Howzat!

Recently i came across a '70s vintage Hinchliffe 25mm British Napoleonic 5.5" howitzer, it's a relatively small piece so i thought it would pass for an American King howitzer (the howitzer equivalent of a grasshopper). In the end it turned out to be too big - but i won't tell anyone if you won't...

Hinchliffe equipment pieces (in all their various scales) have always been of the highest quality and (casting issues aside) remain unsurpassed even today. Even those obtuse characters who didn't like Gilder's sculpting would often equip their armies with Hinchliffe guns and wagons. The man behind the majority of these pieces was, of course, Frank Hinchliffe himself. Although a very talented scale modeller, hobby innovator, and the man behind one of the most influential companies in wargaming and military modelling FH seems to have largely avoided the limelight and received little recognition for his role in developing our hobby. With this in mind i've embarked on a little research, and with the very generous help of various wargaming luminaries i hope to present a small article on Frank Hinchliffe soon.

Incidentally, the gun crew are conversions of Hinchliffe ACW artillerymen.

The Crusade Against Black Undercoat...

....will be led by this rather splendid Essex Bishop. I've never really been keen on Essex figures (not even back when they were fashionable) - they are decent, solid wargaming miniatures but they lack the drama and realistic human proportions that i find most appealing. That said, the (unknown) artist that created this vignette has done such a good job that i am willing to overlook the huge heads. I like it so much i found myself browsing the Essex Crusades range the other day...oh dear....must focus....focus.....[sadly i think for me Focus will never be more than a dodgy Dutch prog band].

BTW, is it just me, or does the standard bearer scream 'Monty Python'....?

Gilder Speaks!

An interview with Peter Gilder conducted by Don Featherstone from the March 1978 issue of Battle for Wargamers. I hope you'll agree that it's an interesting read.

Kirkwood's Delawares

One of the favourite units in my AWI collection - my version of Kirkwood's famous Delaware light infantry company c.1781 was the first unit i completed for my new AWI collection, always fights well (as befits its' elite status) and looks rather attractive too in the classic Continental combo of blue faced red.

Standard Hinchliffe castings in my favourite marching pose.

More Gilder ECW

This dragoon officer is a Peter Gilder conversion. It's skilfully done - the harness and reins, musket sling and powder flask have been particularly finely modelled in wire and lead sheet. The musket sling even sports a hook for attaching the musket. Arguably the modelling was more skilfully carried out than the painting (which is a wee bit sloppy).

These figures also feature in Asquith's 'The Campaign of Naseby 1645' title for the Osprey Wargames series - you'll find them lurking behind Sulby Hedges in plate F. They were a bit shinier 30 years ago, but then weren't we all...

One of the things i've always liked about Hinchliffe is the conversion potential (i'm sure they were deliberately designed to allow the customer to animate and convert them easily - hence the long arms!). Now that Hinchliffe use a rock hard allow (pewter?), much of that potential has gone - which is a real shame.

PG on TV

With Callan, Model World, and Battleground on TV, and shops in many large towns and cities, wargaming seemed to be almost socially acceptable in the late 70s. ....perish the thought!

Here we have the article on Battleground penned by Terry Wise (surely one of the hobby's original grumpy old men) and published in Battle magazine in June 1978. The article tells you pretty much all i know about the series. It's interesting that one episode saw a Gilder/Braithwaite rematch at Waterloo - Gilder as Napoleon took on Braithwaite's Wellington during a large multi-player Waterloo refight in 1975 that was written up for Mil Mod. That game was an overwhelming win for the Frogs - i wonder who won the televised version? As Gilder supplied most of the figures for the series i guess that my ex-Gilder ECW figures are also ex-TV stars.

I have a very vague memory of catching one episode on TV at the time, and obtaining a copy of the series remains an unfulfilled hobby Holy Grail (can you have multiple Holy Grails...?). If anyone has a spare Holy Handgrenade i'd like one of those too please.

I have very definite memories of the episode of Model World that covered wargaming (after all it featured an AWI game) - win my eternal gratitude if you can find me a copy of that.

More Gilder stuff to come over the next week or so....

A Minor Irritation

That's riflemen for you - annoying, but ultimately not battle winners. These chaps are mix of bog standard Hinchliffe AWI castings and conversions of ACW and Napoleonic figures - the 'Golden Anorak' award is up for grabs to anyone who can identify the donor castings.

If you are thinking that there's nothing very Grand in the Manner of these tiddly little units then you'd be right, but small units are easy to photograph. When i'm able to clear some space i'll do some shots of the larger AWI and ECW units.

Coming soon....i've dug out further Gilder articles (an interview, and a piece on Battleground) and a rather splendid Gilder ECW 'special'. Any preference...?