Hold on to yer hat

When I painted my RHA limber I had completely forgotten that I had a limber rider lurking in the Hinton Hunt lead pile so he missed out. Having just come across him I thought it only proper to paint him up and seat him in his rightful place. The figure is BN26 Gunner riding on limber (right side).

I must admit that the overall effect is now more reminiscent of someone engaged on a pleasant pony and trap ride rather than thundering into action with the Royal Horse Artillery. I think this is due to only having a two-horse team rather than the six required for a serious bit of kit. As I’ve said before this is due primarily to a lack of HH limber horses in my collection but also because such a large model would take up too much precious room on the wargame table.

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to see the King’s Troop RHA put on their display at the Devon County Show. It was a stunning sight (only to be equalled by seeing the Naval Gun Team at the Royal Tournament as a kid) and I was very impressed with their skill at manoeuvring the limber teams at speed. It gave me a small glimpse of what a Napoleonic battle may have looked like and it occurred to me that just watching the enemy deploying in battle must have been a very unnerving experience for the participants - no wonder the Duke of Wellington preferred his men to lie down on a reverse slope where they couldn’t see what was coming.

Hold yer horses

Thanks to Roy my Prussian limber is no longer a runaway and has been brought under control by the addition of an artillery driver. Roy kindly donated this casting of PN38 Artillery driver, positioned for riding horse (H/1).

I couldn’t find any uniform information on this one so I’ve based him on a picture of a Prussian train driver (no doubt this limber will always run on time) I found tucked away in my copy of Blandford’s Uniforms of Waterloo. The blurb in the book says that the train drivers were responsible for moving all the heavy equipment and baggage in the Prussian army so maybe this included the guns as well.

This is yet another occasion when I wish I had kept my original Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheets as every single figure Marcus Hinton produced was accompanied by full uniform information. If only modern figure manufacturers would do the same!

Galloping at everything

General Ponsonby has just held a full review of the British heavy cavalry. From left to right: The Grey's, The Blue's, The Inniskilling's, The Royal's (click on any image for a close up).

The Blue's and The Grey's sweep past on their fine chargers.

The Duke and Copenhagen enjoy the show. Captain Mercer fires a one-gun salute for the Duke of Wellington. Ponsonby leads out the Grey's. How the Brigade might have appeared on a wargame table back in the 1960s'

RHA Limber

This is the limber to go with my RHA gun and crew. The horses (H1 & H2) and the limber (AL2) are vintage Hinton Hunt castings. The rider is almost certainly by Der Kreigspielers as he seems too weedy to be Hinton Hunt but I can’t say for sure as I have no vintage HH figure to compare him with.

Stripping the old paint from the limber and rider was quite a pain as firstly the rider’s crop broke and secondly a wheel came off the limber under the gentle scrub of the toothbrush. The crop had to be re-attached with super glue for a second time during the painting process and to be honest I’m not sure if the finished result is up to the rigors of campaign.

You may wonder why it has taken me so long to paint a couple of horses and a limber and I would have to say it’s because I’m still distracted into my on-going project to re-base and reorganise my 15mm Napoleonic armies. When I return to full-blown HH painting I will probably be tackling some French infantry but please be patient.