Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures

A Flashy A.D.C.

2012-01-24T21:08:00.000Z

Mrs S finally handed over today’s post to me at 8.15pm (mustget her better trained) and there was a package for me from Iain. This wasexciting because inside was this very flashy Hinton Hunt British A.D.C – BN/261A.D.C in cocked hat, holding letter on Horse BNH/4, together with a lovelyMinifigs rendition of General Picton.

I like seeing flash metal on my Hinton Hunt castings notjust because it confirms that the models are genuine vintage ones (moderncopies are much too pristine) but also because it reminds me of the hours Ispent in my youth filing away at the misshapen castings supplied direct fromMarcus Hinton. Back then I used to hate this chore but now perversely I reallyenjoy it, perhaps in part because I have a decent set of files and a metalclipper rather than the single blunt file appropriated from my Dad’s tool set.

The British A.D.C figure was one of the ones missing from mycollection of General Staff figures and I’m very pleased to have him - I’mthinking that I may paint him up to represent De Lancey. The Duke couldcertainly do with a reliable Staff Officer after his recent run of bad luck onthe battlefield.

The model of General Picton, whilst being outside thescope of this project, is an excellent little figure as well. I’m not sure ifthis is “S” range or the later range but it is one of the older Minifigs wherethe rider has the saddle attached to him. This was a clever idea at the time asit meant you had a choice of horses when you ordered (sadly he is currently onfoot). The casting must date from before 1972 as I remember ordering ECWcavalry from Minifigs around this time and they were changing to having thesaddle with the horse. I would be interested to hear more on this subject if anyone has more precise info - please feel free to leave a comment.

My thanks to Iain for making my day.

Bulow – Take Two

2012-01-22T20:23:00.000Z

Earlier today I had cause to peruse Clive’s excellent HintonHunter Blog when quite by chance I came across the Hinton Hunt paintinginstructions for the Prussian General I have just completed (click here to seewhat I mean). Regular readers of this Blog will know that Marcus Hintonproduced a typed sheet of painting instructions for each figure he produced –and his research was meticulous.

Now of course I was pretty annoyed with myself for notchecking before I painted this one to see if the painting instructions wereavailable, because I got quite a few things wrong. A normal person might havejust shrugged and said “so what” it’s painted now, move on - but not me ofcourse. So here’s a picture of him re-touched to conform to the Hinton Huntguidelines.

In the tradition of those “before and after” picturesthey used to have in comics when I was a kid, I thought we could have a littlecontest. Can you spot five differences between the figure as it appears here andas it appears in the picture in my previous post? Answers on a postcard please,or perhaps just leave a comment.

Prussian General

2012-01-20T20:30:00.000Z

Continuing with the theme of all things Prussian, I havejust painted this one-piece casting of a Prussian General PN64 General(mounted) looking through spy-glass. I know I’ve said it before, but I reallydo like the Hinton Hunt one-piece mounted figures and I enjoyed painting thisone.

I’m thinking of using him to represent General Bulowbecause it was Bulow’s Corps that were the first of the Prussians toarrive on the scene at Waterloo – reason enough I’d say. He will join Blucherand Gneisenau as representatives of the Prussian High Command in my armies.

Just sneaking into the picture is an Airfix 8^thArmy Desert Rat. I think you will agree that I am pretty good at sticking to myHinton Hunt project but I do have the occasional dabble in other periods. Theseare amongst the very best of the Airfix figures (that’s my excuse anyway) andyes I may have a tank or two to build but I won’t let that get in the way offinishing off those Prussian Jagers.

Prussian Jagers

2012-01-15T19:50:00.000Z

I managed to find time to complete these three PrussianJagers this week. They are PN/28 Prussian Jager (Jackbooted Riflemen), firing.I was aided by the fact that these are actually quite easy to paint beingmostly dark colours and having no nasty white straps.

Painting these figures was a particularly nostalgicexperience because the first wargame unit I ever painted completely by myself(at the age of twelve) was comprised of these same Hinton Hunt Jagers –although they were all in the advancing position. Back then I used Humbrol MattEnamel’s with a very limited palette of colours (there wasn’t even a fleshcolour available at the time so I used the Gloss shade “Mushroom”) but thefinished figures weren’t too bad, all things considered. I’m certainly gladthat things have moved on with the introduction of acrylics and the huge colourchoice now available.

When I’ve finished the whole unit of 18 figures I will have achieved stage one of this project having two small but balanced forces, enough figures to play a decent game or two. Each army will comprise in units: 6 Infantry, 2 Light Infantry, 1 Heavy Cavalry, 1 Light Cavalry, 1 Horse Artillery and 2 Foot Artillery. Each Infantry and Cavalry unit will be led by a personality figure leaving the Duke and Napoleon free to take overall command of their respective forces.

More French Artillery

2012-01-06T20:44:00.000Z

Firstly I’d like to wish you all a belated Happy New Year – here’s hoping the Mayans got it wrong and the world won’t be ending in 2012.

I’ve made a promising start to proceedings by painting up another French Artillery crew with the aim of bringing that arm of the Army up to strength. The figures are all vintage ones that I have stripped and repainted and just finished this evening – they still need to be varnished.

The figure in focus is FN/33 Line Artillery Gunner (ramming home). I will post another picture in due course when they have been issued with a cannon and try to get them all in focus.

Gnice One

2011-12-29T13:44:00.000Z

Years ago I remember my father (who was a WWII RAF Navigator W/O) telling me that after one successful attack on the German Battleship Gneisenau the wags in the RAF sent back a Morse code signal to base saying “The Gneisenau is not so Gnice now”. This has nothing whatsoever to do with this Blog except that…

One of the things Santa brought me this year was this casting of PN/61 General Gneisenau mounted on horse PNH/1. A nice little figure with a good paint job too (although not quite in my own style). He will probably survive without a repaint but we’ll see.

I’m pleased to have him as he more or less completes the General Staff for my Prussians and recreates the Command Group I had with my original Prussian army back in the early 70s. One of the aims of this project was to build up a Hinton Hunt Prussian force if I could find enough figures (which I now have) so it’s probably time that I turned my attention to painting a few more of them!

Marquis de Grouchy

2011-12-18T19:53:00.001Z

Grouchy was a Johnny-come-lately amongst the glittering ranks of Napoleon’s Marshals, being the last of them to receive a Marshal’s Baton in April 1815. His career wasn’t particularly distinguished – in fact during the battle of Novi in 1799 his attempt to surrender himself to the Austrians was misinterpreted as an ambush and he received 14 wounds before they realised their mistake. Fortunately for him the story that came out after this incident was of his heroism in trying to “resist” capture.

The Marquis was a cavalryman and he commanded the Heavy Cavalry in both Spain and Russia and led the Emperor’s personal bodyguard during the retreat from Moscow. He didn’t do much to endear himself to his colleagues – on one occasion he begged Marmont to give him a sword his men had captured from Prince Yurosov (saying that his own sword was hurting an old wound by rubbing on his hip) he then showed it off in Paris claiming to have captured it himself. It’s not surprising then that history has pinned a large part of the blame for Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo upon him. Whether this is fair or not I really do not know.

I adopted a novel approaching to varnishing this figure – after spending two evenings carefully painting him I managed to accidentally drop the poor Marshal directly into my pot of Humbrol Satin-Cote. Rather bizarrely, when I had fished him out and brushed him off, he actually dried with a proper sheen rather than the annoying glossy effect I’ve been achieving of late. Perhaps this is the answer to my varnishing problems.

Hinton Hunt didn’t make a figure of Marshal Grouchy so I used FN/354 Marshal Ney with riding coat worn over his shoulders mounted on horse BNH/10 instead. This is a repaint of the scary looking figure originally posted here.

Guard Foot Artillery - Completed

2011-12-10T17:54:00.001Z

“In most battles the Guard Artillery is the deciding factor since having it always at hand, I can take it wherever it is needed.”-Napoleon Bonaparte

Hinton Hunt Guard Artillery crew and Field Gun

FN/172 Gunner ramming home

FN/173 Gunner holding cannon ball

FN/171 Gunner holding porte-fire

FN/170 Officer looking through telescope

In my House Rules the Guard Artillery are allowed to re-roll 4 dice when firing. I’m looking forward to trying them out on the table.

The Emperor’s Daughters

2011-12-03T20:25:00.001Z

During our visit to London back in the summer we spent half a day looking around The Tower of London. While we were there I snapped this picture of some Napoleonic French artillery pieces that had been captured during the Waterloo campaign.

Captured French artillery pieces at The Tower of London

It wasn’t really clear if these pieces had been captured on the main battlefield or if they were acquired at some other point during the campaign but it was slightly eerie to see such a tangible link to the Napoleonic past. Only the cannons themselves are original, the carriages being later – but accurate - reconstructions.I took the picture mainly to help me try to get the right colour green for my own model guns and I finally settled on Foundry 28B Phlegm Green as the closest match. I am lucky to have been given two Hinton Hunt French guns (A/3) some time ago and wanted to give my Guard Foot Artillery crew one of these original HH models to serve.

The Emperor with his daughter (Hinton Hunt A/3)

I have mentioned before that Hinton Hunt artillery models are a bit out of scale with the figures being on the small side. However, it seems only right and proper to assign one of these rarities to the Guard.

Guard Foot Artillery

2011-11-27T19:53:00.003Z

Just to prove that I do sometimes still paint my own figures I have spent the last week or so working on a French Imperial Guard Foot Artillery crew. My crews consist of four figures and the ones I have just completed are all lovely crisp old vintage castings.

Pictured here is FN/172 Gunner ramming home and I thought I’d give you a sneak preview before I base him up with his three colleagues ready for action. I have a genuine vintage Hinton Hunt French Field gun for the completed crew to serve and I’ll post on that in due course.

I followed the Hinton Hunt painting instructions for this figure as closely as I could and was intrigued to see that Marcus Hinton gives the collars and cuffs as blue piped in red. In every other source I’ve seen the Guard Artillery have solid red collars and cuffs but Mr Hinton knew a thing or two about military uniforms so I will stick with him on this one.

Thanks to Clive for supplying me with the HH painting instruction sheet.

Bravest of the Brave

2011-11-26T20:44:00.001Z

Michel Ney was a lowly Hussar Trooper before the Revolution and a Hussar Captain after it. He was very strong and very brave, with blue eyes and red hair and was a first class swordsman and horseman – sounds like he may well have been Captain of his school football team and popular with the girls too.

Ney was fiercely loyal to Napoleon (at least at first) and fought in countless actions including Jena, Eylau, Friedland, and Borodino and of course, Waterloo. He was among the original group of Marshals of the Empire created in 1804 and was later created Duke of Elchingen (1808) and finally Prince of Moskowa (1812). His handling of the French rear-guard during the retreat from Moscow is legendary and after the crossing of the Beresina his command was down to just 60 men but he was still fighting, musket in hand.

After the abdication Ney changed sides to the Bourbons, just as most of the other Marshals did in order to protect their lands and titles. It must have been a bit of a shock when Napoleon escaped from Elba and he famously promised to “bring the monster back in an iron cage” but I don’t think he ever meant it. After Waterloo he was arrested and tried by The Chamber of Peers where many of his old comrades turned their back on him and voted for the death penalty. He was executed by firing squad on 7th December 1815 and reputedly gave the order to “fire” himself.

The figure is FN/354 Marshal Ney with riding coat worn over his shoulders mounted on horse BNH/10. I acquired this casting already painted (see him here) and decided to refurbish rather than repaint – most of the work I did was on the horse, which has also been modified by the previous owner.

British Fifer

2011-11-16T10:26:00.001Z

My thanks to Steve, who sent me this splendid little Hinton Hunt British Fifer BN/11 Fifer (playing). Steve noticed that my Guards had no Fifer in their ranks and sent this chap over to join them.

It’s a lovely crisp vintage casting and certainly deserves a place in the Guards. However, it does pose a bit of a problem as my units are 24 figures strong and to include him I will have to eject one of the existing ones from the ranks. Another solution may be to increase the size of the unit to 30 figures, after all Guard units were normally quite large. I will ponder that one.

I’ve been having quite a frustrating time with Blogger recently as it decided a few days ago to stop me posting pictures. I’ve finally found a work around so if anyone else has had the same thing happen let me know and I’ll tell you what I did.

French Leapers

2011-11-12T18:09:00.006Z

It has to be said that during the Battle of the Ridge, the elite Voltigeurs of the 10th Legere took a bit of a pasting at the hands of their opposite numbers the Tirolean Jagers. It’s fortunate therefore that the latest addition to my collection is another unit of Voltigeurs to bolster the French skirmish line.

These figures are actually Hinton Hunt Grenadiers FN/3 Grenadier (firing) painted as Voltigeurs as I have no genuine Voltigeurs. I think this is a good use of these particular figures, as I seem to have accumulated more Grenadier castings than I need for regular units. I have mentioned before that when I ordered French infantry direct from Hinton Hunt in the early 70s I asked for 72 Grenadier figures because I had no idea about unit organisation – perhaps I wasn’t alone in this which may be why a disproportionate number of Grenadiers are still in circulation.

The Hinton Hunt firing figure pose is quirky and quite unmistakeable with the soldier firing high and looking as if he’s struggling to keep his ‘tree trunk’ sized musket under control. The castings are almost certainly original ones but even so they vary quite a bit in quality – in particular many of the pom-poms are large blobs due to some malfunction in the casting process. These irregularities were common in the figures supplied by Marcus Hinton, which can sometimes make it harder than you might think to distinguish the genuine vintage item from the army of impostors around today.

These figures were painted for me by Matt.

Up Guards, and at ‘em!

2011-11-05T19:00:00.006Z

Those of you who read my last post will no doubt be keen to see some more photos of the latest unit to join the Allied order of battle. This is my generic unit of British Foot Guards that have been superbly painted for me by the talented Matt Golding. The figures used are actually line troops in shako from the 1812-15 range, with the exception of one Sergeant sporting a Guards bearskin.

The British Guards in line formation

Hinton Hunt produced a whole range of Foot Guard figures wearing bearskins and for a long time I thought this was a mistake as I’d only ever seen pictures of them in shakos at the time of Waterloo. However, I should have know better as Marcus Hinton was an expert on military uniforms and I’ve subsequently found out that the Guards did have bearskins during the Napoleonic Wars - although they were not worn on active service.

BN/81 Sergeant (charging)
BN/12 Drummer (playing)
BN/8 Officer (standing)

The drummer and officer above are actually from the American range by Der Kreigspieler but they are such good imitations of Hinton Hunt figures that I included them for variety. I didn’t have enough of any one figure type to do a full 24 figure unit in identical poses but I actually really like the finished effect of this mixed pose battalion.

