Over the course of this project I have found that taking a paintbrush to these old figures makes me appreciate them far more than merely looking at them ever could. This one is a gem, the pose is lovely and full of character and it reminds me why I decided to collect Hinton Hunt figures back in the 70s. My wargaming school friends back then preferred Minifigs because of the price, the superior mail order service and the virtually flash free castings – fair enough I suppose – but I could never get very excited about the way they looked.
I’ve actually already painted one of these before as part of the 10th legere (click here to take a look). For the new unit I will be using castings of FN/254 Voltigeur (charging) to make up the Voltigeur and Chasseur companies, all from the figures recently donated by Douglas.
I always like my units to have a personality - some thread of identity through their adventures. I have greatly enjoyed reading informal regimental histories of the 69eme and 76eme Ligne recently - makes me feel as though I know my 20mm friends even better!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you are not as silly as I, but I am currently reading "Incomparable", Terry Crowdy's very nice narrative history of the 9eme Leger, and it's worth a look if you haven't seen it.
Lovely figure, by the way - terrific to see.
Nice work on the officer.
ReplyDeleteIt is also my pleasure to nominate you for the Liebster blog award.
[http://tidders-kingdomofwittenberg.blogspot.co.uk/]
-- Allan
Thanks for the nomination Allan (and also from you Tony!) - I've been a bit slow off the mark on this as most of my favourite blogs seem to have been nominated already. I'll see what I can do...
ReplyDeleteA very good painting job
ReplyDeleteRegards
Excellent looking figure and beautifully painted; well done Ian
ReplyDeleteThanks Rafa & James, glad you like him!
ReplyDeleteFar prettier than Minifigs!
ReplyDeleteOne of the good things about HH was the style of his figures. They convey something of a period feel, like an illustration from the time. After Minifigs took over the Alberken range they produced some figures that fitted perfectly with HH and then they moved on to S range and the big round heads, long bayonets, smooth style of figure . Technically it was an improvement in consistency and a few were good to look at, but most looked like modern US Marines , all puffed chests and determined strides. They didn't have detail for buttons, shako plates, rings on the musket barrels, shako cords....well they just lacked the detail which is sometimes oversized on an HH, but does make the figure.
ReplyDeleteThe demerits of HH were three
No officers, standard bearers , musicians.... you wimp you were meant to convert those with a file and soldering iron!!
Some odd positions caused by animating a master that was 'at ease' into a position that resulted in a longer arm and a huge hand....or the tiny feet of the cavalry that always sit slightly lopsided.
The appalling flash and casting problems.
What Minifigs did was answer all those problems, but with vanilla figures that look like the products of an American fast food outlet.
Roy