The British RHA and the HA of the KGL (same uniform and guns) were present with 11 batteries at Waterloo. They had a big impact on the battle, like the action of Mercer´s guns in front of the Brunswick squares, and also look nice on the table due to the flashy uniforms.
Around half of these guns were already beautifully painted by TC and only the guns were repainted in a lighter color. The other half on this picture and all others thoughout the post are freshly built and painted.
All 6 and 9 pdrs have Airfix crews with most of the guns coming from other sets like Esci and Revell. The great Airfix set has the most complete artillery set ever produced, at least until the arrival of the Zvezda French and Russian sets. Included you have figures that, when placed correctly, made my normal artillery stands (5cmX4cm) too small. So I cut the bases with an extra square of 1,5cm in order for a spongeman or a handspike man to fit while doing their task.
The Hat Congreve rockets offers four small tripods and four wheeled boxes for transport. While searching for this weapon the one firing the rockets from ladders looked the coolest of them all. In order to produce these ones you need:
- ladders (these ones were taken from a cheap Chinese fire truck);
- wheels, rockets and the central shaft from the original box;
- large tripods made from plastic tubing;
- small plastic boxes to the side of the wheels.
The four stands here are Ok for Leipzig, which was the largest gathering of the system during the Napoleonic wars land battles, while at Waterloo only one rocket section was used.
Even if quite cool, this ladder was not used at Waterloo, being used mostly during sieges like Copenhagen and Boulogne. At Waterloo this system was fired from the small tripod and even from a bank of dirt but the ladder system looks more imposing.
This one from Mark Adkin´s Companion is another possibility but there is no frontal image of the thing which made me not to make it.
The howitzer battery of Major Bull is also represented here. I used a surplus Bavarian carriage as you need a double-trail carriage for the elevation of the howitzer.
All the guns and rocket systems were pulled by the same limbers. Airfix makes this old but still nice system. Some of the Airfix drivers were kept aside and replaced by Revell ones (sporting the new late coats) as they will be used for French guard horse artillery. The limber to the right has a figure converted from the vent man foot figure that is now giving orders to everybody even if having a severe back pain!
Next: more French
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