BN/4 Private (firing)
BN/5 Private (charging)

BN/7 Private – with separate musket
BN/2 Sergeant (charging)
BN/5 Private (charging)

BN/3 Private (casual pose)
BN/9 Private (standing)

I really like the BN/3 figure in ‘casual’ pose and it’s the only one like it in the whole Hinton Hunt 20mm range as far as I know. Roy told me the other day that Marcus Hinton always produced his master from a basic dolly with arms out stretched and he would then bend the arms into position. Looking at this particular figure it’s very easy to see this.

General Picton takes refuge in the Guard’s square

The Guards in column – from the rear

The British infantry range also includes colour bearers with cast-on flags, one with the King’s Colour and one with the Regimental Colour (although I believe these were reversed for the Guards). Matt has done a lovely job with these.

BN/14 Ensign King’s Colour
BN/13 Ensign Regiment Colour
BN/1 Officer (charging)

So finally the Duke has a unit he can really trust on the battlefield and they’ve already demonstrated this in their first engagement at the Battle of The Ridge – they fired two quite devastating volleys and lost not a single man in the action. However, the battle was another defeat for Wellington and I’m sure he will be expecting even greater things from the Guards next time.

The Battle of The Ridge

2011-10-30T18:49:00.015Z

Roy came over yesterday to help me try out some rule amendments to my house rules “Muskets & Marshals”. The amendments included some fairly substantial changes and it was really useful to have the feedback of a real opponent rather than just trying them out solo.

The scenario was simple – the Allies were holding a vital ridge and the French had to push them off it. Roy chose the Allies so I was forced to dust off Napoleon’s hat once again and command a mixed force of French, Nassauers and Swedes. Just about all my troops were on the table (including a new unit not yet seen on this blog) plus a couple of very nice French foot batteries from Roy’s collection. Here’s a summary of events:

The Allies prepare to receive the French onslaught. That sneaky fox Wellington chose to keep most of his men safe from the French guns by hiding them behind the ridge (can you spot the new addition to the Allied Order of Battle?).

The French columns looking solid and unstoppable prepare to advance towards the ridge.

On the French left flank the light cavalry and horse artillery of both sides engaged in a cat and mouse game with the Allies initially withdrawing rather than charging. Here we can see Mercer giving the French a bit of a bloody nose.

And here’s what happened when the French horse artillery replied - Mercer 'hors de combat'.

Finally we did get a proper cavalry melee and (rather nicely) it ended in rout for the Allies.

Meanwhile Napoleon ordered the Swedes on the far right of his line to start to advance.

The Allied artillery and skirmishers scored some early successes - the Swiss in particular seemed to take more than their fair share of hits including Marshal Lannes who was leading them. Lannes became one of an unusually large number of fallen leaders during this game.

Eventually the Swedes reached the foot of the ridge and attempted to charge. They did exceptionally well considering they were all classed as 3rd rate troops and even caused the Naval battalion to give ground.

The British Foots Guards were however a different kettle of fish and remained firmly planted on the ridge. They ended the game as the only infantry still at full strength – a fitting result on their first outing.

By now, although some of the Swedes had been routed, the Allied position was looking seriously threaten as the remainder of the French army pushed forward.

Wellington now ordered Ponsonby to charge with the Union Brigade and disrupt the French advance. By one of those strange fortunes of war the Scots Grey’s found themselves facing none other than the 45th Ligne – and the latter had no time to form square

The troopers thundered forward and a fierce fight was fought for possession of the 45th’s Eagle.

Meanwhile on the left, Poniatowksi charged with what remained of the French light cavalry onto the ridge, the lancers coming up against an Austrian square.

At this point we ran out of time but both agreed that the French were the most likely to win the battle if we had played on further.

The game was great fun but it was obvious that the rules need more work, particularly on the Melee and Morale sections. In the last turn we had a number of bizarre melee outcomes and my plan is to simplify things to help eliminate these anomalies in the future. It’s also important to make sure that we can play a game to a satisfying conclusion in a three-hour time slot, which is about the usual time we have available to play.

Saving the Eagle.

My thanks to Roy for another superb and entertaining game, and NO the Scots Grey’s didn’t take the Eagle of the 45th!

A (very) Miniature Civil War – (Off Topic #20)

2011-10-23T09:24:00.006+01:00

Over twenty years ago my brother and I decided to sell off our 15mm ACW armies and replace them with Ros & Heroics 1/300th figures. The thinking behind this was that with the limited playing space we had it would be the only way to play big Corps level games and at the same time do away with unrealistic ‘table edge’ flanks.

So Grant and Lee went micro, collected and painted around 2,000 figures, based 100 or so trees, produced a small City’s worth of buildings and painted several miles of snake fencing. The end result was very pleasing both visually and in the way the games played out with our house rules “Brother Against Brother” (named long before the commercial set of the same name!).

After a break of twelve or so years we played a game with these figures last week and true to form the Yanks (that’s me) lost. The battle was a hypothetical one based loosely on 2nd Manassas and the course of events was recorded in pictures (click here) by a Harper's Weekly artist. Remember when you look at the pictures that the infantry figures stand just 6mm tall and the battle flags are only 5mm square – each one painted without the aid of glasses - sadly now we can’t even see the figures without artificial aids let alone paint them!

The Battle of The Farm – Part Three

2011-10-09T19:32:00.007+01:00

The Allied infantry columns were steadily closing with the French line to the right of The Farm but they were losing casualties in the process from the incessant skirmisher fire and the Austrian artillery (seconded for the day to the French army).

The Allied columns close with the French

Meanwhile, over at the Farm Napoleon moved to counter the Allied advance against the buildings by ordering the 4th Swiss into the vegetable garden to support the remaining skirmishers there.

The Swiss roll forward

On the far left the French cavalry had by now reformed after their earlier success and were preparing to turn the Allied left flank.

The French light cavalry reform and advance again

In response The Duke ordered Ponsonby to counter them with the Union Brigade, this time the Allied troopers held their ground and won the first round of melee.

Ponsonby charges the French light cavalry with the Union Brigade

By now the Allied infantry columns had advanced to within musket range of the French and the decisive moment of the battle arrived as the 45th Ligne raised their muskets to fire.

The 45th Ligne prepare to fire

The volley rang out and immediately the Splendid Splenys turned tail and ran leaving their comrades the Russians shaken and alone to face the 45th. At the same moment in the centre the Nassauer’s also took to their heels, only Blucher and the Silesian Landwehr showed much fighting spirit but it was all too late.

The Allied advance falls apart

The Duke ordered a general withdrawal and had to beat a hasty retreat on Copenhagen to avoid being swept up in the rout.

Humbugged again

France Two, England Nil, the war was not going well for the Allies...

1st Squadron Polish Lancers

2011-10-02T13:46:00.003+01:00

The 1st Chevau-Legers-Lanciers of the Guard (The Polish Lancers) were formed in 1809. They served in many campaigns and distinguished themselves particularly at Wagram and in Spain. Some of them accompanied Napoleon in exile to Elba, returning to take part in the ‘Hundred Days’ as part of the Combined Guard Lancer regiment.

These figures are all vintage Hinton Hunt castings made up as follows:

5 x FN/43 Lancer (Mounted) charging
1 x FN/44 Lancer (Mounted) charging with separate lance

They have all been painted by myself (something of a rarity theses days) and represent the 1st Squadron of the Combined Lancers as they may have appeared on the field of Ligny.

I found painting these figures a frustrating experience, mainly because I’ve had such little time to devote to them but also because the detail on these one-piece castings can be so tricky to follow (or should I say ‘invent’). Just to remind you – this is how they looked before I started on them.

You’re nae Ney, I’m Ney!

2011-09-23T18:33:00.003+01:00

Actually they’re both FN/354 Marshal Ney but the one on the left is the result of a subtle conversion job by the previous owner whilst the slightly scary looking one on the right is the unadulterated version. I’ve had the converted one for some time but the other one is a new arrival and it’s been interesting to compare the two. Actually I think I like the converted figure the most.

You can’t help but feel a bit sorry for Michel Ney – he was definitely one of Napoleon’s greatest Marshals and his performance during the retreat from Moscow was nothing short of heroic. I know he changed sides a couple of times during his career but then many of the other Marshals did the same and they didn’t all end up in front of a firing squad as he did.

I suppose I must count myself lucky to have two Neys in my army. If Napoleon had been so fortunate during the Hundred Days things may well have turned out differently for him.

Loads of Personality

2011-09-10T18:02:00.004+01:00

I was just putting away the figures after the conclusion of the Battle of the Farm and couldn’t resist putting all the personality figures together before they went back into the display cabinet.

One of the things I have always liked about the Hinton Hunt Figures range is the large number of personality figures produced – more than any other manufacturer even to this day. I don’t have all of them but I do have quite a few painted up and probably the same again waiting in the wings. I make use of them in my games by assigning each unit a personality figure as a Colonel that adds a bit of dash and colour to proceedings.

The Battle of the Farm is over but you’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the result.

The Battle of The Farm – Part Two

2011-09-06T21:00:00.005+01:00

While the cavalry melee developed on his left the Duke of Wellington was urging his Allies to advance on the opposite flank. General Mack hesitated slightly as he tried to make sense of his map but eventually he led the Splendid Splenys forward with the Russians moving on his right and beyond them Marshal Vorwarts with the Prussian Landwehr.

The Allied columns move forward

The Emperor saw the danger to his left flank and ordered one of his reserve Battalions of Swedes over to support the 45th Ligne.

Napoleon at his HQ behind the Farm orders up some reserves

All the time the French skirmishers were causing considerable annoyance to the Allies even though the Austrian Jagers were trying hard to contain them.

Elite French Voltigeurs from the 10th Legere firing from the vegetable garden

Goaded into action, one company of Jagers closed to contact with the enemy skirmishers and engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat amongst the cabbages. Sadly for the Allies they were repulsed.

Rule – Skirmishers: Skirmishers may melee with other skirmishers – pair off and roll one die each, highest wins (+1 for elites).

Tough fighting in the cabbage patch

With the advance from his right under way the Duke now ordered forward the Nassauers and the Naval Brigade in line formation. They immediately came under heavy fire from the Grenadiers in the Farm and casualties started to mount.

The infantry will advance…

To be continued.

The Battle of The Farm – Part One

2011-09-05T19:04:00.004+01:00

It was clear to the Duke of Wellington that a battle was on the cards after the recent clash during his reconnaissance and with news that the Austrians and Russians would be joining him he decided to seize the initiative and take the fight to the French. His aim was to smash the smaller French force but to do this he knew his men must assault and take the Farm at the centre of the enemy line.

A general view of the battlefield

New Rule – Buildings: Buildings can either be placed on the table for purely aesthetic reasons (and have no impact on the game) or may be designated as a strong-point. A strong-point may be occupied by just one infantry unit at a time. Infantry in a strong-point may fire all their muskets from any side of the building during a turn or split their fire from different sides.

The French Grenadier Battalion was tasked with defending the Farm

The Emperor placed the elite converged Grenadier Battalion in the Farm with the 45th Ligne covering their left and the 4th Swiss their right. In reserve were two Battalions of Swedes (batting today for the French but only as 3rd rate line troops). The entire French Cavalry force of one Light and one Heavy Brigade were massed on the right flank supported by the Guard Horse Artillery.

Napoleon massed his cavalry on his right flank

The battle began with a largely ineffectual artillery exchange although an early shot from the Prussian Field Artillery knocked out two Grenadiers and poor old Marshal Bernadotte who was leading them. These two hits forced a die roll to see if the Farm would catch fire but luckily for the French the roll was a 3.

Rule - Fires: Buildings taking 2 or more hits from artillery may ignite. Stone – 5,6. Wood – 4,5,6. They burn for 3 turns. At the start of move 3 any remaining occupants are removed as casualties. By the fourth turn nothing remains of a wooden building. A stone building will leave soft cover ruins and can be re-occupied on turn five.

Perceiving a weakness on the Allied left flank, Napoleon sent his cavalry forward at the charge. Stapleton Cotton ordered his Hussar Brigade to counter charge but they failed their morale check and instead met the enemy Heavy Cavalry at a standstill with predictably nasty results.

The French Heavy Cavalry charge Stapleton Cotton’s Hussars

Mercer’s Horse Artillery got off one round of canister at the approaching French Light Cavalry but they kept their nerve and the gunners broke and ran. The French cavalry followed them all the way to the table edge.

New Rule – Pursuit: Immediately after a melee in which an enemy unit retreats or routs the victor’s roll 1 die. On a 4,5,6 (3,4,5,6 for all British cavalry) they must take an immediate pursuit move keeping in contact with the enemy. If the routers fall back through a supporting unit the pursuers stop once contact is made with the enemy support. A pursuing unit will stop and break off when the table edge is reached.

To be continued.

More Old Old Guard

2011-08-28T16:42:00.003+01:00

I made another successful foray on eBay last week and bought these six French Guard Horse Grenadiers for a couple of quid each. I was surprised that I won them at this price because I’ve seen Hinton Hunt cavalry go for well over £5 each of late. It could be another sign of recession or it could just be that I’m the last kid on the block not to have these figures already.

You would think actually that Imperial Guard cavalry would be relatively easy to find because presumably most wargamers back in the 60s and 70s had plenty of Guard figures in their armies. However over the last few years that I have been collecting Hinton Hunt I have turned up precious few. At least I now have this Squadron of Horse Grenadiers to add to my Polish Lancers.

The figure is FN/300 Horse Grenadier Guard mounted on horse FNH/2. These castings are probably destined to languish for some time at the rear of a very, very long painting queue.

A trip down Memory Lane (Camden Passage actually)

2011-08-21T20:21:00.003+01:00

We’ve just got back from a really great weekend break in London that included a trip to Apsley House (Wellington’s pad) and The Tower of London amongst other things. However, the most surprising item on the agenda was the result of Mrs S wanting to visit a particular knitting yarn shop that turned out (unknown to me) to be in Camden Passage, Islington.

Marcus Hinton outside the old Hinton Hunt shop

The diehards amongst you will of course know that Hinton Hunt had a shop in Camden Passage in the early 1970s. I’ve mentioned before in this blog that I visited the shop in 1973 with high expectations and was disappointed because there were no wargame figures on show, only the larger 54mm collectors items. I bought a figure of a Caledonian warrior that came in a nice box but to be honest I didn’t really like it and made a hash of painting it anyway.

Me in the same place a good few years later

The old Hinton Hunt shop (No 27) now sells frozen yoghurt and, it being a rather hot day, Mrs S and I availed ourselves of its facilities. She had a strawberry one with fresh blueberry and raspberry topping and I had a mango one with kiwi fruit and chocolate brownie topping. We sat inside to eat them and I have to say the overall experience was much better than the one I had on my last visit to the place 38 years ago. The frozen yoghurt really was very, very good – and low fat too.

