Captain Quigley and Some Guns

Two posts ago I featured my Natal Native Horse with their squadron commander Captain Quigley.  I mentioned at the time that I was working on a dismounted figure for him and here it is:

Captain Quigley, dismounted and mounted

While the horse is from Ral Partha, both human figures are from Miniature Figurines.  I've added a carbine under the dismounted figure's right arm by drilling a hole and slipping the weapon through, securing it with CA glue.  I still need to match the base terrain effects to the mounted figure and then improve both of them with some tufts.

At the same time I was completing some additional naval artillery and a small gun for my native forces.

A large maybe 6-lbr flanked by two smaller maybe 4-lbr naval guns.  Not sure of the manufacturer(s).
The gunners are from Reviresco that I have had painted for a number of years.  They man my river gunboat.

A reverse shot of the three guns.

And finally a small mountain howitzer that has somehow come into the hands of my native forces, in this case a Pathan gun crew although I have Dervish gunners as well.

Both the mountain howitzer and the gunners are from Ral Partha

This gun will give both my North Central Frontier Pathans and Green Nile Dervishes some artillery support.

These will be the last Colonial figures for a while as I need to get back to my 15mm American Civil War forces with a Confederate brigade next in the painting queue.

French Heavy Artillery

My Napoleonic French army has added two new heavy (12-lbr) batteries to their artillery park.  These are 25mm Miniature Figurines (MiniFigs) guns and crews that I have acquired over the years and finally gotten painted and based.

In the rule set I use, The Sound of the Guns by Larry Brom, each battery is represented by a number of guns and two gunners per gun.  Each gunner represents two actual guns so a 6-gun battery would have three guns and six gunners.

Heavy Battery number one with four 12-lb guns and two howitzers

Heavy Battery number two with four 12-lb guns and two howitzers

 

My Napoleonic forces are developed around the 1813 Befreiungskrieg (War of Liberation) campaigns.  These French batteries are slightly under strength since so many guns were lost in Russia in 1812.

More Franco-German War Artillery

I've added to my artillery complements for the French and Prussian forces that I have for the 1870-1871 Franco-German (AKA Franco-Prussian) War.  They consist of two batteries of French light artillery and one battery of Prussian heavy artillery.

The first French battery is composed of six 85mm rifled, breech-loaded guns (link), even thought he gunners have swabs and ramrods!  In the Chassepot and Needlegun rules that we use, each battery has three guns and six gunners which represent the six guns normally used in European artillery batteries of this time period.  The guns are actually American Civil War 12-lb Napoleons from Sash & Saber, but are being used as French 85mm here.  The gunners are from Castaway Arts in Australia.

The second French battery is similarly composed.  These two batteries, plus an 8-gun Mitralleuse battery will be the artillery arm of my French "division" from the Armee de la Loire, a post-Sedan organization.

The Prussian heavy battery is composed of six 6-lb rifled breechloading guns.  I've had these guns for quite a while, but cannot recall who manufactured them.  They will provide part of the artillery support for my German forces along with the two 4-lb batteries shown in a previous post.  As with the French, the gunners are from Castaway Arts.

This artillery will be used in a Franco-German War game I will be running at the Colonial Barracks convention the first weekend in November down in New Orleans.

Gunners and Some Comparisons

First I have some pictures of the newest additions to my imagi-nation armies, some guns and gunners.  Then some comparison pictures of the three manufacturers' gunners.  As usual, click or double click on the pictures for larger images.

I've just completed three gun crews and two guns (the third gun having been painted some time ago) for my Britannian, Gallian, and Kreis Obere-Sachsen forces.

First up is a Britannian 6-lbr and its 5 man crew.  The gun is a Miniature Figurines (if I remember correctly) model while the gunners are RSM-95 figures.  This is the second 6-lbr for my nascent Britannian forces.

