"Dimensions of a French An XI 6-pounder?" Topic

My Google Fu has let me down and I have been unable to find the above. Does anyone have a sketch or similar of a French 6-pounder that shows these key dimensions?

I ask because I have lately acquired a few Airfix Waterloo box sets (£25 off Amazon – you can't complain, really). There are various issues with these, notably that the French infantry are all NCOs, but one of the more soluble ones is the artillery. I figure if I put the gun wheels on the limbers and the British gun wheels on the guns I'll have something closer to the right shape. What I don't have a reliable idea of what then needs to be done to the trail.

I know the obvious answer is to buy something better but old school is as old school does…

Rene Chartrand's Osprey on Napoleon's Guns, Volume I, should help you.

You can also put the AN XI 6-pounder gun tube on a Gribeauval 8-pounder gun carriage, though the 6-pounder did not have travelling trunnion plates as there was no need for them with the lighter gun tube.

Another idea may be to get the three volumes on the Gribeauval System by Mongin and Letrun:

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All three are well-illustrated and the Systeme AN XI is included.

While I appreciate the OSW approach, I must admit I personally wouldn't bother. There are really just so many better alternatives – I kept the crew (I quite like them actually) and added the spare Italeri guns from the guard horse artillery (two guns per box, one crew firing, one evidently limbered)

And the limbers are beyond saving in my (not so) humble opinion.

Buy a box of HaT limbers and treasure the rest of the box's contents (and that way you get to keep the RHA guns and wheels for the Brits – still an excellent set)

Marc

Oh, I've got accurate Napoleonic minis – in 28mm metal. I want some inaccurate ones as well, in 1/72 plastic…for old times' sake. :-)

Following Kevin's suggestion I've Googled a Gribeauval 8-pounder carriage, which the Airfix effort resembles no less than it does an An XI piece, or a cane chair, or a table lamp, it must be said. It looks like the overall carriage length is about twice the wheel diameter.

Is it right that the track of the limber should be narrower than that of the gun?

That is an excellent question. I haven't even thought about that one before.

However, having checked it now, the wheel bases were the same for the piece and its limber.

Thanks Kevin, good enough for me. I hadn't thought about it either until I came across this:

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The plan view looks as though the track of the limber might perhaps be marginally narrower. But I have no idea of the actual source, and in any case, on closer inspection I think it is an optical illusion – the limber wheel is drawn thinner than the gun wheel and with a smaller outside boss / hub arrangement. So the limber's overall width is visibly less but the track of the actual wheels is as you say the same.

The Almark book, a 1970s book, on French Napoleonic artillery has some good notes in it.