matchlocks for Samurai and Manchus

[cheng]

a bit of history first;

Sengoku Period Ashigaru (foot soldiers) used matchlocks from 1467 onwards

In 1549, Oda Nobunaga ordered 500 matchlocks for his armies.
still rather primitive and cumbersome while an archer could fire 15 arrows in the time a gunner would take to load and fire...
Effective range also was only 80 to 100 meters, and easily bounced off armour.
vulnerable to rain BUT could be manned by low-ranking soldiers.

At the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, 3,000 arquebusiers helped win the battle,
Japan became so enthusiastic about the new weapons
that it possibly overtook every European country in absolute numbers produced.

Japan also used guns in the invasion of Korea in 1592, in which about a quarter of the invasion force of 160,000
were gunners and managed to capture Seoul just 18 days

[cheng]

(sorry, for some reason, the color looks bad, maybe happened while downsizing)

the following are 2 of the 8 Manchu Banners

[tahra]

Love the weapons!

(that pic seems to have been converted with too few colors?)

[Macruran]

Brilliant stuff!

As I recall there are some cool scenes of Japanese gunners in Kurosawa's RAN. The eventual rejection of firearms by the Japanese is another fascinating episode in history.

[cheng]

thanks Tahra and Macru'Ran' ...i think i know, it was indoors and i used my mobile with a flash...looks ok when its not expanded...cheers!

[Klickteryx]

I'll leave the how up to you, but those matchlocks need matches (or whatever the fuse rope is called). Thin wire, painted white, should do the trick. They're really nice figures and matches would finish off the look. You can get thin wire from the centre of twist ties.

[cheng]

I know very little about firearms....can someone identify (or was there such a thread in the past?) our ancient PM fire arms,
like, matchlock, flintlock, pin&hammer(?)
as I hope not to be totally out of place/era, (I'm not too confident with the different rifles my US Civil War klickies are carrying) thanks in advance 

[playmofire]

Nice customs, cheng, as always.

As regards weapons, what you have there are flintlock blunderbusses, hence the flared end to the barrel. These were primarily short range weapons which fired shot - small balls of lead - rather than a single musket ball.  The shot fanned out after leaving the barrel and so accuracy wasn't very important.  They are ideal weapons for close encounters.

As Klickertyx says, if you added a short length of wire through the flint holder, this would nicely represent the length of fuse known as the match, although the match holder generally seems to have faced the opposite way to the flint holder.  The barrel is a different matter to alter.

[cheng]

OMG! Is the other old rifle (our PM red coats have been carrying) a matchlock? (and would have been more suitable for my samurai army?) 

I'm not too clear on the position of the thread(flint) and will try to check online.

the japanese did later (I'll need to find out when) switch from matchlock to flintlock  but my 14 flared barrels would be impossible to correct 
(only the short tips of the long barrels are flared in some japan designs....maybe i will hypnotize myself to see them this way )

thanks Gordon & Klickteryx
 

[Klickteryx]

Blunderbuss is like a shotgun. Instead of having a single ball, it was loaded with scrap metal, the flared end sending the metal in all directions. It was popular on ships as it could be used to stop enemy sailors and marines from boarding your ship. Canons were sometimes loaded with scrap metal too for the same effect but more violent obviously. It was called grapeshot. Napoleon famously used it against rioters in Paris.

Your base weapon is a flintlock which is missing the frizzen (also called a steel), as is the earlier pirate pistol which also flares though this may be a percussion cap pistol. The second generation pirate pistol has the frizzen, though the whole mechanism is on the wrong side. The latest pirate pistol seems to be flintlock that is missing the frizzen - it's the ugliest of the three as well.

So far as I'm aware, the civil war long weapons are mostly percussion cap weapons. The exception being the lever action rifles. I think these are meant to be winchester rifles but they didn't exist during the civil war but the earlier Henry rifle did. It's only appropriate to use these for Union cavalry though.
Typically the northern cavalry used short versions of the infantry rifle while the southern cavalry relied on revolvers. Confederate cavalrymen carried two pistols generally and some units carried up to four. Normal infantry rifles were also used.

If you haven't seen them yet, playmoebius does a matchlock musket which might be of use though it is missing the match. It comes in brown or black.
http://www.playmoebius.com/weaponry/classic-weaponry/50-mosquet-s-xvi-brown.html