Friday 11 June 2010

Basing Thoughts

I’ve said before that I am constantly battling the desire to re-base the figures in my various collections. Re-basing is an especially barmy diversion when I struggle to find the time to paint up new stuff but I found my mind wandering down that route for the Hinton Hunts just a couple of days ago.

Don’t worry I have resisted the urge but it was brought on in part by looking at pictures of the superb collection of vintage figures from Mike Ingham’s Wargames Holiday Centre. They reminded me of the pictures of Peter Gilder’s Waterloo terrain and figures that I first saw in Miniature Warfare magazine nearly 40 years ago. Some of these same Gilder figures have found their way into Mike’s collection and although they are a bit faded and dusty round the edges they are still an inspiring sight. I always wondered what material Gilder’s figures were based on and Mike kindly answered this rather geeky question. The bases are 45mm wide x 35-38mm deep (WHC standard size) cut from 3mm hardboard with chamfered edges.

I wish I had known that PG used hardboard when I was basing my original collection because I tried to use plywood, which was very difficult for a twelve-year old to cut with a blunt hacksaw. I soon gave that up for a bad job and discovered plasticard, which remains my material of choice to this day. The picture shows BN5 Private (charging) with BN2 Sergeant (charging) and a converted standard bearer.

Picture courtesy of Mike Ingham - to see more take a trip over to the Hinton Hunter.

5 comments:

lewisgunner said...

Mike's figures are beautifully clean sculpts and very neat paints. Its quite the acme of HH painting and one wonders why the world wanted more or different gigures, excepting of course the lack of french Light infantry and no drummers or standard bearers for major armies such as the Austrians, russians and German states.
Nice figures Mike and nice pics from Mike on Clive's Hinton Hunter blog too.Roy

ALKAID said...

Hi
Is nice see you again in the painting business!
Regards
Rafa (from another account, sorry)

Stryker said...

Hi Rafa - thanks but er... those are not my own handiwork sadly. I wish!

Ian

Rafael Pardo said...

Well, this is not your painting but having you around is a great news!
In other order of things, I hate re-basing... the last time I rebased my figures was when converting mEmpire to Napoleon's Battles. Now I also use Lasalle, but I have not rebased my stuff
Cheers
Rafa
[url=http://www.rafaelpardoalmudi.com/]Wargaming with Napoleonic Miniatures[/url]
[url=http://rafa-pardo-almudi.blogspot.com/]Project Leipzig[/url]
[url=http://www.alkaidediciones.com/]Alkaid Ediciones[/url]

Lee said...

Hello Ian,

I thought it was only me that got caught up in this rebasing thing until I started to follow the blogs! I'm glad you resisted the urge as they look truly 'retro' as they are and match the collection I think.

I look forward to seeing your next painted unit here.

Lee.