Friday 10 December 2010

Russian Horse Limber

Due to my weird way of working through projects this will be me 1st of many posts in the next few weeks as I have managed to get a group of stuff all pretty much finished at the same time. Again thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in my blog and has helped me out with details of uniforms and equipment. Straight out sorry for the quality of the pics as I just don't have a place for photography or proper lights.

This is what my brother and I call our Napoleonic eye candy as it has no real use on the table top but does help make your army look finished. So in case you haven't guessed already this is a 15mm Russian horse artillery limber from AB. The set comes with a six horse team but I have decided to keep all my limbers and caissons to 4 horses for space and lack of bending of the base.
Bases are from Warbases in Dunfermline.

The uniform green is a black base coat with the Foundry Russian green light blocked in. I then mixed Vallejo Russian green through it for a highlight them used the Vallejo Russian green neat for the final highlight on the folds. I have been trying to get more of a contrast with my shading lately as I spent many years modelling WW2 figures and vehicles and keeping the shading as subtle as possible. Now I want to see the different shades from a reasonable distance on the gaming table.



I added little ropes to attach the limber to each harness. I used copper wire (8 strands per rope) and clamped it in a pin vice then twisted till it reasonably resembled rope. Each 1 was then carefully attached by twisting them around the places they should be on the limber and then glued into place on the horses. I drilled little horizontal holes where the end points would be glued to make life a little easier.


The finished battery and limber altogether.

Coming up pretty soon I will be posting my Russian foot artillery limber, Bavarian limber, a Prussian guard battalion plus jagers and my Russians cuirassiers.

6 comments:

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Nice looking battlefield eye candy as you pointed out!

Cheers
Christopher

Robert said...

Great work, Paul- it really looks the business.

One of the advantages of working with 15mm is that limbers are readily available for just about every nationality. I'm still waiting for Front Rank to put out a Russian limber set in 28mm, but I'm not holding my breath!

Stryker said...

Paul - another stunning little unit. Really excellent stuff!

Ian

Doc Smith said...

Paul - these are really excellent. Very few (myself included) have gone to the trouble of putting the traces on the horse teams - its a great detail that sets this set apart from all others. All the more impressive at 15mm. I love the Russian horse artillery and have the 28mm Front Rank one but have had to scratch build the limbers for it. Your figures (AB, Eureka?) show just how good a set like this can be. Pity nobody produces something of this standard in 28mm.

Cheers,
Doc

Ken said...

Nice work Paul - DocSmith is right about including the traces, it makes a world of difference!

Cheers

Ken

Paulalba said...

Thanks for the kind comments guys:
Every wargames table needs a little eye candy Christopher :-)

I know what you mean Robert, I have an Essex 25mm foot limber painted up from many years ago so it is surprising Front Rank didn't do 1?

Thanks Ian the limbers are a nice distraction from painting battalions.

Thanks Doc, my years of modelling 1/72 scale tanks came in handy as we used to add little accessories to our vehicles. It is a shame that none of the big producers produce a 28mm limber for your Russians?

Hi Ken, I agree the traces helps finish off the look of the limbers.
Best regards
Paul