Restoration of a Hichliffe RHA Gun Team c 1815 (1 Viewer)

blaster said:
Hi John,

this got me interested in rereading all my references on British Artillery. I found that the number of lace rows was not standardised and varied in the jackets, from 6 to 24 rows! The reason I was fixated was because I was contemplating making a rocketman myself, but still thinking about it. Too many loose threads my end...:):):)

Rgds Victor
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Victor,

the lace on the jackets were different for the drivers, whose jacket was similar to a foot artillery gunner. The RHA gunners had a hussar coat.

By the way, I have also finished a troop of rocket gunners, by Tradition...... I have had them for about 6 years, so now had time to paint them :)

rocket_tp.jpg

John
 
Another RHA from Hinchliffe I painted 40 years ago, it was in their 90mm range... dusty now ...
WR-90mm-A1.jpg WR-90mm-Artillerie-A2.jpg
 
Mirof said:
Another RHA from Hinchliffe I painted 40 years ago, it was in their 90mm range... dusty now ...
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Nice work, and I do like these larger scale figures. I've got a few of the 75mm ones by Hinchliffe, so something else to give a 'lick of paint' to :)

Thanks, John
 
I have been keeping busy over the past week and so I now have completed the first part of this project.

The 2 wheeler horses, a diver and then hitched up to the limber.

RHA 6.jpg

RHA 7.jpg

I have a 9 pounder gun already constructed, but it need a repaint, so that's to come and also a 6 pounder kit to construct, so I think that will be the next part of this project.

John.
 
Today I started on the next pair of horse, the center pair and so fitted and joined the half bodies, and then cut, drilled and cleaned up a tinplate base.

RHA 9.jpg

Seen here with the 9 pounder gun in tow.

John
 
I just stumbled upon this thread, and really enjoyed watching the project develop. Terrific work, John!:salute::
 
I am really enjoying this thread.It is good to see your progress.I admire your painting of the horses.Well done that man.Looking forward to seeing the completed work.
 
On Sunday I got on with the assembly of the horses, and that was completed today:

RHA 10.jpg

The reins and leads were cut form metal foil, the bits from wire and the brass chain fitted as well as copper wire joiner between the 'rope' and 'leather' traces.

In this image I have only positioned one of the 4 traces and the horses are standing on their separate bases, but the tinplate base has been completed with a covering of fine sand which will be undercoated and painted to match the wheeler horses.

More to come .........
 
Lot of great work there John. Very interesting to hear about the various materials etc that you are using to complete the restoration. I am sure a lot of forum members will enjoy this thread greatly and learn a a lot for the step by step efforts you are sharing.
 
Hello John,
I am really enjoying watching this project develop. The artillery and their train always look so impressive. Would I be correct in thinking that this project is indeed a labour of love? At the same time I can just about imagine the amount of time, skill and patience required. Model and figure building / painting requires the skill to pause between key tasks so one does not spoil work already done. I have on a number of occasions had to strip back work due to my own impatience.
Looking forward to seeing this progress.
Hinchcliffe was gone by the time I took up the hobby and one can see in your work, that I really missed out some real gems.
Yours Aye,
Douglas
 
Blackbob said:
Hello John,
I am really enjoying watching this project develop. The artillery and their train always look so impressive. Would I be correct in thinking that this project is indeed a labour of love? At the same time I can just about imagine the amount of time, skill and patience required. Model and figure building / painting requires the skill to pause between key tasks so one does not spoil work already done. I have on a number of occasions had to strip back work due to my own impatience.
Looking forward to seeing this progress.
Hinchcliffe was gone by the time I took up the hobby and one can see in your work, that I really missed out some real gems.
Yours Aye,
Douglas
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Thanks for your comments, I really like to hear what others think about this particular project.

Yes, it is a labor of love and does take some time to get it done right. No good rushing but worth spending the time because it's will take pride of place in my collection. I'm also using is a test job because I have a WW1 13 Pdr QF Gun team to do next and so this will give me an idea of how long it will take, seeing I'm getting paid to do that for another collector, and he will need to budget !!!!

