Hinchliffe Models Ltd System 12 Napoleonics

 

Sometime around April 1975 Hinchliffe launched yet another new scale onto an unsuspecting public... 12mm. There were already well establied 1/285, 1/300, 5mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm and so on but it seems we needed another! The first mention I can find is from the ads in Military Modelling April and May of '75. Back in 2018 on TMP, SteveZodiac stated he'd heard from the owner (which one?) that the molds had been trashed. I do wonder, as always, if originals sculpts or masters exist in a drawer somewhere!

April '75 a glorious centrefold!

It was preceeded towards the front of the issue with a 'more usual' advert... including the pricing structure. Not sure what the designer was due to be recruited for...

May '75

Donald Featherstone discussed them in Wargamer's Newsletter 159 in June that year (remembering that copy was sent a while before publication back then...)

Followed by more detail in the ever useful 'Must List'

I have a few baggies, unfortunately multiples of no.13. Always open to trade!

The 1976 Hinchliffe Handbook (a veritable Bible!) gave a few illustrations. I can't find any actual detailed images of the range from the time.

May 1977 catalogue listings

In the '77 catalogue listing they also showed the imported Heritage 15mm.

I'm not sure when the range was pulled however I don't remember there being many major additions at the time (although I was primarily interested in fantasy at the time, I did follow the trends!). By the February 1983 catalogue listing the range was longer there although what apears to be their own 15mm was listed which included a number of scenics... did they repurpose the codes and hope to get away with the size difference or just use the System 12 listing as a guideline?

I have found some hedges up on eBay - if you live in Europe it would be a bargain, UK postage precludes me purchasing unfortunately... not my images, posted purely for research purposes.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154758822443

A few cavalry baggies via completed auctions, I don't know who the seller was.

Another addition to the '77  listing was the licened production of Heritage Models 'Fantasy Fantastics', totally up my street. I've still got loads of them that saw occassional action on the table.

If anyone has more information on the range please email me or leave a comment below!

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk