Kingdom of Britannia: Armstrong 12lb Gun

I am finally getting round to posting this. The gun has been completed for months, but I finally got round to putting the finishing touches to the base last night. I've had quite a break from painting Dystopian Legions, but I've been working myself up to getting the army finished. Only a few (well 4.5) units to go, and a couple of vehicles. Maybe the arrival of the Black Wolf Section, being a small but characterful section with a different scheme will get me on the path again.

Anyway, here are the pics your here to see:

Close-ups of the crew here. Full review of the mini here.

Dystopian Legions: Kingdom of Britannia, Armstrong Gun

I fielded the Armstrong 14lb cannon in my Kingdom of Britannia army for the first time this week, and I must say, I was suitably impressed. The rules make it not only good anti armour, but also very good against infantry, especially the multi-wound kind.  It was definitely the Man of the Match as far as I'm concerned, so, I think it's rather safe to say it'll be making a return to the field soon. Which of course means I better finish off the paint job!

The crew have been painted for a while, but the gun was waiting till I had made a nice little scenic base for it till it got a coat of paint, as I do like the nice bases these guns come on. The scenery has been built now, and the gun is ready to be painted. Hopefully in time for my next game.

The crew:

 

The loader has been magnetised so he can be removed from the base for transport. I may have to do the same for the gunner, but so far it seems to be fine as his hat doesn't go much higher than the gun.
I went for a rather traditional British Army Artillery scheme here.

The Cannon:

The barbed wire is from Army Painter, the sandbags and bricks are Secret Weapon. I forgot to place the box of ammunition that comes with the mini on the base. I'll do that before painting.

Dystopian Legions: Kingdom of Britannia Armstrong 14 Pounder Cannon

As the second of my recent purchases (the first is reviewed here) I bought the Kingdom of Britannia Armstrong 14 lb cannon. I have been eagerly awaiting this mini, as I love the overall 'historical' look of this mini, whilst it's still clearly a fantasy/VSF piece (although less so than the Prussian Tesla weapons).

The mini is a mixture of resin and metal parts, with 2 metal crewmen. The overall quality is good, with there being no flash or seams on the crewmembers, however, the gun, and especially the wheels suffer from a common problem with Spartan vehicles, in that they have a large flash/chunk of metal where they have been snipped from their sprue. With one of mine, the clippers had also caught the edges of the wheel. This is not the end of the world, as this part of the wheel can certainly be used to stick the gun to the base, and therefore be completely hidden. This was slightly more of an issue with the Bassett Tankettes than it is here. Another issue I found was that there was a crack in the resin of the main part of the gun. I'm not sure what could have caused this, other than a flaw in the resin at casting, but it was easily filled with a dab of liquid green-stuff, and will be completely invisible after painting.

Gun parts

Crew

 

The infamous Spartan Wheel Sprue issue





Crack in the resin



The last thing about this kit (and all the artillery pieces for the other factions) is that it is released with a Spartan custom base. This base is perfect for creating little dioramas on to spice up the battle field. I think this will be the perfect place to use up the bags of Secret Weapon sandbags or bricks I had bought for the bases of the Bassett's, until I realised there's no space on their bases to add anything but the mini and a little mud. 

The assembled gun on cool base.

Overall a pleasing model, with rules that may have to wait until I am playing against a bunch of Ironclads, so there's no real rush for me to get this guy painted yet (my opponents don't have any tanks that need killing. Yet). I give this guy 7 out of 10, as the casting flaws were easily remedied, and the crew were of a very high standard.