Playing a game at the club last night I opened the boot of my car and the metal drawer that I keep some of my figures in fell out, turned upside down and scattered 12 squadrons of Marlburian French cavalry on the concrete and gravel garden path.
I have to say I have not been so irritated and upset for years. Took 5 hours to return everyone to their horses, stick on arms and repaint mostly ears and tails.
I've managed to repair all except 1 French Cuirassier who has only 1 arm at the moment.
Surprised you never heard me outside of Dumfries. it was like the bit in Platoon with Willem Defoe!!!!!!!!
It's certainly a lesson I will never forget.

I almost cried when I read this Jim... a place none of use ever want to go but unfortunately some of us have visited over the years.

I think I would have cried Jim!

We had a similar experience many years ago at the SESWC club when my friend Ian McLellan who used to carry all his figures about on large bakers trays tripped on the top step as he was coming out of the club and promptly launched everything into the air. The scene was a bit like a Slowmo shot from a Sam Peckinpah film with everyone around diving to try and catch figures that were bouncing off steps and the pavement with arms, heads and weapons flying everywhere. The whole army, or what we could find of it was shovelled up (litterally) into a bag and was sold on the next B&B at Claymore. Ian couldn't bear to look at the figures again.
A similar incident to yours also happened to AlyM when he was moving house, I still don't know if he has ever looked at his WW2 British Guards armoured brigade since.

The nearest I have come is when driving to the club, some old biddy walked in front of me and during the emergency stop I could hear my figures piling up on top of each other. Fortunately there were only a few casualites but next time I'll run over the old fool, the cars easier to repair.
Cheers
Dave

Because it's easier to go directly from work to the club on Fridays, I took my box of Vikings with me for a skirmish game. So I take the bus, and wary of dropping it I keep my hand on the box all the time, including the moment I have to get off. One finger on the handle and the driver hits the brakes at the last moment and it slips out of my hand and crashes hard ...

I put everything back in order, noted a few broken shields and spears and haven't had the courage to actually open the box and start fixing everything.

The horror, the horror!

Similar, years ago I dropped a 25mm WRG 6th Swiss army I was carrying in a cardboard box. I still havent replaced all the pikes.

We all feel your pain

joe

thanks gents

I almost cried when I read this Jim... a place none of use ever want to go but unfortunately some of us have visited over the years.

I didn't think Dumfries was that bad Jim, but obviously Barry wasn't that impressed!

Glad you've managed to sort most of them out, not good for the blood pressure that sort of stress.

Hope to see you in January if the offer is still on.

Bob

Heart felt sympathies,
Once tipped a battalion of Danes down the stairs,they charged head first , targeting the wifes hand bag and as a secondary objective my newly bulled oxford's. I dont know which upset me more,the loss of 24 bayonets and a repaint, or countless hours in a vain attempt to get the scuff marks of my toecaps.

The morale i think is never to balance a battalion of figures on a glossy cookery book!

Jim (and others),

I also understand your pain. Many years ago I had finished and lovingly painted fifty-some sailing ships. They were in a tray on the table. My springer spaniel jumped up, caught the edge of the tray, which flipped over, dumped the all the ships on the floor, and landed on top of them, dismasting most of the ships and breaking many parts.

That was over twenty years ago . . . and I still don't have the heart to try and repair them so the hulls, masts, sails and various parts just sit in a box . . . and the pain remains.


-- Jeff

1. My lab ate a greek cavalry man once. The whole 28 mm thing.

2. Loaned a Parliament army out to my buddy at a convention. About 200 28mm Foundry and Old Glory minis. He puts the box on the edge of the table an it flips onto the floor. 200 gnarled Puritans ... He felt so bad I couldn't be mad. They were based for DBR. And shockingly they survived with only a few chipped horses tails and one broken pike. Something to say for multi-based models.

Mike B

Years ago one of my cats decided to chew the tails off several 15mm TYW Croatian cavalry (Minifigs). He had managed to carefully extract these, one by one and presumably with some difficulty, from an open backed display unit - in spite of it being set against a wall (there was just a small gap at the side between wall and unit, but clearly not small enough for my dexterous puss).

I only ever found one of the missing horse tails. The lead poisoning doesn't seem to have done him any harm. He was a kitten then and this year he turned 14.

There's a heart breaking story on TMP today about one of the 'Kapiti Fusiliers' in NZ and his entire collection crashing to the ground in the Christchurch earthquake at the weekend. Both his display cabinets pitched forward and hitting the floor - smashing everything