Wednesday 4 February 2009

The Genius of Hezzlewood


Genius is not a word i use lightly (and does seem rather silly when talking about toy soldiers), however, i believe it is merited when discussing the work of the late Steve Hezzlewood. Hezzlewood's work for Hinchliffe and then his own Pax Britannica and Echelon Design ranges is at the very top of the tree. He's right up there with Charles Stadden when it comes to replicating the human form in a practical wargaming miniature, and capturing the essence of the 18th century soldier. If you can see past the rather clumsy painting above i hope you'll appreciate what i mean.

Hezzlewood's work is still available from Ian Hinds at Hinchliffe (X range AWI, and ACW..i think?), and from DPC in the States. Even with the tumbling exchange rate Hezzlewood's SYW figures from DPC remain one of the the bargains of the hobby.

At the moment i have scandalously few Hezzlewoods in my collection. Washington's Lifeguard (Hinchliffe X Range figures) is in the painting queue and so should (baby and work allowing) appear in the coming weeks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to own some of the X range ACW figures...at the time I remember thinking that wargames sculpts could never get better!

DC said...

Thanks for that Matt. If you stay tuned you may end up with the distinct impression that i don't think figure design has got any better since then...8-)