This evening, as I was packing away the Britains Deetail toy soldiers that Ross Mac kindly sent me all the way from Canada, I decide to see what some of may artillery looked like with crews.
The first 'experiment' used one of my Britains 4.7-inch Naval Guns (the gun has a shortened barrel and is crewed by some rather large metal American Civil War Union figures from Ross Mac's collection) and a Crescent 18-pounder Field Gun (crewed by some equally large American Civil War Confederate metal figures and a Britains Deetail flag-less flag-bearer. The results were ... interesting.
The metal figures look quite all right alongside the Naval Gun ... but they rather dwarf the Field Gun.
Next I tried a conventional 4.7-inch Naval Gun with the Union figures and the short-barrelled 4,7-inch Naval Gun with the Confederate figures.
In this instance the figures looked in scale with the cannon.
So what have I learned? That the larger figures can be used to crew the larger artillery pieces ... and that I need some smaller figures to crew my Field Guns.
The first 'experiment' used one of my Britains 4.7-inch Naval Guns (the gun has a shortened barrel and is crewed by some rather large metal American Civil War Union figures from Ross Mac's collection) and a Crescent 18-pounder Field Gun (crewed by some equally large American Civil War Confederate metal figures and a Britains Deetail flag-less flag-bearer. The results were ... interesting.
Next I tried a conventional 4.7-inch Naval Gun with the Union figures and the short-barrelled 4,7-inch Naval Gun with the Confederate figures.
So what have I learned? That the larger figures can be used to crew the larger artillery pieces ... and that I need some smaller figures to crew my Field Guns.
It is with such guns that little war is made.
ReplyDeleteNapoleon (amended)
Conrad Kinch,
ReplyDeleteNice quote; I will be sure to use it at some time in the future!
All the best,
Bob
I saw a small howitzer (part of an ACW "jack ass battery," I believe) at the Chickamauga Battlefield Park that looked about the same size as the little gun and big Confederate crew when I stood next to it. In fact, it looked like it could have been crewed by 10-year-olds.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some kneeling crew would help the look.
Paul Leach,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that kneeling figures would look better much better, especially with the smaller gun. They also have the advantage of not being such large targets either!
All the best,
Bob
These 4.7s seem to work well with virtually any figure size from 20-54mm! I was surprosed by how small the Crescent guns looked when I tried them next to my 54s.
ReplyDeleteTim Gow,
ReplyDeleteThe smaller cannons that I own _ both Crescent 18-pounders and Britains Field Guns - all look too small for 54mm figures. Having kneeling gun crews for them is probably the answer to getting the look 'right'.
You are right about the 4.7-inch guns; for some reason they look 'right' with a range of different scale figures. I wonder why?
All the best,
Bob