I have previously described how these images of the 20mm ACW wargame between Donald Featherstone and Peter Gilder really propelled me into wargaming as a hobby.
The clearly identified Airfix figures and the (unknown to me at the time) Hinton Hunt figures plus Featherstone's wargaming books from the local library had a profound effect and took the eleven year old Matt into his life-long hobby.
When the 1964 collection came up for sale on Ebay from Hinds I could not resist diving in and grabbing myself an armful of wargaming history.
I give you the first of the batch which is rather surprisingly made up from converted Napoleonic Hinton Hunt figures. I give you the Maryland Guard (sound of drums):
They arrived like this, plastic bases and old flocking. There are some chips but I decided not to attempt repairs - 60 years of service and still looking good!
I like to think that they were painted by PG himself. At this stage he was not the famed figure sculptor/rule writer he was to become and the Wargames Newsletter article regarding this game
here certainly suggests they are all his own work.
From the bases (and a bit of internet searching to confirm it all) I can identify the original figures as, left to right: DN1 Belgian Infantry Officer, BN 25 British Horse Artillery Officer and DN3 Belgian Infantry Charging. Rather than one off conversions I can see from the matching imperfections that they were converted and then cast. I think the kepis were created by filing down the shakos as the heads do not match original ACW figures I have.
The flag bearer is Airfix and fortunately not brittle so he stays with the unit he has bravely led through the decades.
Finally the flags appear to confirm their authenticity. Red for the rebels and blue for the Union with unit names painted on.
This unit appears to be 2nd US Infantry. I have the 1st US Infantry in this same style.
So, removed from their bases, cleaned up with cotton swabs dipped in odourless white spirit and a new coat of matt varnish applied to the non metallic bits here are the results so far.
While I do not generally add figures painted by others into my collections I think we can say these toys are a worthy exception. More of these gems to follow, plus their Jacklex colleagues and a foray into home casting for the rest of 2023.
