A newly recruited battery of Austrian field artillery go through their paces on the firing range. All the figures are vintage Hinton Hunt and the gun is a plastic one from the Hat set. The figures are:AN52 Gunner with rammer
AN53 Gunner holding cannon ball
AN54 Gunner with hand spike
AN55 Gunner ammunition runner
I had been looking forward to painting these figures for quite some time, perhaps because on the snazzy bicornes however I found them strangely unsatisfying to paint – not sure why. Their drill is a bit slow as the crew have no officer to command them. Happily this situation will soon be remedied as amongst the recent arrivals from the US was another complete set including a splendid artillery officer holding a map.
The vicar of the church is growing increasingly nervous about the effect of the cannon’s boom on his lovely stained glass windows. He shouldn’t worry really as the windows are made from paper.
13 comments:
Lovely figures and painting job!
The artillery tools are original or added?
Rafa
Hi Rafa - the tools are all cast on the figures and are 100% original. As with most Hinton Hunt's the casting is not very delicate so the hand-spike to scale would be the size of a small tree trunk - it all adds to the charm though!
Ian
If you make the handspikes, swords and bayonets to scale they soon bend and break. That's why so many of the original wargamers with HH replaced swords with flattened pins. Of course Stryker could carve off the original tool and replace with a bent pin.
There are very much two schools of thought on replacement. I do it on lancers and the like and some swords, but there are those who insist that, apart from flash removal the casting should be kept in its original state.
Of course there is also the conversion of officers, standard bearers and musicians to consider. Is it allowed? Is it allowable to mix in Clayton figures, pirates, cast conversions, Minifigs or der kriegspielers HH clones or even S range figures or anything but a true HH?
You should get a Newline gun to replace the Plastic one. They are the nearest to the old Hinchliffe 20mm equipment.
Roy
Hi Ian thought I had found an Austrian cannon but on closer inspection its a Prussian one painted yellow ochre. Hope you can enjoy looking at your Austrian crew, even if you didn't really enjoy painting them
Regards
Clive
Roy – My idea when I started the project was to use only vintage HH with no conversions but the lack of available figures to complete full units inevitably led me towards including Clayton ones. In fact I have grown to like the Clayton figures as many castings are as good as vintage ones. I’m not so sure about conversions as I actually like the tree trunk muskets and telegraph pole lances. I guess if I’d wanted a ‘perfect’ army I would have bought Foundry or some such! As for ‘S’ range etc – they don’t have the same nostalgic appeal to me as HH although there are some lovely figures.
Clive – the plastic cannons don’t bother me too much. As I’ve said before, the HH guns are just too out of scale for my liking but I might look at Newline as Roy suggested.
Please just don't say that Foundry are good models. They are mostly too squat, too muscly, with huge hands and thick ankles. A foundry musket is less to scale than an HH one. HH scale and proprtion is generally very good. Even the rather limited HH horses are better proportioned than many foundry ones. I agree with you about S range, its their oversized heads that put me off and their sort of odd poses caused by their chests being too deep.
Roy
Roy - I don't possess any Foundry and have no idea what they are like I was merely using it as an example. In fact one of the reasons I settled on HH again was because I couldn't find a modern range of figures that I really liked the look of.
Ian
Hi can I comment on comments? Roy, does it matter about replacement etc? Surely its's up to everyone to choose what they are confortable with (unless you have an eye on selling later but which Hinton Hunt enthusiast really wants to sell any figures - even if you do have more Old Guard Grenadiers, pavlovskis and Rifles than there ever were?). The cavalry figures I have from Peter Gilder's collection are at the same time the best argument for and against modifying. They have replacement tin bases, swords from pins to scale length for heavies, wire reins etc - the walking lancers with slung lancers seem to me about as good as you can get - and show what wonderful figures can be produced; but who has the skills of Peter Gilder - the fact that they are so perfectly modelled and painted (and around 30 years ago) puts you off trying. And if you do use them with other figures, unless you do so in the same units, just think of them as wo or three complementary questions. I have been surprised how well the Les Higgins 25mm figures match size wise with Hinton Hunt, whic is good news now NapoleoN are about to produce them again.
Clive
Clive, It only matters if you are a purist and I am not. I raise the question for debate and to hear opinions. Pete Bateman used to convert trumpeters officers and standard bearers but felt that replacing swords and lances was not on. This was partly because Hinton Hunt lances had the pennon and the thong and I think the butt modelled on. However, they were always bendy (at least the upright ones. All my Normans, Saxons and Greeks have lances replaced.
I am quite happy to mix in Claytons or HH clones and even Alberken sappers because they are all an HH base figure. I draw the line at S range though. They just stand out so much.
I am very happy to do headswops... its a good way to get mounted Colonels and some aide de Camp variety into the minor nations
Roy
Roy
Roy
Hi Roy, I have kept separate Hinton Hunt and S range set ups. I haven't really had access to DKs, have some Alberken which I happily include. Now the Les Higgins 25s are coming back I am seriously tempted to get out of S Range Napoleonics, but as they (LH) only cover French and English that leaves the other nations. I seriously need to concentrate on some things and offload a lot of stuff. Maybe blogging figures means you don't have to keep the actual lead. Delusional or what?
Clive
The problem I have with the old Les Higgins stuff is that the bayonets were very fragile and easily came off the musket. I remember the swords on his cavalry being similarly vulnerable. I have a Higgins ECW set up. Also the Napoleonics are rather wooden positions. This was presumably for ease of casting. The detail, as with most Higgins work was good.
Roy
Dont know much about the other stuff...but the "crew" look great to me! Otherwise, when in doubt I'll personally go with whatever Peter Gilder did!
Matt
Hi Matt - thanks for that!
Ian
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