Hinton Hunt Time Capsule

Today was a rather exciting day here in the Hinton Hut. Firstly I was treated to a goodbye visit from Goya who pedalled over in the burning Perthshire sun to bring me a nice seated model of Napoleon before proceeding to discuss in depth with Mrs S the merits (or not) of the latest Bridget Jones film.

How fickle - just last year we were discussing HIS film!

No sooner had Goya left than the postman brought me a very interesting package, and I mean VERY interesting package.

This turned out to be an extraordinary Hinton Hunt time capsule gifted to me by Ian T. who contacted me recently to say that he was clearing out his loft when he rediscovered a box of Prussian figures he bought back in 1974 but never got around to using. He wondered if I could find a use for them!

In the top of the box original painting instruction sheets and an order form (don't try ordering them you will be disappointed).

In the box - layer upon layer of goodness. These are PN5 Private with separate musket, er yes, there are a lot of them.

The separate muskets were still in the original tissue paper as packed by Hinton Hunt!

There are a preponderance of Uhlans and Jagers because (and I love this) the rules his group were using back then favoured lances and rifles - that is so 70s!

40 Uhlans, yes that's right 40 - very nice crisp castings.

I'm still sorting through everything trying to work out how I can use them.

So it looks as if after the Austrian build up there is going to be a Prussian one. You never know quite how things are going to pan out when you collect vintage figures.

I can't thank Ian enough for donating these to the cause.

Austrian Grenadiers

Well, we can't let the Hungarians grab all the limelight can we? This is another unit of figures from Don's collection beautifully restored for me by Goya. Once again my only contribution was to add the command figures (and flag) then apply gloss varnish and base them in my house style.

Goya has done great work enhancing Don's original brushwork by picking out the black lining on the straps.

The figures are:

1 x AN.10 Officer, charging (converted to standard bearer)

21 x AN.12 Grenadier, charging

1 x AN.14 Officer, marching

1 x DK Austrian Grenadier drummer, charging

The patches on the rear of the hats are all Don's original work done in his 'before bifocals' era as he puts it!

Believe it or not, next up will be some Austrians...

A bit less flashy

Having removed all the flash metal from the castings, I finally found time to paint up a 'test' figure for the Austrian Uhlans. I found him just a little bit tricky but got there in the end. I've painted him as a trooper of the 1st Uhlans adhering as closely as possible to the Hinton Hunt painting instruction guide.

AN.85 Austrian Uhlan (Lancer, mounted) charging.

I've also managed to fill in the gaps in the ranks of the 51st Gabriel Spleny regiment that were created by the transfer of their grenadiers to the combined grenadier battalion. I didn't have any Hungarian figures so have used the equivalent Austrian infantry figure with a painting conversion. The Austrian figure is almost identical except for the bushy moustache modelled on the Hungarian version.

The six figures on the left (front two ranks) are the additions painted to blend in with the existing ones painted back in 2008 (yikes!).

So as you can see, it's still all go here on the Austrian front with hopefully more to come soon!

A Bigly Game at Goya's

Tony and I were most fortunate to be invited to a game at Goya's today. This was to be the last game at his country chateaux before moving to the distant coast for a well earned retirement. The theme once again was the War of 1812. Goya was acting as Umpire so Tony and I chose sides by rolling a D6 with the lowest score getting to play the Americans.

My British/Canadian troops advance towards the enemy. The rules used were a slighlty amended version of Mr Madison's War.

The Americans come forward. Their objective is simply to destroy the British force.

The column on the road and the gun battery are Hinton Hunt's. The rocket battery is manned by plastic figures which may explain why their first shot came back and knocked out one of the gunners to their left whilst their second shot exploded prematurely wiping out the entire crew!

I liked this rather nice mounted officer.

My lads form a solid firing line - I think these are Les Higgins figures.

My favourites - Airfix British painted by Goya as Belgians and now transferred to the American army.

The game was so Old School that it was almost as if Messrs Grant and Featherstone were in the room.

I'm not sure that's a great way to treat Native Americans but those Airfix boys sure can shoot.

Tony gets his men in gear and presses forward. The unit in front on the road are my own HH Belgians with a substitute flag provided by Goya.

There were a lot of fences which made deployment and movement tricky.

The battle in full swing with both sides blazing away at each other.

Gradually Tony gained the upper hand although the British were dishing it out too.

Some of my units were starting to break and run and Tony put all my artillery out of action causing me to concede defeat. I think we had played around 12 turns and it was great fun.

More Higgins types as Americans which I'm showing here because they were routing proving it wasn't all bad news for the British.

