Mystery Pole

Steve very kindly sent me this picture of some Poles that look very similar to my own mystery variant of WN.13. They were genuine Hinton Hunt figures purchased in the 1970s as far as he remembers.

So the plot thickens because my own copy of the Hinton Hunt catalogue from around 1972 doesn’t mention this variant. This also rules out the possibility that they are Clayton figures because he didn’t produce figures until much later, and anyway I’m 99% certain that mine are not Clayton.

This leads me to conclude that the figure is either a genuine Hinton Hunt one (in which case I feel slightly sick about snipping off those plumes) or one produced by Der Kriegspielers in the USA. There is a listing in the DK catalogue 825-205 Polish Line Infantry Charging but no illustration of the figure.

Gentlemen the floor is open, please feel free to comment.

Pole Volts

I painted this (click here) test figure for the 8th Polish Regiment almost two years ago so I think that it’s time I got on and painted the whole unit. To this end I’ve been cleaning up the castings and getting them ready for undercoating.

WN.26 Officer, marching + WN.23 Voltigeur, charging

The six figures above make up the Voltigeur Company (my stylised units have six-figure Companies and the 8th will have two of Fusiliers, one of Voltigeurs and one of Grenadiers). The only vintage figure in this line up is the chap on the right of the front line; the others are later but quite decent castings of unknown origin.

When I was sorting through the various Polish figures in the lead pile I noticed something fishy about some ones with tall plumes that I had initially mistaken for Fusiliers. The Hinton Hunt Polish Fusilier figure has a pom-pom and no epaulets and the Grenadiers have bearskins so I eventually deduced that someone had created their own Grenadiers with “Lancer Caps” from the Fusilier model WN.13.

 The "fishy" Pole is on the left, WN.13 is on the right

This was fine though because it has been an easy job to turn them back into the Fusiliers I require by snipping off the plume and taking a file to the epaulets. I do hope it doesn’t take me another two years to finish this lot off.

Reasons to be Cheerful

Firstly, because yesterday this blog received its one hundred thousandth hit. So one hundred thousand thanks to you all (or perhaps just one big thank you to one very sad individual). Secondly, because during the week I finished the unit of Prussian Jagers marking the end of “phase one” of this project. I now have over 350 painted and based figures, which is enough to enable me to play a decent sized game.

I’ve already mentioned that I’m particularly fond of these Jager figures because the very first Hinton Hunt unit I completed back in the early 70s was made up of these same types. Those figures are of course long gone – perhaps hiding in an attic somewhere.

My light infantry units are 18 figures strong and individually based for maximum manoeuvrability. The complete line-up is as follows:

2 x PN.24 Jager Officer, quick marching
1 x PN.25 Jager bugler, quick marching
3 x PN.26 Jager, quick marching
6 x PN.28 Jager, firing
6 x PN.29 Jager, kneeling firing

Next up will be the British ADC I’ll be painting to represent Wellington’s aid De Lancey.

Timber!

For the last few nights we have been lashed with wind and rain down here in the west country. This morning when I opened the door to the wargames cupboard I was amazed to see that one of the miniature trees had come out in sympathy with the "real world". Fortunately there were no casualties - all the Hinton Hunts were safely stowed away in the display cabinet, but if Wellington had been under that tree I hate to think what could have happened.

Now just waiting for some miniature Council Operatives to come along and clear away the debris.

Not Glossing Over

I’m getting rather fed up with the whole varnishing process because it never seems to go quite right. At the start of this project I was using Humbrol Satin-cote and it always dried to a satisfying semi-gloss finish, which was just what I wanted. Then I noticed that the satin was turning more and more glossy as I used it until in the end, it was pretty much drying as full gloss.

This was not what I wanted so I eventually tracked down an artist’s acrylic satin varnish, which was too thin to use on its own, but was perfect as a topcoat to the glossy stuff, restoring the semi-gloss effect. Sorted I thought.

Then over a couple of nights this week, having finished all the Jagers, I ran through the two-coat process but - Doh!!! Suddenly even this varnish decided to dry all glossy. As a last resort I have now introduced a third coat of Testors Dullcote over the whole lot which has taken the edge off the gloss but it’s still not exactly what I wanted.

Any ideas?

By the way, the figure is PN.24 Jager Officer, quick marching

Jager Update

As you can see, I’ve made some progress with the Prussian Jagers and another couple of painting sessions should see them finished. These are quite easy figures to paint so time permitting the full unit of 18 will be paraded here soon.

The bulk of the unit is made up of a mixture of three figures types:

PN.26 Jager, quick marching
PN.28 Jager, firing
PN.29 Jager, kneeling firing

I also have two officers and a bugler to make up the numbers. Once this unit is finished I will finally have two equal sized armies to square up to each other on the wargame table and hopefully there will be another battle or two in the offing.

French Line Artillery

Some of you may have noticed a distinct lack of posts over here recently. This is chiefly because what hobby time I have is being taken up with the ACW campaigning season over at Brother Against Brother.

However, for those who are missing their Hinton Hunt fix I did just snap this picture of the finished French Line Artillery gun and crew I completed earlier this year but forgot to post. The figures are (from left to right):

FN/33 Gunner (ramming home)
FN/32 Gunner (holding cannonball)
A/3 French Field Gun
FN/31 Gunner (firing the gun)
FN/34 Gunner (positioned for manning gun)

I promise to get back to painting Hinton Hunts just as soon as I have thrashed Johnny Reb.