"Size Differences in FPW Guns from Different Manufacturers?" Topic

I am continuing to work on my 19th-century armies for the FPW, Seven Weeks War, 1859, etc. and was wondering if there were any noticeable size differences in the Prussian 4-lb and 6-lb Krupp guns in real life?

The guns that Old Glory supplies are all the same for the 1870 War and although Outpost Wargaming Services has different codes/packs for each size gun, I can't really tell the difference when I place the two from Outpost side by side. There is maybe a VERY slight difference in the diameter of the gun tubes, but like I said I can't really see a difference in size. The Old Glory guns are quite a bit bigger in comparison.

In addition I bought the 3 different gun options that Outpost supplies for the French in their FPW Line and all three, the 4-lb rifle, the 8-lb smooth bore, and 12-lb smooth bore (their descriptions) also look to be almost exactly the same size. The carriages are the same. All three are similar in size to the smaller guns supplied by Old Glory, but the OG packs come with 2 guns that are quite a bit larger and these guns have a carriage that is also a lot bigger.

The Outpost Armstrong breech loaders are pretty close in size to the Stone Mountain ACW Armstrong guns.

I purchased several packs of Stone Mountain ACW guns (since the French used a lot of ACW guns during the Republican phase of the war)and the bigger OG French guns are as big as the 4.5" Ordinance Siege gun and the 30-lb Parrot on Siege Carriages by Stone Mountain.

From my reading I gather that the French 4-lb and 12-lb guns were rifled and fired projectiles approximately of 9-lb for the 4-lb gun and about 25-lb for the 12-lb gun, the nomenclature in use still reflecting the weight of round shot that could be fired from these tubes.The 8-lb were re-bored from older gun tubes, but I would guess from the above that they fired a shell weighing in at about 17-lb.

If you go by the French nomenclature of 4,8, and 12-lb I would think there would be a noticeable difference in tube diameter and possibly length, just like Napoleonic guns.

Any thoughts on the real guns sizes or the miniature gun sizes? I figure I will be able to use all of the miniature guns in my 19th-century imagination campaign, but for historical battles I would like to supply my miniature armies with the most accurate guns available.

Thanks!

Russ

I don't know about the miniatures, but the so-called "8 pounder" (actually canon de huit – meaning 8 kg) was the 12-pdr Napoleon smoothbore converted to a rifle, so they should be the same size.

The use of smoothbores smaller than the Napoleon had been discontinued some two decades before the 1870 war, they weren't, to my knowledge, even used in the Italian War.

I'm guessing the much bigger guns in the Old Glory pack are supposed to be either 12-kg siege rifles or naval guns converted to land use.