Expeditionary Force Royal Navy Landing Party

 

                                                                    The whole Party

Expeditionary Force 54mm Naval Cannon fix.

Expeditionary Force supplies two naval guns with their Royal Navy Gun Crew set. The barrels as assembled are too elevated for use in shore batteries or for the Battle of New Orleans where they were posted in an elevated position.  I did the following to depress the elevation. 

    

Expeditionary Force 54mm Texas Artillery

 X-Force has a line of  Republic of Texas Army. They are a bit too well uniformed for the short period of the  War of Independence. The series does supply the figures with three type of forage caps from the 1830s. There might be better for fighting Seminoles in Florida. I took one set of artillery and mixed them with X-Force's War of 1812 US Militia figures. The 1812 Militia figures look more 1830s that 1812 and I suspect they are meant  for Alamo defenders as is the set of 1812 Frontiersmen. 

I tried to make the two gun battery used at San Jacinto with the option of plugging the crews into defending the Alamo. The "Tin Sisters of Cincinnati" were, to the best of my knowledge, two small caliber iron guns on split trail carriages. I found that historians disagree on the material of the barrels, size of the guns, and what happened to them. Art, movies, and reenactors usually show small versions of 1860s era guns. I'll stand corrected if readers know their real appearance. Also, the side boxes could be removed but they have no back details and the platform the boxes rested on is molded onto the box instead of the carriage.

X-Force, and a lot of other makers, provide the useless bucket guy. I converted the figure to a # 3 man with the handspike. 

The #2 man was molded with a giant howitzer load for the tiny gun muzzle. I carved it down to bag of gunpower. I should have carved it away more before assembling the figure. 

For this crew I used the Militia figures with some 1830 forage caps.

Again the cartridge was way too large for the gun and carved down to just a bag,  I should have made it smaller before assembling.

Funny that history records the names of the crew and their number. I have yet to see a model gun crew supplied with full crews. Britains metal and Speira can supply individual crew figures and it takes some knowledge of artillery drill to select the correct poses for a distinct part of the drill. 

I had fun and maybe you can by making the figures individuals for this conflict rather than uniformed regulars.

Toy Style 54mm Bavarian Infantry, 1870

             There's something about Bavarian troops that makes me think they will break out in song in a Operetta. There is a lot of post Franco Prussian War art showing Bavarians in action to also inspire me to make a few units in 54mm. 

Here is my unit of Bavarians made from Britains recasts of men at attention. Heads are Britains heads from London Bridge  with "Green Stuff" fur tufts. "Green Stuff" was also used for the equipment detail. 

The blue uniform color  is Deco-Art Americana "Ocean Blue" acrylic. It's close-ish to the "Corn Flower Blue" that the uniforms were supposed to be. 

Toy Style 54mm Austrian Lancers

Repaired and converted Britains Ltd Lancers. Some London Bridge replacement parts were used. 

 

                                                Use them for the Seven Weeks War.

                                                Use them in Italy in 1859

             I hope to get a few more to have a unit of  8 troopers plus  an officer and bugler.