20mm French Napoleonic 8/9 pdr Field Gun - Comparisons of different manufacturer's model

Without doubt my first choice for artillery for this period would always be the Hinchcliffe 20mm products - clean good looking - scale correct and a good range of different pieces. Alas they are no more and trying to find any nowadays is almost impossible. So I sorted out all the different samples I had - bought some I didn't have - and compared the French 8/9 pdr offerings from all the manufacturers I managed to collect/obtain.

The images shows on the top row - from left to right:-

RSM - Currently available but a little too small in my opinion given that Hinton Hunt are the figures I need the artillery to match.

Hinton Hunt - No longer obtainable - untidy casting - always seemed too small to me - Even if it was obtainable I wouldn't use it!

Alberken - Oversize wheels and barrel - shows its vintage and of course no longer available.

Minifig S Range - Quite a good casting - a little coarse by today's standards and again no longer available.

Hinchliffe - The ideal product in my opinion - all others have to be compared to this standard - Sadly no longer available.

Bottom row left to right:-

Lamming - No Longer available - nice clean square casting - a little thick in the wheel but if it were available it might be a contender - because of its clean square and neat casting - although some of the others are better scale and more accurate.

Rose - Available again from Greenwood and Ball - Really nice clean square casting - Scale feels right - proportions look right - except wheel hubs which are too small and no outward cant to spokes.

NapoleoN - Currently available - also a nice clean casting - probably the best wheels of all the models - a very accurate representation of the field gun - I am not sure I like the one piece casting of the barrel and the carriage - it just doesn't feel right - Nevertheless it is a model that is well worth using.

Kennington(SHQ) - Currently available - it also is a good clean casting if a little unsquare and slightly misformed - at least the ones I got were - but again it looks reasonably accurate but the trail side view doesn't ring true to the scale drawings. Wheels and axles are a very sloppy fit - I would certainly use in the absence of a couple others here.

Les Higgins(Phoenix) - Not sure if NapoleoN will re-issure these guns - I didn't have a French one so I had to resort to the British one that I had to show the scale and quality. Clean casting little plain - If NapoleoN reissue it then I need to get a French gun for better comparison. Though I cannot see why they would reissue it given the quality of their own gun.

So who wins? - For my money in the absence of Hinchliffe - I will use the Rose and/or The NapoleoN. I love the clean square uniform castings of the Rose product - but I also really like the wheels on the NapoleoN gun. If it's barrel was not cast to the carriage then I would use that model solely

Now I want them both to make the howitzer and the 12pdr and also the limbers!!

I used the drawings in Osprey's New Vanguard - Napoleons Guns 1792-1815 as a guide when looking for scale and accuracy.

Lamming (Early) 20mm - Size Comparison with the 'more robust' or 'upgraded' figures

Hopefully this will illustrate the difference in size between the early Lamming and the later 'upgraded' figures. Left to right: top is the British dragoon and under him the upgraded version. Next is the French Guard Chasseur and again underneath the upgraded version. Next is a Hinton Hunt Hussar to show comparison size - I was prepared to live with the difference here. The top left horse is a Hinton Hunt (which I always felt was a bit too small - particularly for heavy cavalry), Next to that is an early Lamming horse with the upgraded version underneath it. Finally bottom left is newer Lamming French Hussar which appears to be midway between the two Lamming sizes!
I think you might be able to see why the early Lamming were acceptable to me and the later ones were not. You can see it better when you click and enlarge the image.
Finally to respond to a question received as to why not just use Hinton Hunt Cavalry - which is of course a good question - the fact is that at the time I got around to and could afford to buy cavalry - unfortunately the Hinton Hunt Cavalry moulds had deteriorated and were generating badly flashed lumps of metal!