French reinforcements

Tony came over last Saturday and brought with him a box of Hinton Hunt goodies for me. These were mostly figures originally in the Eric Knowles collection that he felt he wouldn't be using himself. There's some really nice stuff including quite a few castings from the 1807-12 French infantry range that has got me thinking about rummaging through the rest of my stash and putting a unit or two together, something I've had in the back of my mind for a while.

The haul includes 3 x firing voltigeurs (a figure I'd never seen before) and 3 x air guitar voltigeurs - I have to find a use for these!

Tony didn't just come over to give me gifts but also to try his hand as Longstreet in another game of Fire & Fury - you can see how that went by clicking here.

First though I must complete that Austrian unit that has been waiting on the painting desk since before Christmas.

Mameluk Ali

So far this year I have painted a grand total of one Hinton Hunt figure which is something of a record I think. The figure is FN/307 Mameluk of the Guard on horse FNH/4. I only recently acquired this figure and have no intention of doing a full unit so I have painted him to represent Napoleon's faithful servant Mameluk Ali.

FN/307 Mameluk of the Guard

The horse is FNH/4 which is quite a rarity as it was made for the Mameluk figure only and features a high back to the saddle and some fancy horse furniture.

Ali was not actually a Mameluk at all but a French stableman Louis-Etienne Saint-Denis who Napoleon had promoted to valet and ordered to wear a Mameluk's dress. These days that would probably be considered cultural appropriation but in early nineteenth century France it was clearly perfectly acceptable.

Ali and his boss.

As I explained in my previous post, Hinton production has slowed due to my efforts to complete an old 15mm ACW project which (drum roll) I have now done. To celebrate, I forced Goya to don Confederate uniform once again for another Fire & Fury game.

A full battle report of the game has been posted over on my ACW blog (click here).