Normally I am done a project before I think about posting, never mind recording, a WIP. But I have been having fun lately creating a mule-carried mountain battery to be used in some upcoming games based on the Pyrennes battles in 1813. I am making the unit modular so the mule models can be used separately as well, and possibly allowing other nationalites to be inserted as the figures. I confess, the gun itself, especially the carriage, is a bit of an invention based on a Gribeauval carriage, as I could find no good reference for mountain artillery that was broken down and carried such as these guns were.
I did however discover this reference of a later era mountain gun which I used as my inspiration.
First step was to gather up these bits from my parts box. I used some old French Napoleonic artillery horses as they are a bit smaller and sturdy-looking, good for conversion to mules. I have already elongated the horses' ears and thickened their muzzles with putty.
This and the next picture are just me glueing the bits onto the mules and attaching them to their washer bases. I used balsa wood for the boxes.
Next step was sculpting the belts, harness and ropes holding everything in place. I have three mules, one for the cannon, one for the carriage and one for the wheels. Ammunition would be on other mules but these will do for my model so it doesn't take up too much real estate on the gaming table. The blue tacky stuff is just to keep the horses supported while I do my scultping.
Here they are with the basing applied.
Primed and ready to go.
Now the handlers. I converted some later war Hat French artillery to earlier war, as the poses worked. I probably could have kept them as later war (this is for 1813) but then they wouldn't really look matched to all of my French in the pre-Baudin uniform. I found the shakos small on this set so puttied them up larger with shako covers. Other conversions were the lengthening of the tails, attaching muskets, and modelling the open front jacket to show the vest. My sculpting is always pretty rough - these are gaming models and my skill limited!
I enjoyed the problem solving around this part. I glued a thin flexible magnet strip to the base and placed the figures where they would go.
Then I applied my basing material (a plastering compound) on the base up to the edges of the stands...
And finally I removed the figures while the compound was still wet and allowed the base to dry. I firmed up the edges of the holes with white glue, and now I am ready to paint. Because they figures are on metal washers with a magnet base, I can pop them on and off as needed.
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Sounds like a winter day project...
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