Oberstleutenant Henning and Carl von Lassolaye and Co. - Baden Command

 

The two battalions of the Baden contingent, as well as the artillerists, are finally under good command.  They have been up to no end of mischief, drinking and carousing all night in the display cabinet.  Hopefully Oberstleutenant Henning and Major Lassolaye can rein them in and curtail such rowdy behavior!

These are lovely modern sculpts of Baden Commanders from Franznap Miniatures

Franznap horses are so well sculpted.

And the uniforms so finely detailed.

Two slightly different variants of the battalion commander figure that comes with three options for the sword arm.

It's fun to have a chance to paint a finely detailed miniature from scratch.  I appreciate all the love Dick Tennant put into the rank and file of the Baden battalions, but it is really nice to be able to put my stamp on a few of the figures as well.

I never could find the name of the commander of the 2nd battalion of Baden, so I have given him the fictional name of Von Seiner, after the most effective German leader in the Squad Leader game - an old favorite of mine.

Next up on the painting desk is the battalion from Frankfurt.  This is just a single battalion that will be brigaded with two entirely new battalions for the collection; the Guard de Paris and the Regiment Gross- und Erbprinz from Hesse-Darmstadt.  

And a final Parting shot:

I lucked out and saw all of these listed for an extremely reasonable, low even, "Buy it Now" price, so I did.  It is unusual to see a collection of Hinton Hunt figures like this in the states so I jumped at the chance.  I have been working with Wellington Man to determine their provenance.  I'm pretty sure the cavalry are all Hinton Hunt originals.  The infantry and artillery may be as well, but the bases have been ground flat which makes it more difficult to tell.  Certainly they are all nice useable figures.  The big question is will I strip and repaint them, or just try and tidy up the paint that is already there.  In any event the French Old Guard just got a real boost with a big battalion of Old Guard Grenadiers, a medium sized battalion of Tirailleurs (from converted Voltigeurs), a battery of 12 pounder artillery, and the Regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard, as well as a line regiment of cavalry representing the Carabiniers in their shiny brass breastplates.  All in all a very lucky find! If you have a few Hinton Hunt Young Guard Voltigeurs FN75 lying around unloved, let me know, as I need a handful more to bring the Tirailleur battalion up to strength.

Baden Artillery - I'll Take the Works Please

Richard Tennant provided the core unit here and it certainly is fully loaded!  I have made extensive repairs on this one as the limber traces and double trees (?) fared poorly on their journey across the Atlantic.  Even the wheels got a bit smooshed.  I also added an 8" Howitzer from the Hinchliffe 20mm equipment line which I was fortunate enough to find on eBay still in the original packaging.  When the guns are limbered it includes the crew in marching order, and when unlimbered the crew serving the guns has the ammunition case near by for prompt action.  There is something about the batteries that I just love!

The whole grouping makes for an impressive display.

I believe the addition of the bar for aligning the gun was a Dick Tennant customization.  It sure is nice to have a different pose for an artillery crewman servicing the gun.

Dick had mounted some of the artillerists facing different directions, which is a nice touch.  Of course they would not all be looking forward.

You can see the base of the battery has a platform for the gun, so that it is lifted to the same level as the crew on their bases.  This helps the gun to feel like it is in the correct scale.  The Hinchliffe 20mm equipment is one of the more accurate in this regard, so I didn't want it sitting lower than the crew.

I really liked the ammunition case mounted with the crew on the ground instead of on the carriage.  I'll have to do that with the rest of my batteries that are unlimbered for firing.

I particularly like this tight grouping of the officer and the crewman with the slow match.

Getting this limber reassembled was a bear!

But it worked out in the end.

I really like being able to include the howitzer in this grouping.  Dick painted the original 8 pdr canon with a dark gray carriage, so I painted the howitzer to match.  In truth they were issued with new guns when entering Spain, so they would likely have been mounted on French olive green carriages.

I've never known anyone to model the crew in marching order other than DT, which is a dead giveaway that Mr. Tennant painted the original.

Next up - Baden Infantry and Artillery Command with Modern Franznap Figures.