writes:A few years ago, I sent some 1:72nd plastic American Civil War Union figures to Fernando Enterprises. You've previously seen the infantry and the cavalry. And now, finally, the artillery have matriculated from my workbench!
The delay in basing these figures is nobody's fault but my own, they've been here waiting all this time! 
The plastic set provides enough figures for three guns with crew, one limber, and assorted infantry figures. I'm only showing the guns today, the others are still on my workbench.
I said three, so why only two gun stands? I had the painters leave the guns unassembled as I thought they would ship best that way. When I unpacked the painted figures, I found only two gun barrels… until recently, while cleaning my workbench area, I found the third gun barrel underfoot! It must have escaped during the unpacking. Unfortunately, in the meantime, I dropped one of the wheels and it rolled… somewhere… so the third gun stand is delayed until the errant wheel reveals itself!
I chose to base these on 2-inch-square wooden bases (from LITKO), which leaves just enough room for the gun and four crew figures. There's also a chest and a stack of cannonballs.
These figures are from the first batch I sent to the painters. As I mentioned in the earlier article, the wrong primer was used, so the paint peels off easily.
Each gun comprises four parts: gun barrel, gun mount, and two wheels. I found it challenging to get the wheels to glue to the soft-plastic gun mount, and I touched up the gray paint in spots afterward.
I asked the painters to follow the painting scheme on the box, and they did a very good job of. (So if you think the painting scheme is off, blame the manufacturer.)
The artillerymen have some nice, active poses, though it can be hard to fit them all on the base. The guns are in two sizes, and are not terribly accurate but they'll fight fine on the tabletop.
The black rectangle in the corner is a piece of magnetic sheet. During a game, I'll place unit identifications on the magnets.