As the 'go live' date gets closer certain requirements can suddenly surface. One of these was caused by me thinking "what will all of the big guns sit on?". I have collection of painted heavy artillery pieces for the Swedes and the Imperials, but I didn't have enough artillery bases to put them on. I could just do a regular base, but I am rather taken with the idea of having my big guns on wooden platforms. These were used for the normally fixed batteries of heavier guns to provide a more stable platform for firing and to prevent the guns getting bogged down.
The Warlord "Ordnance Battery" boxed set (
link) has some nice resin cast gun platforms, which I have, but I needed a whole bunch more and so decided to fashion some simpler ones myself.
The canteen at work provided the planking; wooden drink stirrers seem to be a perfect width for planking. Here is everything I needed to make the bases.
I started with MDF squares (these from Warbases). Width 90mm x length 100mm seems to work best to fit a gun with some crew around it. I cut the stirrers into lengths, about 70mm, using clippers. I then glued these down to the base. I used a contact adhesive for speed of drying.
I also added some decorations to each base; a powder barrel and a pile of canon balls. I think these are either The Assault Group, and/or Warfare Miniatures. The stirrers were a bit plain so I used a file point to scribe some grooves and nail holes in the planking.
I then added my normal paint, sand, PVA, and filler mixture around the planking. I painted the planking a dark earthy colour as an undercoat (Humbrol Matt 29), and then dry brushed mid grey to give an aged and weathered wood effect. Next a wash of Army Painter dark tone, followed when dry with a light dry brush of light grey. When the ink / paint was still moist I ran the wrong end of a paint brush along the planking to try and give the effect of gun wheels being moved across the planks. I then dry brushed the surrounding mud/earth with beige to finish.
Still need to add some flock, but I am quite pleased with these relatively quick artillery bases. Your artillery crew will thank you, and I'm sure you'll roll better when firing from a steady platform like this!
Until next time.
