Fife & Drum Painted Artillery Equipment

British 6-pounder battery with AE12 Firing Crew (left) and AE13 Loading  Crew (right) and AE-3 British 6-pounder. Note the two crewmen covering their ears before the charge is fired. Click pix to enlarge.

AE-14 Continental Crew Firing an AE-1 French Valliere 4-pounder. click to enlarge.

AE-13 Continental Crew Loading an AE-2 American-cast 6-pounder.

New Fife & Drum Logo Unveiled

Fife & Drum logo designed by Mr. Henry Hyde

I am really excited to unveil the new logo that Henry Hyde designed for Fife & Drum Miniatures, as shown above. You will start seeing this in our advertising on The Miniatures Page (TMP) as well as in the various wargame hobby magazines. 

I think that nothing says "American Revolution" (or American War of Independence for our UK friends) than the three gentlemen from the Spirit of '76 picture and the red, white and blue coloring also evokes the period quite nicely.

We are also working on a web site so that you can find all the information about the range in one place, while the shopping cart gadget will make it easier to order Fife & Drum Miniatures on line. The site will feature color pictures of each figure in the range, painted, to give you an idea of what you are buying. Needless to say, with the range now exceeding 70 items, I have been very busy painting one each of every figure and piece of equipment in the range. Yikes!

AWI 71st Highlanders Work In Progress

Heads and musket

I am posting some pictures of an AWI related project that Bill Nevins commissioned for the production of 28mm figures of the 71st Highlander Regiment, as depicted in the Southern Theatre of the war. Bill received these "work in progress" pix showing the torsos and the heads. You can see that the detail on these figures will be very nice. Presumably, different arms will be produced and added to each of the basic torsos, shown below, in order to increase the number of possible variants off of the same dolly. As I understand it, Bill is having a firing line made. They will be Perry-compatible, sculpted by Alan Marsh, who did the Eureka Miniatures range of Continentals.

To avoid any confusion, note that these are NOT Fife & Drum figures that I am adding to my range. Bill will probably be selling figures to anyone who is interested once these guys go into production.

It is interesting to see the "behind the scenes" look at how figures are actually made. In this day and age, when the sculptors are sort of rock stars in their own right, a growing number of people are having their own custom-made (bespoke) figures or ranges of figures made to order. It is an interesting concept. I am looking forward to seeing how these figures turn out "in the metal". It looks very promising indeed.

Kneeling firing or kneeling and loading

Advancing

Standing firing? (not sure)

Standing

If you ordered a Fife & Drum British 6 pounder..

Last evening as I was gluing together the Fife & Drum British 6 pounder model, I realized that I had only sent out one ammo box for many of the orders, rather than the required two. The ammo boxes are placed over the axle of the carriage, one on each side. I had imagined that only one box was placed on the gun trail.

I will go through all of the orders for British 6 pounders and try to figure out who might be missing parts. If you have received an order within the past several days, check out your 6 pounder and see if you have only one ammo box. If so, send me an e mail to remind me just in case I miss you.

I really apologize for this snafu.

Galloper Gun Information

Townsend's Light 3 Pounder as a Galloper - from Adrian Caruana

An interesting inquiry came up today on TMP regarding the Galloper Gun from the Fife & Drum range of figures. The question was, "how can the horse draw the cannon as shown in the Fife & Drum picture?"

Click on the link below to view one version of the Galloper gun shown at the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich. This is a piece where the gun trail actually serves as the limber as well.

Galloper Gun

After a little bit of research, we found that the term "galloper gun" simply refers to any cannon that is light enough to be drawn by a single horse. So there can actually be a wide variety of artillery pieces that can qualify as galloper guns.

The Fife & Drum Galloper is actually a Verbruggen 3 Pounder mounted on a Congreve Carriage, and adapted into a "galloper" with the addition of the frame shown in the picture above and in the picture below. This was part of Lord Townsend's "artillery system" for light equipment. 

Fife & Drum 3-pounder converted into a Galloper Gun.

So there you have the rest of the story.

British Artillery Equipment and Crew

3-pound Galloper Gun Set, suitable for both sides (crew figure not included)

Here are a few pictures of the Galloper gun set, the British 6-pound cannon and both British artillery crew sets, AE-11 "Loading" and AE-12 "Firing", as shown.

Galloper gun deployed for firing, British crew shown.

British 6-pounder and AE-11 British Crew "Loading".

British 6-pounder and AE-12 British Crew "Firing"

Potsdam Miniatures

Many of you might recall that I had a dozen 30mm SYW Prussians commissioned for use in my own BAR armies. A couple of individuals have expressed an interest in purchasing some of these figures, which are compatible with the 30mm Stadden figures.

There are seven musketeer poses:
1. Kneeling, musket set to receive cavalry charge (front rank)
2. Standing firing, second rank
3. at the ready, third rank
4. Officer in tricorn
5. NCO with spontoon and tricorn
6. Drummer in tricorn
7. Standard Bearer in tricorn

8. Grenadier, kneeling
9. Grenadier standing firing
10. Grenadier 3rd rank
11. Grenadier NCO
12. Grenadier Drummer

It has been a few years since I have had any of these figures cast, but there is enough interest to make it worth while to cast up a new lot for sale. So if you are interested in purchasing any of these Potsdamers, then now is the time to speak up and let me know of your interest. I'm estimating that the cost will be about $2.50 to $2.75 per figure for a limited production run.

New Fife & Drum Artillery Equipment Pix

American-cast 6 pounder and Continental Crew Loading. Note ventsman with his thumb over the touch hole.

I just have a little bit of time today to post some pictures of part of the artillery equipment and crew that arrived yesterday. Today we see the two Continental crews (loading and firing) plus the French 4-pound Valliere cannon (suitable for use in the Seven Years War - HINT HINT), the American-cast 6-pounder, and the limber team set.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the British crew and equipment.

Click on the link to the Fife & Drum blog for more information on the stock numbers and prices of each set.

Fife & Drum Blog link

French 4-pounder Valliere with Continental Crew Firing. Note the man covering his ears.

Limber set includes two different horses,  a civilian driver and the limber.

Limber set with the French 4-pounder in tow.