Sunday 13 November 2016

Dressed to Empress


Hinton Hunt FN 60: Empress's Dragoons
What with the arrival of Cambronne and the Chasseurs à pied, it seemed logical that the next regiment to mobilise should be cavalry of the Guard. When they're complete all I'll need to complete the Phase One French are a battery of artillery and one of Rob's splendid teams, plus a general or two.

The figures I have for the latest unit are six each of Hinton Hunt and Der Kriespielers Empress Dragoons. The Hinton Hunts were all grizzled veterans of many a battle, and had suffered a bit, so were ripe for a bit of conversion.

Hinton Hunt FN 60: Empress's Dragoons
The figure pictured here is a conversion of Hinton Hunt FN 60: French Empresses Dragoons of the Guard, in handsome brass helmet with flowing horse-tail plume, in green coat and top boots (mounted) charging.


His sword arm had been replaced by a very ugly bit of scrap lead, so there was nothing for it but to cut this off and replace it with a new arm, in this case donated by a Lamming cuirassier trumpeter I picked up from somewhere.

I also had to remove his musket, ammunition pouch and shoulder strap, and give him a new set of  aiguillettes. It took a few goes to get these all to attach properly, but I got there in the end.

Some proper green-coated troopers should be appearing in the next post.

Have a great weekend,

WM

13 comments :

  1. Beautiful - I find painting white horses and white uniforms a challenge but you've cracked it. The sculpting is also pretty impressive, have you made mould masters for any figures missing from the HH range or would they be shunned as parvenus by the veteran lead in your army?

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    1. Thanks, Rob. I'm not completely convinced by this one, so may tinker with him a bit more.

      I've never thought to send my conversions for recasting. I'm too impatient for that. I want to see what they look like painted!

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  2. Excellent work and beautifully painted!

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  3. He is magnificent. I particularly like your treatment of the grey steed. It's great to know that once-mangled playthings can be restored to this level of glory.

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  4. Yes, a very lovely piece of modelling and painting. Well done!

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  5. Thanks Chaps. I'm glad to report that we survived the massive earthquake that hit New Zealand just after midnight! We're all OK. Aftershocks to be expected for some months, though, I'm sorry to say. The house shook for ages. No damage here as far as I can see.

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  6. He is a thing of beauty...and all from a "scrap" figure.

    I am glad you have seen the quake through safely.

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    1. Cheers, Matt. I should have added that the figures have come through OK too. It's not too clever to be vintage collecting here is the shaky isles!

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  7. Wonderful Matt - a unit I would love to have!

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    1. It remains to be seen how the rest of them turn out, Ian. They're quite tricky, this lot. Exactly what is going on with their aiguillettes, for example, is a bit of a mystery, not helped by the fact that most of the HH's had lost theirs, along with the tips of their muskets. There's been quite a lot of reconstructive surgery to restore these!

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  8. Hi Matt, firstly I'm glad to read that you are OK following the news of the earthquake. That trumpeter is a thing of beauty, you are becoming a master at such conversion work, or should I call it restoration? Empress Dragoons are one of my favourite Napoleonic units so I can't wait to see them all painted.

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  9. Thank you, 'Lee. It seems that I am to have a couple of days off while engineers check out my work premises, so I suppose I'd better get on with them!

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