Sunday 12 February 2017

Pax Britannica ACW figures, what happened to them?

Well things have improved, and I would like to say thank you for all your kind comments. My long suffering wife is a bit better but still not 'right.' That's NHS speak for we dont know what went on but take two paracetamol and see what happens. Its no point being angry because where would one start. Anyway I have been pottering on between my wife's naps and doing some rebasing of the figures I got from Jim Sweeny.
   Amongst the stuff Jim sold me, was three regiments of what he called 'back of the table figures' which he gave me for free. Some Yorkshiremen can be generous, honest.
 Now I take a different view with these figures because although they are old, mainly Hinchliffe they still have the magic for me. I normally touch them up and reuse them. However included in the batch were a small number of ACW figures designed by the great but flawed genius, Steve Hezzlewood and released originally as Pax Britannica.
 My SYW armies originated via Steve Hezzlewood's range and are still amongst the best sculpts as regards proportions and sculpting.
 I never owned or saw any of the ACW figures, but now I have a few, I would dearly like some more. The Dayton Painting Company took control of the SYW ranges, but I dont think they could have bought the ACW range, which wasnt the biggest. I would love to know who has the original castings because the ones I have are still brilliant figures.
 If anyone has any knowledge of what happened to the Pax Britannica ACW range than I would be very interested.
 Probably not the best images of one of Steve Hezzlewoods ACW figures, but you can see [I hope ] some of what I like about them.I touched up some of the paint on them and gave them new faces. They certainly wont end up at the back of my table. The other two figures are from the original Hinchliffe range, I still like these chaps, althought they are of their time.

    Re based regiments of Elite Miniatures kindly provided by Jim with a couple of artillery pieces from the same source. Looking pretty good to me.

10 comments:

  1. Hezzlewood sculpted a nice range of 20mm ACW figures under the Pax Britannia and later RSM names.

    The 28mm ACW range never existed, the pictures in a couple of ads for the Echelon Designs figures were only mock ups or enlarged pix of the 20mm range. They did not exist nor did they ever go into production. This comes straight from the horse's mouth, I.e. The owner of the RSM range before it was sold to Dayton Painting Consortium.

    Maybe Hezzlewood intended to start a new ACW range, but it never got off the ground. He took money from people that I know and they never got their "Echelon Designs" figures. Same problem that he had with the original Pax Britannia range. Steve was a brilliant sculptor and artist, but he had some personal demons that worked against him. It is sad when one thinks about what could have been.

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    Replies
    1. Jim,
      I know DPC sell the 20mm range but assume they are true 20mm figures, however the few ACW I have been given are actually 28mm? Im not saying that they are some one off's but they are certainly not smaller than the Hinchliffe figures in my image, so could there actually be some actual 28mm originals kicking about?

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    2. Robbie,

      I know there's been lots of stories about Echelon Design and that they were effectively "fictitious" but I am 95% certain that a series of painted units came upon Ebay a few years back as part of a wider collection that definitely looked like the "Echelon" ones. I'm not interested in ACW, but almost bought them just because of what they were. Ask DC, I'm sure he saw them listed then as well.

      Cheers

      John

      Delete
  2. The figure on the left certainly does look like an ED figure (it's a pose i liked and that stuck in my memory); they did/do exist, although i can imagine few customers received any given the non-event that was ED as a commercial enterprise. About 10 years ago i had the opportunity to acquire the pieces that were sent to Duncan for review/adverts - stupidly i passed, and, as John mentions above, a few substantial units appeared on ebay a few years back too.
    The Hinchliffe X Range ACW range can also muddy the water of course.
    BTW - it's Hezzlewood's son that was attempting to (re?)launch the range, it's a shame that nothing has come of it.

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    Replies
    1. Doug,
      I can always rely on you for information, now if you can just tell me who bought the units on E Bay and if he would sell me them. [ Just joking ]

      Delete
  3. And as i understand it the development of the 25/30mm ACW range post-dated the sale of PB to RSM by some years.

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    Replies
    1. Doug: you are correct about that. Also, I believe that there were some ECW masters that were not included in his original sale to RSM.

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    2. Thanks Doug, I have been trawling my old magazines and saw Echelon came a bit before RSM took over the ranges.

      Delete
  4. Hezzlewood sculpted a nice range of 20mm ACW figures under the Pax Britannia and later RSM names.




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My 6mm Napoleonic set up.

My 6mm Napoleonic set up.
Austria 1809.

Austrian Hussars

Austrian Hussars
Hinchliffe figures

Austrian Grenzer

Austrian Grenzer
Austrian Grenzer

Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2013
Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2012

Smoggycon 2012
Smoggycon 2012

Smoogycon 2009

Smoogycon 2009
My French getting another beating