Sunday, March 9, 2014

From PeterD: 28mm War of 1812 British Artillery & Command Stands (125 points)


From Peter:
I've got a bunch of odd bits that I've worked on over the challenge that I am submitting as one War of 1812 smorgasbord.  The enclosed pictures are of
  • 9 Royal artillery gunners using the Victrix plastic set.  I like the Victrix artillery set, but am going off the Victrix experience as a whole.  The unit of infantry that I'm finishing off was a real bugger to assemble and paint.
  • 2 Victrix 6 pounders from the plastic box set.  They went together ok, but a tad fiddly.  
  • 2 metal naval guns from Brigade Hobbies picked up at the same time as the Meese.  I believe that these are an 18lber and a 12lber.  From what I can tell, fortress guns in North America often came on naval carriages (that is certainly the case at Louisbourg). 
  • A US command stand including a General and a Light Dragoon escort (both on horseback).  These are modified from the Perry French Dragoon set.  The general has his lapels trimmed off and a Victrix infantry officer head.  The dragoon was modified as with my earlier unit of the 2nd Light Dragoons.  I really like the plastic dragoon set.
  • A British command stand including a General and an Aide-de-camp from the Canadian Fencibles Regiment.  Again, these started life as French Dragoons.  I trimmed the lapels down but not off to represent the British officers' coat which frequently had a triangle of coloured lapel showing.  The general's head came from the Perry British infantry box and his aide de camp sports a Brigade Hobbies round hat (the ex-Victrix Royal Marine Hats).  The round hat was apparently the very height of fashion with the beaux sabres on the Niagara in 1813.  Much like the Dukes of Hazard hair and moustache in 1990s Biloxi I imagine. 

For the artillery, I opted to mount the gunners on one base and the pieces on a separate base so that I could switch the weaponry around to suit.  

I've had a good laugh at your CSA uniform.  In solidarity with your coming out, I enclose another entry in the "dumb looks from the past while in uniform" challenge. The year is I think 1976, my scout troop was one of the few to wear kilts, and yes that was a lot of hair.  
The only good thing is that given what was fashionable at the time, this picture would likely be more embarrassing if I was wearing pants.

That picture of you is wonderfully dorktastic so I heartily welcome you to the club, congratulations! I must say I get a bit of vertigo looking at the photo as you're pretty much upright but that building in the background looks like it's in the midst of a crash dive or being slowly dragged away by a Cthonian (who must be just off camera).

Great work on the artillery and command stands. I quite like those naval guns on their deck carriages. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to manoeuvre one of those monstrous things in uneven terrain. I have a box of the Victrix guns in the wings and I'm looking forward to giving them a go after seeing yours.

These guns, their crew and the mounted officers will give Peter 125 points. Well done!

8 comments:

  1. Nice work Peter. Makes a change to see some naval guns.

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  2. Thanks All
    Thankfully Curt the Naval guns were mounted in shore batteries and arrived by ship or batteaux. A lot of the actions from the War of 1812 involved amphibious landings so the batteries did see action. However, the Brits had a couple 24 lbers on field carriages which saw action at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane.
    Not sure dorktastic was the lookI was looking for at age 14, but it seems to fit. I am also not sure that the Vertigo look was what my mum intended in the photo, but it adds to the effect.
    Be forewarned that while the Victrix artillery men go together easily enough, their implements are brittle and easily broken.
    Cheers
    PD

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  3. Good result. Not sure about the scale miniature in the last photo. :)
    Cheers

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  4. Very nice work Peter. I will have to see if I can find any pictures of my past of that quality.

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  5. Love the mix, glad I stick to 6mm

    Ian

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)