Thursday, 10 August 2017

A Blast from the Past....Part 2


Magnificent figures from a bygone age....

As mentioned in my previous blog post I visited the house of the couple I acquired the three volumes of Miniature Warfare from. Alas the the other bound volumes are not of this magazine - they are instead of Military Modelling. The volumes (again, in binders) are for 1971 and then 1973 to 1985. I shall have a look around to see if anyone would be interested in the same. There is also a large selection of bound copies of the Bulletin - the journal, I believe, of the British Model Soldier Society. Once I have fuller details I will let you all know.

The big news though, is that there is a large number of unpainted plastic Spencer Smith Miniatures - the 18th century types. Of those figures that featured in the War Game by Charles Grant there is roughly some 50 or so of the tricorn wearing cavalry and an indeterminate number of the marching grenadier and centre company types. There is also around a hundred of each of the figures pictured above. I will be getting an exact count soon.

All of the Spencer Smith figures are now available in metal and in my ignorance I thought that only the cruder versions appeared in plastic - certainly not the handsome looking fellows above.

There are also books and Hinchliffe figures to be disposed of and as soon as I have details I will be sure to post them.



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6 comments:

  1. Vintage Wargaming10 August 2017 at 23:26

    David these are the Barry Minot designed Spencer Smith Connoisseur figures- a brilliant find and I am very jealous.

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  2. Simon Quinton 11 August 2017 at 08:55

    They are nice indeed.

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  3. 'Lee.15 August 2017 at 08:59

    Lovely figures and a great find. IN part 1 you mentioned John Tunstil's shop 'Soldiers' in Kennington, we share that early experience as it was a school trip to the Imperial War Museum that incorporated a visit to the shop that got me into model soldiers and wargames. John was a real Gentleman, I have previously described him as having something of the Edward Fox about him, tall and slim with a rich, rather 'plummy' voice. I visited several times, the last time was to sell my Hinchliffe ECW collection of around 400 figures - I would have been about 20 then, late Seventies - and John quoted me a price over the phone then doubled it when he actually saw them, I was delighted! I'm currently re building that collection on my blog as a nostalgia project and the Hinchliffes are as fine as they ever were.

    Lee.

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  4. David Crook15 August 2017 at 09:28

    Hi Vintage,

    I am waiting on finding out how many there are and they will be up for sale in due course. I had no idea that the Barry Minot figures were available in plastic although I know that you can get them in metal.

    All the best,

    DC

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  5. David Crook15 August 2017 at 09:29

    Hi Simon,

    They are very elegant as befits the period methinks.

    All the best,

    DC

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  6. David Crook15 August 2017 at 09:32

    Hi 'Lee,

    I think I only ever visited the shop once and all I can remember was buying a copy of the magazine. This would have been the early 1970s. I may have some ECW Hinchliffe figures from the same source as the plas tics but they are busy being sorted at present. They will be unpainted and if any surface I will let you know.

    All the best,

    DC

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