Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Perry Brothers Royal Artillery for the American Civil War

Greetings friends.

Slowly chipping away at my stock of Perry Brothers British Intervention Force figures ordered at the start of Covid.   I don’t think I’ve told the story of how I ordered a whack of figures very early into Covid, back in April.   By August I emailed PBros to report their non-arrival here in Canada (I’ve had good experiences pre-Covid getting prompt shipments from the UK to my town one hour N of Toronto).   PBros agreed they were likely lost and reshipped the order without question or extra charge.   Very classy.   Of course, the original shipment, postmarked May 4, arrived about a week after the re-shipment of the order, so I paid for the duplicate which was by then in transit.    Bonus me, I now have twice as large a pile of figures to paint.   So well done Perrys!

Royal Artillery gun crew with 12 pounder Armstrong.  I had a bit of a struggle assembling the gun, so it likes slightly wonky in the second photo.

 

I don’t know much about the history or employment of this type of gun but I recall that in the old SPI monster game, Terrible Swift Sword, there was a Confederate battery equipped with Whitworths and it could hit anything on the map, so I am guessing that this thing has some range!   I suspect that it should be treated as similar to Union rifled artillery such as Parrott guns.

 

My source, the Osprey volume, Canadian Campaigns, 1860-1870, doesn’t show any artillery uniforms, but I did some googling and found the the uniforms of the time generally seemed to be dark blue with red trim, yellow cuffs, and yellow bands on the pillbox hats.

I always debate whether to just mount the figures on the base of the artillery piece so it looks realistic, but I always decide to bass them separately, in case I need to represent casualties in the battery or gun few, depending on the scale being played.

I have two more Perry Whitworths and crew to start, and am currently working on a large unit of Canadian volunteer cavalry, so I almost have enough figures finished for a small skirmish, which is always exciting when a project starts to come together.

Thanks for looking, be well, and blessings to your brushes!

MP+