Sunday 29 November 2009

Prussian limber – final version

Thanks to everyone who chipped in with suggestions on what to do about my limbers and also for the various offers of extra horses. In the end I decided to opt for proper four-horse teams rather than the original truncated two-horse ones. I feel more comfortable with this because it’s how I made up the limber teams in my original 1970’s army and is more in keeping with the idea behind this project. However, as limbers are a bit of a luxury on the wargame table, I will initially limit their presence to just one per nationality with probably two for the French.

This final version of a limber and team for my Prussian artillery has been put together from various sources and is made up as follows:

1 x AL/4 Prussian Limber (David Clayton casting)
1 x H1 Allied draughthorse, nearside (vintage HH)
1 x H2 Allied draughthorse, offside (vintage HH)
1 x Allied draughthorse, nearside (Der Kriegspielers)
1 x Allied draughthorse, offside (Der Kriegspielers)
1 x PN38 Artillery driver (probably vintage HH)
(Prussian field piece by Newline Designs)

All the old castings were stripped and repainted by me and then mounted on plasticard bases. The pair of horses with the limber are on a piece 30mm x 60mm and the other pair on a separate detachable base 30mm x 30mm. The DK horses are interesting because this is one occasion where DK are virtually indistinguishable from Hinton Hunt other than the fact that they are slightly thinner.

Now I just have to re-vamp my RHA limber then I promise I’ll move on to something new.

13 comments:

Mad Carew said...

Great picture.

Paul said...

Hi Ian, This looks a lot better !
I very much like the color of the gun
may i enquire what brand & shade the paint is

Regards
Paul

Stryker said...

Thanks for the comments chaps!

Paul - the paint is from the Wargames Foundry range. The colour is Deep Blue shade 20c. It's probably a bit bright to be realistic but I like the look of it.

Ian

Rafael Pardo said...

Hi
A great limber and very useful for wargaming!
Regards
Rafa

Paulalba said...

Very nice Stryker,
Reminds me I have some limbers to put together.
Cheers
Paul

lewisgunner said...

But bright rather suits the look that you are aimimg for Ian. If you were going for textured bases and a weathered and highlighted look for the kit then that would be a bright blue, but as you are aiming for something more towards traditional toy soldier then brightness works.
Roy

Clive Norman said...

Hi Ian, it looks very nice but, for me, I'd need a small blank green base under the canon so that everything is at the same level! Cheers. Clive

Stryker said...

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Clive - you have a point I guess but the little bit of base sticking out would bug me when the gun was deployed. The old rule set I will be using with the figures says the deployed guns should be based on 60mm triangular bases so I may at least make these to level the height up when in action!

Ian

Clive Norman said...

Hi Ian, I was thinking that you could have a base that was the same width as the base that the limber is on, and long enough to include the cannon. Rectangular and, of course, painted in the same green. You wouldn't stick the cannon to it. It would simply sit under the cannon for when the cannon is limbered, and be removed and replaced by a triangular bit when unlimbered. A little bit fiddly when moving the horses, limber and cannon around the battlefield, but perhaps, it may just be worth it. (I'm mad!)
cheers
Clive

Al said...

Just superb. Not really my era but I've certainly enjoyed looking through your work.

Al

Stryker said...

Clive - I like they way you're thinking (indeed slighlty mad) and yes, you're right they should all be neatly at the same height! Could be a bit of a pain trundling across the battle field on three bases - I'll give it serious consideration though.

Al - glad you like the blog. Your own blog is not really my period either but excellent!

Ian

Anonymous said...

If you are going to do limbers (Yes - they are a luxury) then you might as well do them in full.

Looks much better this way and you are right, if it feels you are comfortable with it - it cannot be wrong!

Regards

Matt

Der Alte Fritz said...

I like the look of the 4 horse limber team. I struggled with the same thing and eventually settled on 4 horses. I added some extra base length on the end so that the cannon is also on the base while in transit. I keep the cannon model detached from any bases.