Like you I didn't start hack into toy soldiers until the late 1990's and by the time I had the knowledge about different makers, many of them were finished, and the only way i could get their figures was by eBay because we didn't have shops selling there here in Western Australia.

This particular set took me a couple of years to get, with the main lot of horses coming from a local seller. I could see what the 'load of broken junk' was and form then went searching for the rest of the set. Some of the parts, like a horse, the limber and the mounted officer were all in kit form, while others were assembled, but badly painted.

Anyway, keep checking over the next few weeks, and you will see this come to completion.

I've now stated painting those 2 horses and rider, but here is the result from today .. the undercoat.

RHA 11.jpg

John
 
It's been another cold and wet day, but I've been kept busy with these centre horses, and now they are completed, and hitched up the wheelers to draw the gun and limber.

RHA 12.jpg

RHA 13.jpg

Later this week I hope to get on with the 2 lead horses, same as these two, but with a different driver. There were drivers produced, 3 riding and one standing and I have them all :)

John
 
I started the assembly of the lead horses today, so I now have 'purpose & direction' for the coming week :)

RHA 14.jpg

You will also see the lead driver talking with the standing driver, both figures completed.

John
 
The work is advancing fast
I never had your courage

SInce ...
In 1973, a dear friend of mine spoke about the pleasure he had when younger, in mounting and painting toy soldiers . It was something I never encoutered, I had even never played with little soldiers, even in plastic . But knowing him, I cut the long speach that was coming, telling him that I loved that ( I lied )
2 months later, back from a trip in England he told me that he thought about my passion for toy soldiers and gave me a pack with some Lasset, Sanderson, Stadden and the full RHA train and ... " you owe me xxx £ "
A bit surprised, not wanting to disclose my secret, I accepted, bought some paints and brushes, and begon to paint . I liked that very much and bought more and more figurines, even painting for a shop in Brussels ( La Heaumerie du Casque d'Or )
But never had the courage to begin the painting of the RHA, they are still in a drawer, part of my grey army, in original boxes ( almost 50 years later )
So perhaps one day seing what you do, I willlllllllllllllllll .... perhaps, perhaps .

Best
 
Mirof said:
The work is advancing fast
I never had your courage

So perhaps one day seeing what you do, I willlllllllllllllllll .... perhaps, perhaps .

Best
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Thanks for your kind words , it's not courage, its perseverance becasue this set of figures is a big job, takes some time to do ( an I've got that at the moment).

Like you I had another Hinchliffe set, the Napoleonic French gun team, sitting in my stash of casting for about 15 years after 'I found it' in a local wargames shop in the city. I finally completed that early last year and that really helped me in doing this set.


hichgunteam.jpg


This current RHA gun team has taken me about 2 years to collect all the parts, and then I broke them into manageable job lots and then I complete that part before starting on another. This is what I have been showing over the past weeks in this post.

Last year when I got the mounted officer, he was my first task, then I followed with the limber, the gun, and commenced with the pairs of horses.
In this way I could see progress and didn't get bogged down with too much work.

Hopefully I will complete the last set of horses this week, and be able to finally exhibit the complete set 'in all it's glory'.

By the way I also have the Hinchliffe RHA gun firing set ready to go later this year.

fire.jpg

But before that set I have a commission to assemble and paint this .... the RHA 13 pdr gun team WW1

rha.jpg rha1.jpg

I plan to follow the same work plan for that set, break it down in small sections, and try to complete one each week, so a 6 week job ???

John
 
It's great to keep watching this thread, to see the airing of so many fabulous looking Hinchcliffe kits coming out and being fixed up.
 
blaster said:
It's great to keep watching this thread, to see the airing of so many fabulous looking Hinchcliffe kits coming out and being fixed up.
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I hope to complete this set tomorrow, so check it out then.

I may even take pics of the other guns that need assembly and painting so you can what i hope to do in the future, ....... sometime:confused::confused::confused:

John
 
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