Counter Reconnaissance

2011-08-11T19:20:00.007+01:00

Napoleon and his staff are on reconnaissance after reports that British Cavalry are in the area.

Skirmishers of the elite 10th Legere are moving through the farmyard.

“Drunken men on big Grey horses, eh Poniatowski?”
“Yes Sire, they went that way apparently.”

The Emperor orders forward a Squadron of the 3rd Cheveau-Legers Lanciers to investigate. They ride up to the skirmish line and on past the farm.

Next Napoleon calls upon the trusty 45th Ligne to support the lancers.

“Vive l’emperor!” cry the men as they pass Napoleon.

The French advance guard pushes forward eager to get to grips with the enemy.

With British and French forces in such close proximity could a battle be brewing?

Reconnaissance

2011-08-07T14:12:00.011+01:00

The Duke of Wellington and his staff are on reconnaissance escorted by a Troop of Scots Greys.

They ride past the church – the Duke and Copenhagen are out in front.

As they ride on his staff are finding it hard to keep up with the Duke who always likes to lead at a fast canter.

By the time they reach the Farm the Duke is well to the fore.

Suddenly from the trees ahead emerges a line of French Voltigeurs!

“Watch out your Grace!” yells Lord Hill.

The Duke reins in Copenhagen in the nick of time and the Greys charge forward.

The French turn tail and run back into the woods followed closely by the Greys.

“Hot work eh Lord Hill?” says the Duke
“Indeed it is your Grace but I do wish you would not put yourself in such danger!” replies Lord Hill.
“Well done the Greys, well done!” exclaims the Duke.

The reconnaissance has been a success – The Duke has found the French!

A Realistic Tree

2011-08-03T19:21:00.003+01:00

About four years ago I bought a Woodland Scenics “Realistic Tree Kit” but never got around to making the trees. As I now have a proper wargame table I’m in need of a bit more scenery so last night I finally opened up the box. The trees are very simple and satisfying to make – just bend the branches and stick the foliage on with wood glue.

When I started wargaming as a teenager I never had much in the way of scenery and I always wanted to have some decent trees like the ones made by Peter Gilder and pictured in Miniature Warfare. My brother and I had to make do with some of the Merit trees (out of the “Blue & Grey” ACW Playset) with the odd Britains one thrown in for good measure. Eventually I progressed to the ownership of some K&M trees in various scales that I still have and use today.

Anyway, I’m really pleased with these new ones and there’s enough stuff in the box to make six trees which I thought was pretty good value for money. Not quite as good as Gilder’s but near enough for me.

British Infantry

2011-08-01T08:46:00.006+01:00

This is a picture I took during my recent visit to Roy's wargame room. The figures are a mixture of 20mm British Infantry, including some Hinton Hunt, originally from the Wargames Holiday Centre and now in Roy's collection (click on the image for a closer look).

My own Bunker at last!

2011-07-27T20:28:00.004+01:00

Very little figure painting is going on here because I have spent most of the month preparing the business premises we have just taken on for our Internet shop. We have been running the business partly from home and partly from the Self-Store down the road and have finally taken the plunge into the world of rent and business rates.

This is good not only because we need the space to continue to expand but also because our garage that used to look like this…

Now looks like this…

For the first time since I was 12 years old I have a space for a permanent wargame table. At the moment I have just put up two wallpaper pasting tables that I’ve had as a temporary table for many years that give me a 6’x 4’ playing area. The garage is big enough however for me to eventually build a permanent 4’x 8’ table. There are no windows which all adds to the bunker feel but I will be able to brighten the place up with some prints and stuff I’ve had tucked away since we moved last year.

First though, there are still a whole heap of things to do at the new unit (click here to see what I mean) and of course if the business doesn’t make enough money the stock may have to come back to the garage again so please if any of you have partners, relatives or friends who buy quality hand-knitting yarn forward them to Great British Yarns!

The recession bites

2011-07-13T19:38:00.002+01:00

As if the wobbly world economy isn’t worrying enough it now appears we need to be concerned about another potential crash because amazingly I managed to buy these 12 Hinton Hunt figures on eBay for a mere £12.50 at the weekend!

I haven’t made more than the occasional token bid on eBay for a long time now and certainly never expected to end up winning this lot. They are however a very welcome addition as I have another 12 or so Clayton castings already and this will mean I can finally make up a proper 24 figure unit.

The firing figure is BRN/5 Brunswick Infantry (firing) and the officers are BRN/1 Brunswick Officer (charging). One of the Officers has been converted into a standard bearer, which is a bit of a bonus. All of these figures turned out to be vintage castings in excellent condition.

In the background is another eBay acquisition that arrived in the same post. I’m having a little bit more trouble than I hoped resisting my Crimean War project – this set is from ESCI (set 220 Lord Cardigan’s 11th Hussars).

Clearing the decks

2011-07-08T18:28:00.004+01:00

I’ve been trying to clear up my painting desk and get rid of a few bits and bobs that have been hanging around for far too long so that I can concentrate once again on painting Hinton Hunts. My hobby time has been pretty limited of late and I can see no change in that situation on the horizon so it seems like a good idea to try and be a bit more focused.

My 15mm ACW project is getting tantalisingly close to being completed (yes I did say completed!). I only have to paint up three more infantry stands and I’ll have all the forces I need for my Henry House Hill Fire & Fury scenario. Just finished are a batch of limbers – I don’t like painting limbers very much and some of these were undercoated in the late 90s - better late than never I guess.

Then of course there is a little distraction in the shape of a Crimean War Russian artillery gun and crew. So what on earth am I doing wasting valuable painting time on that? Well I was in the local Model Shop and I saw this tempting looking box from Emhar (you know how it is) and anyway, I’ve always wanted to paint some Crimean War stuff. Hopefully that’s the beginning and end of my Crimean War project.

Waiting patiently at the back of the desk are the remaining five HH Polish Guard lancers – I will be finishing them soon.

Cavalry Review

2011-07-03T10:28:00.003+01:00

Not much painting going on so here's a picture of Stapleton-Cotton, Ponsonby and Wellington at the recent Allied Light Cavalry review.

In the background the Austrian and Brunswick Hussars are being put through their paces.

I'm still working on those Polish Lancers (well I have the horses done - almost) but it may be a little while before they are completed and ready for a photo.

Twenty Twenty Vision

2011-06-18T17:01:00.005+01:00

Following my post on the 3rd Cheveau-Legers Lanciers Don emailed me to explain his technique for painting tiny writing on his figures. Here’s how he did it (in his own words):

Painted those decades back. However, if I recall correctly, the trick was not actually painting a nice threaded '3' but something more bulky closer to a 'B'. Then I'd sharpen a round toothpick to a fine point and use a 'Degas' inspired method of literally dotting the excess out with the background color. One has to keep sharpening the toothpicks to keep the point tight and the paint from clumping on the end long enough to do a troop of the figures. It's a technique that worked its most extensive when painting the battle names on the British colours. Unfortunately, the pic doesn't do it justice, but gives an idea of just how small you can get with the method.

Excellent stuff - if you zoom in you can actually read the Battle Honours. I believe it was painted in Don’s BB years (before bifocals – as he puts it) but it’s pretty impressive all the same.

Lost in Translation (Off Topic #19)

2011-06-16T20:40:00.007+01:00

I was encouraged by Tony to make this post following his one on the Seebackroscope. I worked for quite a few years in the toy retail trade and during that time built up a small collection of photocopies of bizarre toy packaging and operating instructions.

The following are all genuinely (no Photoshop!) taken from the packaging of products we sold in late 80s and early 90s. You may need to click on the images to read them properly.

This was on the packaging of a polystyrene slot-together glider.

This is from the lid of a counter display box of rubber creepy crawlies - very cuddy indeed.

Again from a counter display box – I swear it’s genuine!

Can't remember exactly what the product was but perhaps it was for Mensa members only.

The assembly instructions from a French made children’s wigwam (I love the "Good evening children" bit - I always used to greet the kids that way when I came home from work).

The instructions to the retailer on a box of rubber bats – I guess watching sells grow is slightly better than watching paint dry.

In the Pipeline

2011-06-11T14:31:00.012+01:00

I did mention a few posts back that Matt had agreed to do some more painting for me. This is good news because I greatly admire Matt’s handiwork and particularly appreciate the way he takes care to produce figures in a style that fits neatly with my own efforts. It’s also good news because (as regular visitors will have spotted) my own painting out-put has gone from very little to almost nil despite my plan to have a monthly target.

So what’s in the pipeline? Firstly you will remember I have the composite unit of British Guards. These are mostly vintage castings in an assortment of poses gathered together from various sources. One or two may be later Clayton USA castings and one of the Officers and the drummer are Der Kriegspieler figures (but of the kind that are hard to tell apart from good HH ones). Below is the test figure I have painted for Matt as a guide.

BN/3 I love this pose – the only one like this in the entire HH range

After that Matt will be painting up an eighteen strong unit of French Voltigeurs. These are actually French Line Grenadier figures but as I don’t have any line Volitgeurs they will be standing in. Here again is my test figure.

FN/3 Lovely figure in a classic HH pose. This is a Grenadier painted as a Voltigeur

So that’s the hard bit done, all I have to do now is sit back and relax whilst Matt beavers away.

On a completely different note – we made another trip up to Scotland a couple of weeks ago and I finally got to visit Culloden. I had heard there was a Visitor’s Centre and was expecting some little wooden shed on the middle of the moor. What I wasn’t expecting was a multi-million pound gleaming truly excellent museum/visitors centre with well laid out battlefield trails.

View of the battlefield from the roof of the swanky Visitor’s Centre. The whole battle area is only about the size of six football pitches – much smaller than I imagined.

What a treat – and well worth the ten quid to get in (or free if you're a National Trust member).

And finally here's a neat new tune from my son Joe - follow the link and play "Lets move to France". Nice to think all the money we spent supporting him through his music degree and Masters may not have been wasted.

Return of The Emperor

2011-06-02T20:55:00.004+01:00

I am pleased to report that Royal Mail (how appropriate is that name) have safely reunited the Emperor and Bernadotte with the French army. Arriving in the same package was a lovely flashy old casting of BN107 British General – a generous gift from the Russians.

And all on my birthday!!!

Napoleon Captured!

2011-05-30T20:39:00.012+01:00

The Sunday before last I was invited over to Roy’s house to play soldiers. Roy has a dedicated wargame room with a table 5’ x 12’, he also has thousands of 20mm figures spanning all periods. At the core of his collection are his Napoleonic Hinton Hunt figures and it was a real pleasure to see them en-masse.

Hinton Hunt Cuirassiers – I stopped counting at 96! Not all used in the game but what a stirring sight.

I knew that Roy had planned a small game so I brought Napoleon and Bernadotte along with me however I was a little surprised to hear that we would be using my own Rules Muskets & Marshals to fight the battle. Rather embarrassingly it transpired that Roy knew the rules far better than I did.

Initial deployment – view from the French right.

To aid deployment Roy has a large roller-blind on the ceiling that he pulled down along the centre line of the table so that both of us could lay our troops out in secret. When the blind went up I could see that Roy had refused his left flank and massed his cavalry on his right an exact mirror of my own deployment! In the centre he had massed infantry columns aimed at a small ridge near the middle of the battlefield.

Initial deployment – view from the Russian right.

The game commenced with an artillery barrage from the Russian grand battery aimed initially against the French infantry. The French replied with counter battery fire against the Russians which proved quite effective and eventually knocked out one gun completely.

The Russian Grand Battery – the gunners are all Hinton Hunt.

Whilst the Russian infantry moved forward towards the ridge, the cavalry of both sides charged each other. My Cuirassiers succeeded in routing the enemy to their front whilst my Guard Lancers suffered the indignity of being routed by Roy’s Russian Hussars in return.

The Polish Lancers and Russian Hussars get to grips.

Meanwhile Napoleon responded to the advance of the enemy infantry by ordering the Guard de Paris forward to hold the ridge.

Napoleon in command at his HQ (just behind the Guard de Paris)

The skirmishers of both sides were heavily engaged all along the line but the Russians had the better of things and the French Voltigeurs were forced back. Finally a Russian column was in position to charge the Guard de Paris on the ridge.

The Russians attack the Guard de Paris on the ridge (in the distance) while the rest of the French army look on.

The Emperor rushed forward to steady the line (and add his +1 to morale) but unfortunately this was not quite enough and the French broke and fled!

The Emperor caught up in the rapid “redeployment to the rear” of the Guard de Paris.

The Russians now moved forward to occupy the ridge and jeer at the unfortunate Frenchmen – victory was theirs.

The Russians take the ridge.

At this point we ran out of time and had to end the game. Although we only played three turns there was a surprising amount of action and what looked like a convincing Russian win. It was certainly helpful for me to play through Muskets & Marshals against another player rather than solo as I have done before, and the game highlighted a few anomalies that will require some rule tweaking - notably the complete absence of any pursuit rules.

Such was the indecent haste with which the French quit the field that both the Emperor and Bernadotte became prisoners (I was half way home before I realised this!) – luckily the generous Russians offered to repatriate them by Royal Mail.

My thanks to Roy for a splendid afternoon.

Hinton Hunt the Movie

2011-05-23T11:37:00.003+01:00

Paul just sent me this http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=2071

What can I say - brilliant!

3rd Cheveau-Legers Lanciers

2011-05-19T09:37:00.003+01:00

The 3rd Cheveau-Legers Lanciers were formed from the 8th Dragoons along with five other Dragoon regiments in June 1811. I’m not sure why Napoleon took the decision to re-fit his Dragoons in this manner and I would have thought that the extra training to use a lance must have been something of a distraction. In fact I read somewhere that only the front rank of the Lancer regiments actually had a lance whilst the remainder retained their swords.

The six models pictured here are listed in the Hinton Hunt Catalogue as FN118 Light Horse Lancer in crested helmet (mounted) charging. These are all vintage castings originally in the collection of Don in the US. I refurbished these rather than re-paint them from scratch but ended up doing quite a lot to them, mostly on the horses. Don had managed to paint the number “3” incredibly neatly on the saddle blanker rolls but I had to use one figure from the 4th regiment to make up the numbers. Although I changed the facing colours easily enough, there was no way I was going to try to paint one of those tiny threes (if you zoom in on the picture you can spot the error!).

Opting for refurbishing this Squadron was my cunning way to quickly get back on track with my painting schedule but I’m still quite a way off my May target.

