Empress [COMMERCIAL] LATEST NEW RELEASES Iron Duke Orange River Range.

[Paul @ Empress Miniatures]

The first pack in a range of figures for the Orange River Campaign in Africa.

https://www.irondukeminiatures.co.uk/orange-river

 British Infantry, skirmish line in action, coatees, peaked Kilmarnocks, regulation crossbelt equipment, blanket packs, P1842 percussion muskets. (8 different figs, split 4/4 between kneeling and standing poses).

[Particularly suited for the 43rd (The Monmouthshire) Regiment (Light Infantry). Note that the 43rd removed the light infantry wings from its coatees at this time].

https://www.empressminiatures.com/iron-duke-miniatures-120-c.asp

[Juan]

Great news! These figures are wonderful! And the period, very, very interesting.

[Mike1879]

Count me in 

[Plynkes]

I can see myself getting some Basotho when they are released, for a bit of Allan Quatermain fun if for no other reason. Even when dealing with fictional tribes in the stories, the illustrations often depict them as Ngoni/Zulus vs. Basotho.

[juergen c. olk]

Oh no ..I;m in trouble now...

[Atheling]

Beautiful sculpts (obviously!) 

the illustrations often depict them as Ngoni/Zulus vs. Basotho.

Interesting and very tempting!!   

[Plynkes]

This is the kind of thing I mean. That fellow about to get skewered in the back of the head is clearly based on a Basotho, though in the story he isn't meant to be one.



My dream of Quatermainesque battles gets a little nearer with this new range, perhaps. Just need to get my arse into gear and look into getting Duke Donald's Maiwa green (based on the lady in the top centre of the picture) turned into a metal figure now. Since my medical troubles that project has very much been dormant. Still have her, and she's been very patient.

[Diablo Jon]

This is the kind of thing I mean. That fellow about to get skewered in the back of the head is clearly based on a Basotho, though in the story he isn't meant to be one.



My dream of Quatermainesque battles gets a little nearer with this new range, perhaps. Just need to get my arse into gear and look into getting Duke Donald's Maiwa green (based on the lady in the top centre of the picture) turned into a metal figure now. Since my medical troubles that project has very much been dormant. Still have her, and she's been very patient.

Very cool idea for a project.

I'd like some Basotho to convert into Sebetwane's Makololo just because I kind think Sebetwane was a bad ass.

[Atheling]

Very cool idea for a project.

I'd like some Basotho to convert into Sebetwane's Makololo just because I kind think Sebetwane was a bad ass.

It's all very highly attractive stuff and oh so tempting but I'm going to have to remain unflinching as I've got three projects on the go and if I get side tracked I risk returning to fill on wargames butterfly mode 

They are so beautifully sculpted. Damn it! why do so many attractive miniatures have to get released by so many different companies seemingly in one go? (I'm sure it's my imagination )

[Happy Wanderer]

Looks great. Top notch sculpts.

FYI
The 3rd link on the page “Dress, Weapons and Equipment” doesn’t work...just some weird error page pops up.

 

[Paul @ Empress Miniatures]

Two new packs of native cavalry for the Orange River Range.

https://www.empressminiatures.com/orange-river-range-126-c.asp

Our Basotho figures are suitable for the period 1840-1880, including 'Major Warden's War', (1851) the Battle of Berea (1852), the conflicts with the Orange Free State in the 1850s and 60s and the 'Gun War' (1880). Note, however, that by the time of the Gun War at the tail-end of the bracket, a much higher proportion of warriors would have been wearing hats and European clothing, and that some would have been armed with  rifles, including a few breech-loaders, such as the Snider-Enfield. 

