Back to Articles Introduction

A trip down memory lane - an old Spencer-Smith plastic Bavarian army

Recently Fusilier Roly Hermans pulled his old Spencer-Smith Bavarian army out from the back of his wardrobe where it has been languishing unloved for over 25 years.

During the late 1970s, the epitome of the wargaming hobby for me was the picture of an eighteenth century game on the cover of the book Charge! or how to play wargames by Peter Young and J.P. Lawford.

But at that time, due to lack of finance and the poor availability of wargaming figures in New Zealand, my gaming was pretty much restricted to Airfix plastics and the occasional lead Minifigs figures. The nearest I could get to these eighteenth century armies were the American War of Independence figures put our by Airfix. But they just didn't quite capture the rococo style and flair of the uniforms of the European wars of the mid-century, that were so much part of the reason I loved the illustration in Young and Lawford's book.

Then I found out about a range of relatively cheap 30mm plastic figures in the United Kingdom made by a company called Spencer-Smith. In fact, some of these very same figures featured in the illustrations in the book I so admired. I don't recall where I first heard about this range - possibly in an advertisement in Military Modelling magazine. But I soon sent away an order, and eventually received a padded paper envelope full of the brown soft plastic figures.

Some time round that period I made a trip to Europe, and was lucky enough to be able to fit in a visit to the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt. There I saw a huge diorama of the Battle of Leuthen, made up of thousands of flat figures. Amongst all the white-coated Austrians in the diorama, my eye was caught by the light blue lozenged flags of the Bavarians. This, along with the fact that my uncle is Bavarian, was enough to decide me to paint up my Spencer-Smith figures as a Bavarian Electoral Army.

I used Humbrol enamels to paint my army. The figures were quite crudely cast, so I added extra detailing with a Rotring technical pen. Flags were hand-drawn with felt-tip pens, and glued onto pieces of piano wire. I did some minor conversion work to some of the figures, mainly head-chops where I wanted grenadier caps instead of tricornes (for instance, on the horse grenadiers).

The infantry of my Bavarian army included the following regiments:

- Lieb
- Kurprinz
- Preysing
- Morawitzy
- Clemens
- Minucci
- a regiment of combined grenadiers

Subsequent research shows that I might have got some of the names and colours of the regiments wrong. At that time it was difficult to find research material on this subject, and what little information I could find was often contradictory.

The cavalry consisted of the:

- Taxis Cuirassiers
- Hohenzollern Dragoons
- Empress Horse Grenadiers
- Locatelli Hussars

There was also a battery of grey-coated artillery (which unfortunately I cannot find, as they were kept in a separate box).

I know some people are going to ask me what rules my Spencer-Smith army was based for. Well, I'm afraid to say that I don't remember exactly. It might have been for Wargames Research Group rules, which I believe were popular around that time. However, I think that this army never really took to the wargames table very much at all, as I didn't get the chance to play that many games over this period.

The command stand of the Preysing regiment. Note the rather crude moulding of the figures, and the detailing drawn in with a technical pen.

My Bavarian army marches into battle, led by its officers and supported by cavalry. The infantry regiments have sixteen figures, mostly based in lines of four, with a few singles for easy casualty removal.

From left to right, the Clemens, Morawitzy and Minucci regiments. The varnish has turned yellow with age, but does give these flags a rather antique look.		I had one regiment of converged grenadiers from all the other regiments in my army. Note the detailing drawn in with a fine Rotring drafting pen on these grenadiers from the Regiment Morawitzy.
Here comes the Preysing regiment. I equipped each regiment with two standard bearers and a couple of drummers. The bases were simply textured with PVA glue and dark green flock.
The massed cavalry march forwards. Spencer-Smith packs had no variation of poses, so the figures in each unit are identical.		The Taxis Cuirassiers were actually mounted officers. I liked the walking pose of this figure, so painted on the cuirasses and demoted them all to heavy cavalrymen.
These Locatelli Hussars look particularly dashing in their pale blue uniforms and yellow boots.		If I recall correctly, I had to do a head-chop to make these Empress Horse Grenadiers. I believe I found the information for this unit in a Funcken book. Note the paint starting to chip off the horse's lower legs.
Although I cannot locate the box of artillery at the moment, I did find this limber. The riders are converted cavalry figures. Note again the use of a drafting pen to add detail. And how have these Spencer-Smith figures aged? Well, most of the paint is still holding out, but the varnish is turning quite yellow. More worrying is the fact that the plastic is turning extremely brittle. I broke two horses off their stands and lost two swords just doing this photo-shoot. I wonder if this brittleness might have anything to do with temperature variations, as I painted some of these troops whilst working in Antarctica for a season (making them surely the southern-most wargames army in the world). They do look very old-fashioned and toy-like compared to their more modern brethren in my display cabinet, even though their anatomical proportions are probably more correct. I doubt they will ever see a wargames table again, but they do bring back a great deal of nostalgia. For those who like the look of these old school wargaming figures, you'll be pleased to know they are available again, though in metal rather than plastic. Visit the Spencer-Smith website to find out more. There is also a YahooGroup dedicated to old school wargaming. Back to top

www.fusiliers.net