VSF-ing some fairly standard cavalry

[Red Orc]

Right, now I lost the post, when I attached the picture.

Perry American Civil War Cavalry - nice figs but not so much choice in the box, as you get 3 frames with 4 figs each. Each fig is moulded with head, body, legs and left arm as a single piece, you get to add hats and right arms.

Hats are Wargames Factory Zulu War British Firing Line Pith Helmets. Now the cavalry are British.

I tried mix-and-matching arms from the different boxes - the Wargames Factory figures are larger so it looked silly.

The 10 chaps (Officer, Standard Bearer, Bugler, chap with some stripes painted on his arm as a sergeant and 6 troopers) are pretty normal, they're going to be something plausible but not real (I did realise while painting that the pistols wielded by two of the figures do look like Remingtons however).

I do have two other figs, hiding at the back - they don't have their right arms yet, and they're the 'VSF-ing' that is kinda the point...

[Red Orc]

I'm sorry for the quality of the pics. I'll try to get some better ones.

These two look - two my mind at least - look like Christopher Plummer and Sean Connery. I'm not going to insist that anyone else believes it.

Anyway, these two are the ones I'm going to use VSF-up the whole thing. I have 2 arms (from the Standard Bearers from the 2nd and 3rd sprues) which I was hoping to use to hold some sort of lightning gun (basically a laser rifle) to make this squadron 10 normal guys (pistol and sword) and 2 galvanic dragoons. I guess that would add a bit of weird science firepower (of course, because of the way I've done the bases I can also field 2 x 6-man units of officer/bugler/3 normal troopers + galvanic dragoon, sergeant/standard-bearer/3 normal troopers + galvanic dragoon).

I could bodge something with sprue (similar to the galvanic projector that I gave one of my UNIT:1892 troops) but I wondered if anyone had any recommendations for something that looks like a suitable VSF lightning gun? I also have figs in my collection like ... well, 'the figure currently known as Sir Corbett Grierson', for example, and the lightning-gun he carries is way more detailed than one I could bodge myself. So I wondered if there was a good option that I could use instead.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[leadfool]

Step one. Find old ball point pen, the type that "clicks" from the top. 
Step two disassemble and retrieve the spring at the end of the pen.
Step three, place other parts of pen in your bits box where they will remain for eternity.
Step four, take spring pull apart slightly and snip into two pieces. 
Step five, slide 1/2 of spring over the end of each rifle barrel. and glue.
Step six primer and paint.  Attach to figure. 

You have now made troopers armed with a with Tesla coil projector weapon. 

[vodkafan]

I like what you are doing with these, although I don't have any useful scratchbuild suggestions...I bought some loose metal Aether weapons  from a UK company some while back, but I forgot the name ...it will come to me

[Froggy the Great]

I used the same cavalry box for my CSA Victorian SF army.  I gave most of them rifles and a few of them goggles.  Several of them do have torpedoes on lances though.  I had just been to the H. L. Hunley museum in Charleston and was very impressed by the spar torpedo, and if you're not recklessly endangering life and limb with your technology it's not proper VSF.

https://www.deviantart.com/spielorjh/art/1889-Confederate-Cavalry-272073189

[Red Orc]

Thanks all for the suggestions. Much to think on.

Step one. Find old ball point pen, the type that "clicks" from the top. 
Step two disassemble and retrieve the spring at the end of the pen.
Step three, place other parts of pen in your bits box where they will remain for eternity.
Step four, take spring pull apart slightly and snip into two pieces. 
Step five, slide 1/2 of spring over the end of each rifle barrel. and glue.
Step six primer and paint.  Attach to figure. 

You have now made troopers armed with a with Tesla coil projector weapon.

Great suggestion leadfool, thanks; and I'm part way there, I'd be starting from step three as I have done that many a time. The only problem is working out which of the approx. 800 boxes of bits, bobs, widgets, doo-hickeys, greebles, nurnies and gubbins is the one (or maybe 5) where I'd find 'small, long springs'...

I like what you are doing with these, although I don't have any useful scratchbuild suggestions...I bought some loose metal Aether weapons  from a UK company some while back, but I forgot the name ...it will come to me

Thanks vodkafan, that sounds like a top way to go... if you can remember who the manufacturer/ seller is (or just point me to where you found them) that would be cool. But I will have a look and see if I can turn something up.

I used the same cavalry box for my CSA Victorian SF army.  I gave most of them rifles and a few of them goggles.  Several of them do have torpedoes on lances though.  I had just been to the H. L. Hunley museum in Charleston and was very impressed by the spar torpedo, and if you're not recklessly endangering life and limb with your technology it's not proper VSF.

https://www.deviantart.com/spielorjh/art/1889-Confederate-Cavalry-272073189

Lovely work as always Froggy! I don't remember these... but what if the CSA survived until Atlantis reappeared indeed! Was it really ten years ago... but inspiring!

OK, no promises, but what I 'might' do is, instead of turning these two into Galvanic Dragoons (ie, giving them short-range powerful lightning guns) I could potentially combine Froggy's and leadfool's suggestions... attach the springs to the 'lances' that are used with those arms anyway (ie, the pennant poles that come on the frame) to make Tesla-coil Galvanic Lances instead. That could work, I think...

[leadfool]

Have you made any progress?

[Red Orc]

My stuff has been sitting on my dining-room table, no doubt exasperating Mrs Orc, for several weeks now, but I must confess nothing of any substance has happened. I haven't even taken any non-blurry photos I'm afraid. Like most of my projects, progress and indeed updates are likely to be erratic.

[leadfool]

Mrs. Orc must have the patience of Mrs. Leadfool.  Thank goodness for it.