Tuesday 11 June 2019

A brace of Marshals

Last year I picked up a couple of Hinton Hunt French Marshals on Ebay.  As a break from painting some Brunswick Cavalry I painted up Marshals Davout and Ney.


These are both original figures and both had the same Hinton Hunt code stamped on the bases. Davout Horse however has a head facing right and the horses tail is noticeably different.  A slight mystery.



Hinton Hunts Ney is clearly based on the famous Meissonier picture. I tried to paint my Ney to match the picture.



10 comments:

Rob said...

Nice one - I'm jealous I usually get outbid when I try for command figures. I'm sure WM or someone else will weigh in soon to clarify the code mystery.

The Good Soldier Svjek said...

Those are rather smashing figures , they have a certain style you don't get nowadays .

Stryker said...

Nicely done Mark!

Wellington Man said...

I've no idea Rob, other than to speculate that Davout's horse is an earlier version. I'm particularly struck by how similar it is to many of the Alberken commanders' horses. The sloping rump is particularly distinctive. If this is what Alberken used as the basis for their command figures, I guess that would date it to the mid 60s (if my Alberken history is correct). Whatever the case, both your Marshals are terrific, Mark.
Best regards
WM

MSFoy said...

Very nice work, Mark. Interesting about the horses - right facing head usually means that someone has tweaked them with the pliers(!), or sometimes that they are Der Kriegsspieler horses, but, though I have no doubt about the authenticity of your horses, that tail does look a bit like the rip-off Alberken horses - it also is reminiscent of the HH OPC cavalry, of course. What we need is for Mr Lewis Gunner to give us the gospel, since he will certainly know, having fought in the campaigns himself.

Mark Dudley said...

I find that some commanders are more sought after than others. Napoleon and Welligton are perhaps understandably more common than others.

Mark Dudley said...

They do capture a feel for the period. Style never goes out of date.

Mark Dudley said...

Both horses had FNH10 stamped on their base. You may be correct in the idea that Davouts was an earlier version.

Mark Dudley said...

The head may have been altered. I will wait to see if LG has thoughts.

mojoworking said...

Mark, I have the two same figures on my painting desk at the moment, both mine are on the Ney horse variant from your pics. The bases have been filed so can't tell the serial number. These are among a group of marshals I've been trying to finish for about 3 months now, but hospital stays and other real-life stuff keeps getting in the way.