TSSD gun crew (1 Viewer)

[Brother Jonathan]

TSSD Union artillerymen manning a painted Penncraft Napoleon cannon. Like my photos of the AIP "heavies," these shots feature the same Bresica gun emplacement, the same muddy slope, and were taken several years ago.

I still need to paint the rope on the gun trail. I'm also going to add some rust to the wheel rims.














These guys are admittedly working as a bit of a skeleton crew, hence the casualty figures. I'm always trying to bump up my gun crews to full strength, which is why I'm such a big fan of Ken Osen's single figure artillerymen for Britains. Since taking these photos, I've augmented this crew with the Britains #4 man in shirtsleeves (31077), plus a spare gunner from ONTC's Loomis' Battery set that I found for sale in Gettysburg

 

[Brother Jonathan]

Doing some net surfing, I noticed an old thread on The Miniatures Page in which none other than historian John Michael Priest mentions the need for more artillery action poses:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=245014

One of the great things about artillery sets from Britains, Conte, etc., you get a crew in authentic poses in a specific stage of loading the gun. Conversely, plastic sets often like to have both a #1 man ramming or swabbing the bore and a figure about to fire the gun with a lanyard or linstock. Always makes me feel bad for the poor #1 fella...

 

[Oldallamerican]

I totally agree there is a shortage of good artillery figures actually manning their pieces and doing the job. I do get some comfort in the fact that in my own twelve years in the US Field Artillery I never recall ever having a full authorized compliment of crewman to man our piece - and I worked everything from 105mm cannons, 155mm towed and 8-inch SP. Still, we usually had about five or six troops on the guns during missions, including the gun chief. I have fired an 8-inch with as few as four (including the chief) - we were pretty busy but got it done. If we ever had gotten our full compliment I don't know what we would have done with all the extra guys, they would probably have gotten in the way. {sm4}