About six years ago before moving to Spain I decided to pass on my collection of 800 Hinchliffe ECW figures. I was concerned that they would get damaged in transit and they took up a huge amount of storage space. I had been in contact throughout the project with Rob and he had made some suggestions that I had adopted, the main one being the three deep deployment of the foot regiments which made them look so much more like the contemporary illustrations. So Rob became the new owner of the collection, and drove down to Dymchurch to pick them up a couple of weeks before we left for Spain.
In the three years since then they have been transformed into what you see below. They have all been re based, re touched with added highlights, new hand painted flags for every unit, reins added to the horses ( many Hinchliffe horse codes were supplied without cast on reins so they could be soldered into the riders hands), and given a couple of coats of glorious gloss varnish. They are exquisite.
1st The Army of Parliament.
A couple of amazing armies in terms of size and quality. A joy to look at.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think the gloss varnish really helps to bring out the colours Peter.
DeleteWhen I first saw this project starting I knew I had to start and collect my Hinchliffe ECW armies to replace the ones I sold in the 1990's. Inspirational.
ReplyDeleteFunny enough I also started the project to replace armies sold off back in the 80's in my case. I was struggling to pay the rent on my bedsit so made the short drive up to John Tunstill's shop 'Soldiers' in Kennington SE London, mostly Hinchliffe with some Minifigs ECW's. John saw them and offered me double what I had hoped for. Later when I visited the shop again they were selling for three times that price! I'm glad Rob took them on as he done something very special with them since.
DeleteAwesome looking pair of ECW armies, they look even better than they did before, which is saying something!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Rob has done these really proud, 'Lee, but you'd already done an amazing job on them yourself!
ReplyDeleteBest regards
Matthew
They are beautiful aren't they! Love the siege train, that mortar looks devastating!
ReplyDeleteI never mastered painting Hinchcliffes, it just never worked for me sadly.
Best wishes,
Jeremy
Absolutely superb!
ReplyDeleteThank you, I'll pass these comments onto Rob :)
DeleteLee.
What a tremendous looking collection. It reminds me of the glossy Hinchliffe figures that used to feature on the front cover of Battle magazine and inspired me when I started wargaming in the late 70s.
ReplyDeleteHi Nathan, I know as a fact that some of the figures in Robs collection are those featured on the old wargame magazine covers and painted by Peter Gilder. Rob sent me a photo of the cover with his figures beside it and they are clearly the same ones. I'll pass your comment onto him :)
DeleteLee.
I was mistaken. Owned perhaps by Peter Gilder but painted by Phil Robinson. But they (4th photo down after the one featuring the flags of the King's Guard, Prince Rupert's Bluecoats and Gerard's Foot) definitely served in the Edgehill episode of Tyne Tees TV's series 'Battleground'.
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