Molapo ‘Jeremiah’ Moshoeshoe, (1814–1880), aged 37 at the Battle of Berea (20 December 1852), was the second son of Chief Moshoeshoe’s First House. At the Battle of Viervoet, during 'Major Warden's War' of July 1851, Molapo had commanded one of three Basotho cavalry divisions. At Berea he again commanded a major mounted formation, embracing both Basotho warriors and an allied Bataung contingent led by the sons of Chief Molitsane. Conventionally said to be 700 strong, my own research leads me to believe that Molapo's division was almost certainly twice that size. Evidently a commander possessed of real 'cavalry dash', Molapo surprised Lt-Col George Napier's cavalry 'brigade', (it was only 2 squadrons strong), as it was retiring from Berea Mountain with 4,000 captured cattle. The rearguard half-troop, under the supervision of Maj. William Tottenham, the acting CO of the 12th Lancers, was very badly mauled in a chaotic withdrawal from the mountain.  Tottenham himself played a genuinely heroic role in the retreat and was fortunate enough to survive. Subsequently Molapo had some of his warriors dress up in the jackets and white forage caps of the dead lancers. Carrying captured lances and  formed up like cavalrymen, the impostors rode towards Colonel William Eyre's infantry column, on another part of the plateau. Eyre mistook them for  General Cathcart's escort and rode towards them, accompanied by his headquarters staff officers and the handful of lancers that had been assigned to his column. Eyre was obliged to defend himself with his revolver but was able to gallop to safety.  His DAQMG, (effectively his chief of staff), Captain Walter Faunce, 73rd Regt., was less fortunate. Reportedly a poor horseman, Faunce was hemmed in, taken prisoner and clubbed to death some short while later. After fighting Eyre's infantry for a couple of hours, Molapo led his people down from Berea to participate in the climax of the battle around Pelea's Kraal in the Phutiatsana (or Little Caledon) river valley, opposite Moshoeshoe's mountain-top stronghold at Thaba Bosiu.

Job or "Jobo", properly known as Lelosa, was a younger half-brother to the Basotho paramount, Chief Moshoshoe. Back in the 1830s Eugene Casalis of the Paris Evangelical Missionary  Society (PEMS) befriended Moshoeshoe and was granted permission to establish a mission at the foot of the Thaba Bosiu. mountain-top stronghold. Lelosa converted to Christianity in 1841 and was still a senior member of Casalis's congregation in December 1852, when General Cathcart and his army drew nigh.  There were French missions scattered all across Moshoeshoe's realm but none of them had more than a few score converts. The missionaries were typically accompanied by wives and children - Mrs Casalis was known to the Basotho as 'Ma Eugene' - so that consequently the converts were prevailed upon to wear European style clothes around the missions.  Jobo took the Ten Commandments to heart and on the basis of 'Thou shalt not kill' faced a bona fide struggle with his conscience in advance of the Battle of Berea. In the end he took up arms and participated in the fighting. Not only did he participate, but he played a leadership role, displayed great courage and provided an inspirational example to those around him.  The morning after the battle Moshoeshoe’s sons sang their uncle’s praises in the presence of the paramount. “Job was not afraid because he is a Christian,” Moshoeshoe remarked in response. Although Casalis rose high in Moshoeshoe's counsels, becoming both a friend and confidante, and effectively acting as his foreign secretary in his dealings with the British and the boere, it was expedient that the paramount adhered to the majority view amongst his people. As a result Casalis was never able to pull off his great ambition of converting the paramount himself. Moshoeshoe's aged father,  Mokhachane, inevitably a great traditionalist, detested the idea of Christianity and was hostile to the French presence. Importantly PEMS policy was to side with the British in the Cape, for fear of the the threat that boer republican rule posed to Africans, so that the temporary breakdown in Anglo-Basotho  relations over the period 1851-2 was in no way attributable to the French influence in 'Lesutu' [today Lesotho].

[Atheling]

 

[waterproof]

Fantastic miniatures, very interesting range. Also many thanks for the historical insight. I am not very knowledgeable about the colonial history of South Africa. I bought minis for the Cape Frontier War from the Perry brothers because I liked them so much. Now I see these here and I think they are just as great.  Can the miniatures be combined ? With the British I see that it should work. Uniform on average of the 1840s with slight changes.

Or do I have to consider something ?

[Mike1879]

Excellent figures. Will be purchasing these very soon. Waiting on the British command set first.

[Plynkes]

Waterproof, those Basotho fought both the Boers (Orange Free State) and the Brits in the 1850s. The Boers from the Perry range make perfect opponents for them, and while I'd have to check which British units were involved and what they wore, you'd have to be a pretty grumpy killjoy to object to seeing Perry Brits fielded against them and screaming "But the 43rd foot didn't wear that kind jacket! I'm going home!"  I do think the Perry guys in coatees and peaked caps have pretty much the right look, though, if you are going to let such things bother you.

I believe the Rifles might have been involved in that show. Some 1850s Riflemen would be nice. My memory is a bit leaky, but I don't think there are any in the Perry range. I'm looking forward to Basotho on foot, too, just cause I've always wanted to paint some.