Limber Done

Take a sanding stick and sand down the top of the brick.  Trim the plastic sheet around the edges of the brick so that it's even all the way around.

Glue another piece of sheet plastic on the top of the brick.  The Evergreen Scale Plastic comes in thinner sheets of plastic that are less expensive than the .040 sheets.  They will also work and would same some money if a lot of them were being built.  I use Plastruct Plastic Weld General Purpose Plastic Solvent Cement.  It works well with Lego and fake bricks.  Legos and similar bricks don't always glue well without specialized adhesives.

Cut a piece of Evergreen Scale Models item number 297 Angle 1/4" size that is the same length as the brick.

Line up the edge of the angle with the top of the limber and glue it onto the front of the limber.

Put the wire into the groove at the bottom of the limber.  The wheels are from Eagle Games American Civil War artillery.  They are large, cheap, and durable.

Drill a hole in the front bottom center of the limber the same diameter as the plastic coated wire.  Insert a length of rod into the hole and glue it with the Plastruct glue.

Drill a second hole in the rear center bottom of the limber.  Insert an eye pin into the hole and glue it into place.  Put a dab of superglue on the eye pin, and a dab of Plastruct glue in the hole.  Make the loop at the end of the eye pin vertical.  Using your wire cutters, clip a bit of the eye so that creates a trailer hitch for the cannon.  Eye pins are sold in the jewelry department of stores like Hobby Lobby and are little wires with a loop at one end.  This makes a very good limber, not too expensive and not too hard to make.  I have several other versions that I make and likely they will appear in another issue of Bunker Talk.
 

Limber and Lego

I use a Plastruct 1.6mm Buty. Coated Wire number 90102 as the axle.  These are hard to cut and I use a big pair of wire cutters.  The metal is very tough so make sure you have a good cutter for it.

The groove in the brick should be deep enough that the wire will fit below the level of the edge of the brick.

I use a tiny rat tail file that is only slightly larger in diameter to the wire.  Tools like this are found in model railroad shops.

Here is the file in the brick.

Since the file tapers it should file the brick from both sides.

Once the groove has been made glue a bit of sheet styrene to the bottom of the brick.  I use Evergreen Scale Models .040 thick plain sheet plastic or thinner.
 

Lego Limbers

This is a fake Lego brick.  One of the problems with horse and musket artillery is they often don't have limbers, and caissons.  By using a few cheap products I have been able to work out this problem.

These two pin bricks are an excellent size for a US Army limber from at least the American Civil War to the Second World War.  Cut the two pins off with a pair of sprue cutters.

Use a pair of needle nose pliers to break off the interior pin.  Some knockoff bricks don't have the interior pin.

Here are before and after photos.

Use a rat tail file to cut a semi-circle pair of grooves into the sides.

It looks like this when it's done.
 

Cheap

I have solved one of the biggest problems with horse drawn artillery models.  The lack of limbers and draft horses!

I make my own limbers out of wire, sheet plastic, and Lego type bricks.  I harvest wagon wheels from a variety of sources.

The horses are often but not always from Eagle Games.  I will show you over the next few days how to build these limbers.  Cheap, easy, and cheap, and simple to make and cheap.