What the interior of twenty year old Honda Civic (luckily with five doors!) when full to the rafters with WW2 goodies looks like! For the record I could see out the rear view mirror over the 1944 British Armour….
And from the side - you can just about make out the box of unpainted figures on the front passenger seat!
As I type this the collection is still in the car and so will be unpacked at lunchtime and transported into the man cave for a proper sort out. There were a few surprises - not least of which was a further box of Ottoman Turkish bits and pieces that were missed off from the original haul.
This is going to be a significant undertaking and so I will be spending some time organising and re boxing a lot of it into something more manageable. There appears to be quite a lot of Corgi die cast vehicle, some items of terrain, some large calibre artillery and more rear echelon and support stuff than could shake a large stick at!
There are troops from either end of the war including French, Germans, Poles, Belgians, Russians, Americans and British (including the 14th army for Burma). Plenty to be getting on with then!
16 comments:
All the very best, David - you are a hero.
Strewth.
Hello there MSFoy,
This will be a voyage into the unknown in many ways because I at least had a degree of familiarity with Eric’s 18th century stuff!
Bill said pretty much the same so I best dust off my cape and head to infinity and beyond….
It will be a bit of a Howard Carter experience for sure!
All the best,
DC
Taking care of another wargamer's collection is always a daunting task - esp deciding what to do with it all.
There might be some true gems or collectibles in there, but the bulk usually is "generic stuff". Then there are all sorts of odd bits that have meaning or a purpose for the original owner, but are total junk to others.
But sorting through it all can be fun exercise by itself!
Blimey, when you see it all packed into the car, you really do get an idea of just how much WWII stuff there is. Maybe I should show this to SWMBO as my lead pile pales into insignificance next to all of this! Good luck sorting this out and although completely the wrong scale for me, I shall still enjoy your posts on what you find:).
Hi Phil,
I had a conversation along similar lines with Bill after we had loaded the car and were sipping a cold beer! Without a doubt there is some items of dubious value within the collection and in truth much of it is generic but there are a few gems in there for sure.
As you rightly say, sorting through it is a fun exercise in its own right! My first priority though, is to transfer it all from the car to the loft for sorting out.
All the best,
DC
Hi Steve J,
Up to a point it is worse than it looks as Eric seemed to go by the Amazon school of packing - there are some large boxes with not very much in them and smaller boxes that are over filled!
Once I have had a chance of a proper sort out and tidy up it should (in theory) be a whole lot less daunting!
20mm is a good scale and if I ever tackled WW2 would probably opt to do so in this scale - memories of Charles Grant’s Battle: Practical wargaming are for the most part positive so it could be fun.
All the best,
DC
David,
It looks like you have quite some task ahead of you!
I wish that I could offer to help, but I live too far away to be of much use to you.
All the best,
Bob
Hi David- Yes, seeing your car packed to the rafters with Eric's Collection shows just how much one person can gather in a life time- my own WW2 Collection is very small by comparison- though in one Month I've gathered quite a bit up till now. Charles Grant's 'BATTLE' Book is what got me started on my WW2 Project - a total inspiration for sure is 'BATTLE' as is the works by Donald Featherstone on WW2. Have fun sorting Eric's Collection. Best Wishes. KEV.
Hi Bob,
It will quite an undertaking to sort through the boxes and to bring some order to the chaos! Your help would have been invaluable but I am hoping to have it sorted by September at the latest. Of course any oddities that appear (knowing Eric there will be a few of these!) I will be pinging you pictures of so you will be involved, albeit at a distance!
All the best,
DC
Hi Kev,
When Eric set his mind to something he certainly went all out at it! I believe that he used Rapid Fire for his games - certainly the organisational charts he has included would bear that out. It will be fun and who knows? I may even have a dabble myself!
All the best,
DC
That's quite a job you have on your hands! Hope it will be fun, anyway and I look forward to seeing what you discover. 'Keep Calm, and Carry On'..
Hello there Mr B,
It is definitely in the realms of Howard Carter! There are some very nice bits and pieces in the collection and I was surprised at the amount of unpainted kit although knowing Eric I should not have been really!
All the best,
DC
To put things in perspective, you could probably fit my whole collection (inc terrain) in the front passenger seat and footwell. 😄
Good luck with the sorting and disposals.
Hello there nundanket,
I reckon I am in the same boat in that respect although the ships amd block armies may take up a little more - perhaps the back seat and footwell!
I made a start on the sorting last night - merely sorting the boxes into nationalities - which was a great help. The plan is to get the nationalities in order first and then pack them away so that I can work on one at a time. In each case the first order of business will be to separate out the unpainted stuff for disposal so all that will be left will be the painted kit.
It is going to be a mammoth task but once you get into it is easy enough.
Famous last words? You may think that….I couldn’t possibly comment….:-)
All the best,
DC
Wow… That is certainly a car load of toys…
I bet your were glad it wasn’t all metal.
I’m curious to see what your archeological dig discovers.
All the best. Aly
Hi Aly,
There is everything from Airfix figures through to die cast metal via resin and even some old bellona gun emplacements - the original rubber style! The latter are in pretty poor shape as they have solidified and are very brittle.
There are some great bits and pieces in this lot and I will have a better idea once I crack open the boxes.
All the best,
DC
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