Galloping at Everything

Well of course the cavalry couldn't let the infantry get away with all the glory so Uxbridge insisted on a full review of his troopers as well.

The Inniskillings, The Blues, 11th Light Dragoons, The Royals and The Greys.

As they would have appeared in 1972.

60 sabres arrayed in line of battle.

"How do you like the look of 'em eh Wellington?"
"Quite splendid Uxbridge but I do wish they wouldn't gallop at everything!"

Wait a minute, is that a Frenchman over there?"

"Charge!!!"

This reminds me that there are no Life Guards so I must put them on the list for 2023.

More French Heavy Metal

I remember the excitement of opening my first box of Airfix French Cuirassiers just after their release in 1969. Up to that point the only plastic cavalry available were the US 7th Cavalry which were hard to pass off as ‘Napoleonic’ (the rolled-up shirt sleeves didn’t help). I can picture setting the Cuirassiers up on the dining room table ready to charge a square of Highlanders (the only other Napoleonic set at that time) whilst puzzling over the London Wargames Section Napoleonic Rules. Happy days.

"When you meet a Cuirassier beam to beam, you'll be lucky to escape with your life; much less his helmet. Boy, you'll learn the art of fighting from the French!"

I did mention in my last post that I later bought some of the OPC Cuirassiers direct from Hinton Hunt and found them all but useless due to the poor quality of the castings. Not long after that I gave up wargaming for quite a few years and so never did get to paint any.

FN102 Cuirassier Trooper (mounted) charging.

I’m very pleased therefore to finally have a unit of decent OPC figures to sit alongside my other 2-piece regiment. Painting them was a bit trickier than I expected but I’m pleased with the finished result.

If I had managed to file away the flash metal and painted them in 1974 they may have looked a bit like this.

In my opinion you can never have too many Cuirassiers but whether I’ll ever expand the current force to a full division remains to be seen.

Some Cuirassier Progress

Just to prove I am still slogging away at the Cuirassiers here they are.

As you can see, for a bit of light relief, I have converted a trumpeter and given him a cheery yellow coat. I don’t normally like to chop up vintage castings but fortunately the previous owner had already removed the carbine from this figure which meant my conversion was guilt free.

I’m still marvelling at the excellent quality of this batch of castings. This has been a bit of a tonic as I remember ordering some of these in my last ever order to Hinton Hunt (probably 1974). What arrived were hideous lumps of flash metal with the vague outline of a Cuirassier and I never even attempted to clean and paint one. I think it’s fair to say that by then the moulds were completely shot.

OPC Cuirassier – Test Figure

I’ve completed my test figure for what will be the 8th Cuirassiers. This unit will be made up entirely of one-piece castings of FN/102 Cuirassier Trooper (mounted) charging. The figures are vintage castings of very high quality, the swords are complete and there was very little evidence of flash when I stripped the old paint job (they had previously been painted as Dragoons). This is quite remarkable as Hinton Hunt OPC’s are notorious for having great boulders of flash attached, particularly around the horses hind legs.

The figures were amongst several lots I bought last year from Ian Hinds (as were the infantry unit I just painted) and I would classify them all as ‘first generation’ castings from a time when the moulds were still quite decent. This is borne out by the comment from Ian Hinds that they were originally in the collection of Neville Dickinson of Miniature Figurines fame.

As always, this OPC was a challenge to paint and doesn’t look too fantastic on a zoomed-in photo. However, I think they should look passable when mustered together as a unit.

5th Cuirassier Regt. Sommariva

These chaps were rushed into action with their paint barely dry at the Third Battle of the Hut, so I never got around to introducing them formally to you. If their performance in that game is anything to go by, they will have a glorious career ahead of them.

All the figures are the one-piece casting AN.73 Cuirassier (mounted) charging with one converted to a trumpeter.

My Campaign with Rob has been rumbling on, but I haven’t been able to post on it here as the need for secrecy (and reputational preservation) has been paramount.

When viewing this map you need to be humming along to the Dad's Army theme tune. This was not the finest hour of the French army but I console myself by thinking it was just a side-show for the main event still to come nearer to Vienna.

I can hardly blame Rob for taking advantage of such a propaganda coup.

Things are coming to a head now and I suspect that a decisive battle will be coming along soon.

Trooper of the 5th Cuirassiers Regt. Sommariva

That’s what it says on the Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheet for AN.73 Austrian Cuirassier (mounted) charging so that's what my next unit will be.

As I painted the test figure, I realised that it's very similar to the Austrian Dragoon figure in the unit I painted last year, basically the only difference is the addition of the cuirass and the removal of the carbine and wooden stake.

When this unit is finished, I will have a full brigade of Austrian Heavy Cavalry which the Allies are going to need if they’re to stand a chance against all that French Guard Cavalry.

