Royal Naval Brigade: Gardner Gun

The success of the Gatling Gun soon encouraged others into the market The Gardner Gun was invented in 1874 by a former Civil War Captain in the Union army William Gardner of Ohio.

Origninally it had only two barrels and a crank loaded and fired each barrel in turn.

Francis Pratt

He needed finance to produce it, however, so went to the newly formed Pratt and Whitney Company. Francis Pratt had worked for Colt and had a reputation for being one of the top gun designers working.

Mechanism of the original two-barrelled version.

It was developed in conjunction with Pratt and Whitney but despite successful trials from 1875 until 1879 the US Army declined to buy the gun, as they felt it was not an appropriate weapon for their only military activity at the time, against the plains Indians.

Inside the crank case for the five-barrelled version.

The Royal Navy, having already bought the Gatling Gun, were more interested, however and Gardner was invited to England to demonstrate the gun, which by now had a five barrel version as well.

The two-barreled version on board ship.

The Admiralty were impressed enough that they not only adopted the weapon but bought the rights to produce it. Gardner stayed in England to supervise the construction of the weapons in Leeds and lived there for the rest of his life, dying in 1886. The British Army bought the gun in 1880 but its actual introduction by them was delayed because of opposition by the Royal Artillery.

The gun was light, reliable and could fire over 800 rounds a minute.

Gardner Gun: Part 1

Having finished the Gatling Gun, it's time to do the Gardner. I made the mistake of assembling the Gatling before painting it but I'm not going to do that this time!

Firstly, I decided I had better clean all the parts and check them carefully. With the Gatling I threw away a small piece thinking it was just spare metal from the moulding. I still haven't replaced this bit, which is a lever of some sort, but I can make it with a bit of spare Gripping Beast spear.

So here are all the pieces. I needed to check the picture on the Perry website to see where all the bits fit. In particular, the small piece on the top right wasn't easy to place but looking at the unpainted picture of the gun I could see that it fits underneath the breech section at an angle (circled).

It's not quite as clear as the Gatling Gun. I will undercoat it tonight but I am off to Mexico for a week tomorrow so won't get any more done for a bit. It also looks like several of the crew are designed to stand with their hands on the gun so I will have to break my usual rule of separate bases.

Royal Naval Brigade Gatling Gun and crew

I finished the Gatling Gun and crew during my holiday last week. Nothing sums up the Colonial period like a Gatling Gun and they are often used as a symbol of appalling British Colonial tyranny by apologists when speaking about the British Empire.

The Gatling Gun was invented by Richard Jordan Gatling in 1861. It had 6 barrels originally and an effective range of 1200 yards. Despite the date they only saw limited service in the American Civil War.

The British adopted it for Colonial service in the 1870s and the RN mounted them on board ships as a deck-clearing (prior to boarding) weapon. It never saw action in this capacity, combat by boarding having long finished.



The RN Gatlings were made under licence in Britain and had ten .65 calibre barrels (not the more usual .45 calibre), and with the side cranked mechanism used had a rate of fire of 800 rounds per minute (in theory).

It's first use by the British in action (by Naval Brigade troops) was at the battle of Gingindlovu on 2nd April in the Zulu War of 1879. The model used in the Sudan (as in South Africa) was probably the 1871 model. It was deployed in the Ashanti war but didn't see action (other than a demonstration to impress some Ashanti envoys!).

The cylindrical magazine was called a Broadwell drum after L. W. Broadwell, an agent for Gatling's company. Inside were 20 stick magazines arranged around the central axis, each holding 20 cartridges with the bullet noses oriented toward the centre. As each magazine emptied, the drum was manually rotated to bring a new magazine into use until all 400 rounds had been fired.

Valentine Baker had (and lost!) two Gatlings at first El Teb. The Mahdists had one of these Gatlings available in their battery at Second El Teb (recaptured by the British at the battle) although I haven't seen any accounts that they actually used it during the battle (unlike the Krupp Guns). Graham had three Gatlings (all with naval crews)which saw action at second El Teb and Tamai. Unlike the other artillery which was transported in pieces by mule or camel the Gatlings and Gardeners were moved purely by the muscle power of their bluejacket crews.

I only need one for my force and one Gardner, which I have bought but not built. I made the mistake of building the Gatling gun before painting it and the whole operation was a lot more difficult as a result. The Gardner will be painted and then assembled! These sailors have the grey felt covers for their water bottles that were issued at the time for naval personnel.

I have a particular affection for the Gatling gun (horrible thing though it must have been, particularly if you were a tribesman armed only with a spear and hide shield) as my father bought me a model one when I was a little boy. It was grey plastic and mounted on wheels. You dropped those little silver balls that you decorate trifles with into a hopper on the top, turned the handle and they spat out the barrel and mowed down my Timpo soldiers very effectively. I would pay quite a lot of money to find one of those models again!

Paddle Boat

Here is a better photo of my paddleboat, as requested. This was made for Darkest Africa games but it's not quite finished. Maybe I will get it done now.


It was built using the Gary Chalk instructions from Wargames Illustrated (above) but I thought his was a bit short so I have lengthened it a little and added a few details like steps and lifebelts which I got from a model boat shop. I'd never done a modelling project like this before so it was a tribute to his instructions that mine turned out OK!