Tuesday 15 July 2008

Artillery equipment and horses

Hinton Hunt provided artillery crews, pieces and limbers for a number of countries, together with two sets of draught horses.

H 1 and H 2 were the British horses (near side and offside); they were used for the British limber AL 2, and also for the Prussian limber AL 4, and Austrian limber AL 5, and Russian limber AL 6. There is also a British limber ammunition cart AL 2A

These were also the horses suggested for use with the American Civil War range of figures, pulling the AL 1 limber for both sides.

H 3 and H 4 were the French horses (near side and offside): they were used for the French limber AL 3 and French four wheel Caisson AW 1

The artillery pieces produced were:

  • A 2 British Field Gun
  • A 3 French Field Gun
  • A 4 Prussian Field Gun
  • A 5 Austrian Field Gun
  • A 6 Russian Field Gun

The A 1 code was used for the 12 pounder Napoleon gun for the American Civil War range.

These pices of equiopment are usually marked HHF on the underside with a code number.

It is fair to say that their artillery equipment was not Hinton Hunt's greatest achievement. The guns seem to be a little small and the limbers are quite thick and crude, especially when compared to the original Hinchliffe 20mm equipment range (not the current 25mm). The Hinchliffe 20mm range were among the best guns ever produced. Despite the best endeavours of several people to track down the moulds, they seem to have been lost at some point in the varuious sales of the Hinchliffe ranges since the 1970s. I have spent the last year acquiring six sets of the Colonial Elephant Drawn Artillery set, but that's another story.

Peter Gilder seems to have shared this opinion - the guns with his Guard Foot and Horse crews you can find on this site are all Hinchliffe 20mm items. There was also a Lamming range in 20mm which Donald Featherstone enthused about.

When I can get them, I use Hinchliffe 20mm equipment with Hinton Hunt crews. I will post pictures of all the Hinton Hunt equipment I can find; and some guns and limbers in unit pictures will be Hinchliffe, and where possible I will note this.


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