Bourne.
4/ Lt. G. Bromhead.
5/ Lt. J.R.M. Chard.
6 / Chaplain G.Smith.
hope this helps .
cheers 90th.