Not as Spooky as I thought

2011-05-08T10:12:00.002+01:00

Well it was spooky because everything I wrote in my last post was completely true however, when I stripped the paint from the fusilier sergeant and looked at him more closely I realised he is actually a Guardsman figure BN/81 (a bit of a clue was the code number BN/81 stamped under his base – dooh!).

This spoils my idea for the unit of Welsh fusiliers but every cloud has a silver lining so I will be mustering in the unit as a battalion of Guards instead. This also gives my narrative of the old sergeant hanging onto his hat more credence – he just brought his best parade one along!

I may make the battalion a generic Guard one as all the battalions had the same blue facings. Guard’s battalion were usually much bigger than the line ones and I know that some gamers give them more figures – 30 figures would equal 1,000 men in my own rules. I will however be sticking to the 24-figure norm so my Guards will be a bit under strength (as some of them were by the day of Waterloo).

The moral of this story is - always wear your glasses when trying to identify figures.

A Spooky Coincidence

2011-05-07T09:31:00.008+01:00

I’ve been sorting through my British infantry figures trying to decide which ones to use to make up a full 24-figure unit. I have about 30 or so suitable figures assembled from various sources over the last few years but not enough of any one type to be able to form a unit in identical poses. On the plus side though this means I get to put together a unit with just about every 1812-15 British infantry line infantry figure type in the Hinton Hunt range represented.

In with the regular line types I also have a single fusilier sergeant figure sporting a nice furry bearskin. It’s a really lovely crisp vintage casting of BN/71 and I felt compelled to include him in the ranks, as he is the only fusilier in my whole collection. This caused me a bit of a problem because one odd fusilier with the wrong headgear for 1815 would be a bit odd (even though this project is not an historical one so to speak). Then I hit on a brainwave – make the whole unit one of fusiliers that now wore the regular shako and add this lone figure in as an “old sergeant” who refused to give up his old hat!

So next I had to look through my copy of Wellingtons Regiments to find a unit to fit the bill and settled on the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. This seemed like a good choice because between them the 1st & 2nd battalions were present throughout the whole Peninsula War (even fighting at Corunna) as well as at Waterloo, albeit in a reserve capacity. Then the spooky thing happened, as I started to sort through the figures prior to their bleach dunking, I noticed that the regimental flag painted by the previous owner had the number “23” painted on it!

I’m now in the process of preparing and undercoating the figures ready to send them off to Matt who has kindly agreed to work his magic with his paintbrushes.

I upgraded my browser to IE9 a couple of days ago only to find that I can no longer publish my Blog posts! Finally found a way to fix it - go "Tools" in the browser bar then "Compatibility View Settings" then add "blogger.com".

Stylish Blogger

2011-05-05T21:08:00.009+01:00

To be honest I’m not really sure what this is all about but since several people have nominated this blog I felt it was only fair to play the game. So I’ll start by thanking the following for their nominations:

Tony
Mosstrooper
Paul
Matt

Seven things about me that you probably don’t know:

1. I’ve been married (to Sharon) for 25 years
2. I have two dogs - a Labrador called Snuff (who you may have seen) and a Jack Russell called Rex (who you probably haven’t seen).
3. I have some toy soldiers that are not Hinton Hunt
4. I’ve been a vegetarian for 35 years (a real one – I don’t eat fish or chicken either)
5. I failed my 11 plus and went to Secondary Modern School in a one horse town (Newmarket)
6. I love reading about military history and playing with toy soldiers but I think real war is barking mad
7. Just about every company I've ever worked for has gone bust although never when I've actually been there (er, not yet anyway)

Blogs I would like to nominate for the Stylish Blogger Award (some of you have already been nominated but what the heck!):

In the Grand Manner – Matt’s excellent (now resurrected) Napoleonic blog.

Project Leipzig 1813 – Those battles just keep on coming, surely it must nearly be 1814 by now Rafa?

The Hinton Hunter – A real labour of love by Clive and an excellent resource for me of course. I look at it most days!

Garage Gamer – I was lucky enough to visit the garage and it really is as fantastic as it looks in the pictures!

Napoleonics in Miniature – Paul’s amazing painting ability is an inspiration to me and he just keeps on producing!!!

20th Century Wargames – I just really like this one.

The picture is of Marcus Hinton founder of Hinton Hunt Figures, courtesy of his daughter Tanya.

Hussar!

2011-04-22T09:25:00.002+01:00

Those of you who have read my house rules Muskets & Marshals will know that my cavalry units consist of three squadrons each of six figures. It has proved almost impossible to collect any set of eighteen identical cavalry figures so instead I have formed composite units that I loosely term Brigades.

The completion of the Brunswick Hussars a few weeks ago has led to the formation of the first Allied light cavalry Brigade. This unit is made up of two squadrons of Austrian Hussars (from the Blankenstein & Vecsey regiments) and the squadron of Brunswick Hussars. Command of this impressive force has been given to Stapleton Cotton and he is very proud indeed to receive such an honour.

The Austrian Hussars were originally in the collection of American wargamer Don who also painted them. The detail of the slung Pelisses is very fine and they make a colourful contrast to the black of the Brunswickers.

Work is ongoing on the French light cavalry Brigade but has slowed somewhat in recent days. It now looks as if the Polish lancers will not be finished in time to meet my April painting quota.

Walking Charmy Down (Off Topic #18)

2011-04-13T20:43:00.010+01:00

Last Saturday my walking companion Andy took me for a hike up to Charmy Down to an old disused wartime RAF airfield on the outskirts of Bath. We parked the car at Batheaston and started by climbing up Solsbury Hill.

Andy looks for information on the whereabouts of his hero Peter Gabriel.

As we climbed up the hill we really did see an 'eagle fly' and would have easily seen the 'city light' if it hadn’t been daytime. Andy told me he had been to several Genesis gigs in his youth, which impressed me because I never did and would quite like to have done so.

Bath from Solsbury Hill.

As we slowly descended Solsbury Hill into the valley below I realised that we could see Freezing Hill on the horizon. This linked quite nicely into our last walk at Lansdown.

Freezing hill from Solsbury Hill

We then walked through some very spectacular countryside enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. From the valley we began to ascend again towards Charmy Down, the last bit of the climb involved negotiating a set of steps built into the hillside - a very steep climb.

A steep climb – looking down the steps.

Eventually, after passing near a small farmyard and getting slightly lost we emerged on the edge of the old airfield. The first thing I noticed was a line of four pillboxes built for defence. The structures were in amazingly good condition considering they were abandoned in 1946. It reminded me how as a kid growing up in the sixties pillboxes were still a common sight around the landscape of southern England.

Pillboxes on the airfield perimeter.

We sat on top of one of the pillboxes to eat a snack. No Eccles cakes this time but Andy had brought some rather superior fruitcakes instead.

Walking essentials.

Walking on across the airfield we took a bit of a detour off of the public footpath to get near to the Control Tower. We didn’t manage to get right up to it but the building looked surprisingly complete after 65 years.

The Control Tower at Charmy Down Airfield

After passing through a herd of cows and the remains of various unidentifiable brick structures (some surrounded by large banks of earth) we came eventually to the area that probably housed the accommodation blocks. Beyond this was a large field containing at least nine separate well spaced out brick built stores. These must have been used to store ammunition and they were in very good condition still having intact roofs.

The ammunition storage buildings.

Moving on we re-joined the public footpath that after five minutes or so led to the most interesting find of the day. This was a large brick built U-shaped wall that was apparently used as a sort of firing range where the cannons in the fighter’s wings could be calibrated.

The “firing range” – this thing is big.

We continued along the footpath and eventually came down into the valley at Northend where we followed the line of a brook back to where we had parked the car. The walk took about five hours but we spent at least an hour and a half up on the airfield.

Charmy Down Airfield was an RAF night fighter base between 1940 and 1943 when it passed into the hands of the USAAF who also used it primarily for fighter aircraft. The Airfield was abandoned in 1946.

Polish Lancer Update

2011-04-08T09:06:00.004+01:00

It’s taken me three painting sessions to get this one the way I want him to look. I always paint a test figure prior to mass-producing a unit because these Hinton Hunt castings can be very tricky customers. I’ve mentioned before that sometimes a piece of detail I carefully follow with the brush just suddenly disappears in a disconcerting way (I had a similar experience once driving through Spain when the road suddenly disappeared but that’s another story).

In this particular case one of the straps to the sword scabbard turned through 60 degrees and ended up in the middle of nowhere. At first I thought maybe it was some extra cavalry accoutrement that I’d never come across before but after thumbing through my various Uniform books I realized it was just a mistake in the sculpting. Interestingly (interesting in an Anorak sort of way) when I checked a *Der Kriegspieler casting of a Guard Lancer I found that it had exactly the same fault.

Anyway, after spending all of my hobby time this week fussing around with this one figure I must now move on to the more tedious task of painting up his five colleagues – all to be completed by the end of this month according to my rigorous schedule.

*Der Kriegspieler was a range of US produced figures contemporary with Hinton Hunt.

Obsessive or what?

2011-04-02T16:21:00.005+01:00

Those of you who have trawled back through my older posts will know that I like to finish off my figures by labelling the underside of their bases with their Hinton Hunt codes. The font I use is Old English that closely matches the font used in the original Hinton Hunt logo.

After nearly 4 weeks of waiting Poniatowski finally gets his label.

I also stick a name label on the top of the bases of my personality figures so there’s no mistaking them in the heat of battle. The labels are just paper printed from my LaserJet and stuck on with a glue stick.

No mistaking this one!

So, as you have probably guessed, not much painting progress although I have just started on the first of those lancers.

All quiet on the painting front

2011-03-27T19:59:00.004+01:00

I’ve been aware in the back of my mind that I’m a bit overdue for a blog post but the truth is that I have done very little in the way of painting since my last post. In fact all I have managed since then is to black undercoat my Imperial Guard Polish Lancers.

This picture of my work desk shows the whole sorry story – the six lancers awaiting a splash of colour (any colour will do), a handful of 15mm Fire & Fury markers awaiting varnish and basing and poor old neglected Poniatowski waiting for his name label to be attached to the top of his base.

My excuse is that we’ve been pretty busy with work and various family events plus the fact that we went away last weekend.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Quality Geek Time #2

2011-03-13T13:55:00.004Z

Last night I put my 6 x FN43 French Guard Lancers into a pot of bleach to strip the old paintwork and this morning when I scrubbed off the paint I had a pleasant surprise. The figure that I thought had had its original lance removed (look here) actually turned out to be FN44 Lancer (mounted) charging with separate lance. This is one of the advantages of repainting these old figures because I never would have spotted this without removing the old paint. For some reason Marcus Hinton chose to make two versions of the one-piece Guard Lancer figure, the first with the traditional Hinton Hunt “telegraph pole” lance moulded to the body, and this figure with a separate lance arm (with thinner lance) to be stuck on. Anyway, I just felt I should share this with the rest of the Hinton Hunt geek world as nobody else here is likely to be very interested.

A Pole Apart

2011-03-12T17:02:00.005Z

The Hinton Hunt Catalogue says; “Marshal Josef Anton, Prince Poniatowski was not only a hero of Poland but was one of Napoleon’s most dashing Marshals. He cut a splendid figure in Lancer style uniform and fur cloak with his horse in an elaborately trimmed and tasselled harness”. It was pretty obvious to me as I painted this one that Marcus Hinton must have enjoyed sculpting him because the figure has some great detail and certainly captures the “dashing” look.

When I was in my early teens, and developing my interest in the Napoleonic Wars, I came across a book on the 1813 campaign. It was rather dry reading (as many such books were back then) but Poniatowski and his part in the battle of Leipzig fascinated me. He was the shortest serving of all Napoleon’s Marshals holding the rank for a mere three days before drowning whilst trying to swim to safety across the Elster river. He was a great friend with Murat and they must have had fun trying to out do each other with their taste for gaudy uniforms. Of course though, Poniatowski really was a Prince and hadn’t had one of Napoleon’s made up titles bestowed upon him - I wonder if Murat was annoyed by that?

This figure is one of only two “horse attached” castings amongst the Hinton Hunt personality figure range (the other being BRN/30 The Duke of Brunswick). I decided to give him a bay horse rather than the obligatory white one because I already have three personality figures riding white horses (and also I’m no good at painting them). Next up – Polish Lancers of the Guard.

La Haye Sainte

2011-03-05T19:04:00.004Z

Quite some time ago I bought an Airfix model of La Haye Sainte on eBay thinking that it might be a nice terrain centrepiece for the Hinton Hunts to have a scrap over. I bought it before we moved last year and it has been off the radar in terms of modelling priorities since then. However, following the Battle of the Crossroads the Duke of Wellington has been looking for a position with a decent stronghold on which to anchor the Allied line against any further French aggression.

The Duke and Sir Stapleton Cotton investigate the defensive properties of the farm

I used to own one of these models back in the early 70s when it regularly took part in battles waged on my bedroom floor between large armies of unpainted Airfix Napoleonic figures. I never glued it together because I didn’t really have the space to store it so it was usually in a pretty ruined state by the end of hostilities. This time though I have given the model the full treatment by sticking it to an MDF base and painting and flocking it.

Mercer and one of his men are digging potatoes in the garden (or are they cannon balls?)

I’m actually pretty impressed with my own handiwork because I’ve never really attempted much in the way of scenic items before. Even Mrs S seemed to like it “that’s very nice and very sad all at the same time”. Well sad maybe (I’m reminded of the episode of The Royle Family where Dave makes a toy farm for baby David) but at least the Duke seems grateful and he has just put in a request to Horse Guards for some Riflemen to defend the place.

Virgin Soldiers

2011-02-24T20:47:00.007Z

I acquired most of the castings in my collection already painted by their previous owners, and even in the case of the not-so-good paint jobs I still feel a bit guilty about stripping the old paint. However, some of the figures are vintage “virgin” castings (meaning they had never been painted before) still complete with their original flash metal. I like painting these castings the most because they must have sat in a lead-pile for the best part of 30 years having given up all hope of parading on a tabletop. They also remind me of the excitement of receiving a package direct from Hinton Hunt (umpteen years ago) - the figures always comprised more flash than actual figure but it was dead exciting all the same. Here’s a little taster of some units still to come.

My old friends the Prussians! These are Jagers PN24, PN25 & PN29

And these are line infantry PN4 & PN7

French Cuirassiers – I can’t wait! FN310 & FNH5

Austrian Lancers – what could be better? AN85…

I really must up my game on the painting front so that my virgin soldiers can join the old campaigners in the display cabinet and on the tabletop where they belong.

Brunswick Hussars – Finished!

2011-02-13T19:45:00.008Z

The Brunswick Hussars are finished at last - 6 x BRN/17 Death's Head Hussar (Horse Attached Series) charging.