Empress’s Dragoons

Continuing the theme of my cavalry unit expansions, I have managed to add a further 6 Empress’s Dragoons to the existing half dozen to turn them into a full unit. This time I was able to carry this off without any surgery to the castings other than to convert a trumpeter.

The figures are all original Hinton Hunt one-piece castings of FN/60 Empresses Dragoons (mounted) charging that I stripped and repainted. My thanks to Tony for providing the last few figures I needed via his EK collection.

And here’s a question on the correct spelling - is it Empress’s (as on the HH painting instruction sheet), Empresses (as in the HH catalogue) or Empress’? Answers on a postcard please.

Grenadier á Cheval

The Horse Grenadiers are done and dusted and I’m very happy with the way they’ve turned out. The figures are:

6 x FN/300 Horse Grenadier Guard (on horse FNH/2)

6 x DK 46/1 Horse Guard Grenadier (one converted to trumpeter)

I think you’ll agree that the height surgery on the DK’s has been successful although obviously they look a little malnourished next to their Hinton Hunt friends.

Unit Histories - just a note to say that I have updated the Unit Histories pages to include the most recent battle honours. If you're bored take a look. I still have more units to add but at least those that are there are now up to date.

Horse Grenadier Trumpeter

This is my trumpeter conversion for the Horse Grenadiers of the Guard. The horses’ legs have again been modified to provide greater height and the trumpet has been added in my usual way.

The figure is DK 46/1 Guard Grenadier-a Cheval which of course is pretty much a straight copy of Hinton Hunt FN/56 Horse Grenadier of the Guard (mounted) charging.

Horse Grenadiers – update

Now the dust has settled on the recent campaign and the soldiers are back in their ‘Really Useful’ cantonments, it’s time to return to the expansion of the Imperial Guard cavalry. I have painted five of my modified DK Horse Grenadiers and just need to finish them off with a trumpeter.

I’m pleased with these, and I think it was worth the effort to increase their height, I also think that the replacement swords make them look more menacing and guardsman-ish. I’m pretty sure they will blend in well when based up next to the two-piece castings.

Growing Grenadiers

I am currently working through my existing French cavalry with the aim of making the 6 figure squadrons up to full 12 figure units. The Horse Grenadiers pose a bit of a problem because I have no more 2-piece castings. What I do have are some Der Kreigspieler OPC’s but the problem with these is that they appear quite weedy when compared to their comrades and their swords look like miniature knitting needles.

The chap on the left is my modified version and on the right is how he looked originally. Total growth is about 2mm which is just enough I think. The sword looks a bit more serious too.

The solution has been to take the advice of Steve C (click here) and give them some extra height by cutting the horse's front legs from the base, straightening one, and repositioning. I also decided to replace their sword arms with some donated from a few knock-off line Dragoons.

Here they are side by side with one of the existing 2-piece troopers. A bit thin maybe but he'll bulk up when painted.

I’m pleased with the resulting increase in stature, and I think I have eliminated the ‘take your child to work day’ look that might have resulted if I’d mixed in the castings without modification.

The Royal Horse Guards

I painted the first six figures for this unit some 12 years ago, but I’m pleased to have finally expanded them to a full regiment which is no less than these splendid gentlemen deserve. They should be mounted on black horses, but I didn’t know this when I started work on them, so they are mostly on a mixture of dark brown mounts. All the figures are vintage Hinton Hunt castings of BN/60 Household Cavalry Trooper (mounted) charging.

Next I'll be evening things up a bit by working on some French cavalry.

More Officers and Gentlemen

I’ve just put the finishing touches to the last of the Blues ‘officers’ so they just need to be based and the unit is done. They do look quite smart, and painting these has certainly made a bit of a change from all those red heavies.

This means that I now have four regiments of British Heavy Cavalry which is a bit excessive I admit but one great thing about a retro project like this is that you can do whatever you want. I’m sure that back in the day we all took part in wargames that had a whole Division of Scots Greys, and three battalions of the 95th Rifles so why not?

There will eventually be one more unit of heavies as I can’t really ignore the Life Guards can I?

More Blues

The white frozen stuff has finally gone, the temperature in the Hut is back to a nice balmy 4 degrees, and I’m back painting British heavy cavalry. I’ve had to do this because increasing the Greys to a full unit has left me with half a unit of Royals that now need to be expanded to a full regiment.

Two things I noticed when I started to paint, firstly, I realised that I had erroneously painted the six existing figures as officers rather than troopers. The reason appears to be that my Blandford shows an officer and I never bothered to read the text. No problem, this just adds to the 1970s authentic feel of this project because it’s the sort of thing I would have done aged 12.

These are the first two of the extra 6 figures I need to complete the unit. They are both vintage castings of BN60 Household Cavalry Trooper but I have converted the one on the left to a bugler.

