British Infantry on Parade

The Duke thought it would be a good idea to hold a parade of the British infantry to welcome the 49th Hertfordshire’s into their ranks.

The reinforcements are well overdue being the first addition to the British OOB since 2015.

Fall in the 49th Foot

The Hertfordshire’s are now based and ready for action. It has taken just over six weeks to complete them which is pretty good going for me. I’m pleased with the overall look of the unit and with the flags in particular.

All the figures used were vintage Hinton Hunt castings most of which had never been painted before. They are:

18 x BN/5 Private (charging)
1 x BN/2 Sergeant (charging)
1 x BN/8 Officer (standing)
1 x BN/12 Drummer (playing)
1 x BN/13 Ensign Regiment Colour
1 x BN/14 Ensign King’s Colour Bearer
1 x BN/90 Light Infantry Officer (charging)

Years ago, I was inspired by the photo’s of the 1965 refight of the Battle of Waterloo featured in Featherstone’s Advanced Wargames. One picture shows a British unit in line composed of the same advancing figure and I remember at the time wishing I had some (I never did buy any British figures from Hinton Hunt because my limited funds went exclusively into raising a Prussian army). It has taken quite a few years but I now have a unit of my own!

Hertfordshire’s done – almost

The final six infantrymen are finished, well they would be if I hadn’t just realised that I’ve missed the same bit of white lace on each of them but never mind. When I’ve sorted that out, they will all need a second coat of gloss varnish before being based.

I hand cut my bases from 1.5mm plasticard which is always a bit fiddly and I noticed recently that the size of the bases has been gradually increasing over the years. This is because I tend to take a base from the last finished unit as a template and as a result they grow slightly, not in width but in depth for some reason. What I should do is not be so lazy and use my ruler instead.

If I was starting this project today, I would be using laser cut 2mm MDF bases and yes, I’d probably be basing the infantry in 6’s like everyone else. However, I’ve gone too far down the road now to think of re-basing.

Command Group for the 49th Foot

I’ve completed two officers and a sergeant to finish the command figures for the Hertfordshire’s. I enjoyed painting the sergeant in particular as it is a very nice sculpt and it reminded me of the one provided in the Airfix set many years ago – I was bemused back then as a youth as to why there was a pikeman in the box.

I continued my tradition of including an erroneous figure in the unit, this time it is a Light Infantry officer in stovepipe. I’m short of British line officers and as I don’t have a unit of light infantry in the painting queue, I thought I’d use him here.

The figures are (left to right) BN/90 Light Infantry Officer (charging), BN/2 Sergeant (charging), BN/8 Officer (standing). Hopefully I’ll get the unit finished in the next week or two.