"Samurai Musket" Topic

In some of the Stephen Turnbull books, there is an image of a samurai and two ashigaru loading what looks like an enormous teppo mounted on two wheels. Its not a cannon; it has a wooden stock and cheekpiece, and a matchlock on top, but the bore appears to be over 1 inch in diameter. I suppose it is much in the same vein as the Spanish musket of the day, which could only be fired from a rest: perhaps its even larger.

Does anyone know of manufacture who makes a 15mm model of this? Thanks.

Hrm… problem is, I don't think many people would buy more than 1-2 of them (not cost-effective to sell), so you might have to scratchbuild it.

Are there any online pictures of this? It sounds interesting, and I could probably knock out the weapon itself in about an hour or so.

Here is one, brought to you by google:

link

Includes some how-to manual pages which are at least as interesting.

Actually seen one of these before, at the San Francisco token-kai I believe. ncjsc.org

How about one of the gatling gun-like contraption from LW&C?

I thought these were what was referred to as "wall cannons".
Wouldn't mind knowing for sure.

David
kingsfordminiatures.org

Sorry for the lack of a link, I couldn't find it this morning. Here is the google books version of the book I am reading, see page 54.

link

The author describes it as a 'cannon', but not only does it have a matchlock, but it has no trail to create friction to absorb the recoil; instead it has a shoulder-stock or cheek-piece behind the breech.

On second consideration, perhaps it is too large to be an early musket (which I understand were too large to be fired from the shoulder at this time) but almost the equivalent of a naval swivel gun, firing a 1/2 pound shot.

@ Lion in the Stars,
You're right, I'm only looking for 1 or 2 of these to augment my samurai skirmish force during sieges. Do you think its possible to scratch-build it?

"Do you think its possible to scratch-build it?"

Use a hollow brass rod of the right side, some green stuff and some patience and you could probably do it.

Possible? 15mm stuff is actually really easy to scratchbuild! Even easier than in 28mm, because you don't need to do anywhere near as much detail. I use plastic for simple shapes, because it's easy to carve the 'complications' into (like that cheek-stock). Plastic glue for all the plastic-to-plastic joints, CA for the plastic-to-metal ones. Put a brand-new blade into your X-acto and get going!

I'd use a .040" (1mm) plastic tube for the barrel (maybe a .060"), and a strip of .020" (0.5mm) plastic for the stock. A small piece of electrical wire for the matchlock, and another for the match itself.

I'd see what wheels I could scrounge (I *hate* trying to scratchbuild open wheels that are only 6mm in diameter), and use more of that .5mm plastic strip to make the axle. Maybe from a Battlefront one-horse cart? Actually, using pre-made wheels, I'd use a piece of brass rod for the axle and then put a plastic strip across the top of the brass axle. I'd aim to have the wheels about a wheel-width apart.

Then put the completed gun on top of the 'axle'. Don't worry about a swivel mount at that scale, it's hidden under the gun anyway. You may want to put a bit of that .5mm strip under the wheels, depending on how you base your figures.

For crew, a kneeling ashigaru that you've cut the teppo off of for the gunner, another kneeling one for the loader, and a standing samurai in full armor to match the picture.

I'd then put all of those guys on a Flames of War medium base (I have enough of them running around and the beveled edge looks nice). 3 troops and a gun looks about right for that size base. I put the gun in place but don't glue it down, arrange the figures on the base with CA, then apply wood filler to level the cast-on bases without the gun, and put the gun back down after about 10 minutes of drying time.

It's too bad I don't have any 15mm Samurai… I could knock that out in about an hour or so, maybe less. Have to let the Wood filler dry overnight, though. Then you paint it the next day.

Presto! a heavy teppo with crew for your sieges, in about 2 hours work.

Oh, I am *so* building one of those in 28mm scale! I have enough Clan War figures to crew it, too, so…

I should have step-by-step pictures of a 15mm version done this weekend, I just need to find a respectable host that doesn't claim copyright on my photos.

I'm not going to base this version, as I still don't have any 15mm samurai or ashigaru (yet), but I will show the basing/painting method using a few WW2 artillery pieces.

gaaaaah, too many periods of interest, not enough time or money!