Ox Carts for the Peninsular

 I have been building French wagons for the BBB Napoleonic Scenario books and, as i had a wagon spare, i thought I would make a British wagon.  According to the internet the lack of horses in Spain and poor roads meant that Wellington's armies used pack mules for logistics, so the utility of a British wagon model was negligible.

The same research indicated that the British (and Spanish and Portuguese used ox carts)  As I had bought a pack of Tumbrils (EQU02 in the Baccus catalogue) I decided to make some Ox carts.  Buying Ox wagons for the wagons provided Oxen.

I made three adjustments to the wagons:

1 - Balance - my first wagon was very finely balanced, so at the last minute I drilled holes into the wagon and inserted fine staples inside the wheels to provide a bit of extra fixing.  The Mk2 wagons got this mod from the start.

2 - Change the shafts - the tumbril comes with two shafts as it's a 1 horse wagon.  These were removed and a single pole inserted at the front.

3 - Harness the oxen - the oxen got neck collars to make them look like they were harnessed to the cart.

I also lengthened the base to 1 and 1/4 inch, as I felt the Mk1 only just fit on the base and I was concerned that the wagon was too near the edge.

Here's the base models:

Here's the based oxen and painted carts with loads:

Two carts have covered loads, one has round plastic strip cut in 4 mm lengths to represent barrels of olives, or perhaps Spanish red!

Here's the finished carts:

I have not based drivers with the carts - my plan is to make single figures of the 4 main armies to show which nationality currently owns the carts.

A fairly simple bash to give some attractive logistic units.  I hope that this encourages you to have a go!