About Me

My photo
No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

S is for Spencer Smith Part 2; Lose Ends

Ooh...Tudor Rose appear on the scene, dont'cha love 'em, No? Wrong blog mate, move along please, keep browsing, move along - nothing to see here!! Ammo re-supply squad wait for orders while something vaguely resembling a 25lbr fires in support of the assault.

Tudor Rose armoured car providing a bit of a stiffener for the guys holding the crossroads, wagons are from various sources and the hedges are all Merit (J & L Randall).

Comparison between Starlux (on the left) and Reisler (3rd from the left), the Spencer Smith figure is a little below the 30mm of the other two. I gave the Hotchkiss it's correct crew! They - perversely - are too small!!

Origins; Mr Smith almost certainly didn't have permission to copy the HE figures in the way he did, and it's probably only the fact that by the time Spencer Smith flourished (late 1960's - mid 70's) Holgar Eriksson was so well known and well regarded he didn't care, also he (H.E.) was known to avoid the limelight and a court/piracy case would have entailed publicity, I don't know?

Anyway, Smith copied from all over Eriksson's oeuvre, as can be seen here, the grenade thrower comes from the 40mm Comet range, the kneeling artilleryman is an HE original with a head swap, the ammo-Carrier was an ANZAC once! And the advancing figure was one of Eriksson's favorite poses, the 20mm one is Comet/Authenticast from the States, while the larger one is an HE figure. Meanwhile he was copying ACW and AWI/7YW figures (which will be covered another day) from the SAE range from South Africa! Also to get a day of their own in the limelight.

Smith put generic heads on most of them (Sort of half-way between the British Mk 3/5 piss-pot I had to wear in the 80's and the American M1), but a couple do have the 'Brodie'/British Mk 2 type helmet, most noticeably the kneeling firer.

No comments: