Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures

It's been a bit nippy in the Hinton Hut this week but I've still managed to make progress with animating my PN5 Prussians. This has been a lot of work (but then I knew it would be) and is certainly a lot more time consuming than preparing normal castings.

I have the whole unit ready and primed so now it's time to get painting.

You will remember that earlier this year I was the lucky recipient of some very nice vintage Hinton Hunt Prussian castings from Ian. Amongst them were quite a few of PN.5 (the figure cast with a separate musket). I've been wondering about the best way to animate these so couldn't resist having a go and after several attempts I came up with this.

I did try a few other options but none of them looked very realistic poses so this rather safe version will be the one I use for a unit.

This week I was fortunate to get an invite to Tony's for a War of the Spanish Succession game with his superb Les Higgins forces using his Corporal John Lite rules. The rules have some similarities to C&C but Tony has done away with cards and introduced a clever brigade activation system instead. The game progressed at a fair old pace and we fought to a conclusion in four hours which was impressive. Tony has already posted an AAR here so what follows are just a few photos of his lovely toys.

Next up will be a few more Austrians then things will definitely be going in a Prussian direction.

I didn't have time to properly introduce these gentlemen to you before they were tumbled headlong into the battle of Dresden. They are Tirailleur Grenadiers of the (Young) Guard painted as per the Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheet.

This is possibly the fastest I have ever painted a unit of Hinton Hunt figures as I did the whole lot in one batch - not sure if I'll use that technique again as I find it midly stressful.

The figures I used were:

I thought the flag would be relatively easy but it just wasn't!

PN.39 Landwehr Lancer Trooper (mounted) charging - the one on the left is mine and the one on the right is WM's.

I've been trying hard to get a unit of Young Guard Tirailleurs ready in time for the Dresden game in a couple of weeks. The Young Guard played a prominent part in the fighting for the Great Garden so I thought it would be handy to have an extra unit. They will also come in useful for the planned Waterloo game latter this year.

This is the test figure of FN/71 Tirailleur Guard (charging). I've actually pretty much finished the whole unit (in record time for me).

So here's a bit of a Hinton puzzle for you. I pulled out a casting to convert to a standard bearer and it was clearly marked FN70 on the base which is supposed to be the Young Guard charging officer. I merrily went about adding a flag etc. but when I came to paint him I realised something was wrong.

The mystery FN70 casting now converted to a standard bearer.

The casting has an Austrian style shako and a sash so nothing very French about him at all. I can't think what he is although from the base I can tell it's a Clayton casting. Answers on a postcard please.

Having finished the rank and file figures for my Hungarian Grenadiers I have now moved on to the Command group. The officer is one of my all time favourite Hinton Hunt sculpts - he has a real swashbuckling swagger about him I think.

AN.30 Hungarian Grenadier Officer, charging

The drummer has been a bit of a problem as I had used all my DK Grenadier drummers to convert to line drummers. The solution was to decapitate a French drummer and replace his head with an Austrian Grenadier's one.

FN/6 French Drummer, charging - converted to Hungarian Grenadier drummer

On a different topic, Tony recently donated this characterful Preacher figure by Warrior Miniatures to my stalled ECW project. I just couldn't resist painting him.

If you're going to wargame the ECW period you need one of these

The next post should hopefully feature the full unit of Hungarian Grenadiers on parade.

With the sudden spurt of growth to the Austrian infantry it occured to me that they probably needed a few more commanders to lead them in the field. Now, as you know, Hinton Hunt only produced one Austrian General so I've had a bit of fun with some conversions.

This has been a bit of fun and a useful distraction from finishing off painting the 26th Schroeder Regiment but I'm already back working on them now.

I've finished my 'coke can' (actually Pepsi-Max) flag for the Grenzers and am quite chuffed with the result. I cut the aluminium for the flag with my craft knife and then superglued it to the flagstaff, bent it into position and amazingly it lined up first time.

I paint the flag after assembly.

The figure is a converted AN/21. Hungarian Officer, charging although I think this is actually a DK version. The flag itself is painted freehand using some pencilled guidelines. The design is a mash up of images from the internet and my own photo (below) taken this year at the Naval Museum in Venice.

I'm not sure what an Austrian flag was doing on display at an Italian naval museum because strangely the signage wasn't in english. The museum was however a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city being a bit out of the way by the old naval dockyard.

The rather stylish entrance to the dockyard just around the corner from the museum.

There is a quite a lot of stuff in the museum relating to WW2 and how Italian frogmen managed to blow up British battleships using manned torpedoes. Not one mention of Taranto though!

I still seem to be finding every excuse possible not to paint British fusiliers (e.g., working my way through 24 x Jacklex British colonial Highlanders) although I can, hand on heart, say that I’m on course to complete them all by the end of the month. I have however finished all the command figures, including three conversions.

Kings colour and Regimental colour. According to the Revo sheet the flag is for the 23rd regiment rather than the 7th but I'm going to get around this by simply referring to the unit as "The Fusiliers".

The flags were a right old pain to do. They’re from my stock of 20-year-old Revo ones and although the sticky was still working, I was horrified to find that the ink was wearing off as I folded them. I didn’t have any spares, so I just had to go with it and then spent an entire painting session retouching them trying to match the original colours. In the end it seems to have worked out ok although they very nearly went in the bin.

The officer is BN/70 Fusilier Officer (charging). The drummer is a conversion from the charging figure using a drum donated by a Newline Designs highlander.

