Gentlemen, thanks for all the kind comments. Tom, Howard, Hans, Tim, Clive, Andy, Gordon, Kevin, we wish you were here. The "mystery guest" sadly did not materialize. It was good friend and wonderful author Norman Joplin, who very much wanted to join us, but was unable to due to health issues.
Now for the Saturday Afternoon report (the Saturday evening report will follow in a second post). I have 31 photographs of the Satarday festivities, and I think Brad leaves today for a business trip, so anyone who wants to volunteer to post the photos, please let me know.
Saturday afternoon at my house was wonderful. We had great weather, upper 50's and sunny. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my beautiful wife Meredith, who ordered and picked up the food, set it out, and made the buffet in the dining room beautiful.
The first guests to arrive were Al and Sandy of "Alsand Toy Soldiers", a local toy soldier shop here on Long Island. Other than a slight bit of clumsiness by Al (who accidentally removed the barn door from the Hudson & Allen barn - good thing the Osens were arriving to remedy the situation) it was an absolute pleasure to finally meet them. Our good friend Currahee Chris arrived soon after with his lively and understanding wife Jill. What a terrific couple! Chris, making your acquaintance was the high point of the weekend for me. Joy Roy (Ghostrider) soon joined the fun, as did Rich Schuster (NYtoysoldiers), Mark Hoffman, Charlie Zucker, and our guests of honor, Richard Walker (in his case I use the term "honor" loosely -:tongue
Ken and Erika Osen. Morgan Hoffman and Chuck Karen (Evilchuck) were the last guests to arrive.
While the guests of honor set out their displays on the rear banquette, everyone took a tour of my collection. When everything was set out, we all went downstairs and had a wonderful lunch catered by Deli on the Green, including a 3 foot hero, half Italian and half American, potato and macaroni salads, cole slaw, pickles, a fresh fruit platter, a cookie platter, and crudite. Ken, Erika, Chris and Jill took advantage of the weather, and ate on the wicker furniture on the front porch overlooking the harbor.
We went upstairs, and listened to wonderful presentations by Richard, Ken and Erika, telling their history in the industry (I had no idea that Richard lived in Hong Kong and painted masters for K&C back in the 90's, including the "Les Miserables" set), educating us on the various sculpting and casting processes, illustrating their talk with samples of sculptings made from wax as opposed to epoxy, and various castings, some of which were for soon to be released Britains figures. During the talks, Richard presented the sponsors with Britains golf shirts and figures tailored to our interests, and Ken and Erika presented us each with a one of three custom diorama with a building unique to the diorama on a cobblestone street in Normandy. Ken and Erika were also kind enough to present Chris, a veteran, with a small diorama to thank him for his service. We all then relieved Ken and Erika of the samples of the dioramas and buildings they had brought. I purchased the Stalingrad Factory and promptly peopled it with First Legion Germans and Russians, as well as a walled garden diorama to use in the back corner of my airfield diorama.
Afterwards, Ken, Erika and Richard went off to tour Richard Schuster's magnificent collection, and Chris, Jill and I retired to porch to enjoy some Tyrconnell Single Malt Irish Whiskey as well as the weather. After a while we returned to the living room to spend some time chatting with my wife, then toured the collection again with latecomers Morgan and Chuck. We all then left for Larry's restaurant in the city, but that is the subject of another post . . . :wink2: