Copyright 2006 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
Maybe they are not true military miniatures, but spy movies often have a cadre of special troops. They are usually performing guard duty, manning an installation or protecting the perimeter. These paramilitaries are common in James Bond movies. Fans of The Man From Uncle might remember that the inimical Thrush organization also had units of uniformed troops.
There were two styles of uniforms. Dr. No, Goldfinger and a few other films featured guards in Chinese type uniforms. Dr. No’s guard wore khaki fatigues with caps similar to those of the World War II Japanese army. Goldfingers Chiense alliweswork grayish fatigues with black and gold sashes, white socks, low black shoes, and Chinese-type fatigue caps.
The others usually had Western type uniforms. A typical example was the Thrush uniforms: blue-grey fatigues or coveralls, a black beret and black belts. Officers wore epaullettees reminiscent of a German Wehrmacht Leutnant’s. In You Only Live Twice, the cadre wore white uniforms with black belts and white construction-type helmets.
Standard Khaki: khaki fatigues, black boots. They either wear a khaki cap or a white helmet. Belts and gear are brown or black leather. (A black beret was sometimes used in Mission Impossible espisodes.
Blues: dark blue uniform or coverall. Black boots. They normally have white helmets, black or white belts and gear. Boots are black, or black with white leggings. The legging is usually the British cuff type. It is best to sue solver helmets with white belts, and white helmets if belts and gear are black.
Greys: a lighter uniform with black belts and boots. Helmets can be black, silver or white. Uniforms range from a dark mostly blue blue-grey to pale grey.
Whites: uncommon type in white uniform or coveralls with black belts and gear. Helmets might be the construction type, as per 007. Usually they are silver or black military types.
Brights: men in orange or red. Usually it’s coveralls instead of fatigues. Boots are black. Belts and gear may be black or white. Helmets are white or silver.
Berets – Thrush agents wore black berets, and that color is common for most enemy troops. Red or blue are unusual ciolors for enemy forces, and green is never used by the bad guys.
Caps: these may be the baseball-type cap, standard GI cap or caps based or Asian style. Caps are usually in the uniform color. You could get away with white caps for Blues and Greys. Black would be passable for Brights. It would be too much for Whites, however.
Kepis: Marx made toy Thrush figures wearing the hard type fatigue cap or kepi. These would likely have been the uniform color. Howevetr, a black kepi would have worked for Thrushees, Blues and Greys.
Officer caps: the standard saucer-shaped overseas cap would have a black brim. Though usually made in the uniforms color, white may be worn by higher-ranking commanders.
Helmets are either construction helmets with a brim on front or standard American steel helmets. German stalhelms were used in some shows in the early 1960s.
Weapons: The standard weapons of these armies are pistols and submachine guns. Thrush agents used a German Luger pistol and a curiously-fitted carbine with a foregrip, much like the 1928 Thompson. It also had a silver-colored telescopic sight and a spotlight. Uncle Agents used an unusual carbine made with their P38 pistols. A clip-on barrel, forestock and sight turned the pistol to a carbine.
Other spy movies used conventional weapons. Pistols were usually M1911 Colt .45s or P-38s. The enemy paramilitaries tended to carry submachine guns. Among thiose favored wierethe US M3 “grease gun”, German MP40 “Schmeisser”, British Sten and Sterling submachine guns. (Bond’s British Paramilitaries favored the Sterling. Too.) Weapons were either bright steel or black.
Grenades, if used, were of the canister or “pineapple” type.
Rank was always displayed as epaulettes.
Belts and webbed gear. With the exception of the sashes worn in “Goldfinger,” the standard gear of a paramilitary is a simple pistol belt, holster and perhaps an ammo pouch. They never wear backpacks, but packs or other gear. Web gear has been used in some movies. The standard is to use leather belts and gear colored black or white.
The good guys’ paramilitaries were either uniformed troops or black-clad commandos. The only difference was the grey ninja of “You Only Live Twice.”
Standard American G.I.s and British Paratroopers, circa 1943 to 1970, can be used to good effect. Use troops who have a minimum of field gear. Spy troops are installation personnel and so do not need field equipment. Troops armed with pistols and automatic weapon are best, especially carbines, bullpups, assault rifles and submachine guns. While weapons like Ak47s and Bergmanns have wood stocks, most of the other weapons are all black.
A note on IM enemy officers: the enemy officers in IMF are loosely based on Eastern European types. Uniforms colors were usually dark blue or gray. I remember one having epaulettes, collar or lapel tabs and red piping. Officers either wore high boots or regularshoes. They usually had black Sam Browne belts with a holster on the left front, like the Germans wore theirs in WWII. Officers wear the overseas “saucer” cap with black brim.