Hopefully there will more of these games once Goya has settled in to his new luxury coastal villa.

Hungarian Grenadiers

Here they are at last finished, based and battle-ready - the Hungarian Grenadiers. I'm very pleased with the way these have turned out.

The figures used are:

20 x AN.33 Grenadier, firing

3 x AN.30 Officer, charging (one converted to standard bearer)

1 x FN/6 (French) Drummer, charging (with head swop conversion)

And a short ECW update - below is the S-range ECW General (ECWC1) mounted on horse HCH5. The dog, gifted by Tony, is from Irregular Miniatures.

This could be Prince Rupert and his dog Boye although if it is I think he has been sold a pup as Boye was a poodle and this looks very much like a mutt.

I am now working to make up the numbers for the 51st Gabriel Spleny regiment after their grenadiers were transferred to the combined grenadiers.

Grenadier flag bearer

I have finished painting the Grenadiers but haven't based them yet so they're not ready for review quite yet. Here instead is my attempt at another Pepsi-Max flag for them.

This is my first attempt at a Leibfahane flag which as I understand it was issued to the senior battalions of a regiment. As always my painting is on the impressionistic side and doesn't bear close scrutiny although I am quite pleased with my freehand painted 'Madonna and Child'.

The Barbers Pole was a right old faff to paint. I tried a couple of times without success to get the diagonal stripes to match up until Goya told me not to bother and fudge it because "who's going to notice it from three feet away?" 

And on the subject of Goya, he sent me the above photo of a couple of Austrian guns. These are more figures from Don W that he has refurbished.

Grenadier Command

Having finished the rank and file figures for my Hungarian Grenadiers I have now moved on to the Command group. The officer is one of my all time favourite Hinton Hunt sculpts - he has a real swashbuckling swagger about him I think.

AN.30 Hungarian Grenadier Officer, charging

The drummer has been a bit of a problem as I had used all my DK Grenadier drummers to convert to line drummers. The solution was to decapitate a French drummer and replace his head with an Austrian Grenadier's one.

FN/6 French Drummer, charging - converted to Hungarian Grenadier drummer

On a different topic, Tony recently donated this characterful Preacher figure by Warrior Miniatures to my stalled ECW project. I just couldn't resist painting him.

If you're going to wargame the ECW period you need one of these

The next post should hopefully feature the full unit of Hungarian Grenadiers on parade.

The Joy of Flash

The human mind is fickle. When I was buying direct from Hinton Hunt in the early 1970s I can remember the dissapointment of receiving a Jiffy Bag full of figures, halfheartedly wrapped in newspaper with loose bits rattling around. The figures that weren't beyond repair were covered in ridiculous amounts of flash metal that took literally hours to remove. In those days there was no point in trying to complain or leave a bad review (there were no reviews) and you just had to suck it up and be greatful that at least the packet had arrived.

Fast forward to now and I have a warm glow of nostalgia to see figures with their original flash attached. This doesn't happen often as the majority of the figures in my collection have been prepped and painted by others and then stripped and repainted by me. Most of the flash is therefore missing although it is always a surprise to see how many people in the past have just painted over great chunks of it.

AN.85 Austrian Uhlan (Lancer) (mounted) charging.

So I've been very excited to start prepping a unit of 'virgin' Austrian Uhlan Lancers that have never been painted and still have all the flash attached. I've had these figures for a very long time and I thought that, with the recent growth spurt of the Austrian infantry, it was time to start thinking about adding more cavalry.

Meanwhile work on the Grenadiers continues and I have just completed a 'company' with green facings to add to the combined Grenadier Battalion.

I like the idea of having a unit with mixed facing colours.

And last, but not least, Goya sent me this picture of a recently completed Austrian unit for his own forces. This is IR1 Franz 1. These are more of Don's old troops that have been very sympathetically restored and rebased by the great master.

The rank and file are AN4 but the command figures are Hinton Compatriots. The flag apparently has the design etched on it and Goya has done a fab job with this.

I like the Barber Shop pole effect on the flag staff and will be nicking this idea for my Grenadiers!

Hungarian Grenadier

This is the test figure for my next unit which will be comprised of Hungarian Grenadiers in the firing position AN.33 Grenadier, firing. I've been wanting to paint this unit for a long time so I'm pleased to finally have them on the painting desk. When finished this will bring my total number of Austrian infantry units to 8 which I consider to be a respectable size for an army.

There's a lot of detail on these figures but they deserve the extra painting effort.