Secondly, I clocked that on half the existing figures I had failed to paint the scabbards. I’ve played with these figures on quite a few occasions but never spotted that before which makes me wonder just how much detail is actually worth painting if I don’t even notice it? Answers on a postcard please.

Scotland Forever!

Here they are The 2nd (Royal North British) Dragoons finished at last. The figures are all vintage Hinton Hunt castings brought together from different sources over the course of thirteen years, stripped, repaired and repainted by me.

Lock up your Eagles, here they come!

Ponsonby with the full Union Brigade - the Scots Greys, the Irish Inniskilling's and the English 1st Royal Dragoons. 

I’ll be staying in Heavy Cavalry mode for the next unit – The Blues.

Painting Rocking Horses

Looking back on the blog I see that it’s thirteen years since I last attempted to paint horses for the Greys (click here). This time around at least I have those original figures to use as a painting guide and fortunately I made a note of the colours I used.

Restoration work complete, the six figures are currently on the painting desk. I had to abandon painting tonight as the temperature outside the hut has dropped to minus 2 and the heater was struggling to get up to +8 inside, hopefully it will be warmer tomorrow.

I don’t usually make very much effort with my horses, but I’ve had to with these and in this instance they have taken almost as much time to paint as the riders. Hopefully I’ll have the whole lot finished sometime next week.

DK Dragoons

The sharp witted amongst you may have realised that in expanding the Inniskilling’s I made my squadron of six DK British Dragoons redundant. The solution to this was to refurbish another six figures to make them up to a full unit.

The figures are Der Kreigspieler 825-215 British Dragoons, and these castings were all donated to me by Don over 10 years ago. I have only touched up Don’s old paintwork, put socks on the horses and in some cases changed the facing colours – I also converted one to a trumpeter because you know how much I like doing that now.

The unit will represent the 1^st Royal Dragoons who were the English component of the Union Brigade at Waterloo and famously captured the Eagle of the French 105^th Regiment.

Greys Anatomy

Last year Mark very kindly sent me six Scots Greys castings he had spare from his own project. The figures had all seen better days with swords missing, limbs detached from bases, and some tails docked but I thought it would be a good challenge to restore them.

This is how they arrived, rather sorry looking but full of potential.

The first step was to insert a brass rod into the docked tails (Ooh Matron!) to give the putty something to stick to.

Here is the tail built up using Magic Sculp putty. This was quite fiddly and my first efforts resulted in tails that were too fat ("you're not going to leave them like that are you?" said Mrs S, who had suddenly become an expert on miniatures restoration) so I had to carve away my handiwork until they looked right.

I gave one of the figures a trumpet as he was already missing his sword. This is now my tried and tested method - glue a piece of brass rod to his mouth and hand and then build up the trumpet shape with putty.

The missing swords were replaced from some donor DK figures I had lying around. These were spliced into the figure's arm and then made good with putty, not perfect but should look ok when painted.

And here they are finished (a couple of bases needed filling too as there were holes).

The plan now is to paint them and add them to my current squadron of six figures to make up a full unit – you can never have too many Scots Greys.

6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons

The 6^th (Inniskilling) Dragoons played no part in the Peninsular War but did see action at Waterloo where they formed part of Ponsonby’s Brigade. They took part in the famous charge against D'Erlon's corps on June 18th fighting alongside the Greys and 1st Royals although unlike those regiments they didn't manage to claim any French Eagles that day.

My own tribute in miniature to the Inniskilling’s has taken quite a few years to complete. I bought the first four figures from Mark way back in 2008 and the next two came from Clive soon after. For many years they fought as an amalgamated unit together with six DK Dragoons I received from Don. 

The recent acquisition of five more vintage figures has allowed me to expand them to a full unit. The figures are all vintage ones that I have stripped and painted. The bugler is a conversion from DK 825-215 British Dragoon (I noticed a bit too late that the bugle is resting right between the poor horse’s ears). The figures are:

11 x BN/40 Dragoon (mounted) trotting in helmet with flowing horses tail plume

1 x DK Dragoon (converted to bugler)

British Heavy Metal

A couple of weeks ago I managed to obtain enough castings of BN/40 Dragoon (mounted) trotting in helmet with flowing horses tail plume to expand my existing squadron of six figures to a full twelve figure unit. I’m pleased about this because the figure is one of my favourites, being in a unique pose amongst the other figures in the Horse Attached Series. My suspicion is that this was the first cavalry figure that Marcus Hinton sculpted for the Napoleonic range as the pose seems designed for ease of casting and is similar to the mounted figures in the earlier American Civil War range.

The recent acquisitions are all excellent castings with no flash unlike the six figures I had already that were basically a solid block of metal from which I had to hew a model soldier. I love the fact that the previous owners had given up on the attempt and just painted over the flash.

Work is underway and this move also heralds a long overdue reorganisation of my entire British Heavy Cavalry.