Next up is a battalion gun for my Gallian forces.  The gun is a "Scruby" (now manufactured by Historifigs) small Napoleonic cannon which will be playing the role of a "Swedish" style 4-lbr.  The crewmen are RAFM French gunners painted as two artillerymen (in blue coats) and two artillery laborers (in grey coats).

Last is a battalion gun (another "Scruby") for my nascent Kreis Obere-Sachsen forces (one of the Reichsarmee circles).  The gunners are Miniature Figurines SYW French gunner figures.  The one of the right rear has been modified by cutting off the lintstock and gluing on a lever.  The color scheme comes from a Reichsarmee gunner's uniform posted some time ago by David Linienblatt of the Not by Appointment blog.

I also thought that I would include some side-by-side pictures of the RAFM, RSM, and MiniFig gunners so you could get an idea of their comparative sizes and hefts.

RAFM (left), RSM (center), MiniFig (right)

You can  see that while the RSM gunners are a little taller than the other two, they aren't completely out of scale.  I cheerfully use many different manufacturers on the battlefield and once the action starts, the differences tend to disappear.

Britannian Royal Artillery and July Painting Totals

In addition to the Compagnies Galliens (previous post), I also completed five Britannian Royal Artillery figures.  These were among a group of Dayton Painting Consortium RSM-95 figures I bought on eBay several years ago.

I added a RAFM ramrod to the figure on the right and a piece of wire to the figure on the left as a gun spike.  The figure on the front left had a full coat so I painted him as an officer.  Three of the other figures were also wearing coats, but with turnbacks, so they became regular gunners.  The fifth figure (left background) is just in his sleeved vest and without his hat.

The  gun is a RAFM 6-lbr, I believe.  It also came as part of the eBay lot.

Coupled with three seconded Britannian infantry, they manned two 6-lbr guns helping to defend the Britannian colony from the attacking Asturians (Spanish) and Gallians (French) in my latest Capitania General de Florida game.

So for the month of July, I painted and based 6 Woodland Indians, 5 Britannian artillerymen, and 33 Compagnies Galliens, as well as 1 Japanese 1:2400 scale "pre-dreadnought" armored cruiser.  In addition, I constructed 10 sections of temporary breastworks (which were about as involved as painting a figure!).  This my "Olley" point total for July was a respectable 44 points of figures, 1 ship, and 10 terrain pieces, as well as planning and running two Capitania General de Florida games.   Whew!!

February Painting - With Pictures

Finally I was able to take some pictures. Here we have the Margrave of Carpania's Baron Trask of Eisenmuhlen (left) and an aide de camp to Generalleutnant Baron von Stuppe (right). Both are RSM figures. Baron Trask is the Margraviate's armaments expert and a master gunner in his own right. Because he is related by marriage to the Britannian royal family, he is also a Major General in that army and wears the Britannian uniform most of the time.


Carpania also added the Teutonica Musketeer Regiment to their army in February. These are Sash and Saber castings. I was short officer castings so they will have to be painted and mounted later.

Meanwhile, the Duchy of Courland has been recruiting as well, adding the Severinski Grenadier Battalion. The figures are Foundry and the battalion was purchased from Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin, hence its name.

Courland was also busy with its artillery arm. Here is a 12-lb field gun (MiniFig) with its gun crew of Front Rank gunners and artillery fusiliers.

And here is a licorne howitzer (Newline) with its crew of bombardiers and artillery fusiliers from Front Rank.

And for March, I'll be finishing the Courland 12-lbr (still have to put the matte glaze on it) and two mounted officers (the Duke himself and his son, who will command all the grenadiers) as well as some Courland cavalry.

Suspected Spencer Smith Plastic Figures

As part of the artillery and commander lots mentioned in the previous post, my seller included two painted, mounted officers (front center of below photo) that he identified as Spencer Smith figures.

He also included one gun, one howitzer, 15 gunners (in three poses), and 4 cavalrymen, examples of which are shown here. I am presuming that these are also Spencer Smith plastic figures. Confirmation from the learned readers would be appreciated.