Nevins Britains Limber Conversion is latest from Bill Nevins. as you will see Bill converted some of the Hong Kong copies of the Britains Limber and cannon or as some know it as caisson. We will let Bill explain his interesting project.
Nevins Britains Limber Conversion
Here are some pix of the Britains HK copies of the limber and cannon conversions that I did many years ago (before CTS existed). I had run across a case of these pieces (Pictures 1,2 and 3) at the first Westchester show some years ago. Al Striano and I split the case of 12, taking 6 each.
I decided to make my own 4 horse hitches using Marx reproduction wagon hitches and some extra wagon horses that I had. First, I stripped all of the silver paint off. Then I removed the base and the original horses and set them aside. I took the gray wagon hitch and cut the back off and carved a groove in it, so that it would slip over the existing limber connection. (Picture 6 has the best shot of this.) I made a 4 horse extension by repeating the groove carving on a second reproduction hitch. I then fit it into the end of the first hitch and secured it by pushing a regular pin through both hitches (Pictures 4 and 5).
Next, I painted the cannon in more realistic colors. I also cut the heads off the Britains copy artillery crews and replaced them with some metal heads I had left over. I was in the process of painting the figures a single sky blue color to match my Marx figures when I got sidetracked and never painted the heads.
Pictures 8 and 9.
To add some uniqueness to the pieces, I boiled the horses in hot water and, using a piers, I repositioned their heads so that they all were not looking the same way.
You can see that in Pictures 10 and 11. Pix 9 and 10 show a different piece than pix 3,4 and 5.
All in all, I made six of these. Unfortunately, I ran out of gray reproduction hitches after the first two. At the time, I had a good stock of brown and red-brown original Marx wagon hitches. Without a second thought, I cut up the original hitches (Sob) and made two more 4 horse limbers and two 6 horse limbers destroying a dozen original Marx hitches in the process.
I didn’t care back then and I still don’t. The limbers and cannons looked great on my battlefield………………
So what is your thought on Nevins Britains Limber Conversion? Let us know
very cool
Very good indeed.
I like the end job of Marx horses and limbers combination , good choice and idea!!. Looks much better that the odd herald/Britain horses running. The work was worth doing it. Great job!!Marx limber was never good to me. Britain cannon and limber are very realistic and in great scale as a 12 pound x 54mm.The horses head moving are realistic. I would never though of doing it.
Dulcop and timpo cannon are good too, but harder to get ,well Dulcop not so.
Nice work Bill.
I tried to convert some Britain’s ACW crews as well but I was not as successful.
Mine is still a work in progress that has been scaled down from an original 4 crews to one. (my conversion is ACW to British Horse artillery & outriders of 1890 & they need a 6 horse team & 4 outriders for each gun.)
Therefore I have some Britain’s parts if anyone has a need. (please pass along email contacts to Stad.)
Great job! Just shows what a little imagination can accomplish.
Great! Just getting the silver paint off made them 80% better, the Marx horses being varied like you did was a nice little detail. The HK copy guns now look as good as a real Britains Ltd one. Growing up, I had one of these HK copies and also got a strange one in metal. Everything was copper (coated probably). I think they were the only metal figures I had and kept as a kid, or even adult since I have none now. I had a lot of metal cannons, but crews were always in short supply. I remember using stretcher bearers, putting a bucket and / or ram rod in their ring hands.