Churchill wrote:I have gone with 28mm Front Rank miniatures and I will be using the long barrelled EQ8 to represent the 5pdr Saker of which there were 10 of these supporting Lord Cutts assault on Blenheim village. There were also 4 x 5.5" Howitzers in support and for these I'm using EQ12 again with the longer barrel.
Hi Ray - thanks for the reply - yes I was going to use an EQ8 for the French 6pdrs, and one for the Anglo-Dutch Sakers you mention. But couldn't work out if to use the shorter barrel for the French 6pdrs and the long barrel for the Sakers - just to make them look different but still historical?
I have an EQ12 too - for the Anglo-Dutch - and can't recall it having 2 barrels - I'll have to check (it only shows one
on the FR page). I was actually planning to maybe paint mine as Austrian just for variety (the yellow with black metal - see below) - even though as Edward says the artillery should be all Anglo-Dutch. Anyway I was planning on using the shortest barrel regardless (if it has 2) to emphasise the howitzer 'appearance' (since it's the only one I will have)!
And having an Austrian 'Yellow" Howitzer is so Charles Grant-ish - you kinda have to do it if you have the excuse for that old-school charm!
Churchill wrote:I think the reason behind Alec Brown of Front Rank adding a second gun to his packs is that some nations went with a shorter barrelled gun of the same calibre.
Yes - that's what I'm thinking but can't find any simple guide as to which is which and whether those shorter barrels only apply to the later WAS & SYW periods?
Churchill wrote:I've divided the real number of guns by 4 and then rounded numbers up for model's i.e. the 10 Sakers become 3 models and the 4 Howitzers = 1 model all with 4 crew each.
I'm just doing an abstract representation for my army loosely based on the mix at Blenheim - FWIW I'm arbitrarily doing 4 gun models for each side with a planned mix as follows:
Anglo-Dutch Allied/Confederates:
1 x EQ12 (howitzer) in Yellow (Savoy/Austrian)*
1 x EQ8 (6pdr long barrel) in Grey (British)
1 x EQ1 (3pdr long barrel) in Red (Dutch)
1 x EQ1 (3pdr long barrel) in White (Prussian)*
Franco-Bavarians:
1 x EQ9 (12pdr) in Red (French)
1 x EQ8 (6pdr short barrel) in Red (French)
1 x EQ1 (4pdr short barrel) in Red (French)
1 x EQ1 (3pdr/4pdr long barrel) in ??? (Bavarian)*
* Although Marlborough's army primarily had the Anglo-Dutch Artillery I wanted to try and get some variety in the colours & uniforms of the guns - so thought I might stretch it a bit to so this. I also wanted to maybe do a Bavarian gun team for the Franco-Bavarians, although I think that might be a bit of a stretch too - but as yet can't find any info on Bavarian Artillery Colours, if they were Red too there is no point and I'll just do all 4 as French Guns...
I also have 2 of the Foundry "Battalion Guns" but as far as I can see these were rare and quite late in the era for WSS and aren't really overly appropriate for Marlburian Armies (except perhaps for the Austrians and/or Prussians later on)? So I'm just using the crewmen to add variety to the FR chaps to crew the above weapons...
Churchill wrote:There was no such thing as the Royal Artillery at this time and the artillery train would have been served by civillian labour using horses and oxen to move the guns from one place to another. The guns and there frames were so heavy that once placed on the battlefield seldomed moved again except to be manhandled to change targets.
Yes - I'm reasonably up to speed with most of that - and aren't planning on doing any limbers for the latter reason. I'm planning to model 1-2 uniformed 'artillerymen' with each gun then fill out the crew to 3-figs with civilian types - after all there were official artillery uniforms for most armies at the time so mixed crews seems right...
Churchill wrote:You should keep your artillery limited to only a few guns as per the period.
See above.
