Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Vauban's Wars - Hallmark Siege and Fortress Guns

Hi,

When I first started my Siege project I was at a loss for what miniature company's guns I was going to use for both Siege and Fortress (bastion) guns during my games. Needless to say, you need a lot of cannons for a siege, and most of my guns were 12# cannons or smaller.

I finally decided on Hallmark's 15mm equipment as their miniatures were designed for the late 1600s and early 1700s. The sculpts are crisp with almost zero flash or mold lines. I ordered my guns and figures from Scale Creep Minaiturs (Mark has been great to deal with).[info@scalecreep.com]. Some of my older Hallmark figures (pioneers, wagons) I picked up from the Last Square while I was at Historicon several years ago.

In this post I'll show you three different packs of figures\guns. Note: I haven't finished painting any of these as I want to make sure I mount and paint them the correct way, plus I'm waiting for a couple more packs to arrive. I tend to like to have all the lead collected before I paint. Note that Hallmark figures and weapons are true 15mm scale and Old Glory 15mm figures tend to dwarf them, but it doesn't matter provided you don't mix those two together on the same base.

1. Pack AE13 (Garrison Gun on Vauban Carriage )which comes with two Vauban Fortress guns. I truly think these are magnificent pieces. I want to base these guns on wooden firing platforms and you can see from the photos my first stab at them. To make the platforms I cut out a 1" x 3/4" card board base, then glued matchsticks to them and then cut the matchsticks to size. I think they turned out well, and I plan to either glue crew figures to the sides of the platform just off the platform or figure out a basing scheme that would work.






2. Pack AE20 (24-32 pdr Siege Gun x 1) and SS13 (Marlburian Gunners x8). Wow! I love these gunners! The gun master with the big wig and hat off will make a wonderful addition to a gun platform or a command stand. The gun itself is BIG and nasty,and should look spectacular when it is painted. The height of the gun is nearly as tall as the gunners. The base will be 2"x2" gun platform which were used in Siege warfare. I will likely go with 3 or 4 figures per base. I don't like the trail hook figure for an artillery base, but you could cut out a piece of card and glue it to the stick and make him an instant laborer with a shovel! Can't have too many pioneers\laborers in a siege!





In my next post I will show off more of the Hallmark line: pioneers, generals, mortars, 3 barrelled gun, etc.

Eric

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