Saturday 27 October 2018

2nd Hussars - Ascent of Man





Because it's taking me a while to paint the Engineers and Marines of the Guard, I thought I'd fill in the gap with an off-topic post.  The French 2nd Hussars weren't at Waterloo but I enjoy painting Hussar uniforms and have collected a few over the years.

The trouble with a collection built up over time is that having spent ages converting figures, along comes a better set.  My 2nd Hussars is a good example of this.



In the beginning, there were Rose figures: simple but somehow elegant.




Then  along came Airfix, now viewed as primitive, but still a source of affection.



The 80s dawned with Esci: this British Hussar has lost his busby and had it replaced with a French shako.


I must have painted this chap in about 1990, a conversion from the Esci Italian mountain troops.  OK, he's riding a mule, but needs must.  In the best tradition of mules, it's certainly a stubborn one!






Kennington figures arrived in my collection in about 1995.  I never liked their horses!



Revell's Prussian hussars of the Seven Years War were fun to do.  I'm guessing I painted these in the late '90s.



The 2000s saw a dramatic increase in the range of metal figures and their quality.  Art Miniaturen remain some of the finest figures on the market.  Here is General Lasalle painted as a 2nd Hussar.



And then there was Franznap: too expensive but irresistible in small numbers












5 comments:

  1. What a fantastic post! - thanks very much for that - educational and entertaining in equal measure.

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  2. The Rose and Airfix still have style by the bucket load.

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  3. The Roses grow on you, GP. They look terrific, as do all the other old marks. How you put a pelisse onto an Italian Alpini is just extraordinary.

    There's a terrific amount of pipe smoking going on there!

    Best regards
    WM

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  4. Dear All, many thanks, mine's an eclectic collection and in some ways I wish I had your focused approaches, either with Hinton Hunts or with Foy's slightly larger Higgins (+) army. But I've noticed recently a bit of branching out with the 1809 Army getting quite a few Hintons and the arrival of Lammings down under.

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