Legion Hanovrienne - a Peter Gilder story

As many of you may know, I am working towards recreating the battle of Rolica using my existing Hinton Hunt armies.  This will mean that the units present may not necessarily match with historical accuracy, but the type of units involved, the number, and scale should be a close match.  One of the units present at the battle was the 4th Swiss Regiment fighting for the French.  In my description of the preparation, Mr. Tennant was kind enough to point out that the unit in his collection he had designated the Legion Hanovrienne, actually was originally intended to be the 4th Swiss and was painted by none other than Peter Gilder himself.  As this is a Hinton Hunt Napoleonic unit, it is highly likely that it was painted by Gilder, as part of his early work in the wargaming hobby.  He went on to create his own figure line, but that is another story for later. 

For a bit more background on Peter Gilder you can visit the site below:

http://petergilderalifeinwargaming.blogspot.com/

The stylistic differences with the rest of the Tennant collection were immediately apparent, and the uniform of both units is so similar it is easy to see why it could play either role.

The above photograph was taken by Mr. Tennant.  While he does not believe he made any changes to the paint himself, I believe at some point the plumes and perhaps the epaulets were repainted on the fusiliers, as those areas lacked the gloss covering on the rest of the figure.  One of the Grenadiers unfortunately broke off at the ankles during transport, but I only needed 24 of the 27 figures to make a complete unit (I am keeping the drummer as a stand alone display along with a French Line Voltigeur from another unit, also painted by Peter Gilder).  A little research indicated there are some key differences between the Swiss uniform and the Legion Hanovrienne, and the figures that were chosen for this unit (Hinton Hunt FN 75 French Young Guard 1810/15 Voltigeur Guard charging) are actually much more of a fit for the light infantry of the legion, than for the 4th Swiss.  With that in mind, and mindful of wanting to retain as much of the original painting as possible, I made a minimal touch up and updated the unit just a tad to clearly distinguish them as the Legion Hanovrienne.

 The chief casualty of this modification, and one I was loathe to make, but felt necessary in the end, was changing the standard bearer's flag and eagle.  I was made to feel a little better when I examined the eagle itself, which in all honesty was horribly cast.  I was surprised to find when doing this that the flag staff was actually an integral part of the figure.  It was clearly a conversion of FN 70 (the officer figure standing next to him), but must have been recast with the eagle standard added.

 I hope the end result is a unit that is still clearly Peter Gilder's work on which I have put my own slight stamp, which I hope adds to the whole effect and does not distract from the magnificent painting on the figures.

 In this closer view you can see the changes made to the fusilier's plumes and epaulets.  I think the changes actually bring them more in line stylistically with the painting on the rest of the figure.

The uniform itself of the Legion Hanovrienne I have to say, is just tremendously striking and I love the way the battalion came out in the end.

 Grenadiers to the fore!

The voltigeurs are based to facilitate open order deployment and of course, casualties should they come up against those most feared of British troops, the rifles - speaking of which, the 5/60th expansion is underway and my next post should feature some more of the American Rifle Regiment (who weren't really Americans).