Advice on Black Tree Design Zulu War Range

[italwars]

Hello
as title say...
i'm tempted to buy some few BTD  AZW minis...mainly personalities or things more rare to find..like quartermasters ecc...or something to fill holes in my army like NNC ecc...the majority of my minis are old Foundry types...with some very few Warlord Plastics ......i've read on the web that they are quite big castings..
what do you think ...are they too much larger figures like, for ex, the Redoubts big boys ..that cannot really be used side by side with my Foundry ones..or could they be ok?
thanks in advance

[THE CID]

They are not as big as Redoubt, but are bigger than foundry. Some of there figures have been sculpted by different sculptors, their early sculpts were the best. The later sculpts were a bit ropey. I bought a few of their earlier Zulu sculpts a couple of year ago, very nice but. The white metal seemed very soft compared to other manufactures. They must have changed their castors, because years ago they were fine. They broke very easily, this put me off getting anymore.
Empress are the one and only Range on the market- superb.

[Orctrader]

I bought and painted some a few years back.

I really liked them to paint.  Reminded me of Renegade Miniatures size-wise.  Certainly larger and chunkier than some of the newer lines. 

Here are mine after application of paint.

[sjwalker51]

That's superb painting - really brought out the best in these figures.

[rha.celt]

I just started getting back into the Zulu War about two years ago. At the time I purchased from several different sources including Black Tree, Warlord, Empress and Foundry. I found all to have some nice figures but Black tree was noticeably larger when used mixed in a unit.  The ones I have I keep in separate units and then they seem fine.  Overall Empress does seam the best and work well with Warlord plastics.

[italwars]

thanks very much for the considerations...i understand they are quite large..but those picts are very nice...
Empress is excellent...i 've already such a long "wanted list"...above all cavalry

[Brian Smaller]

I have a lot of them - ten 36 figure Zulu regiments painted up so far and I love them. Also NNC, Boers and of course British line infantry. Apart from a few Empress, a couple of Redoubt and some connverted Perry ACW cavalry almost my entire force is BTD - their sales are a big incentive.

https://woolshedwargamer.com/category/zulu-wars/

Cheers
Brian
 

[Brian Smaller]

I bought and painted some a few years back.

I really liked them to paint.  Reminded me of Renegade Miniatures size-wise.  Certainly larger and chunkier than some of the newer lines. 

Here are mine after application of paint.

Wow - makes mine look like I did them with a roller.

[traveller]

They are not as big as Redoubt, but are bigger than foundry. Some of there figures have been sculpted by different sculptors, their early sculpts were the best. The later sculpts were a bit ropey. I bought a few of their earlier Zulu sculpts a couple of year ago, very nice but. The white metal seemed very soft compared to other manufactures. They must have changed their castors, because years ago they were fine. They broke very easily, this put me off getting anymore.
Empress are the one and only Range on the market- superb.

One of the reasons for the change of metal quality might be the "exchange program" they HAD some 15 years ago. BTD offered, if I rememebere correctly: 1 BTD mini in exchange for two others. Personally I sent them some 5 kg worth mix of old Dixon and Minifigs. I guess it must have been hard to keep a consistent quality with all the scrap metal they received...