The Haubitze Arrives From Potsdam

10 Pound Prussian Howitzer (Berlin Zinnfiguren - No. 268/4)

Der Alte Fritz (c'est moi) arrived home this evening after a long day of inspecting the troops and was pleased to find that a package had arrived from Herr Schulz in Berlin. I eagerly opened the box and found a nice assortment of wagons, pontoons, etc that I talked about last week. But the piece that I was most eager to see was the 10 Pound Howitzer (or Haubitze) manufactured by Berlin Zinnfiguren.

I have provided two pictures of this wonderful model, above, to give everyone a sense of the size and proportion of the gun and the limber to wargame figures. The top picture depicts the howitzer unlimbered. A 28mm Foundry Prussian artillery crewman is standing next to the gun model. The proportions look pretty good to me. The second picture depicts the howitzer and the limber (mit protze) along with a pair of Front Rank heavy draft horses from their 18th Century equipment range. I plan on using the Front Rank horse with the Berlin Zinnfiguren guns and so I was pleased to see that the fit is near perfect. I placed an RSM95 artillery drover atop the Front Rank horse and again, I think we have a good match of figures. I am contemplating taking one of the RSM95 Prussian dragoon castings and converting it to an artillery team driver. I think that it would only require some moderate filing off of the lapels and aigulettes on the dragoon figure. Then a whip could be fashioned out of brass rod and florists' wire and placed in the figure's hand.

The quality of the Berlin Zinnfiguren casting is very high, as you can tell if you click on the pictures to enlarge them. I was also pleased to find that the limber and gun models arrived already assembled. So all I have to do is wash the castings in a little bit of Isopropyl Alcohol (70% solution will do just fine) to ensure that there is no powder or mould release on the castings and then it should be ready for priming and painting. I will black prime the models. Then paint the woodwork dark blue and then dry brush with light or royal blue paint. The metal work will be black with dark grey dry brushed over the metal bits.

I think that the Berlin Zinnfiguren artillery pieces will work well with most 28mm and 30mm figure ranges. The gun model is comparable in size to the Foundry cannons, albeit a couple of millimeters higher. Other gun models that should match these include RSM95 and Elite Miniatures' 1806 range of Prussian guns. The Elite SYW gun models will dwarf these limbers, but maybe their smaller 3-pd and 4-pd guns would fit OK with the limbers. You can buy the Berlin Zinnfiguren limbers separately or as a set that includes the cannon. Mail deliver was less than a week by air mail and the customer service from the company is first rate. Highly recommended, as Hal Thinglum would say.