Having equipped my ECW armies with light guns and field artillery, it was time to add the big boys: a couple of Siege Gun elements.

The guns themselves were no problem: many years ago I was at an English Heritage site (or similar) and came across a tub of artillery models that have, over the years, proved ideal for siege gun-sized artillery pieces. I still have a handful left, so two of them would form the centrepiece of the elements.

I wanted the siege gun elements to look immobile, so rather than having the guns “naked” on a base, I bought a couple of resin gabion pieces from Peter Pig to serve as dressing. This also meant I didn’t have to have any sort of limber and team in the vicinity: they always take ages to do!

The crews initially came from Peter Pig, who do six different poses. Six men per gun didn’t seem enough, however, so I added a couple of Hallmark officer/sergeant types to each to bulk things out. Hallmark (available through Magister Militum) and Peter Pig size very well together.

I then discovered that the guns, gabions and crews didn’t really fit depth-wise on the standard element bases I’m using for my ECW troops. My standard bases are Warbases Vehicle Bases that fit up to about thirty foot or half as many horse figures without difficulty, and sit very nicely on my FK&P grided battlemat…but the combination of crew, gun and gabion stuck out over the end. Fortunately Warbases were able to supply customised “double depth” vehicle bases that exactly did the trick. I can even use the spares I ordered for TTS camps.

So that’s two siege gun elements now completed. More Romans on the way…