British Fusiliers

This morning I received a call from my local Oxfam to say that a few more figures had gone on sale including some British Crimean.

Although I was not interested in Crimean War I thought I would pop down anyway.

Well they are certainly original Hinton Hunt figures.  A quick visit to Clives Hinton Hunter blog confirmed that they were indeed Napoleonic 30 * BN72 British Fusiliers charging and 2*  BN70 Fusilier Officer charging.

In addition there was a mounted General Hill from the Alberken/early Minifig range.

Included were 3 later minifig command figures. 2 of the chunky ones, and a thinner earlier standard bearer figure. The chunky ones are of no use however I can use the slimmer figure. He will need a new flag.

A comparison showing the slimmer minifig figure and a Hinton Hunt Officer.

Basing Classic Napoleonics

I have been playing around with basing options for my classic Napoleonics.

I am using 24 figure Infantry battalions and 12 for  cavalry.

I have been reading the free set of rules by Ian, aka Stryker, and like the sytle of game they produce. The latest version of the rules can be found here.

http://hintonhunt.blogspot.co.uk/p/muskets-marshals.html?m=0

These rules were used for the Waterloo and Leipzig games featured on Ians blog.

The basing Ian uses is described in the rules. I was originally going to base as he suggests but after trying out a number options using cardboard bases I made a decision on Saturday morning.

So this weekend I have completed basing some of the Hinton Hunt figures I bought last weekend. I am using 2mm MDF pre cut bases.

For Infantry I have decided to base 4 figures on a 25 by 30mm base with 6 bases per unit. The eagle eyed will realise that this is one base per company for French organised battalions.  The bases are all finished in Humbrol Green (80).  I use the same green on my figure bases but these are gloss varnished where as the green is left Matt on the MDF bases.

First up is the Nassau bttn deployed in line.

For single figures I am using 15 by 15mm bases. Here a Polish battalion is in column and as I had a few extra figures I can use this as extras.

You will notice that neither the Nassau or Polish units have flags. As neither unit has s standard bearer I will simply add a free stsnding flag next to an officer figure.

I had enough figures left over for a 6 figure Skirmish unit. For a battalion that can deploy into skirmish order I will use 2 figure on base 25mm by 15mm with 12 bases per unit. This will alow them to fight as as a line unit as well.

A skirmish unit is 2 bases in pairs and 2 singly.

My only completed cavalry are the 8th Hussars. These are based with 2 figures on 30 by 30mm bases and 2 singles on 15 by 30mm.

I am working on my French unit from Oxfam with a little repainting of the white. Once these are done I will base them along with my 12 Hungarians and 12 Portuguese I also picked from Oxfam.

Almost enough for a small game if I use the Nassauers as Allied.

I may press into service some old minifig artillery crew and cavalry for the first game.

Refurbished Westphalians

A few weeks ago Styker kindly sent me 6 painted Minifigs (Alberken) Elites painted as Westphalians.

I have just finished the paint refurbishment of them. They are now ready for basing. More on that subject in my next post.

I do not intend on having a full battalion of Westphalians and will use these as an independent skirmish company

They had looked like this.

Oxfam Provides more Hinton Hunts

A few days ago a friend of mine told me that my local Oxfam had some painted  Napoleonic Wargame figures for sale.

Not expecting much I dropped in thus morning. Apparently a local figure collector have recently passed away and his family had passed the collection to Oxfam. Most of the figures had been sold off.  I was however able to buy 86 painted figures for just short of £ 62. They look to be original Hinton Hunts.

The figures are reasonably well painted but do have a bit of varnish yellowing particularly on the white. After cleaning up I will do a small amount of paint refurbishing, mostly on the white, and a fresh coat of Gloss Varnish.

First is a Duchy of Warsaw unit of 28 figures.

All the figures have had the underside of bases filed down but as you can see here there is evidence of the original Hinton Hunt markings still showing.

Next up a unit of Nassau Infantry consisting if 24 figures. These are nice and include knots and braiding on the trousers.

There were also 2 units if French. Firstly 18 Voltigeur types including 6 Officers.  8 of them are the classic firing figure.

And finally a unit of 16 French (12 infantry and 4 Officers). I am pleased to get these as I already have a few FN5 French Infantry and with these I can make up a full 24 figure unit.

The only thing missing from all these units are standard bearers so I will either have to convert some or get some of John Cunningham's recast range.

Not bad for a Saturday morning shopping.

More Reinforcements

Following my last post regarding  Minifig 20mm Voltigeur figures I was contacted Stryker (Ian). He had 6 Minifig Elites spare and would I like them. The generosity of Hinton Hunter aficionados is surprising into today's world.

Yesterday the postman delivered a small package. Its with some excitement that I opened the package to find in side 6 painted Minifigs elites painted, as far as I can see, as Westphalians.

The painting is almost certainly vintage as the gloss varnish shows signs of yellowing. However rather than stripping these chaps I think I will do a paint restoration and use them as an independent company of Light Infantry.

Ian also mentioned that we had sent something extra. Well I can say I was surprised to find he had sent me 4 of my original HH figures that I had transferred  to Ians service a decade ago. These figures still had my original paint job.

This now causes me a dilemma. Do I  use these as the cadre for a new Swiss unit and purchase extra figures from Johns recast and recreate the 3rd Swiss. That means I will have to paint my Minifig Voltigeurs as something else - perhaps a Light Infantry unit

Early Minifig 20mm Napoleonic

This morning I sorted through my 20mm Napoleonic figures and selected a unit of French early 20mm French Voltigeurs advancing (FN16) and 2 Voltigeur Officers (FN25).

I bought these figures from BMW Models , Haydons Rd in Wimbledon back in 1971 ish.
I had painted these in white and used them as Austrians.

At 9 o'clock this morning they looked like this. A bleach bath was made used full strength bleach from a local retailer.

At 17:30 they were removed from the bleach, using rubber gloves, and scrubbed with an old tooth brush. As you can see only a little paint has survived the process and the figures have come out unscathed.

These figures are clearly based on Hinton Hunt figures however these castings are  far cleaner with very little flash.

My plan is although these are Voltigeurs to paint them up as 3rd Swiss. My original Hinton Hunt Swiss unit was transferred to Stryker service many years ago.

As I only have 22 of these figures I will use a Douglas Voltigeur standard bearer and sapper to bring the unit up to full strength.

As you can see they mix ok.