Dutch Artillery Limber: And Guns ... Part 2

At last my allied army for Waterloo has some artillery support - a half-battery of Dutch Horse Artillery. What is it about undercoating that reveals all the bits you miss when you are cleaning up the figures prepping them for the paint-job? Maddening. Well, this has been an interesting and fiddly build.

I've never had this happen before but it's amazing how unobservant I can be at times. When I finally got to painting the belts and straps for the artillery train figures I noticed that the rear figure has no hanger straps for his scabbard. Unlike his counterpart up front, there is nothing attaching the scabbard to his belt. His sword is just hanging there, suspended in mid-air. Looks like a design flaw to me and I think in all the figures I've painted in my life (thousands I suspect) this was a first for me. Tut-tut Perry bros.

The drivers have shako covers on with a pom-pom. This makes painting the shakos easy but every reference I have refers to plumes - not pom-poms. This is because the Perry's offer a generic limber (Dutch/Belgian) and I suspect these 'train' figures are foot artillery drivers. I've gone with black consistent with my sources.

Images for the train are a rare as rocking-horse dung and references in my Osprey sources are scant - they same 'same as the horse artillery' which makes for a black plume. Then again, images often show pom-poms for rank and rile with plumes for officers - so that's what I speculate my train drivers to be.

My artillery crew have all got their new white issued belting but you can have them retaining black if you like - I didn't mix them up this time which is normally the sort of thing I'm likely to have done.

I have gone for my gun carriages in the French olive green paint scheme. I think I may have misinformed previously as the Dutch had both Dutch and French equipment - but not any British.

The brass barrels are simply dark brown based with a slightly tinned dry brushing of Vallejo Brass. Normally I'd wash it over again with thinned dark brown but it didn't seem to need it - not to these ageing eyes anyway. I also blackened the muzzles and the touch holes. I want my field pieces to look  like they are being worked.

I elected to go for a plain wooden limber but kept my gun carriages French olive green consistently. I had thought to cut away a spoke here and there and even have a couple in plain wood to represent field repairs but dismissed the idea in the end. Perhaps another time.

The limber took much longer than I expected. Even once the horses were completely painted I had to wait 24 hours after gluing them to the base before I could tie off the rest of the harness to the limber.
As with so many references for the less popular uniforms there is conflicting details for the train. I've opted for black belts as per my Osprey reference but I also see them in white

It may have been the frame of mind I was in at the time but painting the striped shoulder rolls is not something I enjoyed but it does sort of make the figures in a way. Other than those affectations the uniforms are straight forward.

When I complete the bases some time in the future I will be sure to muddy this lot right up.