Rorke's Drift - The Hospital surroundings, 24th. Jan. 1879 "Sir, the Zulus 'ave scarpered!"

spanner570

SALAD DODGER
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
12,909
Points
113
First Name
Ron
I've turned my attention to the hospital grounds. I'm trying to model what it might have been like in this area the day after the battle.

Sorry, no Zulus!
Let's start.
During a recent trip (Scrounge) to our local skip, I came across a couple of chipboard shelves from an old kitchen unit. This is one of them.

So this morning I set to.

I placed the building on the base and marked roughly what is to go where.
The diagonal lines are mealie bags, the squiggle is a small escarpment and the line in the foreground is a wall. I've loosely copied a sketch plan of the defences made just after the battle.
P1210701.JPG

Holding a jig saw at an angle I roughly cut out the line of the escarpment. More about those rectangle thingies later....
P1210702.JPG

After slinging the off-cut I glued a strip of 1/4" plywood to the underside of the chipboard. This gave me the initial 6ft. drop down formed by the escarpment to the ground below.
P1210703.JPG

I've been beavering away at this in my workshop/s*** heap, but the light is starting to go now, so I'll give it best in here for today.

It's a start anyway..... :thumb2:

Cheers.
Ron
 

JR

Member of the Rabble and Pyromania Consultant
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2015
Messages
17,215
Points
113
Location
lincs
First Name
John
Looks fine to me 570
453
 

spanner570

SALAD DODGER
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
12,909
Points
113
First Name
Ron
Thanks boys.
I've made me some mealie bags and builted a barricade.
Made from putty because I can shape and mould them as I like.

First layer.
P1210704.JPG

Second and third layer.
P1210705.JPG

Fourth and final layer. I've knocked the barricade over here and there to depict Zulu breeches in the defences. I figured as there was a wall on the front lower level, the attackers would go around it, hence the relatively undamaged section in the middle.
P1210713.JPG

P1210710.JPG



All a bit bare at the minute but I'm hoping things will blend in later in the build.

Thanks for looking.
Ron
 

spanner570

SALAD DODGER
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
12,909
Points
113
First Name
Ron
Thanks Pete.
I've had look at the link. Seems no one can give the definitive answer to the bag size question. It did bring back a memory of when I was 'On the tools'. I had to replace a door at a grain factory. I vividly remember the lads there lifting grain sacks. They were over 3ft. long and heavy enough to warrant two people to lift them. so I'll stick with my first guess at the dimensions. Also because I've modelled some full sized, some burst and some semi flattened by the one's on top, some placed sideways, a regular and uniform dimension is not so important. - Too late now anyway!

Thanks again for the link. I appreciate your input.
Ron
 

spanner570

SALAD DODGER
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
12,909
Points
113
First Name
Ron
Cheers Pete. For once my memory hasn't let me down!

The size aside, I often wonder just where the defenders got those hundreds of mealie bags from. They certainly wouldn't all have fitted in the store house. I made 180 just for this diorama. Then there was the other half of the defences linking up with the store house, not to mention the redoubt or the dozens and dozens of biscuit boxes!
 

stillp

SMF Supporter
Joined
Nov 17, 2016
Messages
7,183
Points
113
Location
Rugby
First Name
Pete
Yes, they do seem to have had rather a lot of bags. It was a supply depot though.
 

spanner570

SALAD DODGER
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
12,909
Points
113
First Name
Ron
True enough Pete, but still an awful lot of stuff to store in just one building. Perhaps the :face-with-head-bandage: :face-with-thermometer: slept on meelie bags!

Update.
I've started work on the small escarpment by sticking a strip of scrap polystyrene to the edge of the chipboard and then digging away at it with my finger nails to get a bit of bumpy stony look to it.

P1210724.JPG

P1210725.JPG

P1210726.JPG

The blandness of the model is getting on my nerves, so I'll add a bit of colour before I do any more construction.

Cheers.
Ron
 

boatman

SMF Supporter
Joined
Nov 8, 2018
Messages
12,754
Points
113
Location
NORFOLK UK
First Name
christopher
Hi Ron
very nice work an the colour I think you need most is red as for what both side;s went through was terrible
but im following your build as Zulu was one of my favourite film's
 

spanner570

SALAD DODGER
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
12,909
Points
113
First Name
Ron
Thanks boys.
Christopher - Typical British at the time. At least now we know better than to start invading other folks countries.... :rolling:
Jim - Thanks. Glad you are enjoying the trip into the unknown.

On we go....
I've just spent a cold hour in the workshop getting rid of all that 'whiteness'.
I coated the whole base in watered down PVA, then whilst the adhesive was still wet I sprinkled dirt all over the thing. Turned it over and tapped the underside.
With an old paint brush I worked the muck in and out of the escarpment area and finally wiped excess off the sand bags.

Here's the result. Everything nicely blended in and not so brutal on the old peepers...... :cool: :thumb2:

P1210733.JPG

P1210734.JPG

P1210736.JPG

P1210735.JPG

P1210737.JPG

When everything is nice and dry I can start to add some colour, rocks and vegetation.

On reflection, I think that chunk of ridge board on the middle wall looks daft and could well be on borrowed time. My eye keeps wandering back to it. - Let's have a vote!

Cheers.
Ron
 
D

Deleted member 6559

Guest
More amazing work Ron - it looks so realistic.

As far as the mealie bags are concerned, this is my rendition of Imperial Gallery's John Chard figure. It seems to me that they got the details of the figure's uniform and equipment spot on, so there's no reason to doubt the sizing of the bag - looks pretty hefty:

100_3605.JPG
 

yak face

Wossupwidee?
Staff member
Moderator
SMF Supporter
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
12,261
Points
113
Location
sheffield
First Name
tony
I see what you mean mate , i would get rid of the bit of ridge board too , the centre of the fire was bang underneath this so i dont think any timbers would have survived here . Cheers tony
 
Top