Hinton Hunt didn’t produce standard bearers or drummers for the fusilier range, so I converted these from charging figures. I’m pretty pleased with the drummer but it’s hard to get the flag anywhere near vertical using a charging figure as a standard bearer as there is only so far the arms will bend. I think they’ll look fine though when ranked up in the line.

The Pavlovski’s are finished and luckily for me too late to take part in the recent Campaign with Rob. This brings my rather small Russian force up to a total of three infantry units but hopefully there will be more to come.

The flag is from my 1995c stock of Revo ones that have long since lost their sticky but this is easily remedied with Pritt Stick. The drum was donated by a Newline Designs Highlander.

Next, I think I should be doing something to even things up a bit by adding a unit of French infantry.

The Russian infantry unit is finished and ready to take up it’s place in my rather slim Russian battle-line. This unit is nameless (although it carries the flag of the Moscow regiment) but represents a line unit as the grenadier plumes had been docked by the previous owner. Hinton Hunt never produced any line troops so I guess Marcus Hinton always intended that the plumes should be discarded if not required.


In the best tradition of this project this unit came together using figures from different sources but surprisingly they are all vintage Hinton Hunt castings except for the Clayton drummer and DK flag-bearer. The marching figures in greatcoats were a recent eBay purchase while the Crimean War figures are originals I have had for a few years.


RN.18 Private in great-coat marching x 18
RC/17 Russian private, marching x 3
FN/11 Officer, charging (with head swap) x 1
Clayton Pavlov drummer (with head swap) x1
DK colour-bearer (painted by Goya) x1


I’m going to try to keep focussed and complete my Russian force so next up will be the Hussars.

A couple of weeks ago several lots of Hinton Hunt Russians came up for sale on eBay so I took a punt and bought one lot of 17 figures in great-coats (RN18). The figures turned out to be vintage ones in good condition with no broken bayonets although there was some pitting on the metal, but it was an easy enough job to fill these.

The Hinton Hunt painting instructions specify 'fawn' as the colour for the great-coat. I tried a lighter shade first but didn't like it so have used the same brown I used recently for the Silesian Hussars.

For the command group I carried out a couple of head swops putting Russian infantry heads on a Clayton Pavlov drummer and a French officer in greatcoat (FN11). I was planning on doing something similar for a standard bearer however Goya pipped me to the post by presenting me with a fully painted conversion of a DK Pavlov as a ‘hut warming’ present.

This is Goya's handiwork. The flag is for the Moscow regiment which by chance is the same flag design WM painted for my Grenadier regiment.

My drummer and officer conversions.

Here's one I prepared earlier - Crimean Russian in cap painted a few years ago. These mix in well with the Napoleonic figures.

Goya also rustled up another headless Russian infantryman which brought the total to 18 following more surgery. I’m making up the ranks to a full 24 figures by adding 3 vintage Russian Crimea figures in cap (RC17), which is a good use for these as I don’t intend to raise any Crimean forces.

I’ve just passed the halfway mark on the Silesian Hussars with 6 figures completed and the remainder underway. I have enjoyed painting these and for once even the white buttons on the trousers haven’t been a chore, this may be because I have broken in a new paintbrush. I tend to hang on to my paintbrushes for far too long because they become comfortable (a bit like shoes) but when I finally reach for a new one, I’m always amazed at how much easier it is to use.

It’s been quite refreshing to be able to go with mixed horse colours for this unit as the last few cavalry units I’ve painted have had horses all the same colour. The Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheets always specified the correct horse colours which is a detail not often included in uniform books.

The trumpeter is the last of the clever conversions carried out for me by Wellington Man. It was only when I started to paint the figure that I realised he had added a sword hilt to the scabbard and carefully removed the carbine from the riders’ leg. How he has managed to do either of these things so neatly is a mystery to me, but I’m very grateful to have such a lovely addition to the ranks.

Having completed the Prussian infantry, I needed another 2 generals to bring the total number of commanders up to 9. In my rules Muskets & Marshals, each unit requires a commander who influences unit morale.

This gives me an excuse to paint up the wonderful range of personality figures produce by Hinton Hunt. Although, obviously, it’s not very realistic to have marshals and generals commanding a battalion of line infantry it does add a splash of colour to the tabletop and helps the players to identify with their units (nobody wants to be the commander who loses marshal Ney in action).

There are only 4 mounted command figures in the Hinton Hunt Prussian range so inevitably there has been some duplication and conversions to get the required number of commanders. The figures here represent Zieten and Pirch, both are PN.64 Prussian General although Pirch has had a head-swop with Gneisenau and his telescope removed.

Hinton Hunt never made any Brunswick artillerymen, so I’ve had to resort to the dark art of head swapping to create some. The donor bodies are all British Horse Artillery and the heads are from various odds and ends of Brunswick infantry I had lying about.

There was just one Horse Artillery Battery present in the Brunswick contingent during the Waterloo campaign.

And one Foot Artillery Battery.

I’m quite happy with the Horse Artillery figures but the Foot Artillery heads are a bit big for the rather spindly RHA bodies resulting in quite a menacing pinhead look. The guns are on loan from the French, apparently the canny Black Duke sent his artillery chief to an auction following the Battle of Leipzig where he snapped up enough captured French guns to equip several batteries.

For C&CN we need two guns and crew per battery so mine will be combined for the game.

So, I can hear you thinking “hey, those aren’t Prussian – what’s he up to?” well I can only blame Goya for this distraction. Next week he is hosting a C&CN game of Quatre Bras and we were short of a Brunswick battery for the OOB. A battle report will be posted here in due course.