As is my usual habit, much to the amusement of my family, there were a couple of presents under the tree from me, to me. I knew I was taking a chance, but am having to learn the hard way about buyer beware. I'm sure there was no intentional misrepresentation on the seller's part, but sometimes what you get can be a bit, well, surprising. My first present to myself was a unit of Bavarians that I suspected to be Hinton Hunt. There are a couple of Austrian Grenadier officers masquerading as Bavarians, but enough line figures to accommodate a simple head swap, so no problem I thought. The problem turned out to be the muskets, which appear to be childishly executed, so I suspect these are either recasts with added muskets or conversions of some sort. Does anyone know a good source for 1/72 scale muskets? They really will have to be replaced to be use-able, otherwise the figures are quite nice.
This next unit was advertised as 1/72 by the eBay seller and I was curious as to their provenance, but really didn't know what they might be. Upon inspection of the bases, they turned out to be Hinchliffe miniatures without a doubt, but earlier smaller sculpts apparently done by Peter Gilder himself in the early 70s if the web is to be believed. While smaller than the later Hinchliffes, the style is similar, but much more slender. Indeed I thought these might be GHQ miniatures, but once I got them it was clear they are much taller - closer to 30mm.
Definitely not 1/72!
A couple of months ago while trolling around on eBay I also found some GHQ miniatures. I would like to do a unit of these but would need to arrange a trade with someone else who has a few, as two boxes of the same type would be needed (though one box could be elites of that type.) I have a box of 1808-12 marching French Fusiliers, and probably marching French Legere from the same period, but the plume is at the side of the shako instead of in front, so I thought perhaps they could be Swiss, as I have seen that plume arrangements in some illustrated plates - does anyone know if the French did a similar plume arrangement on occasion?
And now for Something completely Different
And now from collecting perils to a little bit of goofy fun. I finished the dungeon room for an evening of The Fantasy Trip and Death Test with good friends. It has been thirty-five or more years since I ran a role-playing game and it showed. We were all essentially new to the game, so we only made it through a couple of rooms before the party met its demise, but that was largely my fault for a mis-read that gave the monsters twice as many attacks as they should have had. Oh well, dinner was eaten, alcohol consumed and fun was had with good friends, so no matter. Here are a few pictures of the dungeon - a combination of plaster floor tiles and blue insulation foam that was etched and painted. The miniatures are 40mm Mindstalker miniatures for the most part, with a few VV miniatures and some LotR plastic combat hex pre-painted figure for expediencies sake.
JC does separate muskets.
ReplyDeleteFrench light infantry in the early years wore plumes on the left of their shakos. If I had you email address I could send some pictures.
ReplyDeleteReally? I was not aware of that, but now that you mention it I went back and sure enough I see them on his list. Would love it if someone out there could facilitate a contact. I really don't want to pester him. I haven't heard from him in a long time. I'm in no hurry so no worries, but was wondering if he is taking a break from casting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rob. I wondered about that but kept running into contradictory images. I tried to add a contact widget to my blog the other day without success, but feel free to email me directly at david.l.crenshaw@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteHow intriguing. The Bavarians almost look like modified and recast Airfix figures of some sort.
ReplyDeleteHow to the assembled GHQs measure up?
Indeed, WM, the Bavarians have the look of a plastic figure. I half suspect someone added a home sculpted musket due to the plastic ones being too small for a home cast. On the other hand though, the figures themselves do look to be very well cast. The officers seem to be genuine HH with the appropriate markings under the base. The Bavarians line infantry have no markings at all.
DeleteThe GHQ are slender, and the pose fairly static, but they could fit in nicely for a marching unit. The only real downside to them is that the muskets are so thin, and especially the bayonets, that they will bend if you sneeze at them.
The Bavarians are converted Airfix Imperial Guard then cast in metal. And yes the muskets are really slim on the plastic figures. Ingenious little conversions really.
ReplyDeleteMatt, thanks so much for solving this mystery! How did you figure that out, or do you just have an encyclopaedic knowledge of airfix figures? I really am in your debt as I was In a quandry to figure this one out!
ReplyDeleteI am a real Airfix geek and know the poses inside out. I look out for these metal "knock-offs" on ebay, there are some great little gems out there - those Bavarians are a smashing example!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree and glad to have your expertise! Hope I can find a source for muskets. I have a couple of emails out in that regard, so fingers crossed!
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