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


Saturday 7 April 2018

Bavarians - More Preliminaries


I've now completed my first pilot figure, and have learned a lot about the Bavarian line infantry uniform, and the practicalities of painting it in 20mm scale. I am now a lot more confident about what is required. This is a fusilier of the 14th IR - a Der Kriegsspieler casting. You can distinguish these from the very similar Hinton Hunt figure since the soldier's feet are placed in the middle of the front and back edges of the base, rather than diagonally opposed in the corners, and the musket is carried in front of the body, with a space behind it, rather than the "bookshelf" attachment of the HH. I will be using some HH castings for the line infantry, but the DKs have an advantage in that they made fusiliers without plumes - presumably Marcus intended that his customers should simply grind the plumes off the grenadier castings, as required.


For the entertainment of those who understand these things, and most certainly know more about them than I do, here's a photo of a small selection of Hinton Hunt Bavarian officers, from my tubs. These are, from left to right, two examples of BVN1 and one of BVN6 - they are all clearly coded under the bases. I was interested that the two BVN1 "charging" chaps are different - they have their heads turned at different angles, as you see, and the one on the left has an unmistakable epaulette on his left shoulder.


Bavarian officers didn't wear epaulettes.

It is always inadvisable to imply, even accidentally, that Marcus ever made any mistakes (similarly for Peter Gilder and the Perry Bros - not acceptable at all), but I wondered whether the left hand figure was in fact an earlier version, subsequently replaced.

As ever, it matters not a jot - I'm happy to file off the epaulette, and it's a luxury to have a choice of two slightly different poses. Just thought I'd mention it.

Next job is to prepare another prototype paint job, this time for the 9th Ysenburg IR. I've received a little shipment of paint from Foundry - I must confess to a very slight moment of disappointment when I found that the appropriate shade for the facings of the 5th Von Preysing IR appears in the Foundry catalogue as Nipple Pink. I hadn't realised that Foundry did that spotty Citadel Warhammer thing - there's something faintly incongruous in my first two official paint acquisitions from Foundry for this new army being Bavarian Cornflower Blue and Nipple Pink, though I accept that this little problem - if there is one - is entirely mine.

13 comments:

  1. Very fine, Foy. Also very informative.
    You gave me a fright, though. I had to go scurrying off to check whether my Bavarian officer had an epaulette - thank goodness he didn't!

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  2. Splendid job on the DK Bavarian!

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  3. Very nice...
    I am looking forward to seeing the whole unit.

    All the best. Aly

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  4. There is absolutely no reason to be embarrassed because someone might think that you are touching up your cornflowers with a bit of paint.

    In any event the sample looks very attractive indeed.
    Ross

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  5. Yes, he looks very sharp!

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  6. What a charming little figure Tony, I always liked those Bavarian helmets. The painting is 1st class, really does the casting justice.

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  7. I think BVN1 is the chap in the middle, the other could be a Clayton or other variant. In my experience HH didn't do variants and unfortunately the code on the base does not always mean a figure is an original one. Great figure though that should paint up nicely.

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  8. Looking good. I like the Foundry Cornflower Blue.

    I have also noticed differences between Hinton Hunt figures with the same codes.

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  9. Thank you all gentlemen - surprising how daunting an unfamiliar uniform has been. (I've been painting French and Spaniards for so long I could probably do them in my sleep) OK now. The pilot figure sorts out a lot of unknowns about how much detail to attempt, the best colours to use and the order to tackle the job - for the HH/DK, where the casting detail is subtle enough to be smothered if you are not careful, I've found for the Bavarian that it's advantageous to paint the lapels and collar first, then block in the coat colour and then the piping - that keeps everything clear. My traditional system of flopping on the coat colour and then picking out the facings is less easy if the lapels don't stand out clearly on the casting.

    Anyway - good - I'll do another tomorrow.

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  10. Good to see you're making progress.

    Nice detailing. Cuff buttons and helmet especially.

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    1. Cuff button cocktail stick action. The tricky bit is actually getting the buttons on the sleeve rather than on the desk close by.

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  11. Just checked my old okd iriginal HH units and the officers most definitely do NOT have epaulettes. Its someone's pirate that you have there if it does spirt a shoulder distinction.
    Hinton vindicated😉

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    1. I can't tell you what a comfort it is to read this.

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