Sunday, January 26, 2014

British Royal Horse Artillery - Napoleonic Wars

The Royal Horse Artillery was formed i n 1793. It had seven troops (or 'brigades" by 1801, and twelve by 1812. Each troop had six guns, usually 1 howitzer and 5 guns (6lbers or 9lbers); there was one troop equipped exclusively with howitzers. The uniforms of the Horse Artillery changed little from 1799 on, resembling the pre-1812 Light dragoon uniform.


My first troop of RHA; this unit is equipped with 9lber guns.


The artillery models are by Foundry; there is casting flaw in the muzzle of one of the guns. 


The crew are 28mm Old Glory figures.

  
My second troop has one 6 lber and one howitzer gun model each. 


I like having some howitzer models, plus the howitzers allow me increased flexibility for 9 or 6 lber batteries depending upon where the howitzers are assigned. 


I painted the gun carriages Delta Ceramcoat  Wedgewood Blue (a light blue-grey color), washed with Payne's grey, which has a bit of bluish cast as well. Still, the carriages are not quite as blue as they look in the above photo. 


This third troop has all 6 lber gun models.


British long field guns had the "block trail" construction, which lightened the carriages and increased the mobility of the guns. 


This time I painted the rims of the wheels mud-brown color, as some have suggested.


Here are all three troops; I actually painted 8 gun models at the same time; the surplus will be assigned to the Foot artillery when their time for painting comes!


The six guns here would make a 1:1 battery, except that it would have a total of 108 crew and 84 drivers!. 


A few additional colors used:
Braid on jackets: CC Straw Pale mixed 2:1 with CC yellow
Pants: Bridgeport Grey washed with Charcoal about 1:4 dilution.

That brings my British Napoleonic forces so far to 7 Line Infantry, 1 Light Infantry, 1 Light Dragoon, 1 Hussar, and 3 troops of RHA. Getting there!

Peter

13 comments:

  1. Great looking artillery, love the colour you've used,its perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good effect with the color Peter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Joe. Foot Artilery to come later in the year!

      Delete
  3. That is a large number of lead belching guns to complete in one go. Nice work! The carriage color looks good to me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good stuff! I like the horse artillery and I use the same paints as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, John. The RHA uniform is very classy.

      Delete
  5. Nice unit! I love the redhead helmetless gunner
    Regards
    Rafa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Rafa. I think he may need a head bandage painted on...

      Delete
  6. Wee change from Ancients (Pulse of Battle is great btw)

    ReplyDelete
  7. In my case, the Ancients are a change of pace from Napoleonics!
    Info on our Sunday PoB game coming soon.

    ReplyDelete