Thursday, May 10, 2012

Amusettes in the AWI

Hessian Re-enactors demonstrate how to use an amusette.
For some reason today, there seems to be a lot of interest on TMP in a specialty firearm called an Amusette. I copied this picture of some Hessian Jagers deploying  such a piece from the Flint & Tomahawk blog. I have to say, that they kind of cool.


Also, this link takes you to a site that discusses the Hessian amusettes in great detail (well worth the look):

http://www.jaegerkorps.org/amusette.html





However, this is not the only amusette that I have found during the course of my net surfing. There is another version that the British Royal Artillery used in conjunction with their 3-pound artillery pieces. They would deploy a wooden mantlet on each side of the cannon for protection of the crew. The mantlet had a trap door in the middle, from which out poked one of these large firearms shown in the picture above.

To make a long story short, I have plans to add some of these "funnies", as Winston Churchill would call them, to the Fife & Drum range of AWI artillery equipment. It should prove to be, ahem, amusing, don't you think?

4 comments:

  1. This is very interesting - you will have some (more) unique figures to add to your splendid collection! I'd be more than interested in obtaining a couple of such models. Judging from the Hessian link you give, they would be a really useful part of a petite guerre/skirmish scenario.

    cheers,

    Jim

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  2. Very interesting!! Can't wait to see what you come up with!!

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  3. I can also see these being used for earlier 18th Century Imgi-nation armies as well!

    May have to get one or two for my Carpanian jager battalion.

    Jim

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  4. Perry sell a set of Hessian jaegers with 2 amusettes and 2 mantlets. They also have a set of Queens rangers with an amusette, butterfly gun and mantlets.

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