Silesian Traffic Warden

A while back my brother was perusing my HH collection when he reminded me that the very first Hinton Hunt figures we ever bought (way back in 1968) were Prussian Landwehr. He said he remembered how he was slightly disappointed to find that the first wargame figures he painted ended up looking more like Traffic Wardens than colourful Napoleonic soldiers.

Silesian Landwehr private in action (1815)

Those of you who have read from the beginning of this blog will know that part of the aim of this project was to recreate the Hinton Hunt army I painstakingly collected as a teenager and subsequently sold for five magic beans. That army was a Napoleonic Prussian one and it has taken me nearly three years to assemble a reasonable number of HH Prussians again*. The figure above is a Clayton casting of PN19 Prussian Landwehr Firing. I have painted it (from memory) to the scheme given in the original Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheet as a private of a Silesian battalion. This is my ‘test’ figure and I will shortly be starting work on a full battalion.

London Traffic Warden in action (1960)

For non-UK residents I should explain that a Traffic Warden was an official who used to enforce parking regulations by handing out fines for any infringements of the rules. In my youth I had several jobs as a delivery driver and mostly these Wardens were pretty ok as long as you were polite to them. Sadly a more sinister official called a Parking Attendant appears to have replaced them in recent years.

*Many thanks to Hank in the USA who sent me enough Landwehr figures to help raise three whole battalions.