Having pored over many illustrations/photos and models of Napoleonic guns British and French, I am confused.
Did the British 9 pdr have 'dolphin' handles, or not? Most views seem to...some do not. Similar with Brit 6 pdr...most do not...some do. I suppose the guns could have evolved over the 'Napoleonic' period...but would a Peninsula gun be different to a Waterloo gun?
Likewise with some French guns. 12 and 8 pdrs seem to have had handles but 6 and 4 lb guns vary in execution.
Technical drawings seem to favour handles on French pieces...but Brit guns?...might handles have been omitted for clarity in elevations? How can illustrators/sculptors be so different in interpretation? Perhaps some later guns have been labelled as Napoleonic? I know some tubes are on anachronistic carriages...sometimes from different countries. (Wood rots but the 'trophy' barrel remains). And there is 'artistic license'!
Anyway. Brit 9lb and 6lb guns. French 6lb and 4 lb guns. 1809-1815. Handles or not??? Your thoughts appreciated!
As far as the 9 pr is concerned the Osprey title British Napoleonic Artillery 1793-1815 shows the gun with handles. Likewise the Historex models. They were there to enable the barrel to be easily lifted off the carriage with a block and tackle. However, there is a photograph of a 9 pr in Terry Wise's Artillery Equipments of the Napoleonic Wars (also Osprey) which has no handles. I would surmise that the casting of handles on gun-barrels gradually went out of use as time went by, as adding to the cost and complexity of manufacture in wartime.
6 prs in the French army need to be viewed with caution, since the French captured large quantities of Prussian and Austrian pieces over the years and used them routinely in their horse-artillery batteries alongside their own. French, Prussian and Austrian guns all appear to have had handles.
So if they all had the same features, where is the caution required?
There was more than one model of each and the later models may well have lost their handles. I should have said that all these pieces originally appear to have had handles. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it on a 10mm model.