Once again, I have been afflicted with colonial piles. However, this time the presentation is different, and there is no lasting cure. My new colonial piles consist of plastic and metal miniatures for gaming the Zulu and Mahdist wars. The first pile is a couple of boxes of Italeri 1/72 Arab Warriors. While these are in fact the venerable plastic Esci figures from 1987, they are great for cheaply bulking out various native armies from the Sudan to the Northwest Frontier, provided you don’t look too closely.
The second pile is all Newline Designs 20mm metal and is a bit of a mix. For the Sudan, there is a pack of British Lancers, while the rest are for the Zulu War. Those packs are ready-made “Men Who Would Be King” units and consist of two packs of British and two of Zulus. The British are made up of one unit of imperial regulars and some mounted Frontier Light Horse. The Zulus are made up of one unit in ceremonial dress and one unit without. They have a somewhat toy soldier look about them, not dissimilar to the 28mm Rapier Miniatures figures I bought sometime ago.
Hopefully, this will prove to be a more enduring start to venturing into colonials. However, it will take me quite a while to get usable forces together due to my glacial painting speed, and that is even if I paint them in a basic toy soldier style. So I think paper colonials will be getting a few more outings yet.
The wargames pavilion 