Christmas Arrives Early and Unwraps a Hinchliffe Artillery Mystery

 Just in time for Christmas, a care package arrived in the mailbox all the way from across the pond.  The gift was due to the generosity of others, willing to pass on these little treasures to a good home.  Thanks to all those who helped facilitate the gift of the figures to our group of collectors, and the donation to the Military Charity for Limbless Veterans in the UK.  Y'all know who you are and I just want to express my gratitude.

These are all lovely examples of Hinton Hunt originals and they are all part of the planned expansion of the Tenant/Crenshaw collection.  There are figures for both the gunners of a French Old Guard foot and horse artillery battery, along with some marching Old Guard Grenadiers who will be converted with the addition of a little paint to Old Guard artillerists on the march.  Prince Eugene is there to lead an eventual Italian contingent, as well as some light infantry that will make a skirmish unit and help complete a combined battalion of light infantry Carabiniers, and finally, the pièce de résistance, some Duchy of Warsaw Voltigeurs!  In addition was the fun artillery piece below:

This is a Hinchliffe 20mm equipment line 10" British Howitzer.  The top one was purchased in an unopened pack, but I believe it was packed with the incorrect wheels, as the standard artillery carriage wheels would be too fragile for this beast.  In addition, the piece was likely a later Hinchliffe effort, erroneously packaged as a 25mm range piece (though clearly mislabeled in the context of the other known 20mm equipment pieces that were labelled similarly - Did the 20mm equipment line end up getting incorporated into the 25mm line?  They were packaged with red labels stapled to a small ziplock baggie, not the iconic Hinchliffe box, and clearly stated 25mm.  I purchased a half dozen different pieces on eBay from the 20mm line packaged this way.). The painted one that came with the collection above, has the more appropriate thicker and taller wheels.  

Here is how the French 12 pdr came packaged.  My guess is the code distinguished the 20mm equipment line.

These pieces are identical except for the wheels.  This angle really accentuates how anemic the standard carriage wheels look in this context.  I have some 25mm scale wheels that I can use to replace them, which is my current plan.  While it is hard to tell from this photo, I had mounted the two rear wheels on the outside of the carriage, but realized my mistake when I received the painted piece on the left.  The back carriage wheels were designed to go on the inside of the carriage, which I was able to confirm from and illustration in the book on British Artillery by James Gooding.

Additional background about the 10" Howitzer can be found in the wonderful blogpost  here: https://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2014/02/napoleonic-heavy-hardware-british-10.html  The photo and link are included with the permission of the author, though he tells me he has come to doubt whether the howitzers were ever actually at the siege of Badajoz in May of 1811.

All this talk of artillery had me looking at some other pieces I have that I planned to refurbish.  I believe these are Hinchliffe French 4 pdrs from the 25mm range, but would love it if some grognard could confirm.  I hope to trim the back of the carriage just a tad so it doesn't flair, and replace with smaller wheels (I may repurpose those on the British Howitzer above).  I think doing so would make it a reasonably sized 4 pdr for the Hinton Hunt collection.  Does anyone know if the barrel shape would be typical of a 4pd Gribeauval system barrel?  It is quite different from the longer thinner barrel below.

Here is a 20mm equipment French Howitzer, 4 or 6 pdr from the 20mm equipment line, and the 25mm scale 4 pdr from the photo above. Edit - Just realized the French Howitzer on the left was also packed with the wrong wheels.  If you look closely at the pattern of the iron rims, the bolts are in the British stye.  The hub caps are also British in style, but hard to tell from this picture.  Someone must have been having a bad day!

The canon on the left is a 4 or 6 pdr 20mm Hinchliffe equipment line French canon, but according to the manufacturers list, they didn't make one.  Does anyone know if the 20mm French equipment was provided with an alternative barrel to approximate the smaller ordinance?

Here is an overhead shot where the reduced size of the barrel is more clearly visible in comparison to the 8 pdr on the right.  The Hinchliffe barrels are very distinctive since they are not cast with a trunnion, so I have little doubt that both of these are original Hinchliffe 20mm scale barrels.

Note the absence of a French 4 or 6 pdr.

Lastly, I have discovered a wonderfully fun new game  called Never Mind the Billhooks, thanks to a fellow wargamer.  It was nice to try a new period and gaming system, so now I am busily looking into whether or not my miniatures for the battle of Grunwald would be a good fit, despite the slightly earlier time period.  Yet another costly delay on the way to Mesas de Ibor...

Beautiful troops and terrain all courtesy of my friend