"Guard Horse Artillery" Topic

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‌AA7790DE-4B31-4B05-AAE4-BED65CD1DEDC by Piero Crespo, en Flickr

]C00CFFA2-12C7-4319-840E-BDDD4E77FB85 by Piero Crespo, en Flickr

‌413F0DA7-C412-4267-B882-BC0DCEA757D2 by Piero Crespo, en Flickr

Beautifully done.

These four from Perry were my first ever foray into 28mm figures, many many years ago. (Suddenly I think that no, it was the Netherlands HA by a week or two).

A decade plus since, the 28mm figures are all gone in a good cause and my future project is this unit in 1/72 scale (using much Greenstuff on Hagen figures) for the Waterloo project.

But these are great. The NCO lace and aiguillette detail is very well done.

OK I would shift the spongeman to the other side of the gun and (odd this but there is a reason) that red top to the colpack should be black. It is a waterproof cover. No-one will notice, but there is always some anorak.

Terrific. Just needs another five guns now, six limbers, 12 caissons, 18x3 drivers, horse holders and held horses beyond counting, plus an occifer or two and their trumpeters. Get into artillery at your peril! After doing a Brunswick, Netherlands and now two Foot Guard "batteries" (OK, companies) in 1/72, I do know

Sweet!

Very nice.

Very nice painting and presentation.

Liam has pointed out that the spongeman should change sides.

There is a ‘ live' side to the crew, opposite the ammunition side, for safety purposes.

Talking of ammunition, those cannon balls are wrong. Field artillery ammunition was prepackaged for this period, again for safety and rapidity of fire.

Otherwise, very nice indeed.

Best wishes,

Chris

Thanks for the compliments and for the critiques. Regarding these last, Deadhead is right in that the top of the colpack was black, in campaign dress. But the full dress colpack, with the red top, was often worn in campaign as well. I refer to Marbot when he mentions the "guard artillery red-topped colpacks" in the battle of Essling.
I will also refer to Marbot, when he mentions that, during Borodino, Lariboissiere ordered the artillery to load two balls per round, when shooting at the russians at close range, to increase lethality. Which means that roundshot was not prepackaged, as was shrapnel and grapeshot.

Double shotting! What a good point. Roundshot must have come separately in that case (meaning event not "grapeshot"…oh forget it…..)

Less convinced by the colpack top. Without the black cover the "Flamme" would be unfolded and dangle on the right.

Great painting. The brasswork is superb and few think to apply long service or rank stripes, as here

This is a good point.

Round shot according in to Adkin's wonderful Waterloo companion was mounted on a sabot but not attached to the serge propellant bag.

Cannister was attached to the propellant charge.

My apologies.

All ammunition was stored in the cassion or in the the small portable coffret in the French army for a supply of ready use ammunition.

Best wishes ,

Chris

Not all manufactures can be wrong having artillerymen carrying unpacked roundshotˇ.

Front Rank

‌11EEDB6E-98C7-42D9-BE91-F568BD4C4BFE by Piero Crespo, en Flickr

Perry

‌6B2A441D-0C75-4DB6-B74C-8086B10EC00E by Piero Crespo, en Flickr

Foundry

‌D257739C-D279-4472-A146-E4031746688E by Piero Crespo, en Flickr

Calpe

‌9A3A7907-ED33-447C-A364-F5B7B87F84B3 by Piero Crespo, en Flickr

Beautiful painting but personally I would rather not trust manufacturers to get it right per se.

My Hat Austrians do not have bayonet holders on them and the ammunition pouches are enormous, the marching officer has not got a sword scabbard , as examples.

Reference to, for example, Artillery and the Gribeauval system ( Histoire and Collections), Artillery Equipments of the Napoleonic Wars ( Osprey) and French Napoleonic Artillery (Almark) are all informative about their subject matter with illustrations and descriptions of the ammunitions. Pre packed ammunition sped up rates of fire and reduced the chance of accidents associated with loose powder of previous years.

When servicing a field piece of the period you have a ‘ live' side of the piece ( ie port fire man) and the ammunition side, cartridges, shot, etc in order to avoid premature explosions.

The Foundary picture seems to show a powder barrel with cartridges on it. The person responsible would be on a charge if they were still in one piece.

Please do not think my comments are critical, they are observations. War-gamers sometimes use stacks of cannon balls as ammunition markers for their batteries which is fine.

The painting, as stated is beautiful, far better than anything I am capable of.

Best wishes,

Chris

Absolutely!. I appreciate them very much. Indeed, thanks to your comments I have learned about the "live" side, which I was not aware of. It makes a lot of sense.
I must admit, however, that I am not too keen on rebasing all of my artillery in order to place the sponge man in its right place!

Thank you for your kind comment.

The period artillery was dangerous to its operators as it was to its targets.

The recoil could catch out the the unwary and I seem to remember a gunner in Mercer' RHA battery losing both arms ( Butterworth?)because he fell forwards as the piece was discharged.

Keep up the good work.

Best wishes,

Chris