Hinchliffe British Fusiliers

 It may be recalled that I had decided to refurbish a group of Hinchliffe 25mm British Fusiliers. The job is now complete and these fine looking troops can take to the field.  The standard bearers are converted musketeers, having had damaged weapons.  The drummer is the same, with a drum scrounged from a Russian figure.  The officer needed a new sword, sourced from a bean can lid.

This is what they were like prior to painting.  The picture was taken before I found a Hinchliffe officer.  In the photo a Lamming officer is in command:

Here is the finished unit:

These will go off to join Phil's collection, which consists of early Hinchliffe figures.

Personality Figures

 Two more personalities join their armies. The first is a Minifigs 25mm model of Marshal Murat in one of his more flamboyant outfits.  I put him on a Hinchliffe horse as I am not too keen on Minifigs mounts:

The second figure is a Hinchliffe model of Prussian General Gneisenau, in contrast wearing a rather drab uniform:

I do enjoy painting these personality figures, there's quite a bit of research regarding the uniforms and it is fun painting a single model.

Atlantic 1/72 Egyptian Chariots

 I have been working on these chariots on and off for a few weeks and last night I finally completed 10 of them.  It was quite a complex task, as although plenty of crews are provided, the small chariot crew compartment will only hold one figure.  I had to cut the bases of the crew figures down to a slither and squeezed them in.

I have a box of Egyptian infantry, also by Atlantic and I may paint and base these indue course.

An enjoyable little project:

Hinchliffe 25mm Personality Figure - Prince Poniatowski

 This is another of the Hinchliffe Personality Figures (PF 17), Prince Jozef Poniatowski.  He rose to fame as one of Napoleon's best commanders, leading the Polish contingent of the French army.  He was made Minister for War by Napoleon and was a notable commander during the 1812 invasion of Russia, where he commanded the largely Polish 5th Corps. He was made a marshal of the empire by Napoleon.

At the battle of Leipzig in 1813, Poniatowski was charged with holding the the rearguard as the defeated French army attempted to withdraw over the Elster river.  Poniatowski and his men fought bravely during which time the Prince was severely wounded while leading several counter attacks.  Unfortunately the Elster bridge was demolished early and the rear guard was trapped on the enemy banks.  In the confusion as his men attempted to cross the river, the weakened Prince was thrown from his horse and was lost under the water.  His body was found five days later.

Another lovely casting from Hinchliffe:

Hinchliffe 25mm Personality Figure - General Lasalle

 Antoine-Charles Lasalle, was a napoleonic French cavalry general who rose to fame as a dashing commander.  He fought with the Army of Italy, campaigned in Egypt, saw action in the European theatre, especially against the Prussians.  He met his end in the Austrian campaign, being killed at the battle of Wagram on 5th of July 1809 leading a cavalry charge.

This figure is listed in the Hinchliffe 1976 catalogue as PF21:

He was a joy to paint and will take his place amongst my 25mm French armies.  I have a number of the Hinchliffe personalities and plan to paint them from time to time.

Atlantic 1/72 Egyptian Chariots

 I have had a box full of plastic Atlantic ancient Egyptian chariots and never got around to doing anything with them.  By way of a test, I assembled two and painted them, just to see what they would be like.  They are not very accurate representations of Egyptian chariots and the crew compartment is too small for the figures, however, I cut the figure bases to just a sliver and by placing them at a slightly odd angle I managed to squeeze a driver and an archer figure in.

I am quite pleased with the result and I would have thought that 10 or 12 of these would look quite good, painted and based:

Splendid Ancient Skirmishers

 In a recent batch of figures I found four light infantry figures with broken weapons.  They are by Miniature Figurines and are North African troops.  They are still in production and I obtained two more to make up a unit.  I replaced all of the javelins to make a useful little ancient unit.  I just love the hair style!