Wednesday 24 April 2019

250 Years Later....


Foundry 8th army British troops in action

Two hundred and fifty years after my planned 1690 to 1720 historical/imagi-nation style set up for the Balkans sees global encompassing the second world war. What is the connection between the two? Well, once I have finished the disposal of Eric's late 17th and 18th century unpainted lead mountain I will then be tacking a peak of similar scale in the shape of his 20mm WW2 collection.

I had a long conversation with Bill, Eric's son, about the next steps with the disposal plan and we have taken the decision to tackle the WW2 unpainted collection first of all.

When Eric retired and moved to Coningsby he got into WW2 gaming in 20mm in a big way. When I say big way I mean big as in Cecil B. Demille spectacular big - Eric was never one that went for the 'less is more' approach! In real terms it means that I shall be receiving some dozen or so 32 litre crates full of unpainted 20mm metal figures, artillery and vehicles - the latter are mostly metal or resin and metal - for disposal. In true Eric fashion these have been deployed in units and as far as we know at present there is a lot of Foundry in the collection.

In the short term I need to strip out the remaining Front Rank and Foundry elements of the 17th/18th century collection and then organise the remainder into manufacturers so there will crates of Essex, Dixons, Hinchliffe and others. If I tidied up the crates I have I reckon I could condense the remainder down by around a half which is not bad going and of course it save me some space.

Just as well with another 12 crates incoming!

I should mention that Eric's WW2 collection covers the entire war and with multiple armies and theatres represented. I am looking forward to tackling this but it will not be easy if the earlier stuff is anything to go by.

8 comments:

Jim Jackaman said...

Good luck...what a job!

David Crook said...

Hi Jim,

I am enjoying the whole process enormously but it has meant that my own projects have taken a back seat. I owe Eric a huge debt for the support and inspiration he gave me during my formative wargaming years so helping to find a new home for his collections goes some way to repaying this.

It has given me much to think about in respect of what I want to game and so in many ways Eric is still looming large on my wargaming horizon.

All the best,

DC

Phil said...

Fantastic!

David Crook said...

Hi Phil,

It has been a wargaming journey and a half for sure but one that I have, and will continue to, enjoy.

All the best,

DC

Paul O'G said...

WoW - I'm sure Eric will be pleased with the joy his goodies brings to the new recipients

David Crook said...

Hi Paul,

Most certainly! Considering that Eric's 18th century collection has been in deep storage for the best part of thirty years there are some really good bits and pieces contained therein.

It is very pleasing that gamers still have an eye for the older stuff!

All the best,

DC

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Gawd more?

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

Aside from the painted unpainted late 17th ad 18th century armies there is also the unpainted and pained WW2 (of a similar size to the former but with vehicles....), the 1:1200th ships collection covering 1890 to 1945 and then the small matter of Eric’s rather large library.

A lifetimes collection in fact!

All the best,

DC