Artillery Master Models for North Star

We have now pretty much come to the end of the models that I built and photographed up to about 2010. I have got quite a few more things on my shelves but they need photographing. I have a camera (thanks to my lovely wife Isla) and have bought an adequate lighting rig, so basically just need to work out how to take decent pictures again, and then be doing that. In the meantime, there's a couple of things yet that you might be interested to see.

Below are North Star artillery models for the Prussian army of the war of 1866 against Austria. Although really retired from commission work, I offered to make the master models for these, as a kind of collaborative project. I wanted a number of each of these gun types for my own Austro-Prussian wargames armies. I could build a master model sure, but the delicate parts would need a level of casting technology beyond what I have myself. North Star were struggling slowly through this range, and if I built the masters they could do the casting (which they are very good at) and I'd even get a little payment for my work. 

Here's the result. The photographs are direct from North Star's website and show the three guns in chronological order. First we have the light bronze smoothbore 12-pounder "shell gun", which was the artillery technology of the 1850's. No longer were solid cannonballs the projectile, but hollow shells with time fuses. The range was about the same as traditional guns, but the piece was very light for the calibre, so actually mounted on the six-pounder carriage of the previous artillery system (Model 1843/ 1856). And there was no longer a need for a couple of short-range howitzers in each battery because every gun could fire shells at high angles. In the form of the "12-pounder Napoleon" this was the most common artillery technology of the American Civil War.

The other two pieces bring us into the next generation, being cast-steel, rifled breech-loaders. The Model 1861 6-pounder came first. It fired a pointed, modern style explosive shell with an impact fuse. The carriage was the same as that of the 12-pounder. Finally we have the Model 1864 4-pounder, of similar technology, but a new carriage including axle seats for two of the gunners (the rest riding on the limber). The massive advantage of these guns was their effective range of more than double the smoothbores. The poor 12-pounders would scarcely get a look-in in 1866 against the Austrian rifled guns.

To model, these were a different challenge to making terrain items. They are proper scale models, detailed within fractions of a millimetre. The wheels are the hardest part, as you might imagine. These guns were made almost entirely from styrene strip, sheet and rod, assembled with liquid poly cement. The most important tool is the digital calliper gauge for measuring. The "chopper" tool is helpful where you want a number of identical parts such as wheel spokes. What came out was historically accurate, but a bit too delicate for casting by the normal methods of the industry. North Star cast these in resin, therefore and sell them as what they call "super-detailed" alternatives to the more basic lead models also in the range.