This artillery limber set by (sold by Perry miniatures) has been sitting half-finished on my painting table for a very long time. I finally got round to painting it, although I must admit I settled for limited highlights and a very basic paint job. I find limbers very cool, impressive models as they often are with several horses and the complex system for transporting the gun. For the same reason I have a hard time motivating myself to paint these sets. They are just such a daunting task in every respect – difficult to clean and build, difficult and time consuming to paint, and so on. In effect, the model takes almost as much time to finish as a full battalion of infantry. And it often has a modest role on the battlefield. At worst, it can even be in the way of the game because of its size.
Anyway, I finally managed to finish the model. The heads are plastic heads from Warlord’s 1809 style Russian set. I used them because the shakos are covered – in this way I can use them for both the 1808 campaign and a later setting, such as 1812 or 1813 (for which I also have a few miniatures…).
I wasnt very happy with the strings I used to hook up the horses – I used kitchen string, but this turned out to be a bit too coarse for this purpose. Once painted it looks quite nice, at least from a distance. But I have since invested in a number of rolls of metal modelling wire and will try them out next time I give limbers a go.
Because I will have to do this again sometime soon. I have several limbers just like this one, and also small limbers for the Russian 3-pounder guns, ammunition wagons, etc. I also have a half-built Swedish limber (converted from Austrians), and several more Austrian and Prussian sets for creating more Swedish limbers and ammuniton wagons…
Pancratist 