More Staff for the Duke

I did say that the Belgians would be up next however, I realised a while back that I had never finished the personality figures for the British. So as a bit of a distraction, and for the sake of completeness, here are the last two, starting with General Cooke.

BN/256 Maj. Gen. G. Cooke commanded 1st (Guards) Div. at Waterloo in general's uniform (horse BNH/11)

I couldn’t find much info on Cooke other than, as I’m sure you all know, he commanded the 1st (Guards) Division at Waterloo where he also lost his right arm in the middle of the afternoon forcing him to pass over command to Byng.

Finally we have the Cavalry Staff Corps Trooper who, being nameless, can’t really be classed as a personality. This one is a bit of a quirky addition and was probably included in the range because of Mr Hinton’s love of uniforms.

BN/264 Cavalry Corps Staff Trooper carrying letter (horse BNH/4)

I don’t have the painting instruction sheet for this one so I have painted him as a trooper of the 12th Light Dragoons.

I’ll post a full lineup of the Duke’s staff soon.

Wellington's Infantry on Parade

Following the recent French line infantry parade I thought it only fair to hold a similar review of Wellington's lads as the last such event was back in November 2022.

There are 192 Hinton Hunt figures arranged in 8 units.

The figures have been painted by me with the exception of The Guards and 95th Rifles (Matt G) and the 30th Foot (Lee).

The Rifle Brigade - 95th behind the 60th.

The Fusiliers followed by the 49th Foot.

The 30th Foot (Cambridgeshires) with the Naval Battalion behind.

The Foot Guards and the 42nd Black Watch.

If I'd had enough pocket money in 1972 I would have hoped to have something looking like this...

This gives me what I would call a 'standard' army for Muskets & Marshals of 8 infantry units, this being about the most units one player can comfortably command on the table.

The Belgians will be next - honest!

Belgian Progress and sinking the Bismarck

I'm on the last lap of the Belgians with just six more figures to go. I'm liking these figures which are mostly first generation ex Eric Knowles collection castings that are very well defined. The Dutch-Belgian charging figure pose is unique within the Napoleonic range (but can be found in the ACW range) and makes a change from painting the 'standard' Hinton Hunt charging pose.

Admiral of the Fleet Horatio Goya popped round this week bringing with him some lovely 1/1200 WW2 ships from his collection. The models are vintage ones from Eagle and very fine they look too.

Admiral Von Stryker trains the Bismarck's guns upon HMS Hood. I actually took quite a pasting from the Royal Navy but fortunately they ran out of ammo and the German squadron limped off into the North Sea mist.

We used some suitable simple Naval Rules adapted from an old copy of Military Modelling (November 1979) for a quick go at sinking the Bismarck. I wanted to christen the rules "Turrets and Torpedoes" but Goya was concered about potential copyright infringement.

These waterline models by Eagle are superb and Goya has made and painted them to a high standard. On this occasion HMS Hood did rather better than her real life counterpart.

Hopefully the Belgians will be finished and ready for my next post.

French Fusiliers on Parade

This is the cover of Miniature Warfare, Volume 1, Number 11 from December 1968. When I first clapped eyes on it as a twelve year old I was determined to have a collection of French Hinton Hunt soldiers just like the ones in the photo!

Fast forward 56 years and finally here it is...

I like to think that there may be at least one figure from that original photo shoot in my collection now but we'll never know...

A pair of Poirot's

I did say that the next unit would be something not quite so French and I would say Belgians fit the bill quite nicely. So this is where I have got to so far -

These are DN/1 Officer (charging) looking remarkably like the famous Belgian detective.

This is a conversion of BN/12 Drummer (playing). I snipped off his pack and added a Belgian one - clever eh?

Test figures for the Grenadier company (left) using DN/3 Private (charging) and the Light company (right) using DN/2 Private (firing).

And this of course is a paint conversion of BN/13 Ensign Regiment Colour. I'm quite please with how he turned out.

This unit has waited far too long in the lead-pile and I'm pleased to be finally starting on them.

The Monster has escaped!

Napoleon has escaped from Elba with his Old Guard and is marching on Paris. Marshal Ney has been sent to stop him with the 5th regiment of the line.

"On to Grenoble my grumblers!"

"Men of the 5th do not let them pass!"

"Soldiers of the 5th do you recognise me? If you want to kill your emperor here I am!"

"FIRE!"
"What do you think Pierre?"
"Oh, what the heck..."

"Vive l'empereur, Vive l'France, Vive Napoleon!"

"Did you really say you'd bring me back to Paris in an iron cage?"
"What me? No, that was definitely Murat!"

The 5th regiment is complete.

The figures used are:

2 x FN/1 Officer (charging)

1 x FN/4 Colour bearer (charging)

19 x FN/5 Fusilier (charging)

1 x FN/6 Drummer (charging)

1 FN/8 Officer (marching)

Next up will be something not quite so French.

More French Fusiliers

The extra day in February means that I have squeezed in the completion of yet another French line infantry regiment in the astonishing (for me) time period of one month. These lads will represent the 5th Regiment who of course were famously sent to stop Napoleon in his tracks after his escape from Elba.

This brings to a halt my expansion programme for the French line infantry the idea being that for larger games I will no longer have to rope in unlikely allies to fight alongside them to make up the numbers.

I'm giving myself a pat on the back for progress so far this year - 50 Hinton Hunt figures painted and ZERO new figures acquired!