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Sunday 18 October 2015

A horsey mystery

I started to clean up the horses for my Cuirassiers today by removing what felt like several kilos of flash metal from them followed by some seriously fiddly filing work. It was only when I finished the first half dozen and lined them up (well you do don’t you?) that I realised I had a bit of a mystery on my hands.

The figures are vintage ones that I’ve had for quite a while and I had assumed that they were all FNH/5 – the heavy cavalry horse that according to my Hinton Hunt catalogue is used for Cuirassiers, Carabiniers and Line Dragoons. The problem is that there appear to be two versions of the horse as you can see. Annoyingly the figure codes under the bases are not completely clear but I know that the horse on the left is definitely FNH/5. The one on the right looks like it has code FNH/1 on it but mysteriously my catalogue does not mention this code at all as it lists only FNH/2-FNH/7.

I’m sure the casting is genuine and the sculpting has more in common with some of the older one-piece figures being anatomically a bit odd. I’m just wondering if FNH/1 was perhaps one of the first castings made for the dismountable series being later revised and replace with FNH/5. Sounds like a good theory but does anybody know?
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7 comments:

  1. the Archduke18 October 2015 at 23:08

    At the risk of being thought a bit prosaic, (it happens when you represent the Austrians) are you sure the horse on the right is not the same casting, but suffering from downward pressure on what I shall call its haunches? You can change the whole aspect of some of the foot figures by a twist or push in one direction. I suspect the same has happened here, and that if you levered the rear end of the mystery horse upwards and forwards, it would conform to the shape of t'other. Just a thought.

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  2. Stryker19 October 2015 at 00:10

    No I'm sure they are different - zoom in on the photo and look at the relative positions of the legs on the base. There are also some differences with the saddle cloth etc. however the head position is identical!

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  3. KEV. Robertson.21 October 2015 at 12:56

    Horses IAN...something I cannot do - sculpt a believable Horse. The horse on the right looks to be in the sort of pose a rider might expect if there were an explosion nearby and the horse flintches back...just a thought. KEV.

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  4. lewisgunner21 October 2015 at 19:29

    A stunning find. Never seen one of those before!
    Roy

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  5. Stryker21 October 2015 at 19:45

    Kev - yes I could place him near an exploding cassion!

    Roy - if you haven't seen one it must be rare indeed!

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  6. the Archduke23 October 2015 at 10:09

    I see what you mean about the leg position. And I share your view about Roy's response. If this is the only one of these you have, it deserves celebrity status. Pity you've already done the trumpeter. Maybe a nice officer conversion?

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  7. Stryker24 October 2015 at 11:06

    Archduke - I have a couple more so maybe!

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