Operation Pickelhaube Part 3

 Moving on with my little Prussians, it's time to add their rifles. I should say, I haven't gone for realism with these at all - in keeping with the rest of my simplified cartoon peg soldiers' look - and they are just recognisably rifles. They aren't modelled on the real Prussian rifles of the Franco-Prussian war - Dreyse "needle-gun" rifle - and are a bit over-sized, again because my soldiers are sort of cartoon figures.

Anyway, fixing the guns in place. Surprise - it ain't rocket science! 😂

However, I do take the additional precaution of pinning my guns as well as gluing them as these are just the sort of additional objects that have a knack of getting snapped off, especially if your toy soldiers are for use in the rough and tumble of war-gaming.

I begin by applying a light dot of glue to the parts and then I attach the rifle in place. As these are what I call my 'Mk. 1' peg soldiers - and so things like arms and hands are simply painted on - I tend do go for the 'Order Arms' pose where the rifle sits on the ground and is held with the right hand. 

Once the glue sets and the rifle is fairly secure I then drill a small hole through the 'action' of the rifle right into the peg figure's body. This is where I will insert the pin so your drill needs to compliment the size of pin you are using...

The pins I use are 'Panel Pins' and are usually about 15-20mm long with a slightly enlarged 'head'. To accommodate the head - so that the pin doesn't show - you need to enlarge the hole top a wee bit, then I drip a little drop of glue into the hole and insert the pin...

Depending how deep I have drilled the pilot hole you might need to trim you panel pin to fit. You want to make it so that the head of the pin lays inside the counter-sunk hole you have made. If you make a good job of it you may not have to cover the pin head with filler to hide it...

And there you go, this should be nice and secure. I just have to add some detail to the Prussians' helmets and add some boots (just the toes) and that's the model complete. 😊

Incidentally, I came across a wonderful video of a reenactment of Prussian soldiers using their Dreyse "needle-gun" rifles in action against some unfortunate Austrian infantry armed with less advanced mussel loaders (during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866)...

When the Prussians met the French in battle four years later then did not have such a technological advantage as was shown in the above video. The French were armed with the Fusil modèle 1866 'Chasspot' rifle, which had several advantaged over the Prussian rifle. Sadly, as with so many of the French arms innovations of the 1870s this advantage was not enough to save the French and the German Confederation were the ultimate victors!

Britains No. 1263 '12 Pounder' light gun

One of those fortuitous eBay finds, these two Britains No. 1263 '12 Pounder' light field guns. Now I was already undertaking my own conversion of a Britains 25 Pounder in order to make just such a light - or 'mountain' - gun. However, this bit of luck negates the necessity of all that hard work.*

They were going for peanuts - another of those sales that had been badly and misleadingly described and so wasn't picked up by the ardent diecast collectors - so I snapped them up immediately (despite having already gone over this months toy budget).

The toy is a pretty simple one and has neither the breech loading nor adjustable elevation of the Britains No. 1201 18 Pounder or the No. 1264 4.7 inch Naval Gun. It uses the spring 'pull back' lever system similar to Britains 25 Pounder gun (and so, in effect, is a muzzle loader). It's also relatively small - being roughly half of a 1/32 figure's height - which is understandable as it is, after all, a 'light' gun.

Historical note: I am not entirely sure what the basis for this model is - or was. It looks to me like an attempt to replicate an early breech-loading piece, a very early version at that as it has no recoil suppressor and is mounted on a cannon carriage. The closest historical piece I can find that is similar to the Britains toy is perhaps the British 1859 12 pdr. Armstrong Gun...

The 20 Pounder version of the Armstrong breech loader. Although these guns had no
shield fitted I no reason why at some point one might not have been retro-fitted.

EDIT UPDATE: My brother has done a bit of research and found a artillery piece which seems to fit the bill as the inspiration for this Britains toy gun. It's the 1892 Ordnance BL 12-pounder 6 cwt. In 1899 a primitive recoil system was rigged but in any case it had a short service life - seeing moves to replace it as early as 1901. Again, the problem is that this gun didn't have a shield in any reference I have been able to find so I must conclude that this *may* have been a bit of creative thinking on the part of Britains (unless anyone out there knows any different?).

BL 12 Pounder 6 cwt in use with the RHA in 1897. Source: Wikipedia

I have it in mind that these shall constitute the light artillery support for my Molaterian Jaegers (they being my designated mountain warfare specialists) and will complete my modest collection of light, medium and heavy artillery for my army, along side those Britains guns I have already collected.

They are well played with but functioning and with a bit of care and attention will provide good service.

*While I won't now need my 25 Pounder conversion for the role I had intended it for I do have a new role for it, so this conversion will continue but in a new guise.

Wheely useful resin wheels

Poor man's 4.7 Naval Gun Part 6
I've put this project on the back-burner while I wait for my brother's resin casting experiments to bear fruit. Well, I received a intriguing little parcel from my bruv this morning full of little resin goodies...

To recap, I'm converting a diecast Cresant gun into a mock 4.7 Naval Gun and part of this was my scratch build of the early 1900s era solid wheels. However, I wanted to duplicate the originals as I knew I would need them again in other projects I have in mind.

My brother is experimenting with resin casting and very kindly duplicated my scratch built wheels - as well as some other items - and I think he's done a terrific job (easily comparable to some commercial resin models I have bought).

What else will I use them for? Well, aside from the gun itself, I am thinking about scratch building a steam gun tractor.

In the mean time this access to resin duplication opens up all sorts of possibilities - for example, I have just sent up a couple of heads with custom hats I have just made for my Molaterian infantry project.

This post is part of my 'Poor Man's 4.7 Naval Gun' project - the complete series of posts can be seen here.

Photo from my brother of the casting process.

A little bit of a gun nut!

My Burkish officer needed a revolver, so I made one!

...It's supposed to be a Smith & Wesson .38 (I chickened out of doing a Mauser)! I must be mad. :)

...Oh, it has no trigger or grip because it has to fit on top of his hand - which used to hold binoculars.