A Tour de Force

My friend Rob G has sent me  these photos of his new French line infantry battalion.

The troops are a blend of Hinton Hunt FN 5: Line Fusiliers advancing, and slightly modified Alberken FN 15: Line Grenadiers, advancing painted as grenadiers and voltigeurs on the flanks. They work together brilliantly.

Rob also sent me these close-ups of the command group, featuring what looks like he might be an Alberken FN 16: Line Voltigeur, painted as a sergeant of fusiliers.

I think they're absolutely stunning!

All the best to you all this Anzac Day

WM

The End of the Line 2

I found a bit of time this weekend to finish my French line infantry battalion, and so here they are:

The figures are all vintage Hinton Hunts from the French Infantry of the Line 1812-15 (in shakos, short tailed coats and long trousers) part of the range:

FN 1: Officer (charging) x 1
FN 4: Colour Bearer (charging) x1
FN 6: Drummer (charging) x1
FN 5: Fusilier (charging) x 21

There is an option to replace two of the companies with grenadiers and voltigeurs at some point, but I have to admit that I'm rather pleased with the all-fusilier look.

It'll be back to the Chasseurs for me now I think. This is likely to be a rather long and fraught process, so to the fill the gap the next post will probably feature another episode in the adventures of the PEF.

In the meantime, I'm off to celebrate with a glass or two of Central Otago Pinot Noir. I've wanted a battalion of FN 5s for ages. I think they're some of the nicest figures I've ever handled.

WM

Turning Up the Voltage

It's not all been vintage Napoleonic reviews and battles in the last few weeks, I've also been doing some actual painting.

As I have rather a lot of Frenchmen to paint in order to catch up with the Prussians, I thought I'd start with the biggest job first, which is the battalion of skirmishers I need to take on all those Silesian Schutzen. A few of the French line infantry voltigeurs I've found for this gig are pictured below:

DK and Hinton Hunt Voltigeurs

The figures (from left to right) are:

Der Kriegspielers, DK 12: French line infantry 1812, Légère battalion, firing;

Hinton Hunt, FN 3: French line infantry 1812-15, grenadier, firing, and

Hinton Hunt, FN 1: French line infantry 1812-15, officer, charging.

Although the DK is not an exact match for the Hinton Hunt, and lacks many of the crisper details, he's not all that far off. I think they'll work reasonably well together in a unit.

A certain family resemblance!

As it happens, I've managed to get hold of a fair number of Hinton Hunt and other types of French infantry recently, so a few more comparisons follow. The figures in each case are Der Kriegspielers on the left, Hinton Hunt in the centre and Alberken on the right.

The extra DK on the left is an interesting variant of DK 12. Alberken FN 28 on the right.

The Alberken pictured above on the right is: FN 28: French Napoleonic infantry, grenadier, firing. He's a very good match for the Hinton Hunt in almost all respects except one - a rather horribly malformed right arm that doesn't attach to the rest of his body very convincingly at all!

Next up is a selection of charging/advancing figures:

Some more close cousins....

The figures are:

Der Kriegspielers, DK 9: French line infantry 1812, advancing;

Hinton Hunt FN 5: French line infantry 1812-15, fusilier, charging; and

Alberken FN 30: French Napoleonic infantry, fusilier, advancing.

The Alberken is noticeably taller and chunkier than the others, and lacks the finer detailing of either the HH or the DK. However, I think they'd all look quite good together on the same tabletop.

Pictured last is the same group again but with something completely different: a Garrison FN 7: French Fusilier, advancing. which I just couldn't resist painting up as a test figure.

....and a different lineage altogether!

Garrison only ever produced a quite small range of 25mm Napoleonics, but I've always admired them. Masses of them routinely appear in early wargaming publications, where they look absolutely stunning. As I have enough for a whole battalion I'm sorely tempted to have a go at them after I've finished the voltigeurs. After all, this is supposed to be a blog about "Hinton Hunt, Der Kriegspieler and other vintage Napoleonic Figures"!

WM

Update: As MS Foy points out in his comments, that should be Garrison 20mm Napoleonics, and not 25mm. Doh!