Screw gun battery mules: the first three

Today I made a bit of progress with the first mules for the screw gun battery, with breech, gun chase, and wheel loads.

I used lead for straps, fuse wire for buckles, and ProCreate for the various covers designd to keep dust and debris out of the gun components. So far I am quite pleased with how these have turned out.

Breech, gun chase, and wheels loaded onto the first three mules.

The last of the Beja and Medical Staff Corps stretcher bearers vignette

Life has crashed across my hobby time these past weeks, in a good way for the most part, but totally derailed my painting effort.

Anyhow, here are the last of the Hadendowa, which will finish the enlargement of my bands of warriors … for now, and the Medical Staff Corps vignette.

I will return to the screw gun battery mules once the dust has settled on my life and home – the latter quite literally.

The last eight Hadendowa warriors, which will bring each band up to a strength of 18 figures, and the Medical Staff Corps vignette.

Medical Staff Corps stretcher bearer

I wasn’t really happy with the standing stretcher bearer, because I felt that in the circumstances suggested by the medic assisting a wounded soldier he should be crouching.

I had a spare figure from the screw gun battery, holdng a ramrod/sponge. I cut away the shaft, carefully reinstating the profile of the webbing beneath, and added trousers over the puttees with ProCreate. Add a right arm and left hand from the plastic sets spares box, and the result is not too shabby.

I abandoned the standing stretcher bearer in favour of this fellow.

More Beja and a couple of medics

Well, it had to be done. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have 16 finished Hadendowa warriors, based, but without a band of their own.

I decided to increase the strength of each existing band by two figures. This required that I order six riflemen and six crouching figures. I’ll employ two of the latter immediately, but I am sure to come up with something for the remaining four to do.

I ordered some Perry Miniatures’ dead and wounded British figures too (SB20), with a plan to deploy the medic aiding a wounded infantryman straight away. I’ve prepared a stretcher bearer from one of the Sudan/Afghanistan plastic figures to accompany them, substituting an Oliver pattern water bottle and using ProCreate to shape trousers over puttees. I also added shoulder patches to the right upper sleeves. The stretcher is made from aluminium foil and wire spears, cut to length.

Six Hadendowa riflemen. I swapped the pointing arm of the second figure for a plastic one so that this fellow would look less like a leader. The Medical Staff Corps vignette should turn out alright.

Screw gun battery: mule equipment

I had completely forgotten that some time ago I found a digital archive copy of a HMSO manual for the 2.5 inch screw gun.

Handbook for the 2.5-inch RML Steel (Jointed) Gun 1888 includes detailed drawings of the harness arrangements for carrying the gun components and ammunition on mules and camels.

These drawings will provide guidance for my modelling effort, but I now realise that I will have to change the ammunition boxes on the deployed models.

Plenty of detail here to guide my modelling effort. These drawings show the elevating gear carried with the wheels, so I will give that some thought. The ammunition boxes were made of leather, so I will have to make a couple for my deployed battery, too.

Screw gun battery mules

The Empress Miniatures’ Jazz Age Imperialism mountain battery has arrived, and it looks the part.

The gun components are moulded contiguously with the mules, which means there are some models that I will not be able to use. Nevertheless this set is an excellent start for this project.

According to Goodrich’s Report of the British Naval and Military Operations in Egypt, 1882, the RML 2.5 inch 7 pounder screw gun was dismantled, with leather caps and aprons attached to the barrel sections for protection, and carried by individual mules as follows:
– muzzle section
– breech section
– carriage
– axle, coupling block, trunnion guard, elevating gear
– wheels
– ammunition boxes

It seems unlikely that much changed between 1882 and 1884.

Top to bottom: Some of the mules from Empress Miniatures’ Jazz Age Imperialism mountain battery, and two spares from their water cart; pages from Goodrich’s Report of the British Naval and Military Operations in Egypt, 1882 illustrating how the dismantled screw gun was carried by six mules.