From MichaelA: Crimean War Royal Naval Artillery (70 points)

I am delighted to finally have these completed as they were a gift from my Mother in Law, who herself was a proud member of the Senior Service.  The Royal Naval artillery crew and guns are from ‘Wargames Foundry’ and are a tad diminutive in comparison to the more ‘heroically’ scaled miniatures of today.  That said, they are more than serviceable and required very little in the way of preparation.  I was somewhat taken by the officer with his foot resting nonchalantly on a cannonball and was instantly reminded of a truly great Victorian hero, Captain William Peel RN.  Born in 1824 Sir William Peel, son of Sir Robert Peel was an adventurous soul.  He was awarded the Victoria Cross during the Crimean War having been cited three times for acts of conspicuous bravery.  

Incredibly Peel managed to find himself in the thick of the action from the Siege of Sebastopol in 1854, to the Battle of Inkerman the following month and finally leading the assault on the Redan in 1855.  It wasn’t long before Peel had recovered from his wounds and found himself, once again, in action this time during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.  Peel played an important role in the capture of Lucknow, but was badly wounded by a musket ball.  During his evacuation to Cawnpore, Peel contracted smallpox, which would ultimately call time on the astonishing life of this truly amazing man.
  

Finally then to the gun emplacements, which had been a bit of an impulse buy from 'Tabletop Art'.  I had come across these when looking for basing ideas for my crews, initially thinking that I would build something similar myself.  I kept looking at the marvellously painted examples on the company’s website and in the end succumbed and placed my order, justifying the purchase on the basis of saving time.  I have to say that I was incredibly impressed with the customer service and the products arrived in jolly good time and were faultless in the casting of the resin.  I simply painted them to match the examples I had seen, which interestingly led me to base the miniatures on clear Perspex discs from ‘Sally 4th’ purely so that I could use the emplacements with other miniatures in the future.

So a good job done, not least because it will allow me to post about a genuine Victorian hero on my misnomer of a Blog! Seeing them finally painted and with the addition of the gun emplacements, I have to confess to being delighted with the results, certainly some of my favourite work this year.

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These two gun emplacements are just superb, Michael.  


Even though they are a little small by today's standards I find the Foundry's ranges still have so much to offer, especially after such excellent brushwork as we see here. I've not looked at anything from Tabletop Art, but will be giving their catalogue a perusal today. The gabions and planking are wonderfully rendered. I also really like the clear perspex bases you've used for these figures as they give such a nice clean look and would allow you to potentially use them in many different settings (though I'm not sure if I could turn away from the fun of doing groundwork). Finally, I very much enjoyed being introduced to the remarkable career of Sir William Peel - truly a Victorian hero writ large!

This fine work will net you 70 points, which includes a bit extra for the excellent gun emplacements. Bravo Michael!