King & Country
Captain
- Joined
- May 23, 2005
- Messages
- 5,088
Hi Guys,
First of all apologies for my recent absence from both of the Forums…I’ve got a good excuse I’ve been travelling!
Well to be honest I have been having a whole lot of fun as well – all in the good cause of promoting King & Country.
I left Hong Kong on December 1 to fly to London for the Christmas London Show. What an event! By far the largest UK show ever covering two big halls of the Royal National Hotel in Bedford Square (near where the recent London bombing of the bus was). Lots of familiar faces from Chicago plus a big turnout from mainland Europe as well as the UK itself.
The Neville Clan did a fabulous job of organizing the event and there were plenty of things for every branch of the hobby to see and enjoy.
On the evening of the show afterwards at the Imperial War Museum we had a gathering of the K&C faithful or at least almost a hundred of them for a buffet dinner, a short question and answer from me plus a great talk from Sgt. Major Nick Pettit – one of the most decorated British soldiers since World War Two. Nick is a great guy and one of the bravest bomb disposal experts that have ever served in the British Army.
We also had several former British P.O.W.’s from WW2 including two amazing blokes who had been part of the rearguard at Dunkirk and been captured in 1940 and then been behind the wire for 5 years!
After London I flew to Madrid to see “Del Prado” the Spanish publisher for whom K&C has designed and produced literally millions of toy soldiers. We wanted to discuss some future ideas as well as reviewing our joint existing projects.
From Madrid it was up to Paris to meet Frederic Genard, K&C’s French National Distributor. Fred and his buddy Thierry are frequent visitors to both the Chicago and LA shows and we’ve often talked about visiting Normandy together to see the battlefields and some of the landing beaches. And that’s exactly what we did – in a whirlwind tour. We drove to Arromanches and Port-en-Bessin (where The Longest Day filmed the French Commando attack on the Ouistreham Casino). We walked over Pointe du Hoc where the US Rangers climbed the cliffs to capture the empty gun emplacements.
After that we explored the Battery Longues where the bunkers are virtually intact and still have the original 150mm cannons in place.
Finally we drove to Ste. Mere Eglise the village where elements of the 82nd Airborne jumped into. The village is virtually dedicated to the 82nd and there, on the church tower, was a figure of the US Paratrooper suspended by his 'chute from the tower.
The next day we moved onto Saumur – the home of the French Cavalry and the site of the French Armoured Museum. What a terrific place – the opportunity to see a real Tiger…Jagdpanther…King Tiger and much, much more up close really brings home the power and the scale of these armoured monsters. When you see a Tiger from three feet away you wonder how any Allied tank crew could have stayed cool, calm and collected! At least cool enough to get their vehicle into reverse as quickly as possible.
On the last full day in France Fred hosted a gathering of K&C collectors at his shop – Toy Soldiers Paris – to launch the European release of the British Sherman and the Normandy Farmhouse. And, I hope, a good time was had by all… the champagne was also excellent.
Alas the following day it was off to Charles De Gaulle airport and the 13 hour flight back to Hong Kong and work, work, work.
Now I’m back in the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ and there’s a pile of stuff to get through but hey, that’s half the fun!
Best wishes to one and all,
I’ll write again before Christmas.
Andy C.
First of all apologies for my recent absence from both of the Forums…I’ve got a good excuse I’ve been travelling!
Well to be honest I have been having a whole lot of fun as well – all in the good cause of promoting King & Country.
I left Hong Kong on December 1 to fly to London for the Christmas London Show. What an event! By far the largest UK show ever covering two big halls of the Royal National Hotel in Bedford Square (near where the recent London bombing of the bus was). Lots of familiar faces from Chicago plus a big turnout from mainland Europe as well as the UK itself.
The Neville Clan did a fabulous job of organizing the event and there were plenty of things for every branch of the hobby to see and enjoy.
On the evening of the show afterwards at the Imperial War Museum we had a gathering of the K&C faithful or at least almost a hundred of them for a buffet dinner, a short question and answer from me plus a great talk from Sgt. Major Nick Pettit – one of the most decorated British soldiers since World War Two. Nick is a great guy and one of the bravest bomb disposal experts that have ever served in the British Army.
We also had several former British P.O.W.’s from WW2 including two amazing blokes who had been part of the rearguard at Dunkirk and been captured in 1940 and then been behind the wire for 5 years!
After London I flew to Madrid to see “Del Prado” the Spanish publisher for whom K&C has designed and produced literally millions of toy soldiers. We wanted to discuss some future ideas as well as reviewing our joint existing projects.
From Madrid it was up to Paris to meet Frederic Genard, K&C’s French National Distributor. Fred and his buddy Thierry are frequent visitors to both the Chicago and LA shows and we’ve often talked about visiting Normandy together to see the battlefields and some of the landing beaches. And that’s exactly what we did – in a whirlwind tour. We drove to Arromanches and Port-en-Bessin (where The Longest Day filmed the French Commando attack on the Ouistreham Casino). We walked over Pointe du Hoc where the US Rangers climbed the cliffs to capture the empty gun emplacements.
After that we explored the Battery Longues where the bunkers are virtually intact and still have the original 150mm cannons in place.
Finally we drove to Ste. Mere Eglise the village where elements of the 82nd Airborne jumped into. The village is virtually dedicated to the 82nd and there, on the church tower, was a figure of the US Paratrooper suspended by his 'chute from the tower.
The next day we moved onto Saumur – the home of the French Cavalry and the site of the French Armoured Museum. What a terrific place – the opportunity to see a real Tiger…Jagdpanther…King Tiger and much, much more up close really brings home the power and the scale of these armoured monsters. When you see a Tiger from three feet away you wonder how any Allied tank crew could have stayed cool, calm and collected! At least cool enough to get their vehicle into reverse as quickly as possible.
On the last full day in France Fred hosted a gathering of K&C collectors at his shop – Toy Soldiers Paris – to launch the European release of the British Sherman and the Normandy Farmhouse. And, I hope, a good time was had by all… the champagne was also excellent.
Alas the following day it was off to Charles De Gaulle airport and the 13 hour flight back to Hong Kong and work, work, work.
Now I’m back in the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ and there’s a pile of stuff to get through but hey, that’s half the fun!
Best wishes to one and all,
I’ll write again before Christmas.
Andy C.
. I didn't go to the café, though. It was too busy then.