This is a bit of a long read that describes how three large collections of 40mm Napoleonics – one of them was my own – are finally coming together in the United States after a rather sad journey. I hope that you enjoy reading it. It's taken from my blog.
Lee.
Regular followers here will recall I'm sure the collection of 40mm Peninsular War Napoleonics that I purchased from Andy Copestake of Old Glory UK just after I moved to Spain back in early 2018. At the time I was looking forward to being able to enjoy the large scale as I had the space for them and once they arrived on the Costa Blanca in the boot of my Son in Law's car I started work on enlarging the collection. This involved my wife and family carrying heavy packages of metal soldiers through customs on a regular basis, much to the amusement of Customs Officers!
A couple of years later and we had decided that life in Spain was not for us and we decided to return to the UK. Lovely as it was living on the side of a mountain looking across the orange groves towards the Mediterranean twenty minutes drive away we had started to miss being around our family and to be honest I was quite homesick. I loved the Spanish people, the weather and the laid back lifestyle but I was missing Blighty. So again we sold up and thus ended what I refer to now as 'The Spanish Campaign'.
The now much expanded collection – over 400 painted figures – travelled back again this time in the boot of my car along with my wife the dog and the cat. When I eventually unpacked them it became clear that there was no way I was going to be able to use or even just display the figures as I had in Spain, so I made the decision to let them go to a new home where they would be enjoyed and played with.
I put the word out and was contacted by Daniel Peterson in the United States who was extremely keen to add them to his existing 40mm collection that he had acquired from Australia, and was more than happy to cover the high shipping costs involved. I agreed, but then found that the stress and worry of shipping 400+ valuable 40mm painted figures overseas, many of them multipart with separate heads etc was more than I cold cope with. I informed Dan, who understandably was not entirely happy but accepted my decision.
By this time I was in regular contact with Graham Cummings and Ian Smith (prolific 40mm collector). Graham was keen to buy my collection and the figures were duly packed up for the short overnight courier delivery which was a 48 hour fully insured service. Despite the time and care I had taken to pack them within a large container clearly marked Fragile they arrived with the box bashed in at one corner. Luckily there was very little overall damage once Graham had unpacked everything, a few lost heads and bent weapons mostly. I offered to supply replacement painted heads, ( I must admit I was somewhat devastated when Graham sent me photos of the interior of the container), and all was restored in next to no time. Graham, in his usual easy going way, just plodded through the minor repairs and was delighted to be the new owner with plans to expand even further. Shockingly Graham passed away a few weeks ago following a very sudden illness.
Last week I was surprised to receive an email from Dan in the States telling me that he had finally acquired the collection that he had tried to purchase from me several years ago. Dan had spotted them on eBay being sold by a Military Bookstore in York following Grahams death, and placed the winning bid, apparently there were very few bids on them. So the figures are now in the States alongside his existing 40mm Peninsular war collection, but the story does not stop there!
Sadly Ian Smith had also passed away a couple of years ago, again following a short illness. Ian and I had corroborated on a 3D print project to produce a set of resin RHA crew in 40mm scale and as a result I got to see lots of his wonderful collection. When Ian was planning his amazing Sharpe meets Hornblower display game (see video below) he asked me if he could buy my French 2nd Hussars. There were 16 of them beautifully professionally painted – not by myself I hasten to add – and as he offered me a straight £20.00 GBP per figure for them I let them go. To be honest it was as much the thought of them being involved in that game as much as anything else that persuaded me to sell them. I replaced them with 16 Chasseur a Cheval that I painted myself and they were part of those sold to Graham. The 2nd Hussars can be seen thundering across the bridge in the video, Ian had replaced the swords and added a little more animation work before he passed away. The game was eventually put on as a memorial by his friends and won 1st prize, a fitting tribute.
So last week Dan also informed me that he is in the process of purchasing Ian's entire Peninsular war collection including the terrain boards and two waterline ship models that I know were his pride and joy from his Son. Dan's plan is to house everything in a permanent room and then to tour the game around the States to wargame conventions. So three 40mm collections will have shortly come together, one from Australia (Dan's original collection), and two from the Uk. I must admit we did have a joke about The Curse of the 40mm's but Dan said he will take his chances!
I hope you enjoy reading this and with luck you guys in the States will get the opportunity to see this in person in the future.
Below are a couple of shots from my collection including a couple of close ups of the French Hussars and a link to the Ian Smith memorial game at Partizan.
And their new home to be :)
Finally a link to the Partizan game in memory of Ian Smith.
link
