"Oxen to pull 40 pounder BLR in 2nd Afghan War." Topic

Based on pictures that were sent in to TMP by MadGuru and figuring he knows all there is to know about the 2nd Afghan war, I have decided to paint some oxen to pull my still yet uncompleted 40 pound BLR guns. I could not find the humped back type bullocks shown in the pictures but I did have some Perry Miniatures oxen from the Middle Ages and decided to just go ahead and paint them up.

As an additional note. I also lightened up the underbellies of the oxen and carried that up the sides in the middle as I noticed many of them were colored that way in photos. Also, the Perry oxen come in two different walking positions but you can vary the head angles a little to give a more varied and random look.

Wow, Bob, I am impressed! Man do you move fast!

Still I must confess that I posted that pic as a reply to your request for images of the 40-pound gun, and I'm not certain that British artillery was in fact pulled by bullock teams in Afghainstan itself during the war -- though considering how difficult it was for the British to find enough horses for their Second Afghan War transport needs it certainly may have happened. The photo is labelled "1880" but it's possible it was taken in India under peaceful conditions.

On the other hand, a substantial portion of the Afghan regular army's artillery was indeed pulled by bullocks, and I have several teams worth of my own awaiting fine paint jobs and basing like yours, so you could always use these bullocks to pull guns for either side!

Madguru – Rudyard Kipling writes that bullocks were used to pull guns into their final positions after the elephants had delivered them to the general area as the elephants did not like the sound of the firing guns.

"Sit down," said the mule, "or you'll snap your long stick-legs between the guns." He cocked one ear and listened. "Bullocks!" he said. "Gun bullocks. On my word, you and your friends have waked the camp very thoroughly. It takes a good deal of prodding to put up a gun-bullock."

I heard a chain dragging along the ground, and a yoke of the great sulky white bullocks that drag the heavy siege guns when the elephants won't go any nearer to the firing, came shouldering along together.

Redoubt has some nice gun bullocks from their Wellington in India range.

Thanks Doc Ord. I will check them out.