I can’t remember exactly how I came by this casting of FN/352 Eugene De Beauharnais but he has languished at the bottom of my lead pile for some time as I assumed from his rather hideous appearance that he was a poor copy of the Hinton Hunt figure. However when Tony asked me if I had a Eugene available to command the Franco-Italian army in our forthcoming game I thought I’d dig him out and see what, if anything, could be done with him.The figure had been painted with a thick coat of gloss paint which hid most of the detail and I was pleasantly surprised to see this reappear as the casting emerged from its overnight bleach bath. Far from being a copy it turns out that the figure is almost certainly a Clayton one whilst the horse is a vintage casting of BNH/11.
The rider had been ‘welded’ to his saddle with copious amounts of Araldite so I didn’t want to try to remove him to put him on a more appropriate mount. Instead I have added to the horses docked tail to make it look more French (if a horse can look French that is) and also given poor Eugene some feet as these were missing. I’m now looking forward to painting this one.
17 comments:
I am excited to see his new uniform. I think the horse furniture and the rider lend their the national characteristics to the horse. I am sure by the time you are finished, there will be no question that the horse will pass for a French one.
You are so kind Captain Nolan!
Bravo, Ian. It's amazing what can sometimes be found under the house paint! My very first Prussians started out like that. I almost cried with rage and shame when the parcel arrived, but sure enough, after a bath of dettol, the little treasures emerged!
Cracking horse conversion work. It never occurred to me to try that!
Matt, this has been a real lesson to me about making assumptions! In retrospect I was stupid to think someone would have bothered to make a knock off of a figure you only ever need one of. I was genuinely pleased to find my mistake.
So rather than a Sans Culotte Eugene was a sans pieds? Perhaps that accounts for his thorough Aralditing to his horse?
Now his mother can tell her friends that Eugene is loving army life and has grown another two feet.
Ha ha Roy!
Wow, what a difference! I look forward to seeing him painted.Excellent job on the new feet.
Remarkable piece of stripping, young sir - apart from anything else, the amount of paint removed from his plume has made it a shadow of its former self. Maybe he's been painted many times in the past - maybe he was painted once, with Airfix paints...
Anyway - splendid job. Perhaps I could wheel out an ADC to keep him company.
I recently obtained a job-lot of HH personalities which had been copiously Araldited to their horses - why would someone do that, I wonder? Well, maybe the Araldite is sort of OK, but applying it with a trowel is less so.
Look forward very much to seeing this chap. The whole subject of these colonel-general uniforms is interesting - I realise I have no idea how long they were relevant - just for the Coronation? Eugene was - what? - colonel general of Ch a Ch of the Guard? I wonder did he have to do anything as part of the job. I am sure he had a wardrobe full of hussar outfits (discuss...), so you can paint him up as anything you like. I have a suspicion you will paint him up according to Marcus' instructions, though.
Terrific - more power to your painting arm!
Boom Boom to LG. How can you make a horse look French? Serve it with frites....Thanks to everyone who has taught me the magic of Dettol.
Thanks for the comments chaps!
Tony - actually I don't have the HH painting instructions for this one but he will be in guard chasseur colours I think.
Good work there. You're pricking my conscience. You're a far better man at putting names to your Napoleonic generals.
Conrad - not really me this is all down to Marcus Hinton who produced an unsurpassed range of 'personality' figures. I think I have nearly all of them now and there are in excess of 20. They certainly add a splash of colour to the tabletop!
Should paint up nicely - most of the pictures I have seen show him as a Guard Chasseur as you say.
Certainly an ugly duckling...I look forward to the final result.
Matt - good to hear from you! Yes he certainly is an ugly duckling and I very nearly chucked him out thinking he was a bootleg. How wrong can you be?
Eugene may still be waiting to make his debut in Hinton Land but his S Range counterpart has just been pictured with his entire IV Corps in S Range over on the Lone S Ranger blog.
That's a great post Clive - an amazing collection!
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