Assembly & painting of of a Hichliffe RHA Gun Team c 1915 (1 Viewer)

[Obee]

After my 'practice run' of restoration of a Napoleonic gun team, I'm now ready to start the WW1 set of 13 Pdr Field Gun being towed by a 6 horse team.

This is what came to me:


The box of parts for the limber, horses and drivers as well as amounted officer.


13 Pdr Filed Gun kit

When assembled is will look like this:


So far I have assembled the limber and the gun, both have been undercoated and then sprayed with their olive green finish.
Today I hope to complete the paint deatiling on the gun/limber and finally apply a coat of gloss finish, because that the finish required.

Next will be the mounted officer, and the 2 wheeler horses with a driver. The 2 gun team horses will be mounted onto a single tinplate base and then hitched to limber.

Following parts will then be the centre pair of horse, and finally the lead horses, each set mounted on a tinplate base to make movement and transportation easier.

Keep a lookout here in the coming weeks to see this project evolve.

By the way, the other standing gunner driver, seen in the completed set was completed a couple of years back

John

 

[Obee]

I've been busy, as usual, and this is the progress so far ...


Gun and limber assembled last week, now been spray painted green


Mounted officer being assembled

More come tomorrow,
John


Mounted officer undercoated.

 

[Hazebrouck]

John,

That is a kit I have always wanted to make one day as well. so watching your build with interest.

I particularly like how that lead driver's horse has been sculpted, bringing his head close to his chest before taking up the strain.

Scott

 

[blaster]

Hi John,

Your progress on this is amazing. I have so much fiddly moments with these types of kits. Thanks for this step-by-step progress which are instructional and very inspiring.

Rgds Victor

 

[Obee]

Hi John,

Your progress on this is amazing. I have so much fiddly moments with these types of kits. Thanks for this step-by-step progress which are instructional and very inspiring.

Rgds Victor

Oh yes, quite a lot of fiddly bits, especially with chains on horses and the rigging up of the limber and the wheeler horse team.

Keep looking, it should take me another week or so !!!

John

 

[Malcolm Britain]

These Hinchcliffe artillery kits really are the bees knees but it takes great craft to show them off properly. Lovely work John. Really love this thread

 

[Obee]

Another day, and more work completed ..


Painting of the mounted Gunner Officer


Assembly and priming of the 2 wheeler horses


Cutting a base from tinplate, adding texture and holes for horse, then priming.
They will only be fixed onto the big base when painted, in the meantime they are left positioned on the Hinchliffe bases for ease of handling.
Also the limber and gun is shown in position, but no harness has been made yet.

Hope you like this?

John

 

[Obee]

I forgot to add a completed close up on limber and 13 Pdr Gun



John

 

[Wolfgang_UK]

Nice work, great fun to follow this thread. You will (I hope) gloss the rider ??? .
regards
Wolfgang

Another day, and more work completed ..


Painting of the mounted Gunner Officer


Assembly and priming of the 2 wheeler horses


Cutting a base from tinplate, adding texture and holes for horse, then priming.
They will only be fixed onto the big base when painted, in the meantime they are left positioned on the Hinchliffe bases for ease of handling.
Also the limber and gun is shown in position, but no harness has been made yet.

Hope you like this?

John

 

[Obee]

Nice work, great fun to follow this thread. You will (I hope) gloss the rider ??? .
regards
Wolfgang

Check him out tomorrow ... hope to get him finished today, as well as painting of the 2 horses .....

it all depends on the weather, it takes longer to dry in the middle of winter !!!

John

 

[wayne556517]

Are these for you mate ??

 

[Obee]

Are these for you mate ??

I wish it was ....... my previous gun team, the 1815 RHA Napoleonic is mine, it had been waiting a couple of years to be done, and I said I wouldn't do this project until mine was completed.

The good thing was that I managed to iron out the method to do it, like two horse on one base, and how to rig the horse up, because neither sets came with any instructions, well apart from the guns and limbers.

Anyway, keep on looking at the progress and you may even see the finished set if come down to Perth soon. It will probably be here for a few more months until International Mail is back in operation to the owner's country.

John

 

[Obee]

Check him out tomorrow ... hope to get him finished today, as well as painting of the 2 horses .....

John

Here is the glossy mounted Gunner officer together with the wheeler horses.



They are nearly finished only need a gloss coat, and then rig up the leads onto the limber. Hope to do that today?

I may also finish the driver ??

John.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Just amazing, John!:salute::

 

[mikemiller1955]

John...
I would definitely finish the driver...
he looks great leading the team...
that turned out to be quite a show piece...
and a fun project that gave you a really nice show piece for your shelf!

 

[Obee]

John...
I would definitely finish the driver...
he looks great leading the team...
that turned out to be quite a show piece...
and a fun project that gave you a really nice show piece for your shelf!

Mike,

unfortunately this team won't be sitting on my shelf for long, its a painting commission I'm doing, so when international air mail freight is back to normal, it will be leaving to go to another good home

AND there will be 3 drivers, so another 4 horses to come.

John

 

[Obee]

They are nearly finished only need a gloss coat, and then rig up the leads onto the limber. Hope to do that today?

I may also finish the driver ??

John.

Here we go, finally done what I hoped for 2 days ago, the completed pair of wheeler horses, with driver and rigged up to the limber.



It may be a week or so before I now get onto the centre horse team, I have some other projects to complete for a local collector and a few new acquisitions that have arrived for my collection.

Keep a lookout posted for more updates,

John

 

[blaster]

Hi John,

Superb stuff! Makes one salivate...

One query for WWI RHA - did the gunners sit on the limber? If so, my followup query would be would you be adding any sitting gunners?

Rgds Victor

 

[Obee]

One query for WWI RHA - did the gunners sit on the limber? If so, my followup query would be would you be adding any sitting gunners?

Rgds Victor

Yes, I have seen photos showing them on the limber. The other gunners would be mounted on individual horse, being Royal HORSE Artillery.

When the gun came into position, the limber could be unhitched, and kept to hold the gun's ammo and the team of horses, including other gunners mounts were taken back to the wagon line for safety, but needed to be kept ready, in case of movement to another position. This is the basis for RHA, a fast moving team of guns to provide rapid fire support to cavalry and advancing infantry, therefore fire and movement comes to the forefront.

With Royal Garrison Artillery, the gun crew may come up in vehicles, or on foot when close to the front, and into a fixed position, the limber would be unloaded and the ammo positioned in an ammo bay on the gun position, then the limber returned to the wagon lines.

Lastly, I do not have any seated gunners for this limber, and none was made by Hinchliffe. My 1815 Napoleonic version Hinchliffe dose have seated gunners on the limber, but I haven't found any of them, but I have contacted Mark Turner at Fusilier Miniatures and will I purchase some of his castings from his range.

Here are a couple of images showing RAA 18 Pdrs on peace time training in the 1920's with gunners on the limber:




I hope that helps,
John

 

[Obee]

It has been a couple of weeks since my last posting on this theme, AND since I have worked on this project.

Reason is school holidays and the first week was very busy as we were 'invaded' by my daughter and the grandkids who live on a farm 450kms away and couldn't travel up to city due to regional travel bans. Anyway, they left and we have also been helping out with some babysitting of the city grandkids as well, but now with school back, I have been able to get out to the shed and do what I love, painting toy soldiers.

Today i have started on the 2 centre horses, assembling and making the tinplate base.



You will see that I have already painter the rider, so he is feeling right at home, now he is back on his mount.

Hope to get the reins and chains done tomorrow, then undercoating and commencing on the painting.
The base will also need it's 'grass' added.

John