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| A total of 21 archers including a standard bearer who's lost his standard. |
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| Strangely these figures have nearly blue coloured bases like some of the Persians - no idea why. |
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| 5 more nicely painted figures. |
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| The faces actually have character! |
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| And finally a couple of Roman ballistae - 'normal' green bases. |
One weird thing... list of followers seems to have gone from my blog again!
Trusty light troops, iconic figures of the period.
ReplyDeleteCould probably even form the basis of an army as I've already got a Hinchliffe cavalry unit bought a long time ago when the shop didn't have anything else... No, better not...
DeleteI wonder if that blue colour is an undercoat - it looks like there might be traces of it under the ballistae - but then again it looks like there's some green underneath the blue on the Byzantine archers! Charming details on these models - Hinchliffe figures have a character of their own don't they. Oddly enough - I've just finishing stripping and refurbishing a whole batch of Hincliffe Byzantines ready to repaint - I'd forgotten how 'leady' the metal is - and how easily those bows break!
ReplyDeleteHadn't noticed the blue on the ballistae until now! Seems a good answer though the question is 'Why?'. The metal on Hinchliffe figures was terrible - often had a flaky look, and horse bases... so little metal they were hard to stand by themselves, but then they would... twist...
DeleteYup - I've been rebuilding horse legs with Milliput and had to put the odd wire support in - the Byzantine half-armour rearing horse is dynamic - but bendy! Hinchliffe seem to have gone through a few phases with their horses - the early ones don't have reins at all (presumably you are expected to make your own) - then they added reins - and round about 1979 they seem to have remodelled and repositioned at least some horses, possibly to make them more robust, the one I have of these have '79' etched into the bases and I suspect the work is a little crude compared to the earlier versions.
DeleteBill Lamming always said that some manfacturers used lead from scrap batteries - the way he used to say it often seemed to be directed at Frank...
DeleteThe Gilder painted Hinchliffe armies always looked so great in photos! A little less so the one time I saw them in person and the naked castings were down right ugly. Lively but ugly. One's painting style and skill made the difference in the end.
ReplyDeleteDon't think of them as Gilder painted, more Gilder's team painted - he used to farm out a lot of painting and design work to others. Some of his articles were also... let's say, I know at least one person who said that some of his articles were sent in to Hinchcliffe and later appeared under Gilder's name. But then, he strongly implied some of my work was all his as well so... though to be fair, technically, he did correctly say he 'developed' it... as opposed to 'invented'... Fun times the 70's.
DeleteWhen I bought most of my Hinchcliffe in 1979-80 they were cast under license by an outfit in Dallas Texas, they even had a very nice show room with all the armies painted, made the 100 some mile trip with a buddy of mine from Fort Sill Oklahoma where we were assigned. In any case I never had a problem with the metal or casting quality thankfully...
ReplyDeleteThey sound like far better quality figures.
DeleteLovely units Rob and surely no earthly good to you. Now strangely I know a man who'll take them off your hands.
ReplyDeleteThought their might be one or two...
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