The artillery contingent of my Napoleonic French army consists of two batteries, each with two artillery pieces. Like most of the army, these are Front Rank models, and delightful they are too!

Horse Artillery (added 23 October 2004)

The latest unit in my army is the Horse Artillery of the Line. Front Rank make a wonderful set of these gunners in full dress, complete with huge red plumes and lots of braid. These lavish uniforms are fun to paint, and certainly look dramatic on the table.

One of my only criticisms of the Front Rank gunners, however, is that they are very hard to arrange on their bases, as they are not all sculpted performing the same part of the firing sequence. Thus you have the gun being loaded, but meanwhile one gunner is just about to touch the linstock to the vent! Ah well, with only four figures per model, I was never going to be able to depict a full crew in a realisitc pose anyway!

So far I haven't bought any limbers for my artillery, but that is certainly something I would like to do one day in the future. The Horse Arillery would look particualrly spectacular with a couple of galloping teams to drag their guns in to action..

Foot Artillery

These figures are painted in the blue uniforms of the Foot Artillery, though I have given a couple of the gunners different coloured trousers to indicate campaign conditions.

I found the best way of representing the bronze gun barrels was to leave them unpainted metal, but rub on and immediately wipe off several coats of brown ink. This eventually stains the metal a bronze colour, as well as picking out the cast-on detailling.

The gun carriages are painted dark green, with the metal work done in black and then dry-brushed with gun-metal silver.

I had a few spare rammers and other tools, so I've glued them lying on the base underneath the guns. But if anyone has got some spare 25mm buckets, sacks, barrels or other artillery accessories they can spare, I'd be pleased to hear from you. I need something to dress up my artillery bases a bit more!

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