Yes the mis-spelling is deliberate…I couldn’t resist a play on the famous opening from Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”
This post shows the Perry wurst gun and limber set for my Austrian light brigade. It is a beautiful piece, but a challenge to base up. The whole piece - gun, limber and team - measures 270mm in length and the longest piece of MDF I had on hand was 250mm. So my first thoughts were to mount the gun, it’s wurst seat and figures on a separate base that could be fixed to the limber with magnets so that the limber could be used separately on the table, but in the end I placed the team and the vehicles turning slightly and I think it gives an interesting twist (no pun intended) to the model.
Astute readers will note that the lead and wheel drivers are Franz and Hubert who last appeared in my earlier post on the line artillery. In between them is Otto slumped over his pommel thinking, “OMG…I hope he is not going to go on about Kant’s Nebular hypothesis again! I mean surely he knows that all Kant’s hypotheses are based on that crazy theory that the earth is round, when any thinking man knows it’s flat.”
Meanwhile at other end of the vehicle, the gunners are taunting Norbert, the long suffering NCO, who is the focus of their jokes.
“Come on Norbie” they say, “climb up on the wurst seat with us”.
“I’m telling you,” Norbert says, sounding very much like Michael Caine, “I am not going in the front again!”
“But it’s better up front than down here at the back where I am,” says Ludwig, “directly over the axel and I feel every bump and jolt!”
“I wish I had stayed with the foot artillery,” Norbert grumbles.
They aren’t a happy bunch these Austrians gunners, but when the action calls they are an efficient crew, as seen here as they are loading their piece.
Born to serve , perhaps? Clever fix to the basing issue. Lovely piece of kit based very nicely.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe. There is another equally animated piece in this range that I am thinking about…but it will have to wait.
DeleteSuperb model
ReplyDeleteThank you Neil…and Alan Perry special.
DeleteSplendid looking wurst guns and limber, I thought you were having a bit of a break, I blink and you've painted half an Austrian army!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain. I’d Idid have a bit of a break…two weeks while I waited for more figures to arrive. A longer break is coming though.
DeleteMark, this is really an interesting and dynamic vignette. How to the Wurst riders stay on the seat when bumping along a rough road? There must be grab bars somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan. There were a couple of triangular pieces with the set, but without instruction I had no idea where to put them, but they certainly would not have been grab bars. There is a foot rest on each side. I guess the guy at the front held in to the front of the seat and the others held on to the guy on front of them, but without any form of suspension it certainly would not have been a comfortable ride.
DeleteWhat a super model, Mark, they look fantastic, and amusing back stories about the crew, too! Some of the faces are particularly well done.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fabulous set…don’t know how useful it will be in a game, but…
DeleteVery nice and very entertaining Mark…
ReplyDeleteThey certainly don’t look like a happy crew…I think I will stick to taking the tram to work.
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly. Can you tell I had a slow day yesterday?
DeleteAn impressive model and beautifully painted and put together. The Perrys really do pack a lot into these sets.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lawrence. I like to have a vignette or two with each army I build. They often just sit on the table in a neutral space, but they look pretty.
DeleteCracking work Mark and I can see why the wurst guns were so unpopular! To avoid large limbers on the table I, to my eternal shame, only have one pair of horses towing them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. Others in our group have done just as you have done. I like the concept of the ACW where you can buy the plastic limbers only that can be placed behind the gun and I have done that for my Paraguayan War armies.
DeleteNot so Mr N, however...HE would like us all to expend hundreds of dollars on six limbers per battery...not to mention caissons etc! He does have a valid point about the relative footprint of deployed guns on a table....but 8 fir one won't be following his example!
DeleteI like the limbers to send have them for most of my armies and I like using them, but no one else does. I agree about the argument about the space behind the batteries but battery frontage seems to have varied greatly and were frequently a lot tighter than the drill manuals prescribed. It would make an interesting lunchtime discussion.
DeleteWhat a great vignette and superbly executed by you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Clive. It was a a nice distraction from the mass of white Austrian infantry.
DeleteThat was the wurst title. 😀
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what a wurst in is. Of course to my simple mind it sounds like something out of a children’s cartoon that shoots hotdogs like a Gatling gun.
But you did a great job on the miniatures and I enjoyed the mini dramas. Mini drama is perfect actually because they’re quite short and staring miniatures. 😀
Really it is a 6lb gun with a wurst or sausage seat although sitting in a sausage seat has a whole bunch of strange connotations 😏.
DeleteWonderful stuff Mark, what a great addition.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stu.
Delete