Sunday 23 February 2014

Final Five

Just to prove that I am still beavering away at the unit of Old Guard here is a picture of the final five figures after they emerged this morning from their overnight bleach bath.

I find that stripping the old paint work from vintage figures is quite a therapeutic experience because (mostly) the existing paint work is pretty poor or half done (see here) and returning them to the state of a clean casting sits well with my OCD tendencies. This particular batch still have the odd bit of flash metal attached (I’m always amazed at how many previously painted figures have never had the flash removed) and one has had the corners of his base clipped, presumably to help him line up in the ranks. Close examination has revealed that only one of these figures has the Hinton Hunt code number stamped under its base the others being completely unmarked. This does not mean that the figures are not genuine vintage castings because I bought many figures direct from Hinton Hunt in the 70s that had no codes.

I have already lost the race with Lee to finish this unit before he completed and returned the unit of French Fusiliers to me (to see how he got on click here) but at least it has given me the prod I needed to get on towards the finishing line.

4 comments:

lewisgunner said...

Neat, like grey ghosts.
Roy

Stryker said...

Yes - a blank canvas...

the Archduke said...

deeply impressed with Lee's fusiliers. It's good (and rare) to see these figures in strength. We all wanted grenadiers back then. These chaps will inspire me when I get back to painting my own French ranks.

Stryker said...

Yes, you are right about the Grenadiers - I bought 2 units of line Grenadiers back in the early 70s and not a single Fusilier! I've made up for it now though...