I see a line of Hussars and they’re all painted black

I see Hussars ride by dressed in their summer clothes

I wanna see em painted black, painted black

Black as night, black as coal, yeah…

*Lyrics by Mick Oels Jager

Waterloo Live!

2011-02-12T17:59:00.003Z

For any of you who haven’t already noticed – the Wargames Holiday Centre are staging a re-fight of Waterloo this weekend. They’ve had the neat idea of posting 'live' updates on the progress of the battle.

Great stuff – click here to go to their website!

Brunswick Update

2011-02-05T18:26:00.002Z

Thanks to all of you who left comments suggesting the best way to tackle my Brunswick black problem. I tried out quite a few ideas but in the end went for the “safe” option and just mixed up a much darker shade of grey (50% black and 50% Foundry 34B). This means that it’s actually very hard to see all the black detail I have laboriously painted on the figure but at least I know it's there and I feel happier with the overall result.

So much for my cunning plan of painting up some “easy” Brunswickers to crank up the painting output. This figure has actually taken me longer to paint than Stapleton Cotton did in all his finery - there are so many layers of paint on this chap that he may be in danger of falling off his horse under the weight of it all. Anyway, as you can see I am now getting on with the other five troopers in the squadron and already have the horses done.

I decided this year that I would try to stick to a Hinton Hunt painting quota to get things moving along a bit better after last year’s disappointing output. I will try each month to paint either one personality figure, a squadron of six cavalry, a gun and crew or half a battalion of infantry (12 figures). If I have any time left over in the month then I’ll paint up some non-HH related stuff so that my other projects might progress as well – sounds simple enough eh?

Grey is the new Black

2011-01-30T20:09:00.002Z

I’ve completed painting my test figure for the Brunswick hussars BRN/17 Death’s Head Hussar (Horse Attached Series) charging. I had hoped that painting what is basically a completely black clad figure might be easy but I also had my suspicions that it might not be.

In fact it has been a bit of a pain in the proverbial trying to get this one right. My first attempt used a very dark grey for the uniform that looked ok close up but at a distance provided no contrast at all with the cross-belts and lace etc. I decided to repaint the uniform with a lighter grey and this seems more effective when viewing the figure at a normal playing distance.

However, I confess that I’m still not totally happy because now he doesn’t seem quite black enough. I have resisted another re-paint attempt by telling myself that in reality black uniforms would very quickly have faded to grey and that therefore grey is the more realistic choice but I’m not sure who I’m kidding. Any suggestions on how to resolve my dilemma would be welcome.

The Lion d’Or

2011-01-25T20:39:00.002Z

Sir Stapleton Cotton was born in 1772 and entered the army as a second lieutenant aged 18, by the time he was 21 he was colonel of the 25th Light Dragoons. He saw action in India and later rose to prominence in the Peninsula where he became the commander of the British cavalry. He was personally thanked by Wellington for his role in the victory at Salamanca in 1812 but missed out on the top job at Waterloo because he was passed over in favour of Uxbridge (he was none to happy about this). Cotton was nicknamed the “Lion d’Or” for his bravery and love of over-the-top uniforms. He was in military service for a total of 73 years and fought in 17 battles finishing up as a field marshall.

The figure is a David Clayton produced casting of BN/255 Lieut-Gen Sir Stapleton Cotton in Hussar uniform and busby (on horse BNH/13). I have found that Clayton personality figure castings are almost indistinguishable from vintage castings and this one was in perfect condition. The uniform is based on a picture of Stapleton Cotton in my copy of Blandford’s Uniforms of the Peninsula War that seemed suitably ostentatious. I really enjoyed painting this one – the leopard skin in particular was a bit of a challenge.

I must confess that I had never heard of Sir Stapleton Cotton prior to acquiring his miniature likeness, as, despite having a reasonable amount of Napoleonic related literature, his is not a name that had registered in my mind. So I was more than a little surprised to read the facts about his impressive military career. I have decided therefore to put him in over all command of my Allied cavalry, a position he can hold without concern, as Uxbridge is one of the Hinton Hunt personality figures still missing from my collection.

So, not a bad start to the year – one rider and horse painted.

More Rebs & Yanks (Off Topic #17)

2011-01-15T20:11:00.007Z

Apart from the Napoleonic period my other main wargaming interest is the American Civil War. This is undoubtedly the result of exposure as a child to ACW related toys that became available here in the UK around the time of the Centenary. The most fascinating of these to my young mind was a bloodthirsty series of Civil War bubblegum cards. I still have them (my favourites are framed on our hall wall) but when I look at them now I’m amazed that they were ever put on sale to children!

A bit gory, but not to a 7 year old

Of course the other big event at the time was the release of the Airfix range of HO/OO ACW figures and my brother and I had boxes and boxes of them. They were continually deployed on the carpet fighting battle after battle over dressing-gown hills. Their ranks included the famous “hello Mum” running man (as immortalised on Matt’s blog) and those brilliant Officers who looked liked pirates. Being the older of the two of us I suppose my brother got first pick at sides and I got lumbered with the Yanks, but it never felt like second prize.

Billy Yank waiting to greet Johnny Reb

Just over 10 years ago I decided to collect two 15mm ACW armies for Fire & Fury and the recruiting of these forces has been incredibly slow. One reason of course is that the Hinton Hunts have come to dominate my hobby time leaving very little time for other projects. So last autumn I decided to give up on painting the remaining 200 or so figures myself and turn for help to the Blue Turkey painting service.

15mm Confederates (mostly AB figures) painted by Blue Turkey

I was really impressed with the service from Alan at Blue Turkey – he quoted a very reasonable price and delivered exactly when he said he would with all the figures painted to the same high standard as his original sample figure. In fact it has probably taken me longer to base the figures than he took to paint them. It may not be long before the Yanks and Rebs do battle again although this time it won’t be on the carpet as I don’t think either of us could manage all that crawling around on our knees now.

French Grenadiers – done!

2011-01-04T20:40:00.005Z

I did say that I would finish painting my French Grenadier battalion before Christmas and I actually did. It’s taken me since then however to get around to basing and photographing them. So without further ado here they are:

FN/2 Grenadier (charging) x 18
FN/10 Grenadier Sergeant (marching) x 3
FN/1 Officer (charging) x 1
FN/4 Colour Bearer (charging) x 1
FN/6 Drummer (charging) x 1

All the figures are vintage Hinton Hunt castings painted by yours truly.

avant!

retraite!

marcher collone

se méfier de ces hommes sur les chevaux gris!

So what you see above is my entire painting output for 2010 a fairly pathetic total I’m sure you will agree. Let’s hope 2011 will be a little more generous towards me in terms of painting time.

Muskets & Marshals

2010-12-28T09:26:00.004Z

Following the Battle of the Crossroads I have had a final tweak of my house rules Muskets & Marshals. I say ‘final’ tweak even though experience has shown me that there is actually no such thing because tinkering with rules is as much a symptom of my borderline OCD as the desire to keep re-basing my model soldiers is.

That said I am pretty happy with the rule set as they stand and I certainly had a lot of fun playing the game using them. The firing system involves throwing a lot of dice and I’ve found over the years that this always tends to make a wargame more fun than the slide rule/logarithm approach.

The rules are an amalgamation of various rule systems and ideas nicked or created over the last 40 odd years. The movement rates and ranges are straight out of the London Wargames Section Napoleonic Rules (1968). The melee system is spookily like the one from the board game Risk. Many of the other ideas were developed for a set of ACW rules my brother and myself knocked up in the 1980s. The emphasis is on fun and speed of play.

If you would like a copy please email me (my email link is on the profile page of this blog) and I will send back a PDF version.

Stille Nacht

2010-12-25T15:42:00.002Z

A lone Prussian general plods through the Christmas snowscape on his tired old warhorse scouting the horizon through his telescope. The figure is a vintage casting of PN64 Prussian general (mounted) looking through spy-glass given to me today by Mrs S. She acquired him via eBay, I do hope it wasn’t her I was bidding against…

Battle of the crossroads – Part 3

2010-12-20T19:50:00.009Z

While the French heavy cavalry passed his flank General Aldercreutz took refuge in the square of the 4th Swiss regiment. Aldercreutz presented something of a target on his high horse (due to the fact that being a ‘knock-off’ his base is unusually thick) but thankfully he survived the action unscathed.

General Aldercreutz took refuge in the square of the 4th Swiss.

D’Hilliers wasted no time in ordering his cavalry to charge straight at the Union brigade forcing them to make an immediate morale test. This they took on a minus one (because of Ponsonby’s demise) that left them shaken and unable to counter charge. A few more rubbish dice rolls meant the resulting melee was lost – the unthinkable had happen, the Union brigade was in full retreat!

The cavalry melee.

Meanwhile in the centre of the field things were going from bad to worse for Wellington. Mercer’s battery had been steadily losing casualties to the fire of the 10th Legere and yet another failed morale test for the Allies saw his guns limbered up and making haste to the rear. All this as the columns of the Nassau grenadiers and 45th Ligne were closing on the position held by Picton and the Naval battalion.

The French columns close in.

A volley at long range from Picton’s men took out three of the Nassauers and for a moment it looked like the line might just hold but then the Nassau colour-bearer ran forward holding his flag aloft (he has a very strong hand) and the Nassauers were in amongst the British with the bayonet. Even the presence of the Duke (with his plus one to morale rolls) wasn’t enough to save the situation and the Naval Battalion broke and fled.

The Nassauers show the Brits some cold steel.

The Allies were in full retreat and a dejected Wellington sat upon his trusty horse Copenhagen looking on at the sorry scene. “A hard pounding eh, gentlemen?” “A hard pounding indeed your grace.” said Lord Hill and Picton.

The vanquished.

On the other side of the field the Emperor looked upon the same scene but was in a very different mood “I told you the English were not good soldiers Bernadotte, did I not?” “Yes sire, you did.” replied Bernadotte. “They may have the best cavalry in Europe but it is the worst led and anyway, I’m sure those ones on the grey horse were drunk!”

The victors.

The battle was over but the war had only just begun…

Battle of the crossroads – Part 2

2010-12-19T09:29:00.009Z

With the French skirmishers distracting the Allied line the Emperor now chose the moment to start to advance his infantry columns.

The French press forward.

While the French light infantry continued to annoy the Allied infantry, General Ponsonby was growing impatient at finding himself in reserve. Eventually the General could bear it no longer and, seeing a group of the enemy no more than 100 yds in front of the Landwehr, decided enough was enough. “Forward the Union Brigade, at the trot, charge..!”

Forward the Union Brigade.

Cavalry units may not make a passage of lines through friendly cavalry. They may however make a charge move through friendly infantry (they incur a 100yd movement penalty and must be able to end the move in contact with an enemy unit). The infantry unit will become disordered and must test morale.

The troopers charged through the Prussian Landwehr and on into the French skirmishes who failed to form a skirmish square in response (If charged by cavalry skirmishers may form a skirmish square on a roll of 5 or 6 (4,5,6 if elite) otherwise they are ridden down). Ponsonby was elated as the Grey’s cut down the enemy to a man but a final musket shot from the French knocked the poor general from his horse!

"Watch out General Ponsonby, sir!"

It can be said with little doubt that neither Blucher nor the Duke was at all pleased with Ponsonby’s movement. “Mein Gott!” cursed the Prussian Marshal “Vot are zees dumkoff drunken vools up to?”. With a die roll of 2 the Landwehr failed their morale test, broke and fled – a spectacular own goal for the Allies.

“Come back mein children!”

Meanwhile the French responded to the sudden appearance of the British cavalry by forming the 4th Swiss into square and advancing D’Hillier’s heavy cavalry to meet the threat. The Carabiniers in the lead were confident and positioned themselves for a charge while the ranks behind them (being DK castings) were slightly more nervous.

D’Hillier’s moves forward.

All along the line the Allies were now very hard pressed and even Mercer’s battery was losing heavy casualties to the incessant French skirmisher fire. The situation for the Duke was starting to look serious.

To be continued…

Battle of the crossroads – Part 1

2010-12-11T14:53:00.009Z

I felt suitably inspired last Sunday to finally have a bash at a wargame with the Hinton Hunts. It was a small affair using two terrain tiles to produce a battlefield just 2’ by 4’ and I played solo using my own rules Muskets & Marshals. The game took about two hours to play, lasted only five turns and was surprisingly good fun. This is what happened.

The Duke of Wellington (with his ADC Lord Hill) had deployed the Allied force in line to defend a vital crossroads. On the left were the Naval Battalion commanded by Sir Thomas Picton (resplendent in red coat and top hat) and on the right were the Silesian Landwehr under the watchful eye of old Marshal Vorwarts. Ponsonby’s Union brigade supported the Landwehr while Mercer’s horse artillery was placed across the main road between the two infantry battalions.

The Allied army deployed in line ready to defend the crossroads.

A few hundred yards to the east the Emperor (with his ADC Marshal Bernadotte) was preparing his force for the attack. From left to right deployed in column were the 4th Swiss (General Aldercreutz), the 45th Ligne (Marshall Lannes) and the Nassau grenadiers (General Klingspor). On the extreme right flank were the Imperial Guard horse artillery and to the rear of the infantry line was General D’Hilliers with the heavy cavalry. To the front, deployed in skirmish formation, were the elite 10th Legere in their lovely furry hats.

The French army getting ready to advance.

Happy that all was now ready the Emperor signalled the artillery to open fire at long range on the Naval battalion, which they duly fired upon and failed to hit. Captain Mercer, not waiting for the Duke’s command, gave the retaliatory order “open fire!” to his battery sergeant and the six-pounder’s let rip with a roar.

Mercer gives the order “open fire!”

The first shot from Mercer’s guns flew across the field and knocked brave Marshal Lannes from his horse before bouncing through the ranks of the 45th Ligne where it claimed a further casualty. The Duke was not impressed “The commanders of armies have something better to do than fire upon one another.” he exclaimed to Lord Hill. “Yes your grace.” Hill replied, “but it was a damn good shot!”

Marshal Lannes becomes a “fallen leader”.

The Emperor, angered by the turn of events turned to Bernadotte “Mon dieu! These English are not gentlemen at all. Send forward the 10th Legere, we will show them the way we French play wargames!”

The 10th Legere advance on the Allied line.

The French Light infantry moved up to effective musket range and started to pepper the Allied line with musketry (skirmishers may move up to half a move and fire with full effect). The Landwehr soon lost one man to their fire but then the Naval Battalion suffered a greater blow as the skirmish group to their front rolled 4 sixes!

“We will show them the way we French play wargames!”

The Naval battalion were visibly shaken by the ordeal as Picton rode up and down the line trying to restore order in their ranks.

