F is for Four Fine Fusilier Fellows Fearlessly Fighting the French!

Although the core of the problem was a Corsican, and there's clearly eight here!

A Quick box-ticker today; we will be looking at the whole Spencer Smith range over the next week or two, intermittently with other things, and these are the easiest to study, so they were ready first!

Designed by Barry Minot (Greenwood & Ball, Under Two Flags, et al), there are only the four 30mm figure poses in the Napoleonic section of what Spencer Smith called the 'Connoisseur Range', and these are they! Also; I believe these are all mid/late-1990's examples from Peter Johnson in Norfolk rather than the Camberley, Surrey-manufactured originals.

They've changed title or code several times over the many-years of their existence, one disappeared for a while and all four weren't in the current white-metal range, the last time I looked? The significance of the arrows will be clearer in a following post.

Later the same day - Actually they are in metal and now carry a longer code with an 'NPC' prefix, but with three and four having swapped-round! So the above are now NPC1, NPC2, NPC4 and NPC3 standing firing. I'll re-do the table and post it later in this series of articles. Also - Stadden 'junior' [Andrew] had added two new poses depicting the 9th East Norfolk Regiment 1813!

An hour later - No they're not! I've got my numbering wrong on the photo - I'll re do all the images and post correctly tomorrow!

The following day and it's not as bad as it looked for a moment yesterday - that's the trouble with all this re-numbering, it confuses! Anyway; here's an updated image, which now won't tack-on to the AWI one as it has an extra column! I had not angled two arrows correctly, or to the right place, solid-lines are re-numbering from generation to generation, dotted-lines are jumps over generations!

Crude - the officer seems to be wielding a captured Claymore and a carved-wooden pistol! -  but with charm - box-ticked, Evilentity Man signing-off 'till tomorrow!

Listing - Connoisseur Napoleonics Only

Mid 1970’s Production (approximately 1974)

- Bag of 48 Napoleonic British Infantry

Early 1980’s Production (approximately 1981)

- Bag of 30 Napoleonic British Infantry

Press Listings

NB1 - British Battalion Company Officer

NB2 - British Battalion Company Sergeant

NB3 - British Battalion Company Private Standing Firing

NB4 - British Battalion Company Private Standing at the Ready

The 'Old Rectory' Years (circa 1992-96)

Plastic Sample Packs (contents differ)
SP5 - Connoisseur - American War of Independence/Napoleonic (10 AWI, 4 Napoleonic, all foot)

1^st listing, 1991/2

A - Officer, Sword on Hip and Pistol Drawn (Napoleonic British, became N1)

B - Sergeant (Napoleonic British, became N2)

C - Rifleman, Rifle at Waist Level (Napoleonic British, became N3)

2^nd listing, 1995/6

N1 - Officer, Sword on Hip and Pistol Drawn (was A)

N2 - Sergeant (was B)

N3 - Rifleman standing at the Ready (was C, became NPC4)

N4 - Rifleman Standing Firing (became NPC3)

Internet Era Plastic/Metal Changeover Years - 2000's

[Not listed for a decade or so]

Current - June 2017

Metal Only

NPC1 - British infantry officer

NPC2 - British sergeant with half-pike

NPC3 - British infantry firing (was N4)

NPC4 - British infantry standing at the ready (was N3)

Connoisseur Range Specials (designed by Andrew Stadden)

NPC5 - British infantry ensign bearing regimental colours

NPC6 - British colour sergeant with half-pike

Three days after loading it; 'quick box-ticker' my arse!