"Obituary of Steve Ward" Topic

I am not properly qualified to write this obituary.
However in the absence of any other, here it is.

Steve Ward died at the end of 2019. I am awaiting more detail.
Steve was the founder of SDD (Something Different Dioramas).
Steve died of brain cancer, with only a short 2 week warning time.

Here is some background information.
Steve worked as a police officer.
After a very serious crowd assault on him, he retired on medical grounds.
He then started SDD, painting female figurines by Phoenix etc.
In 1983 Steve saw the Peter Pig 1/100th WW2 line and started his own WW2 1/100th WW2 line. After this companies such as Yucca(later QRF) and Skytrex, followed the Peter Pig lead. Much later along came battlefront et al.
Steve made a range of Home guard vehicles in both 1/100th and 1/76th.
Steve worked with PP back in the 1990 by making a range of 15mm pirate ships in resin. He was followed by Opus and Tiger in this venture idea.

Steve later sold SDD and the company eventually ended up as part of Stronghold miniatures in Scotland.

Steve's other great love was 1/43rd scale racing cars.

Steve needs no euphemisms to cover faults. Instead, I can say he was well loved by all he came in to contact with in the gaming world. He leaves 2 great sons (Lewis and Luke) behind.
A lovely man, who added to the world and took so little.

Missed.

martin

RIP … Sorry to hear this.

Nice to see you at WMMS, Martin. Unfortunate that there always seems to be a bit of sad news in the catch up.

Phil

Condolences and prayers

he will be very much missed , a larger than life character with the most infectious laugh .. I will never forget how he used to use Janice to boost sales at shows … :-)

Rest In Peace Steve Ward.

Thank you for your positive contribution to your community and to the hobby

Please extend my condolences to his family and friends. RIP

Gosh dreadful news- I was only just reminiscing with yourself and others about SDD's range of SCW armoured trucks as yesterdays WMMS show too.

Condolences. Sad. I collected all of Steve's 15mm pirate ships and some of his other creations as well. His legacy lives on.

Rest easy,dude. Thanks.

Thanks Martin for your obituary on Steve.

I fondly remember purchasing some SCW vehicles from him when he operated SDD.

Rest In Peace Steve.

Thats really sad news :( I got to know Steve throuh our mutual love of coastal forces modelling and wargaming. He published my first set of naval rules, "Schnellboot", which went on to become "Action Stations", and I ended up designing several of the masters for his 1/600 coastal range, and also a few for his 15mm WW2 range (both ranges now sadly lost to the mists of time) – Oh, and one of the series of starships that he created. Liz and I had several very happy visits to Steve's house in Wolverhampton, it was always a pleasure to spend time with Steve and Janice. Alas when he sold the SDD range we drifted and lost touch, it is so sad to hear of his passing :(

RIP

thanks for posting this

Thanks for letting us know. Sorry for your and our loss.

I got to know Steve in the early 1990s and, as SDD, he did some contract casting for me back in the old Firebase Games days.

I spent a number of interesting visits to his workshop and always came away with some good advice and a few goodies!

Nice bloke, both to deal with as a business and to know socially.

Condolences to the family and RIP Steve.

Heartening to see all the supportive comments here. Thank you. I will pass them on to Steve's family, with thanks

martin

Sad news indeed. Janice and Steve stayed over at our house the night before one of the Newcastle upon Tyne shows. in his SDD days. It was him who initially got me interested in Coastal Forces, Pirates, and 15mm.
I still have the pirates. and his 'Racing Eye' Formula 1 game.
He was inspiring. My condolences to Janice and his sons. He was a great contributor to our hobby.

Very sorry to hear that, but never met the man.

My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

I do have some of his very nice minis though, including his aircraft, Coastal Forces vessels, and a pirate schooner.

I always liked the SDD minis.