Picton steadies the Naval Battalion.

At his command post near the church Wellington looked on “Hot work Lord Hill, what time is it now?” “Just past turn two your grace.” Replied Hill. “I think I may ride forward to give Picton a hand (and an extra plus 1 on morale), I’m sure Blucher will hold on the right with the support of Ponsonby’s cavalry.”

To be continued…

On the carpet

2010-12-04T11:25:00.007Z

This is another unit in my collection that hasn’t had much of a showing here. These infantry figures are RN17 Russian grenadier (marching) with RN11 officer (charging). The castings are all vintage and they were the very first unit I painted at the start of this project.

A line of Russians

Advancing in column

For some reason Hinton Hunt Russian figures are the hardest to come by in my experience. Apart from this unit I have a regiment of Pavlovski grenadiers (really looking forward to painting those), a single squadron of cavalry and one gun crew. It’s a small contingent but the figures are amongst my favourites – I hope to get them all painted up in time for the World Cup in 2018!

“Come on comrades, quick march!”

You will be pleased to hear that I have nearly finished those French grenadiers and I will post on them next. I did however have a bit of a mishap whilst painting them when I managed to knock over my pot of Foundry 47a Copper Wash. It was a slow motion moment as the little tidal wave of brown paint made its way towards me down the desk - the question was do I save my jeans or the carpet? I opted for my jeans – wrong!

The wonderful new carpet effect I have perfected plus the offending pot of 47a

Throughout the whole drama our old labrador Snuff (who you may remember shares my study) remained singularly unhelpful. There was no Lassie style rush to my rescue with kitchen roll or a damp sponge, in fact she just looked rather annoyed at all the commotion.

Not Lassie

Those of you who have read back through my older posts may have noted that this is not the first time that I have had an incident with my 47a Copper Wash. I knocked over my last pot almost three years ago to the day, that time however I managed to keep most of it off the carpet and out of Mrs S’s line of vision. I fear I have not been so lucky on this occasion.

4th Swiss on parade

2010-11-27T17:27:00.010Z

I still haven’t got those French grenadiers finished although the last three figures are sat on my work table in black undercoat looking a bit sorry for themselves – I will get them finished before Christmas. In the meantime I thought I would take the opportunity to post some more pictures of the splendid work Matt did on my Swiss infantry.

The 4th Swiss in line.

Advancing in column.

Here they are from the rear – not running away, this is the view their supports would have.

A close up showing the grenadier company (actually composed of FN23 Old Guard grenadier, firing).

One of the reasons I’ve not been painting recently is that we took a trip north of the border last weekend to visit our daughter in Perth (that’s the original one in Scotland not the one in Oz). Whilst up there we were taken to Killiecrankie ‘gateway to the highlands’ where we walked to soldiers leap. This is a rock in the middle of the river Garry where a government soldier made a huge leap to safety on the opposite shore pursued by Jacobite forces in the aftermath of the battle.

Soldier’s leap sign.

Another sign told us that Queen Victoria visited the place once and proclaimed the jump ‘impossible’ – I’m not sure how she came to this conclusion as I am guessing she was never chased by a bunch of claymore wielding highlanders.

It’s a bloody long way up.

We also went to see the Wallace monument near Stirling which to be honest I’d never heard of before but turned out to be a wacky gothic tower erected in the 19th century to honour William Wallace. It’s a long way to the top (and I didn’t make it all the way) but one of the chambers contains Wallace’s actual sword, which was impressive – he must have been a big bloke. As you may detect there was a bit of a theme running through the weekend namely the Scots thrashing the English, next time I hope to make it up to Culloden for a bit of balance.

Chasseur-a-cheval (take 2)

2010-11-12T20:12:00.004Z

These two-piece Hinton Hunt French Chasseurs (FN319) were among the first figures I painted when I started this project. Looking back over my old posts I realised that they had never had a decent showing so I thought I’d rectify that now.

They really are lovely little castings that are amongst the best in the Hinton Hunt range in my humble opinion.

Chasseurs of the Line are perhaps a bit under represented on the wargame table being less glamorous than their friends in the Hussars and lancers. However, I hope you will agree that these lads are looking pretty smart. I have a couple of squadrons of the one-piece version to add to their ranks – eventually.

Nassau Grenadiers

2010-11-06T16:29:00.006Z

I managed to get them varnished and based up during the week and ready for a parade today. So here they are:

21 x NN/2 Nassau Grenadier (charging)
3 x NN/3 Nassau Officer (charging) – one converted as a standard bearer

The figures are vintage Hinton Hunt castings and all but one (no prizes for guessing which one) were painted by Matt Golding.

The full battalion on parade

Bionic-hand man waves the flag

About face!

Inclining to the left (really I should have stuck them on the diagonal but that’s a bit fiddly). It’s bugging me slightly but I won’t re-base them, er, not today anyway...

I’m very pleased with them and they are a useful addition to my Hinton Hunt army especially as they can be used to fight either with or against the French. I suppose that given recent developments in the entente cordiale it would probably be best if I choose the latter option, as my British forces may no longer be available to fulfil that role.

Purest Green Stuff

2010-10-30T20:22:00.006+01:00

The original Hinton Hunt figure range was poorly supplied with flag-bearer figures and back in the early 70s I was forced to attempt my first conversion to produce a Prussian one. This consisted of gluing a wobbly bit of unbent paperclip into the hands of an advancing figure (the one supplied without a musket) and attaching a hand painted paper flag to the staff. Not the most difficult of tasks you would think but in the days before super-glue or commercially produced flags I found it pretty challenging. Sadly I have no photo of that one but here is the result of my efforts over the last couple of nights.

Figure painted by Matt Golding, flag by Revo, conversion by yours truly

The figure is a standard bearer for my Nassau Grenadiers converted from NN/3 Nassau Officer (charging). The conversion involved using some of the mysterious “green stuff” I have often seen mentioned on other blogs (who can forget the Black Adder “purest green” sketch? Click here if you have!). For the uninitiated Green Stuff is a two-pack putty that slowly hardens when mixed together and eventually dries rock hard. I used it to make the top bit to the flagstaff and the ends of the dangling cords. It was also used in bionic man fashion to reconstruct the hand that grips the flagstaff.

Before and after

I opted for a flag from Revo rather than try to make one myself. As far as I know Revo flags were the first proper commercially produced flags for wargamers so I feel they are appropriate for use in this project. The flags are printed on sticky backed paper and can be quite a fiddle to attached to the flagstaff properly but in this case I made a perfect job of it first time, perfect until I realised I had stuck the thing on upside down. It was quite a job to put it right but as you can see I did manage it in the end.

What a whopper

When I bought my Hinton Hunt Nassau figures a couple of years ago they came complete with a converted flag-bearer made by the original owner. Now I know that there is a school of thought that says that wargame flags need to be a bit over scale so that they show up on the wargame table – and I agree with this – but I think this example might be taking things to extremes!

Welcome men of Nassau

2010-10-26T21:00:00.005+01:00

I made a detour via the Royal Mail depot on the way home from work tonight to pick up a package containing the Nassau grenadiers Matt has painted for me. They are splendid indeed and this quick snap does not really do them justice.

The uniform green looks quite dark in this shot but is less so in the flesh and will brighten up when I varnish and base them. That’s the next job then.

That was the week that was

2010-10-23T19:21:00.009+01:00

A bit of a manic week that began heavily weighted towards work then changed emphasis towards the consumption of red wine and finally culminated in a trip to Chichester for my son’s graduation. None of this is relevant to this blog of course but here are a few highlights that just might be:

Tuesday – FN361 General Nansouty arrived in the post. My first successful Hinton Hunt eBay purchase for a long time and a welcome arrival as it means I am only missing one French HH personality figure now – cool (as the young people and old hippies say). Nansouty will be at the back of a very long painting queue, probably looking over the shoulder of Massena trying to see what the hold up is.

Tuesday (a few seconds after Nansouty’s arrival) – A copy of the Hinton Hunt export price list from 1972 arrived in the post from Don in the US. This list is almost identical to my UK list except that the prices don’t include VAT. Slightly strange as you would think that the export prices would be cheaper without the VAT. Click on the image to make it readable.

Thursday – Matt emailed me a picture of the completed Nassau grenadiers letting me know that they would be with me after the weekend. They look brilliant and I can’t wait for their arrival. Seems to be something of a Nassau theme running on some of my favourite blogs at the moment.

Saturday – Stopped off in Arundel on Friday night and went to visit the castle today. Quite amazed as I was expecting the usual sort of damp windswept ruin – had no idea it was still the fully functional residence for the Duke of Norfolk. We spent over three hours there and had a great time. I didn’t have my camera but the place is spectacular and well worth a visit - click here to take a look at the castle website.

That’s it then – the week is almost over.

Painted Black

2010-10-15T18:53:00.003+01:00

For some time I’ve had in my possession four Brunswick Hussars (BRN/17) but as I need six figures to make up a squadron they’ve been waiting patiently for reinforcements. Now as you can see I’ve finally managed to recruit the two missing troopers. This squadron has been assembled from the four corners of the earth (well the US, UK and Australia to be exact) and they’re just awaiting a bleach bath to remove the old paintwork before I repaint them.

I have a certain affection for these “Death’s Head Hussars” which I’m sure is shared by many other Napoleonic wargamers. Apparently Lady de Lancey compared the Corps to “an immense moving hearse” when she saw them on the march during the Waterloo campaign. The Hussars fought under the Duke of Brunswick at Quatre Bras where they gave a good account of themselves.

The other reason I like them of course is the ease of painting or at any rate the theoretical ease of painting – after all I could just splash them all over in black as the previous owners have done. However I think I should put a little bit more effort in so intend to use a dark grey for the uniform and then black on the straps for some contrast. Anyway, surely even I can paint these up relatively fast although of course I have to finish those French grenadiers first.

The cost of wargaming

2010-10-02T17:33:00.004+01:00

This is my remaining original copy of the Hinton Hunt price list and I think it dates from around 1973/74. I don’t know for sure as there is no date printed on it but that was about the last time I ordered any figures direct from Hinton Hunt so I’m probably right. If you click on the image it should become big enough to read properly.

Hinton Hunt Figures were never the cheapest option for building a wargame army and their mail order service was not particularly fast when compared to contemporaries like Minifigs. However to me they were the figures to have because they were the ones featured in Miniature Warfare magazine and the ones that Callan used. The problem was that you had to order over 150 figures to get the best price (6p infantry, 12p cavalry) and that was a lot of pocket money but it did make for an exciting package when they finally arrived.

The figures could also be bought ready painted (25p infantry, 50p cavalry) although that was way beyond my pocket as a kid but I dreamed of being able to order complete ready painted armies. Since then, having heard various tales about the quality of the paint job, I can see that perhaps I might have been disappointed on that score.

Secret Weapon (phase two)

2010-09-25T17:27:00.004+01:00

This is a test figure of NN2 Nassau Grenadier (charging) that I painted a couple of weeks ago. I really like the pose of this one and he was relatively straightforward to paint. It’s a strange thing with the figures Marcus Hinton produced how some are really excellent sculpts while others do seem to be a bit lacking. I’m not sure if Hinton sculpted all the figures himself but certainly this one is one of the better offerings.

I’m very fortunate that Matt (my secret weapon) has agreed to paint up the rest of the unit for me. This means that I have had the fun part of working out the way I want them to look without the hard work of mass production. Matt’s work is superb and he puts me to shame with the sheer speed of his output but at the moment this is a huge help to me.

Now I do feel a bit guilty about all this as part of the point of this project was that I was going to paint all the figures myself. However a couple of things have changed since I started this blog; firstly I have accumulated way more figures than I ever thought possible and secondly I have less time to paint them than I did back then. The result is (as regular readers may have noted) a bit of a drought of painted figures, in fact I still haven’t completed the unit of French grenadiers I started last autumn. I do intend to rectify this in the future but for now I am very glad of Matt’s help.

Fall in the 45th (again)

2010-09-17T19:59:00.008+01:00

Checking back through my postings I see that I completed my first version of the famous French 45th Regiment of the Line back in April 2008. Since then they have been staring back at me from the display cabinet proudly showing their two Imperial eagles. The fact that they had an extra eagle was not just a contingency in case they lost one to the Scots Greys (who’ve been eyeing them up from the middle of the same shelf) but because I was short of three fusilier figures to make up the numbers.

Thanks to the generosity of Paul however the three missing figures of FN5 Fusilier (charging) turned up here a few weeks ago and I have finally got around to painting and basing them up. The result seemed so pleasing that Marshal Lannes just had to assemble the battalion and put them through some drill.

The battalion form column of attack

They quickly manoeuvre into line

And then into square (this is one they really do need to get smarter at!)

And finally they go back in time to the 1960s

(Apologies for the poor lighting in the above photos but I still haven’t properly set up a studio area since we moved to our new house)

A change of plan

2010-09-01T08:41:00.003+01:00

Those of you who have read through my old post may remember that my French fusilier unit (the 45th regiment) was short of three figures to make up a full complement of 24. I got over this problem by introducing a second command group but this solution has slightly bugged me ever since because it doesn’t really look right.

As a result I decided to reorganise my French infantry by mixing grenadier figures (of which I have a full 24) in with the fusiliers so that I would end up with two units each with 12 fusiliers and 12 grenadiers. This was the route I settled on and I duly started painting up grenadier figures – albeit at an exceptionally slow pace. However, Paul managed to convince me that my original plan to have a full unit of fusiliers was better than mixing them up and went so far as to send me the three extra figures I needed to achieve this.

This means that the grenadiers are now being formed into their own unit, which is ok historically as the grenadier companies of several battalions were sometimes formed into composite units anyway. It has also freed up my extra command group, which after a quick repaint of plumes have been transformed into grenadiers. Now I know that grenadiers didn’t actually carry standards and eagles but I do like to see a flag with my units. Anyway, the picture shows my grenadier battalion so far and I just need to paint up another 12 figures to complete it - no problem.

C’est Magnifique

2010-08-28T18:17:00.002+01:00

I am pleased to say that the ranks of the Imperial Guard were increased in number this morning with the arrival of this splendid composite squadron of cavalry. These figures are all Der Kriegspielers rather than Hinton Hunt but they very closely resemble the latter and are not as thin as some other DK types in my possession. They are:

2 x 46/1 Guard Grenadier-a-cheval
2 x 47/1 Guard Chasseur-a-cheval
1 x 48/1 Guard Dragoon
1 x 49/1 Guard Lancer

The figures are courtesy of Don who sent them all the way from the US and the Emperor in particular was very pleased to see them. My favourites are the Chasseur-a-cheval with their nice green and red uniforms.

