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In this famous battle from the Zulu War of 1879, British soldiers of B Company of 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot, along with a few Natal Native Contingent (NNC) auxiliaries, totaling 150 men, successfully held off repeated intense attacks for 12 hours from a force of at least 3000 brave Zulu warriors led by Prince Dabulamanzi kaMpande. Click on the pictures for more detail:

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This portrays the first attack on the small station of Rorke’s Drift on the afternoon of January 22, 1879, which concentrated on the hospital and surrounding mealie bag wall. For the build, I wanted to show this amazing historical fight for survival with as much realism as possible and so this is accurate to one foot per LEGO stud. The hospital and wall placement are exactly scale per historical records and from the Osprey Campaign book, Rorke’s Drift 1879.

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The fight as portrayed here is shown around 4:40pm, only 20 minutes into the conflict. The Zulus have rapidly come in from the north to swing around and attack the entrance to the hospital from the south, while small bands try to force entry from side and rear doors. The mealie bag wall has collapsed in multiple places, and in response Lt Gonville Bromhead and Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne lead a successful bayonet attack on the invaders, driving them back (shown on the picture on the right).

100% LEGO. One of my favorite creations ever, I’ll continue to work on the other half of the station in order to display the entire battle at next year’s Brickfair. My plan is to have the fight for the hospital underway, with the thatch roof on fire, with the British retiring to their biscuit-box, mealie bag and wagon-built wall around the storehouse.

Beyond the Brick did an interview for this build at Brickfair Virginia, if interested:

Cheers!

Gary

Edited by Gary The Procrastinator

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Beautiful MOC, I love it! :thumbup:

The details are so nice, the foliage and roof are fantastic idea, and the minifigs are just awesome. I like the Royal Guard minifigs as well because they look great and can be used as British Imperial soldiers. They can also be very good for Steampunk builds if you want to make British Steampunk soldiers.

Overall, you did a really good job and the hard work paid off really well.

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Stunning! So much detail! Thanks for including the history and video! :sweet:

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Yeah that is just crazy epic in scale. Very impressive work all around. How did you get so many of those figs?

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:wub: :wub: wow - this looks absolut fantastic!

Great colours and the house with the floor looks stunning!

Really good work!

markus

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Wow, absolutely fantastic build. Very inspiring.

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What a beautiful historical MOC!!! :wub:

I liked the wall texture! The roof and grass are also amazing! Well Done!

As one would expect this MOC will go directly to HistoryBricks :grin:

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Great structure, the roof texturing is superb. The landscape with the olive green leaves and sticks is also very cool :thumbup:

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Like I said on flickr, AWESOME work. So much detail all around!

Thank you so much Cesar! I appreciate it a lot.

Beautiful MOC, I love it! :thumbup:

The details are so nice, the foliage and roof are fantastic idea, and the minifigs are just awesome. I like the Royal Guard minifigs as well because they look great and can be used as British Imperial soldiers. They can also be very good for Steampunk builds if you want to make British Steampunk soldiers. Overall, you did a really good job and the hard work paid off really well.

Thanks Behemoth! I'm very happy with how the thatched roof and landscaping worked out too, so important for this build.

Stunning! So much detail! Thanks for including the history and video! :sweet:

Thank you so much Adventurer1 for your kind words :blush:

Best movie ever! Great adaptation. I especially like the simple thatched roof design.

Thank you Tedbeard, yes Zulu is defintely in my top 20 movies too.

Great build! The historical detail is brilliantly done! Awesome Work!

Thanks so much, it was important to me to get the history right here.

Yeah that is just crazy epic in scale. Very impressive work all around. How did you get so many of those figs?

Thank you! I began collecting both the Royal Guard and PoTC Cannibals the moment they came out; falls into the "Spends $$$ foolishly" category I admit, but I am happy with how this came out (so take that, Common Sense!) I did stumble upon a few good deals though... :moar:

:wub: :wub: wow - this looks absolut fantastic! Great colours and the house with the floor looks stunning! Really good work! markus

!

Thank you Markus!

Wow, absolutely fantastic build. Very inspiring.

Thank you Hive.

Awesome MOC :wub:

Nice landscape and roof!

Thank you Balthazar.

Awesome landscaping, awesome roof!! Overall great moc!!

Thank you Gunman, simple techniques that look great are the way to go.

What a beautiful historical MOC!!! :wub:

I liked the wall texture! The roof and grass are also amazing! Well Done! As one would expect this MOC will go directly to HistoryBricks :grin:

Oh thank you Gads, I follow History Bricks so that's much appreciated!

Great structure, the roof texturing is superb. The landscape with the olive green leaves and sticks is also very cool :thumbup:

Thank you Scaevola, it's great when simple techniques pay off.

Wow! Awesome foliage! So many figs! :wub:

Thanks Infernum, my college $$$ for the kids in action!

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Its interesting that we wait ages for a Rorke's Drift scene in LEGO then two come along within a few months of each other. Personally I prefer the roof design of the huts in Oiley's version which uses tan droid arms. See this post for some pics of the alternative version of this historical battle http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=97041

Yes, it's a coincidence of time I think. When I saw your post of Oiley's version, I was a little disappointed that someone beat me to the punch, but I've intended to do this since the Royal Guard came out, and have been collecting parts for over a year. That droid arms roof technique is very skillful and Oiley did an amazing job, it must have taken incredible patience. It does make the buildings look like huts, because they are not minifig-scale; the hospital alone was 23 meters long. Oiley was able to build the entire layout this way effectively, including the storehouse as well, but it's compressed to half-scale. I wanted to build at true minifig scale of 1 stud per foot...and 77 studs worth of droid arms would have been quite a challenge!! But this worked out, Oiley's now stands out as the original with that technique, and mine stands out for scale. At Brickfair I received lots of positive comments about that simple technique for a thatched roof. Of course, I only got the hospital side done, but for next year's Brickfair I will build the other half of the battle as well. Cheers!

Genius built! Love it very much :laugh:

Thank you very much!

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It's a shame Gary, because pictures don't do this beauty justice at all. It was awesome to build with you at Brickfair and to see all your great creations. The interview was great.

I am in agreement with others that the droid arm roof looks good, but I honestly think this looks just as well if not better. The droid arm almost looks too messy to me. I am confident though, when people saw this build in public, they didn't think the thatched roof was a problem :) Plus the scale of the build is magnificent. I cannot wait until next year (where hopefully!) you will have the additions!

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Oiley loves this too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Awesome :laugh:

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I'm a South African and this is one of the things we learnt in History. I think you captured it brilliantly. Thank you for portraying a piece of our country's heritage so splendidly.

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