The Man from Uncle, Mission Impossible (the TV series, not the hokey movies) and 007 / James Bond all has spy troops. They were either uniformed members of a spy group, or military personnel. The uniforms were pretty much standard. Most were obviously gotten at the local Army / Navy store.
What did it take to outfit the enemy? For Thrush troops, we found two uniforms. One was a dark green, short-sleeved shirt and trousers with black beret. The shirt had two breast pockets. The color was similar to Tamiya’s “black green.” The other uniform was a blue-gray coverall without chest pockets. A white Thrush patch was worn on the left sleeve. Officers wore a pair of silver braided epaulettes. A simple black belt was worn with either. Both types wore black berets. Footwear is a black laced combat boot.
Two officers from the series wore styled uniforms. One was a German grey officer’s jacket with green collar but no collar tabs. It had braided epaulettes in the German pattern ,and a German officer cap with a stylized N logo for a badge. Other troop wore a grass green jacket with Chinese black collar. The collar markings and jacket piping were red. All wore the gray officer cap with a red band and N logo. The green jacket is reminiscent of a Russian uniform.
Other troops included khaki-clad Military Police. Their white helmets had a wide red strike, and in its center in front was a white star. Under the khaki shirt they wore a black turtleneck with short collar.
UNCLE agents were primarily concerned with Thrush.. IMF and MI6 types met a varied type enemy. IMF was operating in foreign countries, each with its own army. Bond’s MI6 was usually tangling with Spectre. Apparently, Spectre commanders had greater autonomy than Thrush. Uniforms and equipment varied from one operation to another.
The most obvious source of uniforms was the Army / Navy store. Surplus khakis, coveralls and common work uniforms could easily be transformed to suitable military attire for spy foes. Very common were the tan khaki fatigues, offset with any variety of headgear. Black berets, fatigue caps, white army helmets and overseas ‘saucer’ caps in green, tan or white were used. Blue-gray fatigues and coveralls were also common ,as that was the popular color for work uniforms. Occasionally, the spy guys would be clad in basic army green. For exotic countries, surplus stores usually had a stock of foreign army jackets. They could be transformed to unusual uniforms merely by changing the collar devices or epaulettes.
When Hasbro designed GI Joe, they used uniforms from the surplus store. In 1964, the surplus was mostly of Korean war vintage. The Man from Uncle and 007 movies were being outfitted around the same time, and the troops look like something out of the 1950s. IMF troops were a bit more “up to date.” By the 1970s, there was a lot of current surplus.
Enemy officers were cobbled together by adding epaulettes, a cap badge and collar tabs. A common suit could be transformed to a uniform by addition of them, along with a little red piping.
In the early 1960s, the makers of spy movies and television shows were usually on a budget. They had to make a lot of items locally. Among these were the uniforms for enemy troops.
The easiest items to get were the clothes. Most of the available army surplus was Korean War vintage. Khaki tan uniforms were abundant and cheap. Also abundant were cheap work uniforms and coveralls.
What does it take to make a uniforms believable? It helps if you have several people wearing the same clothes, you are well on the way. Fatigue uniforms were standard for soldiers in the 1960s. Khaki tan, live drab and dark blue were feasible. After all, the Army wore olive drab and khaki ,and the Air Force had some blue uniforms.
Of course, the enemy had to look like an enemy. He had to be different. Black berets were one way to accomplish this. Since revolutionaries in Latin America often work black berets, a la Che Guevara, they made the troops look a bit more hostile. Instead of the familiar stripes and bars worn by American commanders, European-type epaulettes were employed. Other marking would have been easy for any props department to cobble together.
Instead of black berets, there were all sorts of other hats. Fatigue caps in various colors, overseas “saucer” caps, garrison caps, construction helmets of white steel helmets would fit the bill. Soviet gear would have been perfect for outfitting an enemy in 1964. However, Soviet gear was difficult to acquire. German gear was getting expensive, too. Military collectors had driven prices skyward.
Spy weapons in the older moves and television shows were standard stuff. James Bond carried a small Berretta 25. The Uncle agents had German p-38s with a flash suppressor on the muzzle. Thrush personnel carried Lugers and M1 Carbines. In between were Colt .45 automatics, Smith and Wesson revolvers, Mauser pistols and any variety of rifles. Submachine guns were common. In at least one episode, Thrush agents used M1929 Thompsons with drum magazines. Others used Stens, Sterlings, M3s and Schmeissers.
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