The figure pictured is a vintage casting but I will also be using some rather nice reproduction figures to make up the numbers.

I'm going with the facing colour and white on the bearskin patch which may not be historically accurate but looks good.

Now some of you may remember that my 51st Gabriel Spleny regiment has a 6-figure company of Grenadiers in its ranks. These figures will be transferred to the Grenadier battalion and their numbers made up with musketeers. I know some of you may object to me tinkering with the old regimental establishment but we must change with the times and anyway, the old unit can easily be reconstituted if needed.

Austrian 23rd Archduke Ferdinand Regiment

Here then are the Austrians I promised you in my last post. This unit will represent the 23rd Archduke Ferdinand Regiment because they have rather nice poppy red facings.

So how have I managed to knock out another unit so fast I hear you ask? Well, the answer is that I haven't actually done very much myself to contribute to their mustering-in. The original paintwork is by US gamer Don W and they have been spruced up by none other than Goya who added the black lining to match them to my own style. All I did was add in the command figures, base them, and give the whole lot three coats of gloss varnish.

Don's original brushwork gave them grey lined straps and Goya very kindly changed them to black to fit in with my other troops. The headgear is all Don's work.

The rank and file figures are all vintage castings that Don bought direct from Hinton Hunt in the early 80s. They are:

21 x AN/4 Musketeer, charging

1 x AN/1 Officer, charging

1 x DK Grenadier drummer (with head swap conversion)

1 x AN/9 Standard bearer (David Clayton)

Here you can see how neatly they fit in with the 26th Schroeder Regiment I completed last year.

Don has very kindly sent me quite a few castings so there will be more Austrians to come.

Attacked from the rear

After storm Eowyn visited us last Friday I found a few pieces of the Hinton Hut roofing-felt covering on the lawn but couldn't work out where they came from because by then the Hut roof was covered with snow. The Hut is a kit construction I built 5 years ago and the roof is covered with roofing-felt strips that overlap with a tile effect. Asthetically this is pleasing but the problem is that the wind can whip in behind the edges and blow them off.

I was finally able to get up on the roof today to investigate and make a temporary repair. Once the tiles rip off it is almost impossible to patch in without it looking a mess so I'm seeking a more long-term solution.

Normally when we get a gale it comes from the northeast and I've had to repair patches on that side of the roof several times but sneaky Eowyn came in from the southwest and attacked from behind taking me unawares. No problem, I have made a temporary repair whilst I plan a more permanent one for the Spring.

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I'm still working away slowly at Austrians so I have nothing new to show you but I did come across some photos of a Waterloo game held at Roy's house just prior to Vintage Waterloo. Here are a few that I don't think ever made it onto the blog.

In this game the table was extended quite a bit past Hougoumont and the French cavalry seem to be attempting to exploit the additional space.

The Emperor and his staff at La Belle Alliance - these figures are from Roy's collection.

An impressive looking French attack on Hougoumont.

The British make ready behind La Haye Sainte. The Highlanders on the right are the 42nd from my own collection, all the other figures visible are Roy's.

Baring's men prepare for the coming onslaught at La Haye Sainte. These figures were on loan from Goya's collection.

Next time it will be Austrians - promise!

Austrian General Staff

I've just finished another two of the lovely Hinton Compatriots Austrian commander sculpts recently sent to me by Don. These have been such fun to paint.

ANC08 General holding telescope on Horse H01. This one will represent General Colloredo who commanded the 1st Division at Dresden.

ANC05 German Grenadier Colonel on Horse H01. This one will represent General Chasteler who commanded the Grenadier Division. I know he wouldn't have actually worn a Colonel's uniform! 

And finally Hinton Hunt RN.85 Russian General (in plumed cocked hat - mounted) looking through spyglass (horse attached). He will be Schwarzenberg's Chief of Staff General Radetzky.

This brings the staff for my Austrian army to a total of 10 figures.

Group photo of the whole gang. Back row L-R, Klenau, Gyulay, Mack, Chasteler, Crennville. Front Row L-R, Colloredo, Schwarzenberg, Radetzky, Emperor Francis, Archduke Charles.

In our last game back in the summer we reverted to my original idea of having a command figure to represent the colonel of each infantry regiment (we used counters for the cavalry as I don't have enough figures for that). This adds a little bit of extra fun as nobody wants to be the person that loses Marshal Ney in a melee (or do they Nigel?). This recent boost to the Austrian General Staff means I will have plenty of 'Colonels' for the Dresden game.

If you missed the recent post with photos of Roy's Hinton Hunts in action over on the Cirencester Wargames blog click here.