Monday 28 December 2015

Plans and Schemes

Hinton Hunt Bavarian Line Infantry

As the Bavarians are now on their bases, I've taken a few more shots of them going through their paces.

Hinton Hunt Bavarian Line Infantry
General Qui-est-il (also now based, but still without a name) is in attendance. The windmill is by Dapol.

So, wither the Hinton Spieler in 2016? Well, things could be said to look either daunting or encouraging, depending on one's point of view.

On the encouraging side, I've painted nine battalions, four squadrons and two batteries since September 2014, which works out as just under a unit per month.

Hinton Hunt Bavarian Line InfantryOn the daunting side, I doubt I'll be able to keep producing units at this rate during 2016. Apart from anything else, I'll be travelling overseas for part of the year, and when I'm at home there's a certain amount of deferred household maintenance to attend to!

The key thing, of course, is not to worry too much about the rate at which I can churn out new regiments, but to come up with some sort of plan. In 2016 this is to complete (in no particular order):

1. one additional squadron each for the Prussian Garde du Corps and Leib Hussars;

Hinton Hunt Bavarian Line Infantry2. two more batteries of artillery (one French and one Prussian);

3. a French skirmisher battalion;

4. a Prussian close-order battalion;

5. four squadrons (two light and two heavy) of French cavalry; and

6. a basic wargames table and terrain.

The result will be two evenly-matched starter armies of five battalions, four squadrons and two batteries each; and the completion of Phase One of this project.


I'm not really daring to think about Phase Two yet.

WM

10 comments :

  1. Splendid so far...and nice projects!

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    1. Cheers, Phil. It has finally sunk-in that the "just a little bit more" needed to finish Phase One is actually 10 units. They're going to take most of 2016!

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  2. Gorgeous looking Bavarians, very impressive

    Paul

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    1. Thanks Paul, glad you like 'em. I had a bit of a moment a little earlier this year, with the result that there are plenty more where they came from! A bit too plentiful, if I'm honest with myself. Hence the decision to paint the current battalion - it was a sort of buyer's panic response, if not full scale remorse.

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  3. Nice work as always. I'm sure my dad had that cottage and windmill on his model railway back in the 60's. I always got toy trains for Christmas, took me years to convince him I really wanted toy soldiers instead!

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    1. Cheers Dave. Yep, that was the classic Airfix cottage in the last post (and you can still get them from Dapol). As for the windmill, I'm not sure when or who first started making this, but it's a cracking model. Neither were painted by me. The windmill is great as it is but the cottage is going to need a bit of a make-over.

      My Dad wouldn't buy me soldiers either, but that was OK as Mum used to smuggle them in from time to time.

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  4. Ah, phase one - I remember that! An impressive output in a very short time well done.

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    1. It's an ominous and possibly ill-advised name, is it not, given the fate that so often awaits the Phase Twos of this world (i.e., they never happen). I might just call the whole project Part 1 so that it never ends!

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  5. I had hundreds of Hinton Hunt castings (Poles and Prussians manily) I bought off of Terry Wise back in the day and thought they were bad. Finally, sold them off a couple of years ago, after rediscovering them in the cellar. But when you see them cleaned up and painted like this, they are real gems, congratulations and thanks for sharing.

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    1. Many thanks for that. Hinton Hunts certainly require a bit of faith sometimes, and some of the castings are pretty horrible!

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