The arrival of this squadron following so closely on the arrival of the Poles has got me into Imperial Guard mode. A quick look through the inventory shows me that I now have (in addition to the two cavalry squadrons) 1 x battalion Old Guard, 1 x battalion Young Guard, 2 x foot batteries, 1 x horse battery and nearly a whole battalion of Marines. I just wish that my inventory also included unlimited painting time.

Opinion Pole

2010-08-22T09:32:00.004+01:00

I have allowed myself to become distracted from painting French Grenadiers into trying out a test figure for my unit of Polish infantry. This chap is WN13 Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Fusilier, charging.

I think it is the lancer style cap (czapska) that appeals to me but I have always thought that the Polish contingent of Napoleon’s Grand Armee was the most dashing. I have painted this one up as a member of the 8th Infantry Regiment (with help on the uniform from Rafa) and the final unit will comprise two companies of Fusiliers, one of Grenadiers and one of Voltigeurs.

I find it takes me a few sessions to come up with a final look when painting up Hinton Hunts and in this case I’m trying to work out if I like the blue of the uniform. I’ve used the Foundry French Blue for the first time but am a bit disappointed, as it looks too dark. This may be a problem of using their 3-shade system where I’m only selecting a single shade for block painting. The dark shade is too dark and the medium shade too light so I’ve had to try a bit of highlighting but I’m still not sure – any thoughts?

Walking Lansdown (Off Topic #16)

2010-08-15T20:12:00.010+01:00

I had a copy of The Battle of Lansdown by John Wroughton for my birthday and last weekend finally managed to get out and do the full battlefield walk it describes. I had done part of the walk many years ago but that was before the recent signage had been put in place by the Battlefield Trust that makes understanding the landscape a whole lot easier.

One of the signs erected with the aid of money from the Lottery Heritage Fund

My companion for the morning was Andy who is a keen walker rather than a military history buff and who kindly put up with my ill-informed historical ramblings as we trudged across the field. Being a proper walker Andy also came prepared with a supply of Eccles cakes to stave off hunger and I was pretty glad of this by the time we got half way around.

Andy enjoying the historic Lansdown trail

We parked on the road near the monument and followed the lane to the left that leads to Hanging Hill and the extreme left of the Parliamentarian position. The view from this point takes in the whole valley below and Freezing Hill beyond where the Royalists were initially encamped.

Looking from Hanging Hill towards Freezing Hill

Cutting across the field to our front the footpath dropped off quite steeply down towards the valley where we joined the lane that leads to the foot of Freezing Hill. On the morning of 5th July 1643 Hopton’s Royalist army was entrenched on the top of this hill facing Waller’s Parliamentarians across the valley.

Looking up Freezing Hill - it looks a lot steeper on the ground!

We climbed to the top of Freezing Hill through the site of the old earthworks and I admit I found it pretty hard going carrying a small rucksack and an Eccles cake, just how you would carry a sixteen foot pike up that hill I really don’t know. From the top it’s hard to understand why the Royalists ever decided to quit the position and attack the enemy on the other side of the valley but that’s what they did and with some success.

Looking from Freezing Hill towards Lansdown

Descending Freezing Hill we took a left and, crossing the main road, (do be careful it’s a very busy road) followed the lane to Lower Hamswell then up again by a path to the point where the extreme right of the Parliamentarian line had been. For a while here the path forms part of the Cotswold Way and the views of the surrounding countryside are fabulous. Finally we ended up at Waller’s wall, which was the scene of the final act of the battle where Waller’s men made their last stand before slipping away to Bath under cover of night. The battle was claimed as a Royalist victory but was really pretty much a draw.

The view from Waller's Wall looking towards the Royalist line (those trees weren't there in 1643)

The whole walk took about three hours and although there are some steep bits there’s nothing that the average fifty-something can’t manage without lots of stops, a litre of water and, of course, an Eccles cake.

If you’re tempted to have a go then you must buy John Wroughton’s book, which comes with a separate waterproof laminated map of the walk. The correct sort of Eccles cakes can be obtained from any branch of Sainsbury’s.

Telegraph Poles

2010-08-08T09:23:00.004+01:00

These are the most recent additions to my lead pile being part of a swap with another Hinton Hunter. The lancers are FN43 Lancer (mounted) charging and I’m particularly pleased to have them as previously I had no Imperial Guard cavalry at all. The HH catalogue says that they can be painted as either the Polish Lancers or the 2nd Red Lancers, I’m not sure yet which one I will go for. The whole lot will be stripped and repainted just as soon as I can find a space for them in the production line.

The personality figure leading them is none other than marshal Josef Anton aka Prince Poniatowski. In the HH catalogue Marcus Hinton wrote, “Prince Poniatowski was not only a hero of Poland but was one of Napoleon’s most dashing marshals. He cut a splendid figure in Lancer style uniform and fur cloak with his horse in an elaborately trimmed and tasselled harness” – can’t wait to paint this one.

I’ve mentioned before that these old one-piece figures sculpted by Marcus Hinton are something of an acquired taste being a bit on the chunky size. The lances are a weak spot on the castings and as a consequence have been over compensated for by making them rather thick and out of scale. The resulting telegraph pole effect is just another of the endearing traits of this great old figure range.

La Belle Alliance

2010-08-01T10:11:00.002+01:00

The Duke and marshal Blucher meet on the battlefield of Waterloo to swap notes and partake in some general chitchat about the day’s events. The Duke is on his trusty horse Copenhagen whilst the identity of Blucher’s mount is a bit less certain.

The setting is actually our garden wall and the battle scene is rather thin due to my lacking a suitable model of La Belle Alliance. Hovels do make a nice 25mm model of the famous Inn and I will be treating myself to this in due course.

Whilst Copenhagen is in fine fettle I have made a slight change to Blucher’s mount in line with a suggestion made by Roy some time ago and have turned the hoofs a more realistic grey colour. I really like all of the Hinton Hunt personality figures but I would have to say that the figure of Blucher is my favourite out of these two.

Swiss roll call

2010-07-18T10:35:00.005+01:00

The 4th Swiss regiment was formed in 1806 and quickly proved themselves to be determined fighters. At the crossing of the Beresina they fought until their ammunition was expended and then charged home with the bayonet. They continued to play a prominent part in the French rearguard during the retreat from Moscow where they “outdid nature, and spread a radiance of heroism into the desert of snow.” What’s more they were dressed in lovely red uniforms which gives a French player the chance to field his own redcoats on the tabletop.

So how did I manage to achieve such a prodigious painting output since my last post? Well, I must tell the truth – these splendid chaps were painted for me by the very talented Matt Golding of In the Grand Manner fame. Matt has done a superb job and went to great lengths to try and emulate my painting style, which must have been quite difficult as it involved (and no offence is meant here Matt) a degree of dumbing down from his normal shading style. The figures are:

5 x FN23 Grenadier (firing)
1 x FN236 Grenadier Officer (marching)
15 x FN244 Fusilier (charging)
1 x FN1 Officer (charging)
1 x FN6 Drummer (charging)
1 x FN4 Colour Bearer (charging)

You may remember that the original owner of these French figures had also painted them as Swiss and I thought it would be nice to keep them as the same nationality. All the figures are vintage Hinton Hunt that had their old paintwork stripped and the flash removed by me – there was a lot of flash on these ones and it reminded me of carrying out this same task years ago. Back then I had just a couple of files “borrowed” from my dad’s tool kit and I would file away for hours until my fingers were almost bleeding – such dedication to my hobby.

I’m not sure how readers of this blog will take to me subcontracting my work like this. It could be taken a bit like one of those episodes of Come Dine With Me where the contestants get in a professional chef to secretly cook for them but at least I’m not trying to pass this off as my own work. The thing is its been a real boost to my morale to have Matt’s help in what is otherwise proving to be a frustrating year on the painting front.

Six Men of Gascony

2010-07-08T20:27:00.002+01:00

This is the battle-hardened grenadier company of the 45th regiment of the line. Who knows what adventures they have had on Spanish plains, Russian steppes and Flanders fields? On the other hand they may have been nowhere much at all but they are at least guaranteed a tour of duty in my display cabinet.

I’m actually pretty pleased with them even though they have taken an extraordinarily long time to complete. The figures are all vintage Hinton Hunt ones that I stripped, de-flashed and repainted. To recap they are:

1 x FN10 Grenadier Sergeant (marching)
5 x FN2 Grenadier (charging)

I am now ridiculously behind on my painting schedule for this year due to our house move (with all the accompanying DIY) and the fact that after a couple of relatively leisurely years the world of work seems to have crept up on me again. I do however have a secret weapon that I hope to deploy shortly in an effort to get this project back on track.

Rebellion in the colonies (Off Topic #15)

2010-07-03T17:42:00.005+01:00

To commemorate the sad loss of the American colonies in 1783 we took a trip up to the American Museum in Bath today to see some re-enactors in action. The 5th Foot were going through their musket drill on the lawn whilst sprightly riflemen pepper-potted to the fore. We were also treated to a stirring rendition of The British Grenadiers played out on the fife and drum.

Next, while Mrs S and I sipped cool ginger beer on the terrace, the artillery sprang into action. There was an interesting and informative commentary over the PA followed by a very loud bang that left my ears ringing – I remembered to insert my fingers firmly in my ears for the second bang. The whole display was very well done even though it involved no more than 30 or so re-enactors. Very cleverly though the re-enactors didn’t bring any Americans along to spoil their fun. If only it had been this way during the real war the Union flag might now be fluttering over Capitol Hill.

When we were in New York earlier this year we took a boat trip around Manhattan. I asked the very enthusiastic tour guide if he could point out the site of the Battle of New York. He not only did this but very helpfully pointed out the route that the British troops took during the build up to the battle as well. He made it pretty clear though that as an American he was pleased with the final outcome of the war. Fair enough.

The display is on again tomorrow on the 4th of July. Happy Independence Day to my American readers.

French Grenadiers

2010-06-20T14:33:00.002+01:00

Thanks to all of you who voted or left comments in the great re-basing debate. You may be surprised to hear that, despite the overwhelming support for re-basing, I have decided to stick with my current system. I think Roy and Lee tipped the balance when they pointed out that the way I currently base my figures is the true retro style and anyway it’s also the way I had my original Hinton Hunt army based. I’ll just have to put up with them falling over when they manoeuvre up-hill.

With the basing dilemma behind me I have finally managed to move on and find a little bit of time to do some painting. You may remember that I began this batch of French Grenadiers back in December and all I need to do now is apply a finish of Humbrol Satin-Cote and they’re done – that’s a stunning average of one figure a month painted! The figures are:

5 x FN2 Grenadier (charging)
1 x FN10 Grenadier Sergeant (marching)

One of the good points about re-painting old castings rather than just collecting them is that you become aware of things you wouldn’t necessarily notice at first glance. In this case it was only as I started to apply the paint that I realised that one casting (centre front rank) had its legs and head bent in a different position to the others. I think this rogue figure is probably a DK casting rather than Hinton Hunt and I will check this out by looking under the base for any clues when I remove him from his bottle-top. It’s still possible that it is HH because, as I’ve mentioned before, there were often variations in the production moulds that Marcus Hinton produced.

To re-base or not?

2010-06-14T20:01:00.006+01:00

Well that’s the burning question once again around these parts thanks largely to an email I received today from Paul (from down under). It turns out that Paul has some Hinton Hunt British based in exactly the same way as Mike’s WHC ones. He kindly sent me this picture of some of his own BN5’s.

Paul said his figures have been based using a material called Masonite, which is a new one to me and sounds suspiciously like something that Superman may be allergic to. A quick check on Wikipedia confirms that it is a type of fibreboard, which among other things is used to make the best wobble boards!

The problem is that I am really taken with the idea of re-basing in this style because it is in keeping with the original aim of this project and I have always admired those old pictures of Peter Gilder’s troops. It would also solve a practical problem that I am starting to have namely that it would stop the troops from falling over and make moving them less fraught with the danger of breakages. My current system is fine for the display cabinet but for playing a wargame it’s really not so clever.

Of course if I go ahead with the idea it will be a massive distraction from painting up new stuff so please let me know what you think by taking part in the poll (top left column of blog). As always please feel free to leave a comment as well. For those of you not familiar with my current basing system take a look here.

Due to some sort of Google error I had to close the polls early (no riots please!) but here are the official results: 11 of you voted with 8 saying I should rebase and 3 saying I shouldn't. It seems like a clear cut victory for the rebasing party but we shall see.

Basing Thoughts

2010-06-11T19:21:00.004+01:00

I’ve said before that I am constantly battling the desire to re-base the figures in my various collections. Re-basing is an especially barmy diversion when I struggle to find the time to paint up new stuff but I found my mind wandering down that route for the Hinton Hunts just a couple of days ago.

Don’t worry I have resisted the urge but it was brought on in part by looking at pictures of the superb collection of vintage figures from Mike Ingham’s Wargames Holiday Centre. They reminded me of the pictures of Peter Gilder’s Waterloo terrain and figures that I first saw in Miniature Warfare magazine nearly 40 years ago. Some of these same Gilder figures have found their way into Mike’s collection and although they are a bit faded and dusty round the edges they are still an inspiring sight. I always wondered what material Gilder’s figures were based on and Mike kindly answered this rather geeky question. The bases are 45mm wide x 35-38mm deep (WHC standard size) cut from 3mm hardboard with chamfered edges.

I wish I had known that PG used hardboard when I was basing my original collection because I tried to use plywood, which was very difficult for a twelve-year old to cut with a blunt hacksaw. I soon gave that up for a bad job and discovered plasticard, which remains my material of choice to this day. The picture shows BN5 Private (charging) with BN2 Sergeant (charging) and a converted standard bearer.

Picture courtesy of Mike Ingham - to see more take a trip over to the Hinton Hunter.

It’s a dog’s life

2010-05-20T19:34:00.003+01:00

You will be pleased to know that I have finally managed to do a little bit of painting picking up where I left off with the French Grenadiers (click here for a reminder). Not much to show for it yet but at least it’s a start.

One problem I have with my new hobby-room that I never had in our old house is that our labrador Snuff seems to think that it’s her room not mine. She likes to lay out on the floor right behind my chair so that I can hardly move and is very indignant at any suggestion that she might get out of the way.

This is a picture of my hobby-room buddy enjoying a little snooze whilst keeping half an eye on General Longstreet as he tries to get Lee to abandon the idea of ordering Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg. I’m a firm Union supporter myself but I have my suspicions that Snuff may have leanings towards the rebellion.

Back in the UK

2010-05-11T20:46:00.003+01:00

Well, we made it to New York and back again safely while the Eyjafjallajokul volcano was taking a little break from disrupting North Atlantic and European airspace. I don’t like flying very much at the best of times so I was glad that our flights were unaffected – hats off to the BA crews who navigated their way around the “plume of doom”.

