Grappling with dapple

This is my test figure for the Scots Grey’s. Whenever I start painting a new batch of models I always have a run through with one figure first. This is pretty vital with Hinton Hunts as there are so many grey areas (no pun intended) and it makes it a lot easier with the rest of the figures if I have already worked out the best way to paint each bit of detail.

As I suspected, the dapple grey effect on the horse has been the hardest part of this one. By referring to my Foundry Kevin Dallimore bible I felt confident I could achieve the right look but my first attempt ended up looking like a rocking horse – not very likely to terrify the French! I had to strip the paint off that one and start again.

This is my final offering. I am 90% happy with the result although the horse still has a touch of the fairground ride about it. Anyway, I know I don’t have the skill to make it look any better so this is how it will stay. The rider is more successful than the horse in my opinion. I have another five figures to paint to complete the full squadron.

60’s Flashback

I couldn’t resist putting this picture up. It is a detail from the front cover of the December 1968 issue of Miniature Warfare and features a unit of the same French Fusilier Figures that I have just completed.

The reason I am showing this picture is that it inspired me many years ago to want to collect a Hinton Hunt French army. Being reliant on pocket money at the time I had to finish my Prussians before investing in any more figures and it was a while before I finally got some. I ordered Grenadiers, Cuirassiers and Horse Artillery - if you ordered over 100 figures in one go you got a fairly decent discount.

When the order arrived I was disappointed to find that the French infantry were not the same figures as in the magazine photo. I couldn’t work out from my catalogue which figures were pictured so I had guessed and ordered Grenadiers by mistake. The identity of the figures remained a mystery to me until I picked up some Fusilier from ebay a couple of years ago and was able to read the code numbers under their bases. It took some time but I got there in the end.

I never did paint up any of those French figures (except for the Horse Artillery) and they all went the way of my Prussians – I wish I still had those castings!

Fall in the 45th!

Here at last is the completed 45th regiment of the line parading on my worktable having just had their bases painted. To recap, these are vintage Hinton Hunt Figures that I recycled by stripping off the faded old paint job and re-painting. The unit consists of:

18 x FN5 Fusilier Charging
2 x FN1 Officer Charging
2 x FN6 Drummer Charging
2 x FN4 Colour Bearer Charging

As you know, the 45th became famous for losing their Eagle at Waterloo. This seems a bit unjust as they had previously served with distinction at Austerlitz, Friedland, Essling, Jena & Wagram, all of which were awarded as battle honours to the regiment.

I started these back at the beginning of February and they certainly have taken a long time to finish. No excuse really except for a slight diversion into another project. Anyway, I am pretty pleased with the final result.

Now for those Scots Grey’s.

The King is Well

A British and an Austrian General make an early morning reconnaissance across my desk. They may be looking for the French or just taking in the view and chatting. The figures are:

AN102 Austrian General Holding Map
BN254 General Alten (I am 90% certain it is he)

These are very nice figures and I particularly like the Austrian who is a one-piece casting. I like these so much that I may not re-paint them.

Alten joined the army aged 17, commanded the King’s German Legion in the Peninsula and was wounded at Salamanca. He took over command of the Light Divison after Craufurd’s death and went on to lead a Division at Waterloo. He eventually became a Field Marshal, real Boy’s Own stuff.

The mug on my desk was bought for me at Buckingham Palace by my wife. Being a bit of a Royalist I really like the sentiment on it. Quite appropriate for Alten too.

Scots Grey’s

I’d like to start this post by thanking Clive who responded to my mentioning that I had no Hinton Hunt Scots Grey’s in my collection by sending me six pristine vintage castings of BN49 Scots Grey’s Trooper Charging. I thought this was a very nice gesture and have decided that the Grey’s will be the next unit I paint.

I was surprised by just how superb the figures are considering they are part of the early one-piece range of cavalry models, which are not everybody’s cup of tea. I had never seen one in the flesh before but have often admired the picture of these same figures on the front cover of Donald Featherstone’s “Advanced Wargaming” book.

My photo shows two of the castings in their raw unpainted state (click on the image to see more detail) and as soon as I finish the French Fusiliers I will be preparing and black undercoating them. I have been painting wargame figures for many years but have only attempted to paint one Scots Grey before and that was a 1/32 scale Airfix model in the early 1970’s. I made a real mess of it with a hideous smudgy grey effect on the horse, the rider and my fingers. The model went in the bin. I know therefore that my biggest challenge will be to reproduce a decent dapple-grey effect on the horses.

Pas de Charge

My rate of painting has tailed off dramatically in the last week or so and this French Line Drummer is the only new figure I have to show for my efforts. The rest of the time has been spent plodding through the remaining few Fusiliers of the 45th Regiment. I do find that painting a full 24 figure unit is hard going, particularly the last half dozen or so figures.

This is a vintage Hinton Hunt casting of FN6 Drummer. As Hintons go this is not the best of sculptures. The arms are a bit chunky and the drumsticks look like small cudgels. The figure also suffers from “disappearing detail syndrome” where a moulded line inexplicably vanishes into a metal blob as you follow it with the paintbrush. However, as always the finished article does possess that charm unique to the Hinton Hunt range.

I found it a bit frustrating trying to work out how to paint this one as he is a bit of a hybrid, not quite Fusilier and not quite Grenadier either. In my Hinton Hunt catalogue he is listed simply as “Drummer Charging” so I guess he was meant to be painted as either. In the end I settled on the paint scheme shown which was drawn from several different uniform reference books. I have two drummers to complete the command group for the 45th Regiment of the Line.

Old School Rules

Now I have more than a handful of finished figures my thoughts are turning to gaming with them. My first set of Napoleonic wargame rules were bought via an advert in Miniature Warfare magazine. These were the London Wargame Section (LWS) “Rules for NAPOLEONIC Warfare 1813c”. My brother and I bought these because we naively thought they must be “official” as they came from London.

The rules turned out to be a little disappointing (the first of many!) and had some odd things in them like rule 23 “To reharness a horse takes half a move”. However, we took certain mechanisms from them that I still use to this day. The rules used something called “average dice” that were a mystery to us for a while and couldn’t be bought locally. Because we only had regular dice this led to frequent halts during battle while we tried to figure out if a one was really a two or if it was a three.

When I was a little older I briefly joined a local wargame club where the hot new rules of the time were Bruce Quarrie’s published in his book “Napoleons Campaigns in Miniature”. This book is actually a very good reference and I still like leafing through it today but the rules proved just a tad too complex for me with my CSE Maths.

In the end I took to writing my own simple rules on a single sheet of A4 paper with surprisingly good results. I eventually had a set I used with my large army of Airfix figures. Unfortunately these rules have not survived but I do still possess the original copy of the LWS ones dated 1968 and I intend to test them out once again with my new Hinton Hunt forces.