'Rodrigo, get that blasted thing out of my face... Niles! Wait! No, not yet you fool!!'
What we
have here is an early light gun, or more appropriately a heavy
rifled musket, sometimes called a 'Handbuchse'. These tripod mounted guns were usually
used in sieges, presumably to pick off defenders and make a general
nuisance of themselves. I saw one of these weapons on display in Les Invalides in Paris and
marveled at what must have been the bravery of its crew. From looking at the thing the gunners must have been in as much
danger from their gun flying apart as to those they were supposedly shooting at.
I borrowed a Master Gunner from Warlord's Pike & Shotte range and re-purposed him for this vignette as I liked his pose.
I
imagine him as a Spaniard mercenary gunner in Imperial pay who has
dropped by to help his German friends sight their 'silly Teutonic
popgun'.
The two Landsknecht and the handbuchse are pretty much stock from the kit, except for a bit of careful bending and re-positioning for the vignette.
As I
just received a bunch of terrain material from Tajima I so thought I'd
indulge myself with an autumnal setting for these boys. I sort of like
it and am thinking I might maintain it as the theme for my Renaissance collection - we'll
see.
Hmm, what does this add up to? Three figures and a
Now, back to getting the Theme Round sorted...