SI’s Dorking 1875: UD 11/4 British Lifeguards converted

[Malamute]

 Splendid! Liking these.

[Curassier]

Really clever conversions. I was a bit put off by their range since I bought the Bavarians in greatcoats and found them significantly larger than some of their other figures.
have now received my cyclists - a few additional photos of the unit as a whole.

[Silent Invader]

Thanks chaps. The Greatcoated Bavarians aren’t for me as I like the full on cornflower blue summer uniform. (I did buy a French Officer from EoE to use as a British Rifle Volunteers captain and he was much much smaller, which surprised me)


Anyways, back to the topic in hand which is the OOB for the Bavarians and how it’s influencing the force composition for my project.

I’m using the list from 1870, and planning to field the units in bold red:




EDIT: From October 1870, a single battery of four pieces of Feldle Kartätschgeschütze (machine guns) was allocated to each of the two Bavarian army corps.

I have most of the figures in the lead pile, but will need another 3 packs of infantry, which will take me from 150 to 198 figures available to deploy.

This is with the units represented as follows:

  6 Figs = Command Group
12 Figs = 1x Infantry Battalion
12 Figs = 1x Jäger Battalion (deployed as two units of 6)
  6 Figs = 2x Cavalry Squadrons
  6 Figs = 2x Artillery Batteries (+1 gun +1 limber)
  6 Figs = 1x Engineer Company

[Silent Invader]

More Bavarians have made it to the painting table.

First up the limber for the medium gun:







I converted the Perry Nappy limber and drivers by:
Dropping the seat backrest rail
Swapping out the wheels for larger ones closer to the gun it serves
Changing the jackets and trousers (including adding the leather ‘chaps’), and adding haversacks
Adding the braking chain to the rear horses and the leads to the front horses
Adding the traces that connect horse harness and swiggle

(With thanks to Malamute for his guidance)

I also added epaulettes to the previously painted gun crew, as I’d stupidly omitted them. However, I haven’t given the artillery red hat plumes, given they were ordered to remove them during the FPW to avoid confusion with the French.

Next up are the engineers with added GS:



Additions included remaking tunics and hands/arms as necessary, plus the addition of epaulettes and hat plumes.

Finally a second infantry regiment with two battalions of 12 men each:



These have only minor charges to the officers hand and the sergeants arm. Regarding the flag bannerman, the seated lion atop the flagpole started off as a standing lion from a Perry plastic kit.

[Malamute]

Cracking work on the limber.

[Captain Blood]

Agreed. The limber looks fabulous. That’s going to be a great addition 

[OSHIROmodels]

Brill 

[Silent Invader]

Thanks all. Am very pleased with the limber though it’s proving a bugger to paint !

In other news, I’ve taken the plunge and added machine guns (ok, manually operated volley guns) to my embryonic rules: the Gatling Gun, Reffye Mitrailleuse, and Feldle Kartätschgeschütze.

When the time comes, I know I can get the British (American) and French guns from the Perrys, but I’ll also want my Bavarians to have one of these:



Any thoughts on a supplier or will I have to scratchbuild?

[Malamute]

Looks very much like a Nordenfeld or Gardner gun.

[carlos marighela]

You could proxy it with a Nordenfelt  or a Gardner gun but having looked at a couple of photos of the real item I reckon you'll need to scratch build it if you want faithful scale replica. Shouldn't be too hard, the carriage seems pretty simple and it's only got four barrels. Two magazines per barrel apparently.

Look forward to seeing it.

[Silent Invader]

Thanks both.

The Nordenfeldt proxy is a good suggestion, inasmuch as casual observers might assume a carefully built  replica of the  Kartätschgeschütze to be a Nordenfeldt!



I’ve made compromises in other conversions and scratch builds for the project, where it’s made good sense to do so, so the use of a proxy has its draw. But given a Kartätschgeschütze - as far as I can tell - isn’t presently available in 1/56 I’d really quite like to give it a go.

By late 1870, 8 guns had been issued, with a battery of 4 guns and then later a total of six being allocated to each of the two Bavarian Corps. So for my Bavarian force, that’d be 1 battery of 1 gun, so quite literally a one-off build/conversion.

Of course if I can find a Nordenfeldt STL then I might be able to resize and redraw that, which would be useful if I decide I want more than the one.

The crew will also need a fair bit of work, especially the seated gunner, as I’m not aware of anything suitable for him.

[carlos marighela]

Source some wheels and I reckon the rest is doable just with plastic rod and plastic card.

[Silent Invader]

I might just give that a go Carlos

In other developments, research for the Field Engineers revealed even more failings in my ‘completed’ Artillery crew. I’m now content that the conversions are as close as I’m going to get them.

A fresh photo-shoot for the file, just about showing that the ORs have now had their shoulder wings removed and replaced with epaulettes and brass shoulder scales. The officer, however, has had a quite a bit of extra work, including removal of the infantry officer equipment, the addition of the riveted carabiner strap and pouch, and the the addition  of riding ‘chaps’.



This is the fifth version of the EoE Officer I’ve completed, and I’ve only just realised that all of them have been converted in some way. The closest to the original is the Jäger (green facings) as he’s merely had a short plume added to the side of his helmet.



I’ve another four officers to complete (currently working on the 3rd Infantry, with red facings, who is also a conversion) so I should make sure at least one of them is painted in its ‘pure’ form.

[carlos marighela]

Those look bloody good!

I suspect the way this is going you'll be wanting a bridging train as well as some siege artillery at some point. Everyone loves a beeg gun and a pontoon bridge.

[Michi]

Very impressive contingent - they do look seriously menacing! Beautiful sclpts and great paintjobs!