Cabinet reshuffle

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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).