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Mark Strachan's New Zealand Wars Figures
(article updated with new photo 30 March 2004)
Like many New Zealand wargamers, I often have a twinge of guilt that I am more engrossed with the military history of foreign nations rather than that of my own country.
So it is great news to hear that Fusilier Mark Strachan is producing a new range of 28mm New Zealand Wars figures in parallel with his forthcoming American Civil War collection. The picture below shows the first greens he produced for this new range - four British soldiers for the 1845 period..
Greens of Mark Strachan's first New Zealand Wars figures
- two 1840s British privates, an NCO and an officer (click on photo to
see enlarged version)
The British privates are depicted wearing red waist-length shell jackets, trousers that could be painted either dark grey or white, and dark blue forage caps with white or red pompoms. The officer and NCO have peaked forage caps. They are all modelled on the illustrations from that indispensable New Zealand wargaming resource, The Colonial New Zealand Wars by Tim Ryan and Bill Parham.
The group of figures above are the greens of Maori in traditional dress with traditional weapons. They will suit the pre-European Wars, the Musket Wars and the Early Maori-European War. Mark is currently working on the next batch of Maori in traditional and European dress with firearms.
When I first saw the pictures of Mark's British greens, I commented to him that the legs looked a bit squat. He replied that this was partly because of the photograph, but some of the thickness is deliberate. Shrinkage can be a problem in white metal casting. The extent of the shrinkage depends on a variety of issues such as the size of the object, the heat of the mould and of the metal at casting. He recalls casting ancient elephants and losing as much as a millimetre off the diameter. Most production castings are second generation castings, which increases the shrinkage. Hence the deliberate thickening of the masters.
British infantry and a naval rocket crew during the
New Zealand Wars.
These first figures are from the early period of the New Zealand Wars.
But Mark plans to add other figures to the range so that it will be possible
to reenact engagements from throughout the wars. Eventually he'll have
such diverse troops as Militia, Forest Rangers, Armed Constabulary, Arawa
Flying Column, and, of course, lots of Maori. Here is Mark's working list
of the miniatures that he intends to produce for this range:
European Forces (Early Period 1845-46)
NZWE001 British Infantry Advancing
NZWE002 British Infantry Firing Line
NZWE003 Naval Brigade Assault Party
NZWE004 Naval Artillery (1 gun and four crew)
NZWE005 Naval Rocket Set (Rocket frame and 4 crew)
European Forces (Middle Period 1860’s)
NZWE006 Imperial Infantry Advancing
NZWE007 Imperial Infantry Firing Line
NZWE008 Forest Rangers Skirmishing
NZWE009 Militia
NZWE010 Imperial Artillery (1 x Armstrong gun and four crew)
NZWE011 Coehorn Mortar (2 x mortars and four crew)
NZWE012 Colonial Defence Force Cavalry
NZWE013 Auckland Volunteer Militia
NZWE014 Generals Pack
European Forces (Late Period)
NZWE015 Armed Constabulary Advancing
NZWE016 Armed Constabulary Skirmishing
NZWE017 Arawa Flying Column
Maori Forces
NZWM001 Traditional Dress and Weapons
NZWM002 Traditional Dress and Firearms
NZWM003 Mixed Dress and Traditional Weapons
NZWM004 Mixed Dress and Firearms
Note: packs NZWM001 and NZWM002 can be used for the intertribal Musket
Wars of 1806-1840.
Pack Details
European Infantry Packs = 1 officer, 1 musician, 10 rank and file;
Maori Foot Packs = 1 leader, 11 warriors;
Cavalry Pack = 1 officer and 7 troopers (horses included);
Generals Pack = 4 mounted and 4 dismounted commanders.
I for one am looking forward to seeing how this range expands. It will be great to play skirmish games in the forest and fern of the nineteenth-century New Zealand countryside.
Here are a couple of other websites to whet your appetite for the period:
- Visit this site to find lots of information and tips on how to wargame the New Zealand Wars.
- Fifteen evocative paintings by Cyprian Bridge and John Williams of the 58th Regiment can be seen on the First Maori War website.
- And don't forget to visit our own Fusilier Bruce Cairns' reenactment site of the 65th Regiment of Foot.
