Wednesday 15 October 2008

Swedish Interlude

Now I did say a while back that I was working on some more Austrians. Well, I am but I remembered that I had prepared some Swedes for painting a couple of weeks ago and I don’t like leaving loose ends. This is another unit of marching figures to represent the 3rd Kajana Regiment, the officer is a Minifigs S range Tyrolean Jager.

For those of you who don’t know, I bought a load of these figures from the US last year in a moment of madness – enough for 9 units of 24 figures, and then some! They are not official Hinton Hunt and their exact origin is still a mystery, I am sure they are not Clayton or der Kriegspieler and (according to Steve) they are too good to be home-cast efforts. I know that other gamers have them in their collections so they must have been a commercial offering but who made them? Answers on a postcard please.

I don’t strip these figures and re-paint them fully as I do with my vintage castings because there are just so many and to be honest they don’t inspire me as much as some of the other items waiting in the painting queue. They get a clean up and touch-up although this is still pretty time consuming as the only bit I don’t repaint is the belt and hat badge. Together with the 3rd Alderkreutz and the 2nd Abo, the 3rd Kajana Regiment completes my first Swedish Brigade. Generals K & A are proud as punch and can’t wait to hold a full parade of the lads.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are Hinton Hunts that someone has given thicker bases to evade the clims of copyright infringement (I suspect). It pretty certainly is the HH Swedish figure.
Roy

Stryker said...

Hi Roy

Thanks for that. I agree that they are certainly taken from the HH Swedish figure (SWN7) but I am curious to know who produced them and if there are other HH figures types made in the same way. Good to hear from you,

Ian

Anonymous said...

I have some Prussian lancers with the same thick bases. I am pretty certain that they were made in the USA. I filed the bases down, to a more normall HH depth.

Roy

Stryker said...

Roy - That's really interesting. I did consider filing these down as the bases really bug me but I have around 300 of them and I'd rather spend the time painting!

Ian

Paul said...

Hi Ian
Excellent work as usual !

I have about 400 of these all british infantry, They realy are a mystery . The metal is better than original HH The only difference except for the base's is about half of BN 177 dont have back pack's.
Mine are from america also.
Paul

Stryker said...

Hi Paul

Interestingly my Swedish charging figures don't have back packs either although it looks like the original figures did.

Ian

rpardo said...

Are they Napoleonic? You could then play Leipzig campaign...
Regrads
Rafa

Stryker said...

Rafa - if I ever get as many figures as you have then I will!

Ian

Anonymous said...

Original HH Swedes do not have back packs.
Roy

Stryker said...

Thanks for that Roy - I was going by the photo on Clive's Hinton Hunter blog that appears to show a back-pack (although it is a view from the front).

Ian

Anonymous said...

I too looked at the figures on Clive's site.
If the Swede advancing has a pack then where are the straps? It would have to have some means of fastening around the front or at least over the shoulders. But you are right there is a blanket roll like lump above the natural shoulder line.

Regards
Roy

Anonymous said...

Hi guys, the figure in the Hinton Hunter is a Clayton one so may have some modifications. When I have time I will try to look out the original HH figure and compare it, and possibly add some "rear" photos to the blog. I have thought for a while that probably I should do this for all figures to help with identificvation but I just can't face it, will do for specific figures on request

Regards

Clive

Stryker said...

Hi Clive - I think photos of them all from the rear would be a project too far! It would be interesting to find out about the Swede though...

Ian

Anonymous said...

Checked out a couple of Swedish battalions that I am sure are orioginal HH and they do not have back packs.

Roy

Anonymous said...

the officer appears to be a Minifig

Stryker said...

Yes, he's a Minifigs S range Austrian Jager Officer - strictly speaking he shouldn't be included with my Hinton Hunts but he fits in fine.

Ian