30mm Spencer Smith SAE figures WW2 Moderns Reviewed

It is interesting to look close up at the 30mm ‘Modern’ or WW2 Spencer Smith / SAE (Swedish African Engineers) figures.

Phil Barker in Know The Game: War Games (paperback, 1976) was not complimentary, in his opinion “Moderns not recommended“, compared to the more familiar plastic (Holger Eriksson designed?) SAE or Spencer Smith figures for the tricorne era Seven Years War and American Civil War figures.

The Spencer Smith ‘Moderns’ in plastic question appear to owe their design and origins to Swedish African Engineers figures, moulds which have survived and been brought into production by Tradition of London (Sweden) via a long sojourn in Madeira. A delightful and curious story retold in my recent post here.

Previously on this 30mm SAE Madeira and Spencer Smith Miniatures subject: https://manoftinblogtwo.wordpress.com/2024/04/07/spencer-smith-miniatures-plastic-sae-30mm-ww2-moderns-figuresy/

Image source: Binn’s Road Railway web image of box set of USA 6GCR Gun Crew

The plastic Spencer Smith / SAE 30mm Modern figures that I have recently acquired are often matched by surviving SAE Madeira moulds / castings.

I shall include photographs of the plastic figures I have alongside the reference metal figures.

* Contemporary – US Infantry 1954 Action

6/A US Infantry, 1954 Action

6A 6-A-5 Troops with SMG – the plastic version is less Grease Gun here, more curved magazine like an AK47.

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* I was slightly puzzled by the changed SMG magazine to curved AK47 type weapon.

6/A US Infantry, 1954 Action

As you see, by today’s standards, these vintage plastics or the original metal 1950s figures are not the worst figures in the world, and certainly have their own vintage charm. “Moderns not recommended” as Phil Barker said?

6/A 6-A-4 Troops with Rifle and bayonet

* 6/A 6-A-3 Troops with SMG and grenade.

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6/A 6-A-2 Troops with Rifle and bayonet

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6/A 6A1 Officer with pistol

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6/B – 6-B-5 – US Infantry, 1954 with ammunition box

More 6B Bazooka Team Figures Standing firing 6B1 and standing loading / guiding instrument 6B2 can be found on the SAE Madeira Tradition of London site.

6/B – US Infantry, 1954 Bazooka 6-B-4

A curious type of sighting or guiding instrument or a loader for a bazooka anti tank weapons?

* The 6B bazooka team together

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6-GCR-3 GCR gun crew US Infantry, 1954 as seen in the SAE box

I have a kneeling plastic gunner that doesn’t have a surviving SAE Madeira counterpart.

The 6GCR Two guns, radar set etc and rest of the gun crew are still available as SAE Madeira figures in metal from Tradition Of London. A present for the future.

6/TM – Trench Mortar Team, Mortar, officer and private

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* The 6TM trench mortar team in position together.

My 6/MG machine gun team or gunner in plastic seems different from the metal lying down version – assuming this is the right kneeling figure for this large HMG?

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A spare unpainted ACW bugler from my 1980s Blue Box gaming time capsule bits and bobs meets a modern USA infantryman from a century later.

L & R. Two similar poses from Poundland £1 for 100 figures, my Pound Store Plastic Warriors almost being the modern Spencer Smith Miniatures plastics figures (central).

Five to six poses per set box or foot figures, three for Cavalry, as fits Donald Featherstone’s descriptions in War Games 1962 /1973

An online search of auction sites reveals the odd carded box set of 6 figures to give an idea of how Featherstone and his generation would have obtained them.

Listed as 6CH Charging – eBay reference screenshot: eBay Seller Found Footage (USA) – Interestingly shows boxed painted and unpainted figures.

A clearer SAE box back c. 1957 from a History Of Wargaming timeline https://public.websites.umich.edu/~beattie/timeline2.html

Various other 30mm SAE box sets or figures such as:

6/FT Flamethrower team,

6/AU Ambulance Unit,

10/SF or SP Military Police figures

7/A US Air Force pilots

are still available whole or in part from SAE Madeira figures Tradition Of London, along with the Auxiliary AU type sets dog handler, TV crew, medic with flag and a set of seated figures for lorry or vehicle modelling (and dioramas?)

The opposition is fairly odd – limited WW2 allies or enemies Britain, Italians, French or Belgians – but there are no listed German infantry for example surviving in the 1950s HE / SAE moulds ‘time capsule’ that is the SAE Madeira range from Tradition Of London.

Research tip: Online auction site archives or Worthpoint often show such figures from past sales.

You can see here from this interesting C&T 2022 auction source photo that the figure poses are recognisably quite stylised as happens with many figures ranges including Peter Laing 15mm, repeated with variations of helmet and webbing etc. for each nationality.

Here in this C & T figure shot you can see Historicals, WW1 and WW2, such as Desert rats and British Infantry, French in WW1 Blue, German infantry, beret figures, marching US Infantry in a recognisable Authenticast / Comet Holger Eriksson semi-flat style marching figure poses (still available but as 40mm Modern Swedish infantry from Prince August)

Fortunately from a skirmish and small tabletop gaming point of view, I can cobble together enough Spencer Smith 30mm SYW/ AWI and Wild West figures as well as ACW figures to make an interesting ‘insurgent’ opposition. This plastic bunch of poses are still made as SAE Madeira mould metal figures.

I hope that you have enjoyed exploring these ‘Moderns’ or WW2 figures that are new ones to me, finally seen after a search of about 40 or more years.

An enjoyable classic vintage Wargames / Toy Soldier nostalgia ‘Rabbit Hole’ to explore …

Blog posted by Mark Man Of TIN, 8 / 9 October 2024

EBay and online screen shots remain copyright of their owners, used here for reference and research purposes.