Guns, Limbers, Caissons

Limbers and Caissons - Firstly the reseach has taken ages. I had assistance from Peter Hofschroer who was able to provide copies of original construction drawings for the limbers and caisson. The models I describe below are faithful representations of these drawings in 30mm scale (which is the true scale of my figures). However, the harnessing arrrangement for the team of horses was shown unassembled in the drawings, making it extremely difficult to piece together; especially when the explanation was in old German.

Basically, the harness drawings were next to useless. I scoured all my reference material and even wrote to a number of museums. In the end, I was only able to come up with two pictures of Prussian teams. They are both drawings by Knotel of Prussian limbers on the move. The problem with these is that the limbers are both represented moving away from the viewer, so that the harnessing arrangement at the rear of the horse can be made out, but the front is obscured. As a result I can assert that the harnessing at the rear of the horse is correct, but that the front harnessing is a mixture of conjecture, what I could glean from the disassembled drawings and Prussian limbers from later periods (i.e. from the Franco-Prussian war). I have particular concerns about the collar and can only say that it was something like this from what I can see of them in the Knotel drawings.

Further headaches started when the pieces were complete and ready to go in the moulds. I wanted to keep assembly to a minimum which resulted in masters that were too big to go in my existing mould cans. I have had to invest in new equipment and learn how to use it.

Lastly, and most directly relevant to the horse artillery, the Knotel drawings made one thing clear - the drivers of horse and foot artillery teams wore uniforms in keeping with the artillery arm they were serving. In other words, there was no single uniform for artillery team drivers. The foot and horse artillery drivers had different uniforms.

These models include a length of copper wire which can be used to form the reins and tracers between the horses and the limber. This is not essential as the limber and horses look right when assembled on a base. However, for those of you who like to put in the finishing touches, I have included the wire.

I suggest that you glue, or preferably solder, the wire to the attachment points on either side of the horse (these are below the saddle and continue on from the length of chain attached to the horse's collar). Paint the horse and limber but leave the cross pieces at the ends of the limbers unpainted. Now glue or solder the ends of the traces to the unpainted cross pieces and carefully paint the cross pieces and the traces. The pair of horses at the front of the limber do not attach directly to the limber but to the base of the collar on the second pair of horses. Once again I suggest that you attach the traces to the lead pair and leave the attachment points on the collar of the second pair unpainted until you are ready for the final assembly.

The riders horses can be distinguished from the off-side horses by the proper valaise at the rear of the horse. The saddle is also more elaborate and has a saddle cloth underneath it."