Captain Mercer’s battery of Royal Horse Artillery was probably the third most popular Napoleonic wargame unit in the old days (i.e. 1970’s) coming just behind the Imperial Guard Grenadiers and Scots Grey’s in ranking. It’s only fitting therefore that my little group of Hinton Hunt RHA gunners will represent the gallant Mercer’s men in my army.These figures are all vintage castings that I have stripped and repainted. In my opinion the artillery crews sculpted by Marcus Hinton are among his better creations and I think that these lads have bags of character. In the end I settled for ochre for the froggings (Foundry 4C) for all ranks having taken Matt’s advice not to use gold for the officer. The bright yellow I used originally (see last post) just didn’t look right but I’m pretty happy with the final result. The gun is a contemporary Newline Designs model. The figures are as follows:
BN21 Gunner (firing the gun)
BN22 Gunner (holding cannonball)
BN24 Gunner (ramming home)
BN25 Officer (holding spy-glass and pointing)
I just have a couple of limber horses to complete now and the British heavy cavalry contingent will be finished. Once I’ve done this a full parade will be ordered for General Ponsonby’s inspection - it’s possible that the Duke himself may attend although rumour has it he’s not a great fan of the cavalry.
4 comments:
I like very much the RHA men... You must find the Rocket Corps now!
Regards
Rafa
Do I get a "Consultancy Fee"?
Excellent stuff!
Matt
Yes, they certainly do look fantastic. The RHA probably exhibits one of the prettiest, most unique uniforms of the entire Napoleonic era. Well done!
Best Regards,
Stokes
The Horse artillery uniform is really a light dragoon uniform of the 1780s. That uniform followed the continental hussar tradition with all the frogging. The 'British' element was the Tarleton helmet for the light dragoons. That was based on continental light infantry helmets. At one point the French army line infantry wore similar helmets. I suppose that the helmet was meant to guard against sword cuts and the wool or fur plume was to give the man height and make him more imposing. The shako performed a similar function, it protected the head from cuts and added height.
There are plenty of other helmeted troops around in the period, but generally they are not given to units with all the lovely frogging because continental hussar style cavalry wore shakos or fur busbies.
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