Guest Appearance #4

Continuing with the Scottish theme Don sent me some photos of his superb Hinton Hunt highlanders this week. He says that these were all painted “long ago, back when I had more patience and sanity”. I think painting 3 kilted regiments would push the best of us over the edge but I love the effect Don has achieved here distinguishing the different tartans.

The 42nd Black Watch. The officer figure is BN30 - I have one of these, a lovely figure.

The 92nd Gordons comprised of BN33 Highland Private (charging).

The 79th Camerons (I think) - love the tartan on these lads!

The 71st Highland Light Infantry. Don has used British light infantry figures BN93, BN96, BN90 and the rifles bugler BN20 to represent this splendid unit.

The command stand features General Picton BN253, a Sergeant BN31 and a beautifully painted DK regimental flag!

Great stuff and a real encouragement to get me working on my own version of the 42nd.

Where’s your troosers?

Although I’m half Scottish I’ve only even worn a kilt once and that was at my daughter’s wedding last year. It was a bit of a strange experience but I have to say that I found it surprisingly comfortable and the sporran came in very handy for holding my mobile phone. I’ll probably never wear one again but I’m glad I did it.

 Luckily for all my nobbly knees are just hidden from view.

During the Napoleonic wars the Highland regiments didn’t wear the sporran on campaign but then again they didn’t have mobile phones. The photo below shows my test figure for the 42nd Black Watch listed in the Hinton Hunt catalogue as BN/36 Highland Private (marching). I was surprised to find that over half of the figures I have assigned to this unit are vintage ones with the remainder being Clayton castings of very good quality.

 It's a broad bricht moonlit nicht tonich the noo!

I followed the Hinton Hunt painting instructions on this one as Marcus Hinton even included detailed instructions for the tartan. I think the effect is pretty good and it was less of a fiddle to paint than I had feared.

 A view of a Highlander that no Frenchman is likely to see (unless the pub has just opened)

I’m hoping to get on and get a few more of the rank and file done before Christmas but I have a bit of a problem with the command figures as Hinton Hunt didn’t include any standard bearers in the range. I only have one officer figure suitable for conversion so I’m considering using a couple of converted charging figures instead.

Naumarkisches Dragoons

Here they are varnished and based the latest addition to the Prussian order of battle, a six figure squadron of the 6th Naumarkisches Dragoons. The figure used is PN.81 Prussian Dragoon (mounted) charging.

I had to paint approximately 125 white buttons in total on these lads and it nearly drove me crazy in the process. However, I seem to have survived it and I must say I’m pretty pleased with the result.

The bases are painted with Humbrol Matt 80 Grass Green. I’ve had a lot of trouble of late with this paint as it was drying streaky with yellow patches so I bought some new pots direct from Humbrol because various bloggers had mentioned that they are now produced in the UK to a new formula. The new paint does dry to a consistent colour which is good but the coverage is poor (requiring 4 coats) and the paint dried to a satin finish not matt! A coat of Testors Dullcote eventually did the trick.

I’ll be leaving the Prussians for a while now to start work on the Black Watch. I’m expecting the Highlanders to be a bit tricky to paint so we’ll have to see just how quickly I can get them done – by the anniversary of Waterloo I hope.

The Votes are in

I decided to close the poll early basically because I have already prepared and undercoated the first half-dozen Highlanders – this is the final result:

Surprisingly little support for the Old Guard but at least they got 1 vote!

Now I had said that my Highland unit would represent the 92nd Gordon’s but I remembered that I have a copy of the Hinton Hint painting instructions for BN32 to BN36 and Marcus produced these for the 42nd Black Watch. So Black Watch it will be and at least the blue facings will be easier to paint than yellow ones although I still have to tackle the dreaded tartan.

The original Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheet for the 42nd Black Watch.

The Prussian Dragoons are finished and just require varnishing and basing before they appear here then I’ll be ready to start on the 42nd. Thanks to all of you who took part in the poll or left comments.

Democracy in action

I’ve almost finished the squadron of Prussian Dragoons (all bar approximately 100 white buttons still to paint) and my thoughts are turning to what to start on next.

I was going to continue with the Prussian theme and tackle another infantry unit but then I started to wonder if I should work on some British or Allies to be ready for the Waterloo anniversary.

Then again some extra French would be nice just in case Roy shows up again with his Russians.

So as I’m not sure what to do next I thought I’d throw it open to the floor and conduct a poll (see opposite). Please enter your vote and feel free to leave any comments on this post in support of your choice. I can’t guarantee that I will observe the result (that would be taking democracy too far) but I promise I will at least consider your request!

I just realised that the voting options don't appear if you view the blog on a phone so here they are:

1. Highlanders (probably the 92nd)
2. Brunswickers (the easy-paint option!)
3. Old Guard Grenadiers (this would give me 2 Old Guard units)
4. French Curiassiers (the 2-piece castings)
5. French Guard Eclaireurs (these are lancers not cream cakes)

You can only pick one!

Prussian Review

With the Fusiliers now finished I thought it would be a good time to hold a review of the Hinton Hunt Prussian forces completed so far. In total there are 70 foot figures, 3 mounted Generals and 1 gun and limber, and rather unusually all these figures have been painted by me.

Gneisenau, Blucher and Bulow prepare to review the troops.

Here they come - the massed ranks of the Hinton Hunt Prussian Division!

The Silesian Landwehr bring up the rear behind the newly arrived West Prussian Fusiliers.

The Field Artillery - the Officer with spyglass and map (PN30) is one of my favourite castings.

The full Division.

There is still a way to go if I’m going to recreate the force of 200 or so figures I had back in the 1970s but I’m not really intending to go quite that far. However, I hope to add another 3 infantry units and a few squadrons of cavalry in the fullness of time.

You may have noticed that there are a few 15mm ACW troops lurking in the background of a couple of the photos above. This is because the table is currently being used for a re-fight of the Battle of McDowell – to take a proper look follow the link here to visit my Brother Against Brother blog.

West Prussian Fusiliers

I actually completed them a couple of weeks ago but it’s taken me this long to find the time to take photographs and write this post. Anyway here they are, the West Prussian Fusilier battalion comprised of 23 vintage Hinton Hunt figures plus 1 Clayton casting (the flag-bearer) completed in less than three months which as you know is lightning speed for me.

The unit is mainly comprised of PN.4 Private (firing).

 

The command figures are PN.1 Officer (charging) and PN.7 Officer (marching).

Also included are PN.6 Drummer (charging) and PN.5 Private (the figure cast with seperate musket that I have converted to a flag-bearer).

 This is how they would have looked back in 1972 if only I'd had a camera.

This is my fourth unit of Prussians after the Silesian Landwehr, Jagers and Foot Artillery battery and takes me a little further towards recreating my 1970s Hinton Hunt Prussian forces.