Saturday 1 September 2007

Swedes, not turnips

Just in – about 300 Swedes all the way from the US of A. Don’t ask me because I don’t know why I took out a second mortgage and bought them. In total I have 9 x 24 infantry figure units plus 5 x 18 infantry ‘Jager’ units. No cavalry or artillery but I have Generals Klingspor and Alderkreutz, not that I have ever heard of them.

I must admit I was slightly disappointed when they arrived as none of the figures have turned out to be vintage HH – usually when I buy figures I find that there is a mixture of vintage, USA castings and knock-offs. These have slightly puzzled me as the castings are good quality but the very thick bases (about 3mm) are not like any Hinton Hunt I have seen before.

Anyway, they are great figures and are almost certainly taken from original Hinton Hunt moulds or models of:

SWN4 Swedish Private Charging
SWN7 Swedish Private Marching

This has put me in a bit of a quandary because I had already decided not to include any figures other than vintage HH in my army. However, I can’t bring myself to part with them so the current plan is to refurbish and rebase them for an instant army to fight my other HH’s. I won’t attempt to repaint them as there are just too many but they look like they have all been painted by the same person so have uniformity in appearance.

My biggest problem is that I have absolutely no reference material on the Swedish armies of the Napoleonic Wars.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ian

I have a lot of these figures in my collection as well. They are nothing like the spindly kriegspeils or other knock offs,
so i can only assume they came from the original masters

Paul

Stryker said...

Hi Paul,

Interesting to hear that you have some too. A couple of days ago I was sent a photo of some original HH Swedes and they do look a very close match except for the thick bases. Also my charging figures have no packs although the original figures do have them.

If they came from the masters they must be Clayton castings but they are unlike any of his other figures. Still a bit of a mystery. As a matter of interest how long have you had your figures?

Regards
Ian

Anonymous said...

Hi Ian

They are only a recent purchase,
A mixed lot of originals knock offs and the thick base variety.

I have no problem with the thick base ones, but the others are fairly ordirnary.

Would be good if they were manufactured again Paul