Another mystery package

This week I was lucky enough to receive another mystery package from Jack in the US. I think most wargamers would agree that there is nothing quite like receiving a package of toy soldiers in the post but when you have no idea what it contains the pleasure is all the greater!

This one contained 18 x DK215 British Royal Dragoons which when combined with Don's squadron (click here) will provide a mounted force that ought to please even the cavalry phobic Duke. For the sake of balance there were also 10 x DK46 French Guard Grenadier-a-Cheval (just what I need to bolster the Guard cavalry).

DK46 French Guard Grenadier-a-Cheval, a very similar figure to Hinton Hunt FN/56.

There were some lovely DK British command figures, three vintage Hinton Hunt BN/2 British Sergeant (charging) and one BN/80 Guards Officer in bearskin (charging). Marcus Hinton produced his British Guards infantry wearing the full-dress bearskin although these were not worn on campaign – I have an example of a sergeant in my British Foot Guards (click here).

Fresh off the playing fields of Eton, Guards officer BN/80.

Another very useful item was a French Limber AL3 as this was the only limber in the Napoleonic range that I was lacking. This means that I will finally be able to put together a French limber team to complement the artillery contingent (click here).

 This is French Limber AL3 and is either a vintage model or a Clayton casting.

All welcome and useful additions to the lead pile but for now it’s back to painting tartan!

Guest Appearance #5

Steve sent me this picture of some French Der Kreigspieler infantry all in the same high porte position as the highlander figure featured a couple of posts back (click here). These are lovely figures and fit in perfectly with Hinton Hunt who never produced any figures in this pose.

It makes me wonder why DK borrowed so heavily from the work of Marcus Hinton when they were able to produce such nice original work.

Black Watch flag bearer

This is one of my finished flag bearer figures for the 42nd Black Watch. The figure, as I already mentioned, is a conversion of a Der Kreigspieler officer. The figure appears to be a straight copy of BN/30 from the Hinton Hunt range and although not pukka HH is at least contemporary with the original range.

Interestingly (in an anorak kind of way) when I took a closer look at the other DK highlander figures that Jack sent I noticed that the rank and file were sporting sporrans which were never worn on campaign during the Napoleonic wars. Was this a romanticised addition by the Americans at DK or an attempt to change the figures in way that might prevent them from being obvious copies of Hinton Hunt? We may never know.

I had to fiddle about painting and re-painting the stocking tops and hat bands on all the Black Watch figures to date as I wasn’t happy with my initial attempts. It pays to look at a lot of pictures of uniforms sometimes to get things right and I’m satisfied now that this is as good as I can get. This figure (and his friend) will eventually receive a Revo flag and homemade green stuff finial on his flag pole.

WIP Black Watch Colour Guard

I found a little time last night to start work on the Black Watch colour guard. The converted figures are the DK version of BN/30 Officer (charging) that Jack sent to me last month.

The conversion job required a bit of arm bending (nerve wracking) followed by the creation of bionic green stuff hands to hold the flag-poles. Please take note (Roy) that I have gone to great efforts to correctly position the flag pole against the body rather than take the easy option of having it resting on the ground.

I’ll post pictures of these lads again when I’ve finished painting them.