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
What a fantastic post! - thanks very much for that - educational and entertaining in equal measure.
ReplyDeleteThe Rose and Airfix still have style by the bucket load.
ReplyDeleteThe 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.
ReplyDeleteThere's a terrific amount of pipe smoking going on there!
Best regards
WM
A fascinating post!
ReplyDeleteDear 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.
ReplyDelete