I've accumulated a number of additional Hinton Hunt British Royal Field Artillery figures over the years plus field pieces. I realised not too long ago that I had enough to put 4 guns and crews together. In my world that is 2 x 2 gun batteries. As I already have 2 batteries of vintage RFA I decided that these would be designated as King's German Legion Hanover batteries.
The KGL artillery uniforms were pretty much identical to their British counterparts, however I was very taken with the illustration of a Hanover artillery officer in Philip Haythornwaite's Uniforms of Waterloo. This shows him wearing a yellow sash rather than British crimson which was good enough for me!
So each battery has one officer plus miscellaneous crew. Four of the second hand figures had already had some conversion done by their previous owner. Three of the four are in fact BN7 "British infantryman with seperate musket", some more of these appear among the crews. The fourth, which is holding a handspike is a mystery. He has a similarly shaped base and proportions to HH figures but has no pack. He may have had a new right arm fitted but if so it is an almost invisible piece of surgery or just a casting inperfection. His base markings have been filed away so no clues there.
Of the four field pieces, three are Hinton Hunt and the howitzer is an unknown make but is a very good model. As we all know the Hinton Hunt cannon's wheels are quite small whereas this howitzer looks correct.
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| Guns undercoated, crews next. |
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| The mystery figure. |
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I left the hand spike added by his previous owner rather than try and add a thicker one as per Hinton Hunt crew. This was primarily because I couldn't dislodge what was already there! |
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| The howitzer. Could it be a Hinchcliffe? |
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| BN7 with rammer added by the previous owner but with new top and bottom. |
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| 2x2 gun batteries completed and based |
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| For painting reference, as well as "Uniforms of Waterloo" I also dusted off Almark's excellent "Soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars" by Alan Kemp. |
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| There are subtle differences from my original vintage crews as I've gone for yellow shako cords and red turnbacks rather than white. |
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| These will see their first action during my next Waterloo refight |
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| I don't normally add smoke effects to my games but, as these turned out quite well, I may change the habit of a lifetime |
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| Blasting away at unseen enemy. |
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| Another BN7 convert in the howitzer crew with fuse wire porte fire |
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| All original castings in this crew |
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| Hopefully these additions to my collection will not fall foul of the "curse of the new units" in their first engagement. |
An impressive gun line and I like the smoke effect!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian, let's see how they do against the Grand Battery.
DeleteAn impressive battery, and, yes please for smoke effects in your battles.
ReplyDeleteCheers Rob.....who needs photoshop whenyou've got a bag of kapok!
ReplyDeleteSorry to just now be making a close inspection of this wonderful work. I love the conversions with the handspike and ramrod! I am fairly certain the howitzer is a Hinchliffe 20mm piece. They are quite lovely in their detail. Can you tell if the wheel axle is a metal rod typical of Hinchliffe? You are right about the officer figure with the yellow sash. That really makes him stand out!
ReplyDeleteThank you David. Yes, the previous owner did a good job with the basic conversions and must have used a very strong glue! The wheel axle of the Howitzer is indeed a metal rod.
ReplyDeleteThese are terrific, Busker! I particularly like the white cartidge boxes. They make the gunners really pop.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matthew, they were very patient waiting around at the bottom of the painting pile!
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