Austrian Wurst artillery.
These units were a compromise between the traditional foot artillery and the horse artillery units of the French, with its mounted gunners, as an example.
The speed of the unit was not great but the idea was that having the crew sit astride the carriage on the padded seat ( a sausage looking device, hence wurst) the unit would arrive as a compact force.
My understanding is that although they were regarded as cavalry accompaniments this was not an exclusive role for them.
I have used the delightful Westphalian models, now available through Franznap along with the crews.
The model limber requires rigging and to this end I have utilised this excellent modellers ideas.
I am most grateful to a Mr. Chasseur for the superb work on his blog spot.
A real find for Napoleonic fans.
link
The string I purchased was black so after running the thread through my fingers with PVA to stop it fraying and once dry, I painted in the light beige colour required.
For flexibility on my sand table I rigged up the rear four horses as a unit with the leading pair separate, to position when required.
Interestingly, many modellers seem to use a standard A frame Austrian limber with its ammunition box attached.
Francessco's model, seems from my research to be correct, without the box,
as the limber of this gun has no ammunition chest as for the common guns, because the `Protznagel` (towing spike DGS) is mounted in the dish on top of the axle.
Each gun was always accompanied by two pack horses, led by a mounted train soldier.
One pack saddle has 4 pouches, containing 20 ball cartridges or 10 shells. This ammunition, together with the 10 rounds in the bench, makes 44 ball cartridges with the gun, 5 canister (`Schrotbüchsen` DGS), 22 shells with a howitzer.
Source, the Napoleon series, author,
Karl Baron Smola, Oberlieutenant in the Austrian Artillery.
I have therefore included two pack horses and a handler from Franznap to complete the unit.
The train chaps are Art Miniturian with Piano corse hut heads as the originals had the shako which is incorrect for Αspern.
Another intriguing theme regarding Austrian artillery is the colour of the gun and howitzer tubes. There is a suggestion that they were painted black.
Whilst an iron piece would benefit from preventing rust, bronze tubes would quickly burn any paint off in action leaving a blistered mess. Most field artillery I believe was brass.
A gentleman called Summerfield on a TMP thread suggested that the reaction of gunpowder with bronze. gives a dark brown/black patina to the bronze. This is extremely resistant to polishing. This makes sense to my mind.
The knowledgable Von Winterfeldt is happy with brass and so am I.
Nevertheless, I gave my barrels a light wash in burnt umber for effect.
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Lots to do .
Chris
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.
