Small unit action

Toy soldiers and wargaming have always been closely associated and while it’s arguable you can game with miniatures of any size, the limited space available for table-top campaigns has typically resulted in the use of sub- 54mm figures. Spencer Smith Miniatures has been serving the wargaming hobby for more than six decades. TSCI’s George Phillips spoke to proprietor, Peter Johnstone, to learn more about the company and its outputs…

- Peter Johnstone

Eponymously named after its founder, Ronald Spencer Smith, Spencer Smith Miniatures (SSM) was founded 1959 and began to market 30mm plastic figures designed by Holger Eriksson of Sweden. The product range included 18th century infantry and militiamen, American Civil War (ACW) Wild West figures, Napoleonics and modern army.

Surprisingly for a man who had gone to the trouble of establishing a commercial enterprise centred on toy soldiers, Spencer Smith wasn’t particularly interested in military modelling or wargaming.

“He worked as a sales rep. for W. Britain at the time, so he felt he knew something of the industry,” explained Peter Johnstone, the current proprietor of SSM. “His real motivation was to send his son to private school, so the income from the new venture was used exclusively to pay school fees.”

Waterloo anniversary

“The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo fell in the summer of 1965 and around that time, there were also quite a large number of wargamers and military modellers in the USA. So Spencer Smith’s marketing of his ACW, Napoleonic, and American War of Independence period sets was very well judged. The modern army figures also fitted in well with the diecast military models produced by Dinky toys.

“Ronald used to advertise in the long forgotten, but much loved, Wargamers Newsletter,edited and produced by Don Featherstone and subsequently by Roy Maitland of Tradition.”

In the early 1970s, Spencer Smith added a ‘Connoisseur’ range of hard plastic American War of Independence figures to its catalogue. “These beautiful little figures were sculpted by Barry Minot and we still make them, though now in metal,” Peter said.

Sowing the seed