Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Monday 21 November 2011

More Mystery Figures - any ideas?


Just received these today. I have no idea what they are - spindly 20mm - French infantry (hats are a bit strange). I thought from the little picture on eBay that they were going to be Hinton Hunt Spaniards painted as Frenchmen, but that is clearly not correct. Bases are small, rounded squares - like HH or Der Kriegsspieler, but they don't look like these makers' figures.

It has been suggested that they might be home-cast copies of DK, but I'm not convinced. Anyone seen anything like this before? I have 12 of them, with varying proportions of bayonet.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Tony - could they be Scruby? Never seen any myself but I think they are spindly too. Not DK in my opinion.

    Ian

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  2. Hi Ian - Scruby is not a bad shout - I'd thought of Scruby - the skinny build and the thin muskets look a bit Scrubyish. If they are Scruby, they aren't French - Scruby's French troops have a distinctive arrangement of cords around the top rim of the shako - like Xmas decorations! Also Scruby figures have faces a bit like smaller versions of the Lamming profile - Roman noses.

    Only French figures I've seen with the hat cording pattern which I think is on these mystery figures (i.e. falling down either side of the plume) were artillerymen and skirmishers by Finescale Factory - OOP now.

    Now I come to look at the pics, the rear view of the packs, with a tape down either side, is a bit British. Hmmm.

    The hats are definitely a little strange...

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  3. I was going to vote for British,too. I couldn't guess the maker, but the pack shape suggests Trotter and the shako suggests false fronted Belgic style. Also the plume is British style rather than French as the figures don't have the epaulets that would suggest elite companies.

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  4. Monsieur Rosbif - problem is that the plume is at the front - however, if it was a stovepipe, this could be Scruby #3111, which is "Light Infantryman on guard" - there is no "advancing" pose in 25mm for Scruby. Apart from the musket, it doesn't look very much like a Scruby, also there are no LI wings, and the hat cords are non-reg, but all that is possible.

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  5. I'm going to agree with Monsieur Rosbif, but for a different reason. The pack looks British. The shako is just poorly sculpted, however the pack seems to have full straps going all the way around as opposed to latches type straps with French packs. If they were 1812 French uniforms, the bayonet is on the wrong side, but not if they are British light infantry.

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  6. HI Tony
    I think they are Kirk , I have the rifles version of yours,
    The base is the main clue

    Best

    Paul

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  7. Excellent - thanks, gentlemen - latest betting is that they seem to be Kirk British light infantry. I checked out The Old Metal Detector, and Clive has a couple of castings with Belgic-style shakos, but nothing like these.

    Rather embarrassingly, I also emailed Historifigs with a picture, to see if they could confirm that they were Scrubies.... if you read this, Mike, you have to understand that I don't get out much.

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