1/32 HäT Blog

Its been quiet on here, whats everyone up to? Anyone have any new subjects to post?  I,ve been busy finishing up my Russians in greatcoats conversions, there a mix of Hat french in greatcoats and mixed Conte figures with Black cat heads and back packs from the HAT Russian figures. the greatcoats are made from 2 part putty.

The loose back packs that Hat does are great for conversion work on other figures. The packs along with some styrene plastic strips for straps and you can add packs onto other figures without packs, They can be used on say something like old Timpo Prussians that came without packs and the poorly sculpted Timpo heads can also be cut off and replaced with better heads from the HAT prussian set.
I,m working on doing some more of the Timpo Prussian hussars, cutting off there heads and replacing them with heads from the HAT Prussian set. They look much better like this with the new heads and better horses they look pretty good when painted up.
Maybe some day HAT will release there own set of Prussian Hussars????
Here are a few pics of the Russians  I have done so far. Lets see some of you other guys post some of your work also!











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Here is my first attempt at converting a Bavarian artillery crew. I wanted to do a whole 6 gun battery but this single crew was as far as I went so far. Maybe in the future I,ll complete my 6 gun idea, but till then here is my only converted crew. I still have a bunch of infantry figures half painted  that I never got around to finishing including a few conversions. I only managed to get a few infantry figures painted up so far.
At some point in the future I,d like to paint up a bunch as line and light infantry and finish my artillery crews and do some cavalry with the HAT heads also.
I have a bunch of boxes of the figures sitting waiting to go, Till I get around to the rest here is all I have so far.

Hi

has anyone made Bavarian Artillery or Cavalry conversions yet utilising the head/ruppenhelm from the hat Bavarian Infantry? This is on my list of "to do"conversions. Any ideas/suggestions?

Regards
9thHussar

Here are some of my Prussian conversions in the rough stages so you can see what was done to them.
Some are very simple head swops and others are a bit more complex and use parts from other figures.
I,ll try and remember from the pictures what I did to them and explain a bit of how I went about doing them.
Picture#1

Here is one of the artillery guys I did, He has new hands, one drilled out and a piece of wire added and some thread and 2 part putty to turn him into a cannon lighter.
Pic#2
Another artillery guy. I drilled out the hands and took some fine wire and twisted a couple of pieces together in a drill to look like rope and added it in his hands. This painted up pretty good to look like rope.
Pic#4
2 part putty over wire to make a cannon mover.
Pic#5

This is a Waterloo1815 figure with a Hat head and an ammo box from a Italeri set full of BB,s for cannon balls with a 2 part putty hand.

Pic#6
The bucket was made from twisted wire 2 part putty and styrene plastic strips. The other carrying the cannon ball charge was made from 2 part putty a bb thread and styrene strips and then I realized that I already had some of these all ready made in my Italeri french artillery set so I made another cannon loader pose with the pre-made Italeri one also ( not pictured here).


Pic#7
The wounded guy was made from the legs of a TSSD cavalry figure with an Italeri gaul head and the body arms and hat from HAT Prussian set.
The loading guy was made from a Waterloo 1815 figure with hat arms and head and a wire ram rod and 2 part putty to fix the greatcoat roll.
Pic#8


This guy is a marching pose with a new Italeri head and I cut the hat from a figure and added a new arm and made a hand to hold the hat in salute I later decided to add the pipe made of putty and added some cotton for smoke.
The figures in the back ground got some 2 part putty mustaches to add some different faces to the marching column and I re-positioned a bunch of heads also.
Pic#9
This figure Is a Hat body with re-positioned arms on Conte WWII G.I. legs and head with new 2 part putty hair and a Hat hat falling of his head.
Pic#10


Some Cannon rollers with repositioned heads with 2 part putty mustaches and new hands.
Pic#11
These are Waterloo 1815 figures with new Hat heads added to them. I think the Hat heads look much better on them and they fit in much better with the other figures with the new Hat heads.
Pic#12

This guy has a spent charge dislodger made from wire and 2 part putty with a new Conte head and hand and holds a cut off Hat hat.
Pic#13


Some dead/ wounded figures made from cutting the figures from the bases and reworking arms and repositioning the figures falling back and forward on there bases.
Pic#14


These are some action poses repostioned to look like they are running pointing fighting.  The guy swinging his musket is the loading pose with the gun cut off and then pinned back on up side down to look like he is swinging it. I also changed his footing to give him more action.
Pic#15

This guy was made from legs from a TSSD cavalry figure and is a fallen soldier fighting off cavalry attack.

I hope these pics give some of you guys some ideas for your own conversions or even copy a few of these.
I know I like to see how other guys went about doing there conversions so I hope this post will help some of you get a few ideas seeing some of these in the rough stages.
FISH! <")))><

Hi

I enjoy painting the 1/32d figures, but always struggle wih storing my finished item.

I prefer placing them all in nice neat rows on shelves, but the dreaded dust that settles on them over time is a real pain.

Placing them in boxes is one idea, but you cant see them unless you open the box from time to time.

What do other hat painters do for storage?

Regards
9thHussar

Hi

Have been pondering about the hat 1/32nd French Elites in greatcoats to be converted. Between the boxed sets there are quite a large number of poses.

The French Imperial Guard at Waterloo are depicted in greatcoats in many drawings/paintings, so the only real difference is the headress. I have already found a suitable head/bearskin for the Chasseurs of the Imp Guard, but cant find a suitable Grenadier head/bearskin with the front plate in plastic . Any sugestions? The Airfix versions are ok, but the heads/bearskins are not quite big enough!

One possible suggestion/request is a Conversions Pack by hat - mainly made up of alternative heads/headress ? What do you think? If the heads have a spike under the neck then it would be easy to drill a hole in the donor body and slot the spare head into place with a splodge of super glue.

Any ideas most welcome and food for thought with other modellers/converters

Regards,
9thHussar

Hi

if you had a choice which 1/32nd hat figures would be in demand by historical period?

We already have plenty of Punic Wars and Napoleonics, although I know that many of you would like more Waterloo sets - French Imperial Guards and cavalry, artillery etc...

What about WW1 and WW2, British Colonial or more ACW etc...? Armies in Plastic already make many of these era sets, but I havent seen any made for the WW2 era.

Conte and TSSD and others do make WW2 soldiers, in their particular 1/32nd or 54mm scale.

1/32nd scale wargaming is on the increase in the UK and elsewhere, so maybe the demand for other periods will also increase.

Regards
9thHussar

Here are some of my Prussian figures throw together into mini dioramas.  They are mostly Hat Prussians with a few others thrown in also including a few metal figures and lots of conversions.
I will show some of the conversions in a future post and talk about what I did to them but this post is to show how effective conversions can be to spice up a diorama and add more life and action to them as opposed to just a few factory poses.
In larger dioramas you can get away more with mixing various figures with scales that might be a bit off from each other or have a different painting style to them and the more figures and different poses you can mix in the more you have to see in the diorama in my opinion.
Here are the photos, click to enlarge. I hope you enjoy them.
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