Ultima Ratio

As promised, I have a new set of gunners to display. First off, however, is the gun, which is a rather rickety Der Kriegspielers French howitzer. This ranked as possibly the worst gun model I'd ever encountered when I saw it in the raw, but I think it's painted up reasonably well.

To man it I have four more Der Kriegspielers French gunners, from set #22: French Line Artillery, 1809.

Well, they're mostly DK 22s. The chap holding the ramrod is actually a combination of a DK gunner holding handspikes and a Prince August figure. I didn't have a DK rammer so I decided to have a go at another conversion. He's not my greatest effort, but he'll do.

The base is a standard Muskets and Marshals 6cm x 6cm artillery base, made from 2mm plasticard and, as I explained last week, painted with a green emulsion that was the closest match I could get to Humbrol 80: Grass Green. I'm really pleased with the effect.

The last couple of shots are of them lined up with my other two French batteries. The French artillery is really starting to look quite formidable.

They're not the only gunners I've been working on, however. All will be revealed next week...

WM

A Whiff of Grapeshot

The small commission I'm working on is not quite ready to put on show, but all is not lost as the French artillery detachment I've been working on alongside it is almost complete. I decided to have a go at these as something was clearly required to deal with all those pesky Prussian cavalry

Three of the figures are Der Kriegspielers DK 22: French Line Artillery, 1809. The fourth man holding the rammer, however, is rather more unique, being a conversion of the Hinton Hunt figure FN 254: French Line Infantry Voltigeur 1807-1812, charging. Roy very kindly supplied this man as part of a swap for the Young Guard Voltiguers I painted for him earlier this year

The gun they are serving is a French 8 pounder which the chaps over at Warrior confirm was manufactured by them. I'm undecided about whether or not to repaint it, but may leave it as it is as the paint job is not too bad. I'm also not at all sure about what I would use for French Artillery Green as Humbrol doesn't seem to make this colour any more!

WM