Limber Labour of Love

The first of Rob's magnificent Guard Artillery gun teams is ready at last. It all took a bit longer than I expected, but they were very complex to paint and assemble and it took me a while to figure it all out.

The figures are:

Hinton Hunt:

FN 188 French Horse Artillery Of the Guard Artillery Drivers Corps driver x2

H 3: French (nearside) Gun Horse x 2

H4: French (offside) Gun Horse x 2

Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques:

French Limber from the # 32: French 6" Howitzer, limber and four-horse team set.

Warrior:

FA1: French 8lb Field Gun

Getting everything to fit together  required quite a bit of planning. The DK limber came complete with swingletrees, but to attach these to the horses I first had to cut them off the limber and then wrap lengths of fuse wire around them. The fuse wires were then soldered to the horses to create the traces. The trick here was then to attach a short nib of solder on the rear of each swingletree, and then paint each horse assembly while leaving these nibs unpainted.

The limber also needed a bit of cutting back and rearranging so that everything would fit back together again neatly. Again, I attached small nibs of solder on to the points on the limber where the swingletrees would reattach. These nibs were also left unpainted.

The final stage was then to glue everything in place on the base with the nibs on the swingletrees and limber just touching. My hope was it would take just a quick application of heat with the soldering iron for them to melt together and form a single string, and much to my relief this is exactly what happened. It was then just a quick dab of black paint and varnish and the job was done.

The Warrior guns have also been given a repaint, although its hard to tell the difference. The only real change here was to add some bent steel pins to create the tool brackets on either side of the trails.

And that, I'm very pleased to say, is the end of Phase One.

WM

Bigguns and Not So Big Guns

The Guard Artillery coming into action.

My second Prussian foot battery has taken a bit more time to complete than I intended, but this is not altogether surprising given that I decided to make things rather complicated for myself. My idea was to finish off the first part of the Prussian army with something a bit special.

The battery was simple enough. It was all the extra bits that took all the time.

The figures on the battery are (from left to right) Hinton Hunt Prussian Field Artillery:

PN 32: Gunner with rammer;
PN 34: Gunner, with hand spike;

Another view of the diminutive field piece.

PN 31: Gunner with porte-fire; and
PN 35: Gunner, ammunition runner.

The gunners are painted as Guard artillery. If you click to embiggen you may just be able to make out the yellow litzen on their collars and cuffs and the red shoulder straps marking them out as Guardsmen.

The gun is a Hinton Hunt A4 Prussian Field Gun with its little 6-pounder barrel. I wouldn't be the first to point out that field guns were not Marcus Hinton's greatest strength as a designer, but it's nice to have at least one for the collection!

The Silesian Battery gallops into action.

Completing my Phase-One Prussian artillery are Hinton Hunt:

2 x PN 38: Artillery driver, positioned for riding horse;
2 x  H 1: British nearside draught horse; and
2 x H 2: British offside draught horse.

The limber traces are made with 15-amp fuse wire soldered on to the rather prominent lugs cast onto each side of the horses. They are attached to swingletrees made out of 2 mm plasticard. It took me a whole day to do this, but I thought it was worth having a go if only to create something for the limber pole to rest on.

Riding on the limber is what I think is the Der Kriegspieler version of Hinton Hunt PN 36: Gunner, riding on limber, right side.

A close up of the limber rider. I think  he's meant to be on the right side!

The limber, like the gun it is pulling, is a little mysterious but I think it may be from the Minifig S-Range. If anyone is able to confirm this, please let me know! The only identifiable mark on the underside is "NFA", which I assume stands for Napoleonic Field Artillery.

Only two more command figures need to be completed and the Prussian Army will be ready for the Grand Manoeuvres!


WM

A Prussian Grand Battery