Russian foot artillery 1812

[Cryns]

Great work Chen!

Did you notice how critical some members get as soon as it comes to a subject like shooting guns?

Is this base for gaming purpose too? The shape of your base raises questions about this, though this looks better than the normal square bases needed for gaming.
Don't feel disturbed by the limited number of artillerymen allowed in gaming rules.
Many rulesets use only 2 men: very silly
Many sets use 4 which is still unlikely.
6 or 8 man comes closer to reality.
And it does not matter because the base of the whole crew&gun is what is used in the game. If rules require a maximum of 4 men you can always count the other men as dummy's when it comes to counting the losses of crewmen to get a piece out of action.
That is why I always add 6 to 8 gunners to one piece.

[chen]

Haha, that's why we need a forum, isn't it, Mr. Cryns? Modelling with historical minis is meant to learn everything about the passed real world. And knowing how things actually went on will help building models in a reasonable and realistic way. It's good to learn and improve a bit everyday, especially in such a delightful way.

I based the group back in 2011, primarily as a movable vignette which was expected to be able to integrate into the big Borodino battlefield. But I also took into account of the wargame rules we were planning to use, the DBN, a napoleonic version of classic DBA rules. That means the base, though in a irregular shape, still has a 6cm front.
I totally agree with you as for the number of figures to crew a gun. Miniature wargaming is always a game of balance between standardized rules and aesthetical miniature representations. I'm more on the modellers' side, though being able to game with ease could also be a temptation. Now my plan is to crew conventional artillery pieces with 4 figures, and to making extra irregular-shape bases with variable numbers of figures to complete the 'crowed-and-busy' effect.

Cheers,
Chen

[Cryns]

Influenced by Peter Styk from Slovakia I decorated my French 1815 artillery WRG gaming elements with every available figure I could find at that moment... which was ten years ago.

Here you get just 4 pictures showing some variations.

http://www.hat.com/Othr6/Cryns02P.html

And sorry for that outdated and primitive painting style.

[chen]

Those are really cool! With many more newly-released sets today you could even make them better.