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Friday, August 21, 2020

95th Rifles and Foot Artillery Added to the Fray!

 I recently added twelve standing firing riflemen to the 95th Rifles regiment.  Originally painted by Dick Tennant as a battalion of 24, I wanted to bring them up to their full strength of 36 figures.  They will then be distributed throughout the corps in companies attached to the various brigades to provide a screen of effective light infantry skirmishers.  For the upcoming battle of Rolica about half the battalion strength was present, along with the full battalion of the 5/60th rifles.

Here we catch a rare glimpse of British riflemen falling back from the enemy.  This would never happen under normal circumstances as the BBC would have us believe that 6 riflemen under the command of Richard Sharpe could change the direction of any battle!  Just don't get on his bad side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE8d-uGmIWk

Yet another improbable facing, as the 95th would be preparing to haul away that livestock I am sure!  The prone firing figure made for some interesting choices for the basing, but in the end I liked the look of a mixed larger base with a variety of poses for this famous unit.  It makes them special and easy to distinguish on the field of battle.

The prone and kneeling figures are original Hinton Hunt figures painted by Mr Tennant with some additional detailing added.  The standing firing figures are Der Kriegspieler copies that were painted to match the work of Dick Tennant by yours truly.
 

 



A misbehaving NCO about to secure some dinner for his company...


Command figures.  I'm still debating whether to add a mounted colonel.  Since they were typically detached and spread out through the corps, I'm not really sure how useful it would be to add the Colonel.

From this picture it is easy to see how much smaller the DK figures can be in comparison to their Hinton Hunt brethren.  In some cases it's not too bad but here, the standing firing figure looks quite diminutive iin comparison to the Hinton Hunt figure running at trail.

Even the Major is hungry apparently...


I also finished up this British foot battery.  Dick Tennant did a superb job on these and I really did very little other than a bit of shading and highlighting, before basing them and giving them the ole gloss coat.

While I have six gunners, really only four are needed in the rules system I am using.  Each figure represents one manned gun and the gun itself represents two.  After all of the crew figures are wounded and the strength of the battery reduced to just the model of the gun representing the final two guns and crews, it is removed from play.

The gun itself is a delightful model and a very hard to find example of Hinchliffe's 20mm line of artillery pieces.

Lastly I wanted to send a shout out to Ian at SHQLTD.  The SHQ / Kennington figures are nicely sized to be compatible with Hinton Hunt figures.  Ian has given me top notch service and I would encourage folks who are not familiar with the line to give them a try.  Below are some Brunswick Oels riflemen conversions from SHQ figures with Der Kriegspieler heads.  The officer is an SHQ Brunswick lieb Infantry officer I believe.  I have some British artillery on order so will let folks know how they compare when they arrive.

The bases of the SHQ / Kennington figures tend to be a little narrow so I expanded them out with epoxy putty to be more along the size of Hinton Hunt bases.

A fuzzy little phone picture, but hopefully shows the nice proportions of the SHQ / Kennington British mounted Peninsular officer.  I will use these as mounted colonels and are in my mind far superior to the Newline Designs 20mm mounted officers and more in line with Hinton Hunt proportions.

Similarly a very nice SHQ / Kennington French mounted colonel

10 comments:

  1. I think the standing firing riflemen blend in perfectly size-wise - it's the leaning back pose and classic HH wandering right hand that stands out more.
    I do like the SHQ Oels head swaps - they look very convincing, likewise impressed by the British mounted officer and will no doubt buy some of those - his horse is also a better HH match than the French colonel's - that figure somehow has a different look to him.
    We don't have to wait for the Oels to be painted before the refight do we? I don't recall them being there.

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    1. The Oels are just for fun and to fill out the eight figures that were in the Tennant collection. The additional four will bring them up to a nice round twelve and represent the 3 companies that were present in the Penninsula. Never fear, the Oels were not at Rolica. While there are a couple of units yet to re-base, I think it is time to just get on with a test match while I finish up.

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  2. Those are just genius, David!
    I can't wait to see them all in action.
    Best regards
    WM

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    1. Thanks WM. Indeed it is time to get them into action. As a first step I have been working on confirming initial positions, which I will then map out and we can give it a go.

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  3. Stunning work on the Rifles and the battery! The SHQ officers do look the part.

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    1. Thanks Ian. Can't wait to dive in and see how your rules work. We are going to use them as written with the exception of ground scale changes for the larger battalions. Really appreciate all the work you did developing rules that are so easy to use with a focus on a great fun and relatively quick game.

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  4. Your rifles blend in very well with the original painted figures. The SHQ figures do look good and I like the idea of making the bases Hinton Huntesque in appearance. I have a few SHQ Austrian Jager figures that I plan to use as Brunswickers and I might try your basing idea on them.

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    1. Thanks Mark. I have to admit that if I were to do it again I might just cut the base off of some un-needed DK figures and pin the SHQ figures to the new base. The epoxy bases might be OK once painted. Only time will tell....

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  5. Lovely looking toys David...
    I am looking forward to seeing them in action.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly. The test battle should be very soon. WM and I have been hashing out the details for a virtual battle. Hope to start in a week or so! I am tremendously excited about seeing them get into action!

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