New York was great (in fact a helluva’ town) and we had a brilliant, if rather exhausting time. I was there for half a day back in 1976 but we had a full four days on this trip and were able to visit many of the sights and drink in the atmosphere. Best thing was probably the view downtown from the top of the Rockefellor Centre and of course getting to see Trump Tower for real – although the great man didn’t appear to be in residence.

I also went into the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I took this picture of a painting depicting Napoleon at the battle of Friedland. I’m not sure who the artist was but the detail is stunning. However, I have to report that I’ve still not made any progress on the other type of painting, namely Hinton Hunts but I hope to remedy that soon.

Cabinet reshuffle

2010-04-25T10:05:00.003+01:00

I’ve finally got the troops back in the display cabinet and in keeping with the excitement (not) of the forthcoming UK election I have had my very own cabinet reshuffle. When Mrs S gave me the cabinet four years ago I didn’t have very many completed Hinton Hunts to put in it so they were forced to share with a motley collection of 15mm Napoleonic and ACW types. My new rule is that only my HH and DK figures will be displayed and as new units are added they will be given this honour in rotation – a bit like mounting guard at Buckingham Palace.

The cabinet is almost impossible to photograph because of the glare from the acrylic front and the reflection from the mirrored back. Also, any attempt to take a picture from the front results in a lovely reflected picture of me and the camera and not very much of the figures on display. This is about the best I can do and I suppose I could pretend it was a deliberately arty shot with the reflection of the bookshelves superimposed on the back of the cabinet. Anyway I hope it gives the general idea.

All that remains now is to properly unpack the painting gear and get painting Hinton Hunts again. This may well be a little way off as I still have a few outstanding DIY jobs to complete. We’re also supposed to be heading to New York for a few days soon as part of Mrs S’s birthday extravaganza but I’m keeping my eye on that darn volcano.

Getting sorted

2010-04-19T19:10:00.009+01:00

I managed to find time yesterday to fix the display cabinet to the wall of my new study/hobby room. I’m still a little way off resuming painting but I hope to unpack all the Hinton Hunts soon and get them back into the cabinet at least.

The display cabinet in situ in my new study. You can just make out some of the troops waiting patiently in boxes full of the dreaded poly-beads on the bookshelves.

The display cabinet is pretty neat because the shelves have a mirrored back to them so you can view the front and rear of the figures at the same time. The whole thing is covered with an easy to remove Perspex case and all the fixings are cleverly hidden so it looks nice and sleek. The only figure on show at the moment is marshal Ney because he came into my possession just before our move and after the rest of the lads had already been packed away.

Marshal Ney - a rather dashing if somewhat lonely figure at the moment.

Back in the early 70s my Dad helped me make a wooden cabinet for my original Hinton Hunt collection. It was a bit more rough and ready than this one but it had sliding glass doors and was big enough to take my entire HH Prussian army plus my Minifigs ECW Royalist army.

The next problem – as several of you have helpfully pointed out – is how to extract the figures from their transit boxes and the grip of those poly-beads.

A quick update in response to DC’s query about the supplier of my display cabinet. I can’t find the exact item with the mirrored back on their website anymore but this is the nearest one. The company is called “Acrylic Display Cases” (clever name eh?) and they can custom make them. Not cheap but they are the bee’s knees!

A bit of DIY

2010-04-08T21:05:00.004+01:00

We were in Twerton chippy the other night (great veggie burger) when I chanced upon a copy of Donald Featherstone’s Better Military Modelling (1977) for sale on their charity bookshelf. I thought a quid was a fair exchange for this rather obscure title if only for the pictures of various military modellers with 70s pointy shirt collars doing strange things to Airfix figures.

As I flicked through the pages I was amazed to see that Chapter Five How to Mould and Cast Figures featured a picture showing you how to cast your very own Hinton Hunt cavalry lancer! Well I know that it has been said that Hinton Hunt Figures have suffered more than most from piracy over the years but this did seem a bit in your face. The book does say “To sell such copies not only invites prosecution but, by discouraging manufacturers, kills the goose that lays the golden eggs.” So don’t try this at home folks.

I haven’t actually tried this kind of DIY myself but I have been engaged in quite a lot of the regular variety since we moved which explains the lack of posts. The house is getting to the point where it is almost straight and I’m hoping to unpack the soldiers within the next week or two. The final DIY job will be to put up the display case and get the lads back on the shelves where they belong.

Napoleon & Friends

2010-02-16T09:10:00.004Z

This may be my last post for a while as the moving date looms large and what more fitting a picture to show you than this one I snapped about three years ago of Napoleon and some of his marshals reviewing the Imperial Guard.

In the back row (from left to right) are FN224 General (painted as Lannes), Baraguay d’Hilliers, Soult, Murat, Junot, Davout, and Massena . In the front are Bessieres, Napoleon, Dorsenne and Cambronne. What strikes me the most is that in all this time I have only managed to repaint three of the figures shown here. There’s a lot more painting to be done.

Mindful of Matt’s horror story about losing some of his soldiers during a house move I have been negotiating with Mrs S over the safe passage of my Hinton Hunt collection in the car rather than the removals van. However, with the back seat to be stuffed with Mrs S’s knitting, our two dogs, the kettle and various heirlooms this may not be a done deal yet.

Ney or not?

2010-02-10T20:43:00.005Z

I know I said recently that I wasn’t going to buy anymore Hinton Hunt figures and that was my intention. However, I was idly perusing eBay last week when I came across a listing for Marshal Ney. Now Ney is one of the personality figures that I didn’t have and quite wanted to have so I put in a bid not really expecting to win, especially given the sort of prices that HH have been going for in the last year or so.

Well I did win but I think perhaps I should have paid more attention and looked a bit closer. The problem is that I’m pretty sure the horse is not Hinton Hunt (and this is probably why I won) because the positioning of legs doesn’t look right and it’s certainly not a French horse anyway. The base is Hinton shaped with rounded corners but the underneath has been filed too flat to show any markings if any were ever present. I am hopeful however that the figure of Ney is actually Hinton Hunt FN354 Marshal Ney but having looked at other available pictures on the Hinton Hunter and LazyLimey I not entirely sure. The genuine item has the head looking straightforward whereas this chap is looking slightly to the right although it is possible that the head has been repositioned.

Anyway I thought I’d throw it open to the floor – is it Ney or is it not Ney? If not, any ideas what make? If it’s not HH perhaps you could let me down gently as I may not live down my mistake.

Intermission

2010-02-05T08:53:00.005Z

Well all the Hinton Hunts are packed away ready for the move and my hobby room has become a bit of a sad place now with an empty display case and boxes piled up on the floor. It’s getting to the point where I can no longer pretend to be doing "important" packing in the evening and may have to turn my attention to sorting out our possessions in the rest of the house.

Consequently no painting of miniatures is happening at the moment so I have had to trawl through my old photos looking for something suitable to post. This is another picture of General Ponsonby taken during the recent review of the British cavalry division. I think he is possibly my favourite personality figure.

In the true style of an intermission I am however able to offer you some music. My son Joe is in the final year of a Music Composition degree and as part of his dissertation has to produce several bits of work. Take a look at his MySpace account and listen to the track called Party Over Here – any feedback (here or there) would be appreciated.

Marschall Vorwarts

2010-01-21T09:51:00.008Z

I said a couple of posts back that I was working on another personality figure and here it is - Field Marshal Blucher PN60 mounted on horse PNH1. I’ve had the figure of Blucher for some time but only recently acquired a horse for him thanks to Clive. Both figures are Clayton produced castings but the quality is excellent and if I didn’t know where they came from I would have been convinced that they were vintage figures. It does make me wonder whether David Clayton had much original HH stock when he took over production and if that became mixed with his own stock – does anybody know?

Painting this one was quite nostalgic for me as it is the only personality figure I had in my original collection. Of course I parted with that figure along with all my other original Hinton Hunt figures years ago so I’m really pleased to have him back. What’s also been very pleasing is that during my recent sort out I worked out that I have enough HH Prussians to build and army of 6 x 24 infantry units, 1 x 18 cavalry unit and 3 or 4 gun batteries. Over half the figures are Clayton castings and the quality of some are not so great but it does mean that I should be able to achieve the original aim of this project and recreate my old army. I only have to paint them of course – ha!

That clears the painting desk now until after the move – it’s still four weeks or so before we go but the next task is to pack my entire collection (and then the rest of our house contents of course).

Foundry Freebie (Off Topic #14)

2010-01-17T20:02:00.002Z

One of the many gifts lavished upon me this Christmas by Mrs S was the Wargames Foundry set of Napoleonic paint colours. This was perhaps a bit extravagant but I really like the fact that it gives a decent Prussian blue and Russian green (among many others) as these were both colours that I had found difficult to match using my existing paints. Now the clever chaps at Foundry included a ‘free’ 28mm British infantry figure in the set so of course I had to use him to test drive the colours.

Normally with my Hinton Hunt figures I block paint them reserving a bit of shading only for the personality figures. This means I don’t really get a chance to use the Foundry three shade colour system to its full potential but with this figure I was at last able to have a go. I actually found that it took me no longer to paint this figure than it takes to paint an average HH figure and I think this is partly because the detail on the model is so easy to follow (as opposed to the HH detail which is devilishly tricky). I really enjoyed painting it and would love to do a whole “In the Grand Manner” unit (all your fault Noel) but I have to be sensible as I’m already doing Napoleonic’s in 15mm and 20mm and to add in 28mm would be absurd, wouldn’t it…?

On a completely different topic, I have been clearing through the wargame room in preparation for our move and decided it was time to get rid of my hoard of wargame magazines. I have loads of them that I never look at and I don’t fancy lugging them back up the M5 (most of them were lugged down the M5 eight years ago). If anyone wants any old issues of Wargames Illustrated or Miniature Wargames please email me, as I am happy to send them to you for just the cost of the postage. I’m putting some on eBay but failing that they will be entering the Devon recycling system soon.

Some quality geek time

2010-01-13T10:52:00.003Z

Over the last couple of evenings I have begun the long overdue task of sorting through my Hinton Hunt lead pile. Task is perhaps the wrong word as of course this is unadulterated geeky pleasure. It’s one thing to have the collection neatly listed on a spreadsheet (and of course I do) but quite another to actually sort through the figures for real.

I decided to do this primarily to get the figures ready for packing prior to our move next month but I also thought it was about time that I sorted them out properly into units to help give me more structure to this project. So I’ve been sorting the infantry into companies of 6 figures and bagging and tagging them and have already had a few surprises – some figures incorrectly identified the first time around as Clayton castings turned out to be vintage HH and (sadly) some vintage figures turned out to be copies.

When I started this project I never really expected to have enough figures for a decent wargame but the thing has snowballed and with the assistance of many other helpful and generous HH fans the armies have grown. The one big problem that remains is my lamentably slow rate of painting progress which means it will be years before I finish them all. One thing is sure though, I won’t be adding any more figures to the collection (in fact I haven’t bought any for well over a year now) and by fixing a proper goal I may just see the project all the way through to the end. When I work out what the end is I’ll let you know.

15mm French Guard Chasseurs (Off Topic #13)

2010-01-08T18:44:00.002Z

I’ll start with an apology because I am sorry to say I have no new Hinton Hunt offerings to post. This has mainly been caused by the disruption of the festive period but also by a slight slump in painting enthusiasm. With a house move looming on the horizon in February output will probably remain quite low and I don’t think I will be tackling any full units until after the move.

That said I have managed to finish this unit of 15mm Battle Honours French Imperial Guard Chasseurs. I say finish because they were an eBay purchase made before Christmas and I was the victim of a dodgy photo because they’ve needed far more work than I had anticipated. The biggest problem was trying to find a way to attach two new wire sabres and the top of the flag but I think I got there in the end. However at a quid each it wasn’t a bad deal I guess and I’m quite pleased with the way they turned out.

This unit is to be added to my Waterloo period 15mm armies for use with the Age of Eagles rule set. My initial aim is to amass enough troops for the Quatre Bras scenario included in the book and I’m not too far off this now.

I do have another HH personality figure in the pipeline that I hope to be able to post on soon so watch this space.

French Grenadier

2009-12-19T15:32:00.004Z

This is my test figure for the next infantry unit in the painting queue. It’s a vintage casting of FN2 French Grenadier Charging. I only noticed while taking the photo that it looks as if a round shot has gone clean through this poor chap just below his left shoulder – perhaps I need to get a smaller rat-tailed file.

In the very last order I made to Hinton Hunt in 1973 I ordered 72 of these figures along with a few other types. I think I have explained before that back in those days I had very little knowledge about unit organisation and had no idea about the correct ratio of grenadiers to fusiliers etc. I simply made all infantry units up of 24 of the same figures so three battalions of grenadiers was no problem.

I was going to follow this same principle with my new armies but I ran into a snag because I didn’t have quite enough fusilier figures to complete a full unit and had to double up on command groups to make up the numbers (click here for a reminder). However, this has bugged me ever since so my solution will be to spilt the fusilier unit in two and add 12 grenadier figures to each. This isn’t quite as crazy as it seems as I will paint half of the grenadiers as voltigeurs so I’ll end up with two more balanced looking infantry battalions. This is the plan but I still have 23 more of these figures to paint before I get there.

RHA Limber updated

2009-12-09T18:46:00.005Z

This is the revised and very definitely final version of my Royal Horse Artillery limber. Actually I’m quite impressed with it, as somehow I seem to have accumulated a full set with four horses, two limber horse riders and both limber-box riders. I found the left-side limber rider in my lead pile along with an extra horse rider. This was quite a surprise to me and confirms that I really do need to go through and reorganise the way I store my Hinton Hunt stash.

This is the full line up:

1 x AL2 British Limber (vintage HH)
2 x H1 Allied draughthorse, nearside (vintage HH)
2 x H2 Allied draughthorse, offside (vintage HH)
1 x BN26 Gunner riding on limber (right side – vintage HH)
1 x BN27 Gunner riding on limber (left side – vintage HH)
1 x BN28 Driver positioned for riding gun horse (vintage HH)
1 x Driver positioned for riding gun horse (Der Kriegspielers)

I particularly like the two limber-box riders clinging on for dear life. It must have been quite an experience charging into action on one of those things. It’s also interesting to see the comparison between the Hinton Hunt horse rider (nearest the limber) and the Der Kreigspielers one (at the front). The DK model is again a bit thin and weedy but a nice figure all the same.

I think the finished item is far less pony and trap like (forgive my cockney rhyming slang) than it was before, being a more substantial representation of an RHA limber. Captain Mercer has certainly given it his full approval.