Sunday 17 April 2022

Paraguayan Fortress Guns

A number of the battles in the Great Paraguayan War featured attacks on Paraguayan fortresses, so it was inevitable that I needed to create some fortified positions like the one below.

While gunners weren’t a problem because the Perry’s sold gunners as a separate set of six, I needed to find a source for guns. At one point a few years ago there was a great set of suitable American Civil War fortress guns manufactured by the Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company, but they have vanished, gone to that void where all discontinued ranges go. However,  a Google search turned up some 3D printed options. 

First was a Swedish company Speira Miniatures who do a vast range of Civil War items that includes fortress guns (https://www.speira.net/product-tag/artillery/). Second was OTP Terrain and Miniatures in Western Australia who had a set of six guns produced under license from Jens Najewitz of Germany. I opted for the latter and placed an order for two sets. The guns are not strictly correct, but they look suitable on big fortress carriages.

Being 3D printed they was a lead time of four to six weeks, which was fine as I wasn’t in a rush. But it took a bit longer. A follow up enquiry after six weeks was met with a response that they were on the printer now. Three weeks later I received confirmation that they were ready to ship. Two weeks later they arrived…eleven weeks and two days after ordering them. Not quite the service I have come to expect these days, even with COVID delivery problems, but I had them…in one big plastic bag of about 100 bits with absolutely no assembly instructions. 

Fortunately the Jens Najewitz site has good photographs of the models so I was able to figure out which bits made up which model and then selected and assembled five of the models that looked suitable for Paraguayan guns, that is the ones that looked the most old fashioned.

They are actually really nicely made models with very little clean up required. I was impressed how robust they are too and how well they take paint.

Once the models were painted I needed to build a fortified position. I decided this needed to be in a modular form so that I could build a position that could mount the guns that could link to infantry trenches. I have not decided the finer details of how all of this will fit together (and need to wait until some gabions to arrive from the UK before I build this), but I do know that the guns will sit on a platform that is 80mm square. The actual gun will be mounted on a 60mm diameter disk (at the centre of which will be a rare earth magnate) will be recessed into the square. The square with a piece of steel sheeting underneath will then be mounted on the top of whatever I build as the actual fortification. In this way the gun will be held in place by the magnate and the steel sheeting, but can be rotated or, more importantly, removed for safe storage. 

Here are the five guns on their bases with their crews, showing how the guns are able to be rotated.









The remaining seven guns will find a place in the ACW collection at some time, when I get around to buying some gun crews for them. I think the Redoubt  Miniatures gunners will suite these pieces….a winter project I think.




16 comments:

  1. Mark, your fortress guns turned out super! The striations on the woodwork from the 3D printing looks quite good. Long time to wait but the result looks worth it to me. No instructions? That is hard to believe.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. I am really pleased how they came up and looking forward to when the gabions arrive so that I can make the components for the forts. Yes, no instructions - just a big bag of bits…a less experienced modeller would have struggled. With the remaining guns, including two massive mortars, I can see some Petersburg-like siege operations coming up.

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  2. These look great Mark - do you think the guns would work in earlier times eg Napoleonic Iberia? Probably too late now, but you could have figured out a way to have the crews separate, and swapped Paraguayan crew for Spanish or French...?

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    1. I actually have French and Spanish guns already…we used the Spanish ones in a game a few years back. I have yet to mount the French guns…maybe another winter task.

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    2. Yes I remember the game....I think my scratch built British frigate may have played a role....? I could really see individually based figures using Sharpe Pratice or something similar working really well for Hornblower style skirmish games along the French and Iberian coasts!

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    3. Yes it sat offshore while the troops landed on the beaches. I looked the French guns and crew yesterday and they are in the queue for work now. Of course there is that great Hornblower story “Frogs and Lobsters” based on the Queberon Bay debacle.

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  3. For future reference North Star have a range of TA miniatures that have fortress guns.

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    1. And very nice they are! Will remember these for future projects.

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  4. I have been looking forward to these since you first mentioned them. They look great Mark and I wouldn't mind a few myself. I like Jens's terrain and ordered some buildings directly from him five or six years ago, and used OTP myself six months ago. They were fairly quick for me and arrived within three or four weeks, but eleven sounds a little excessive. I was thinking about investing in a 3D printer but after seeing a friend's fall into disuse four months after purchase am happy to buy Jens's terrain off OTP. He does have some rather nice Napoleonic buildings I have my eye on.

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    1. The 3D printing concept fascinates me and I too have seriously considered a purchase. Two thing have prevented me: where to put it (I have no space); and if I did buy one I would have to be able to design my own stuff, but just can’t summon the energy to learn the software. The 11 weeks was a little tedious, but I have to applaud NZ Post because according to the tracking it landed In Auckland early Tuesday morning and was in my hands on Wednesday afternoon - a far cry from the two weeks to get a parcel across town just a few months ago.

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  5. Despite the very long lead time, which must have been a tad frustrating, this do look excellent prints and they have come up very nicely. Rather strange that they didn't come with any instructions at all, even if it were a link to something on their website.

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    1. While the delay was a little annoying, I have plenty to work on. These are, though, the last of the Paraguayan troops for now.

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  6. Very nice indeed Mark…
    I too would recommend T.A.Miniatures they are very nice models…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly. I will bear the TA models in mind.

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  7. Hello MMark,
    Found these on ebay: https://www.ebay.com.au/str/actualsizeminiatures/28mm-Range/_i.html?store_cat=5
    Cheers, Shayne

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    1. Thanks Shayne. There are some nice pieces there.

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