"Turkish Field Artillery" Topic

"This set is subtitled for the 16th and 17th centuries, a period that began with the Ottomans enjoying an unmatched reputation for excellence in artillery. The really big guns inevitably took much of the attention, but from the early 16th century the Ottomans adopted the European field carriage, giving their smaller guns much better mobility, which was particularly important when a battle was expected rather than a siege. However during the two centuries in question the European powers improved their artillery such that it matched and in places surpassed that of the Empire.

As is usual with Mars this set provides six poses for each gun. The first is rather odd as it is of a man holding what looks like a spear with presumably a match wrapped round it, so he is using this as a linstock. The second man holds a scoop, and the third another, much shorter but more typical linstock, again with match wound round it. The fourth holds a round for the gun. The fifth man (second row) is a peculiar piece however. He holds a rod at chin height, but what this is and why he is doing it is hard to guess. The box illustration shows a similar man ramming down the barrel, but this figure holds the rod way too high for either of the guns in this set, so we must assume the box shows us the intention, but the sculptor was not up to the task of delivering it. Instead we have a figure that is largely useless. The final figure is waving a mace about, and from his costume must be someone in charge. While the mace was a common indicator of rank, why an artillery officer would be waving one next to a gun is beyond us…"

Full review here

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Amicalement
Armand