Lance Heads

Greetings from the 'other side', as they say in these parts.

I was supposed to be painting gunners this weekend but somehow got distracted and ended up doing French line lancer conversions instead.

The officer is a conversion of a Der Kriegspieler Napoleoniques #49: French Guard lancer, with a Hinton Hunt French line lancer's head, a new sword to replace his lance, some new epaulettes and various other minor changes. It was nearly all done with solder apart from the sword, which started life as a Minifigs bayonet.

The trumpeter is a somewhat simpler recrafting of a broken Hinton Hunt FN 118: Light Horse Lancer in crested helmet, charging. Both are for my friend Rob G., by way of a swap and as a thank you for all sorts of vintage 20mm assistance over the last few years years. I may do a couple more like them for myself eventually....

We have a long weekend here in Welly, so there's still another day left to work on the gunners, but as the weather is rather glorious I don't rate their chances too highly.

Yours

WM

Update:

Rob reminded me that the trumpeter really ought to have fringed epaulettes of his own, so I popped some on this afternoon. The gunners never did get a look in.

Baby Boomer

It's New Year's Day, 2021, here in the Land of the Small Flightless Bird, and so I've decided to start the year with a bang.

It is New Year's Day, 1813, and
the Emperor is reviewing his Guard

The newly-raised Horse Artillery are ordered
to demonstrate their remarkable manoeuvrability.

The Battery Captain shows off his stuff  by advancing...

.....deploying and pivoting with speed and precision.

The Emperor is really quite chuffed.

My new battery looks ever-so-slightly ridiculous with its tiny wee Hinton Hunt gun, so perhaps it's less of a bang and more of a pop and and puff. Nevertheless, I'm delighted to have finally got my hands on one.

Happy New Year, everyone

WM

Edit: The gun, of course, is a vintage Hinton Hunt A3: French Field Gun. It's missing its little ammunition chest, unfortunately, but I have another gun which still has this which will be making an appearance eventually.

Horse Artillery Captain: What are you looking at, old boy?
Foot Artillery Captain: I'm trying to see what he's going to paint next.

Guard Horse Gunners

I ran out of time over the weekend to post these, so I'm doing it on a Monday night instead.

If there's the one thing I've learned from playing Muskets & Marshals, it's that it's very important to have a strong gun line. My latest effort in this direction is pictured below.

They're all beautifully crisp examples of vintage Hinton Hunt French Horse Artillery of the Guard, being codes:

FN 180: Officer pointing;
FN 181: Gunner with porte-fire;
FN 182: Gunner ramming home; and
FN 183: Gunner carrying cannon ball.

I even have a little Hinton Hunt gun to go with them that ought to be ready by next weekend.

Best regards

WM

Scruby Tuesday 2

I have a few more Scruby 25mm Napoleonic samples to show off.

Most clearly have the word 'Scruby' written on the underside of their bases. They also various hard-to-make-out numbers inscribed on them, but these seem to bear no relation whatsoever to the HistoriFigs Scruby 25mm Napoleonic catalogue, so I cannot confirm if these same figures are potentially available from HistoriFigs.

First up are what I believe to be a French light infantry voltigeur (although he might conceivably be a Nassauer), a Russian infantryman, and a French light infantry carabinier.

Second up are three French Guard or line grenadiers, being a drummer, an officer and a grenadier in a sort of 'at the ready' pose. Their coat skirts are all a little on the short side, but they are really nice figures in my opinion, and the officer in particular is a splendid figure.

That's it for Scrubys for the time being, but there will almost certainly be some more at some point!

Cheers

WM

Scruby Tuesday

Well it's Tuesday in New Zealand, although I suspect this hasn't yet happened for much of the rest of the planet.

My last post featuring Aly's wonderful Scrubys generated a fair bit of interest in things Scrubywise, so by special request I'm posting a few of the Scruby cavalry which I've picked up along the way.

These Polish Lancers are proper old campaigners:

As shown below, the horses have a faint trace of a bridle on their faces, but are otherwise completely nude. The lancer's portmanteau is simply moulded onto his bum!

I'm told there are other types of horse, however, which have reins moulded onto them, and that not every type of Scruby cavalry trooper is quite so lightly equipped. Scruby French dragoons, for example, are moulded with the troopers sitting  astride proper saddles and shabraques. 

I may even Scruby do these lancers some day, if I can find another pair of them.

WM

Bring Me Sunshine

I promised something really special a couple of weeks ago and so here it is. It's the absolutely stunning Neuchatel Battalion painted by Alastair Morrison. The figures are all from the iconic 25mm Napoleonic range produced by Jack Scruby in the early 1960s.

When Aly published these on his Aly's Toy Soldiers blog a wee while ago, he mentioned that he'd decided to replace them. As I've been hankering after some Scrubys for ages, I asked him if I could have them, and he gave them to me.

These particular figures are the remastered 25mm Scrubys available from Historifigs in the United States. They are the most beautifully hard, clear and crisp castings, unlike the very soft and 'leady' figures originally sold by Jack. You can spot vintage Scubys a mile away in wargaming blogs because of all the excessively bent muskets!

Jack's 25mm range was designed to be compatible with Hinton Hunts, which these last two pictures demonstrate very well. The Neuchatels and the 3rd Swiss will make a spectacularly attractive brigade, I think. I'll also need to paint a commander for them, of course, and I've got just the fellow, as it happens. He'll be making an appearance in a week or two, with a bit of luck.

As the last photo shows, however, to make them fully compatible with my army I'll need to rebase them, so right after these photos were taken. off they went into a shallow warm bath to soak them off their bases.

Judging from the Historifigs 'Classic 25mm Armies' of the Napoleonic Wars' catalogue, the figures are:

3053: French Fusilier, advancing to the attack, x 10;
3054: French Voltigeur, advancing to the attack, x 12; and

3064: French Officer, shako, leading, x 2, with one converted by Aly into a standard bearer.

Thank you Aly. They're like a gloriously golden ray of sunshine, and I will treasure them.

WM