At the start of the revolution the artillery available to the colonists was made up of existing independent companies, and did not perform particularly well. These companies were organised into four regiments, and in time would greatly improve thanks to more experience, better guns (both captures and home-produced), and the efforts of Henry Knox, who did much to improve the arm. In general, the artillery did not serve together in their regiment, but rather in small groups as infantry support as and when required, but in time the British came to acknowledge that their American opposites were their equal in expertise, despite the many difficulties that had had to be overcome.

Serving a gun could take quite a large number of men, but it is something of a standard in wargaming that a gun crew can be represented by just four, which is often what we find in sets of artillery, so it is good to see five poses in this one. The poses are relatively standard for gunners, and here they have the advantage that they all make sense as a team, rather than having conflicting poses (for example, ramming at the same moment as firing the gun) as are often depicted in such sets. The first pictured man stands with the linstock (holding the match), and the second carries a worm (used to remove debris from the barrel). The third man is the key to this team, as he is actively using his sponge prior to a reload, and the fourth is holding his thumb over the touchhole to ensure no sudden draught could ignite any remaining embers. The fifth man is an officer, so not part of the technical team, but an important element nonetheless. This one is either drawing or replacing his sword in its scabbard. All the poses are absolutely appropriate and well done.

Two of the men wear the normal military coat with turnbacks etc., but the rest wear just their shirt and waistcoat, which must have been common as this can be hot work in warm weather. Four wear the usual tricorn, while the fifth wears a brimmed hat without any turnup. Breeches, stockings and shoes complete the wardrobe, making these men correctly dressed for the period, and sufficiently varied to give them a realistic look.

Moving on to the gun, this set contains a galloper gun. This was a very light piece mounted on a light carriage, and intended to be relatively easy to move, allowing it to keep up with the infantry and provide supporting fire when needed. It could be harnessed to either a single horse, or a pair arranged one in front of the other, and while the impact of its small-calibre ammunition was less than that of the bigger guns, it could still inflict considerable damage on a closely-packed enemy, particularly at short ranges. The model in this set has a total carriage length of 38 mm (2.74 metres), and a wheel diameter and barrel length both of 18 mm (1.3 metres), so is a good size and well proportioned. The design of the carriage looks quite typical, and includes shallow boxes on each side of the barrel, which are presumably for tools and such.

The gun fits together in the conventional way, and has good detail on the carriage and wheels. The wheels fit well onto the axles, but the barrel just sits loosely in its proper position, so will need gluing if the piece is to be moved regularly. However, while the gun is a nice piece, the same cannot be said of the sculpting of the crew. While they are accurately done, the detail is really soft, and sometimes disappears completely. The general texture of the clothing is just too smooth to our eye, so while these will look fine at a distance, a close inspection is not particularly rewarding. Some shortcuts have been taken, such as no attempt to portray the hat realistically, meaning that the whole area between the turnups is just a solid block, even on figures where the actual crown could at least partly be sculpted. There is about an average amount of flash on these figures, and some minor extra plastic in unreachable places, so not terrible, but enough to need a lot of cleaning up for those wishing to make the most of them.

The Continental Artillery used a huge variety of guns (whatever they could get hold of), so while the galloper gun here is as good a choice as any, other sets could provide heavier guns as an alternative. However, for such light pieces as this, it was normal for the sponge to also double as the rammer, yet we see no sign of such an item on the other end of the sponge pole. Nevertheless we have no complaints about the accuracy of this set, nor about the poses. The look of the figures is not so great, but as we said, arrayed on a battlefield, these will look perfectly reasonable, and provide some welcome additional firepower for the infantry as it advances.