Hello Barry,
Not been here for a while!
I thought i'd drop you a line regarding a surprise i got at the Derby show this weekend.
I haven't been to a wargames show for a year. Drastic i know.
I had a chat with Dave Thomas and he showed me some absolutely fabulous figures and terrain that brought the years rushing back, with a jolt and a shock. Partly nice and partly, let's say, very annoying and a little upsetting.
I only got a fractured story. But got the jist of how Dave had got this wonderful collection.
Really, seeing it in the flesh after thirteen years, brought back how truly fantastic Paul was as a painter, converter, artist. And gent.
I know the years and memories fade, but the way this stuff was sold on, when it had no right to be flogged that way, has thoroughly angered me. The collection was given 'in trust', to be treasured. I know Paul was my friend but this was one of the collections that was handed over to certain other friends so that they could use, display, or just look at. But absolutely not for these collections to be sold on when they no longer meant anything. In some ways, it's like a private collector loaning an item to a museum and after a while the museum sells the items as their own.
I suppose it was lucky that Dave was offered first refusal. And really, for a pitiful amount of it's monetery worth, let alone the sentimental value. The fact that £100 of the selling price was to be 'given to charity' is neither here nor there. It was not this individual's to sell. It was just as easy to give it to Dave to give back to where it originally came from. Or, indeed, for the original group it was given to to keep and continue to use.
Very many apologies for venting my spleen on your site, but i have to say it soured my weekend a little. I felt i should write, but don't know your private email. So if you want to delete this message, i'll understand. Or, i'll try and rout out the edition of Wargames Illustrated that Duncan put photos of the collection in. Late 90's i think? Then people can have a look at the collection as it appeared way back when.
Apologies to anyone else that has read this and wonders what it is all about.
You might like to know, that the collection of the Sikh Wars get's an annual run out to display at my friend's local Sikh temple. It is always very well received. Paul's splendid Napoleonic French army has also been regularly used in many a SODS club game over the years to. I've thought a few times of bringing it along to one of your weekenders!
Anyways, if the Retreat from Moscow collection is reunited in it's entirety where it was originally left in trust, that'll be good to know. I've also got half a mind to ask for Dave's money back!
Dean
