Robin Hood vs Little John

This was a small diversion from my next job, repairing, magnetic basing and tidying up some figures I had painted professionally (probably a future post).  So, before diving into what is a less than satisfying task, I indulged my nostalgia demon and tried to reproduce the painting style of Gilder et al on some figures from the Hinchliffe / Calder Craft Robin Hood range.

As this was a painting trial, I just did three personality figures, namely Robin, Little John and Marian.  These were cleaned up and Little John had his quarterstaff shortened to a more reasonable length; other than this the figures were not messed about with.

Marion is the weakest figure, suffering from overly short legs and overlong arms, the latter a classic Hinchliffe failing, that make her anatomy a look off.  

However, I think her face is well sculpted managing to look more feminine than many female castings.

This Robin is one of three Robin figures in the range, this one obviously intended for the river crossing contest with Little John.

The other Robin figures have him either blowing his own trumpet or 'disguised' as a 'hooded man', presumably to compete for the silver arrow.

Little John also looks like he's intended to scrap with Robin, the other John in the range is simply standing with quarterstaff and pointing.  This figure has an overly long quarterstaff; so long it would be both hard to wield and give him an unfair advantage over Robin so I trimmed it back.

Painting these figures was fun, but I was constantly surprised how big a contrast was needed for the 'Gilderesque' style shading.  Several times I toned down the contrast only to find that once the enamel paint dried the contrast was not strong enough.

These Figures Mean Trouble

My 25mm Hinchliffe collection usually fights using my rule set, a mash-up of bits from Victory Without Quarter (VWQ) and Command and Colours (C&C).

One of the VWQ elements I've shamelessly copied is the addition of random events which can affect how units and commanders behave.  Because it can be hard remembering which units have been affected and how, I decided to make up some markers.

Firstly, my preacher who fires up a unit's morale.  He's clearly a puritan but has to serve both sides as I haven't made a high church Anglican for my royalists yet.

He was a fairly simple modification from Hinchliffe's rather dodgy[1] royalist pikeman   as can be seen here with the unpainted preacher alongside an unmodified casting.

Another event sees a unit's powder supplies affected through incompetence, in this case standing the powder barrel in a puddle with obvious consequences for the unit's firepower.

When all these random effects get too much, there's always another which sees a unit weakened as some decide they have a pressing appointment elsewhere.

Notes.

[1.]  By 'dodgy' I'm referring to his appearance; a common pikeman sporting long hair; a Van Dyke beard; wearing a sash (scarf); and, a broad-brimmed hat decorated with ostrich feathers is a rather outdated (Victorian?) idea of how the armies looked. 

Fusilier Chasseurs of the Guard

These are the latest to emerge from my glacial painting process for a quick photo shoot.  Firstly some 'studio shots'.

The command strip, as Hinton Hunt (HH) never did standard bearers or drummers in greatcoats these two had them added with solder, followed by much filing.

Then the men.  These are a mix of original HH "FN/6 Voltigeur 1807/12 in plumed shakos (marching)" and recasts.  The large plumes, and the opportunity to paint the greatcoats blue, inspired me to paint them as Fusilier Chasseurs of the Imperial (Middle) Guard.  In this photo I meant one of the 4-figure bases to show the rear view but didn't notice their reluctance to show their backs.

The only changes to the rank and file were to repair about half of the bayonets, beef up the plumes a bit, and paint eagles instead of lozenge shaped cap badges and eagles as opposed to bugles on the cartridge boxes.  The latter required the badges to be filed down a bit so the bugle device was not proud.

And then all together...

...all twenty eight of them!

My foot units are all usually 24-strong but these are 28-strong, using every figure I had.  I did this because wielding a soldering iron entails some risk, so I was expecting some losses, but all went well so I thought I'd paint them all up.

And so, into the field: in line...

...in square...

...under Cambronne's command...

...and finally.

=============ADDENDUM=============

Spotted I had left something unpainted!  No prizes for spotting it - here's the finished article.