The Military Workshop
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2005
- Messages
- 4,778
Andy and Helen’s Trip to Ausralia
Hi guys,
Time for me to provide some information about Andy and Helen’s visit and drop a few hints as to what he said about forthcoming releases and over time include many photos.
A&H arrived on the Thursday and came to the shop where my wife, Gerelou, was “holding the fort” .My wife surprised me by knowing Gordon’s wife Sue from the late 1980’s. In those days King and Country was located in Wyndham Street in Central, Hong Kong. Gerelou worked next door in a furniture shop called Anabelles. She is from the Phillipines as is Sue and naturally they got along. That was K&C’s first shop before moving to Pacific Place.
After a visit to the shop we took A&H to the city centre for a quick look at the statues in ANZAC Square and then up to Mount Cootha for the view over the city. Then it was off to Hog’s Breath for a dinner and then the Hotel.
On the Friday I put them to work in the shop unpacking my latest shipment of K&C and re-arranging my displays. Andy re-did the WWI diorama (on Simmo’s custom base) and a dio of WWII US V German forces again on a Simmo base. We moved the Berghof to a new location.
I have a personal collection of leaders on display including retired ones (if anybody has a spare Kuribashi I am still looking for one). When I looked at it later in the day I was horrified to see Andy had helped himself from there when re-arranging my displays ! I had to rescue the retired guys from the various displays before my eagle eyed customers started trying to buy them.
We were ably assisted by Kiwi and Howard. Kiwi re-did my Napoleonic display and it was a vast improvement upon my previous efforts. There will be photos of the displays (I was even thinking to Ebay the whole Andy dio with photo – just joking Andy !!!).
The first customer to come in when Andy was here was the Scottish wife of a ex British army guy now in the Australian Army. She was picking up 2 EA bagpipers for her husband who had been away on a big exercise up north. So he was the lucky one to get the first boxes personalised by Andy.
Throughout the day more collectors came in to meet A&H and I think he would have been talking non-stop from about 1 - 8pm. He met a good variety of collectors and some Treefroggers and some non-toy soldiers collectors who happened to come in.. I am happy to report Andy survived meeting Simmo and they got on very well (as I knew they would !). Whilst Andy may not be able to meet everybody’s wish lists he is happy to know they are interested. He had a good chat to all who came in. Helen had a good chat to a regular, Jeanette, who collects SOHK and has made 13 trips to Hong Kong !!! This was followed by a small group of us having a Chinese dinner near the shop.
On the Saturday we went to History Alive, a re-enactment show that features Romans, Medieval, Napoleonics, WWI and WWII and Vietnam.
Unfortunately the number of re-enactors were down due to a major Army exercise and other clashing events. The 1/1 scale German halftrack owned by one of my collectors was not present due to real war games with US forces going on and the owner being involved in those. The Light Horse were at another event with most of the Civil War guys.
The location was Fort Lytton which was built after the Crimean War (1854) when Australia thought the Russians were coming. It has disappearing guns and protected the river. See images at http://members.iinet.net.au/~cryanaj/fort/tour.html
Throughout the day we met various groups. One was the WWII Italian re-enactors and all I can say is that Andy showed them something that made them happy. We got some good photos with various groups and vehicles etc. which will be posted. Met up with OzDigger at the show.
After the show we went back to the shop for a last minute panic whilst I got final bits ready for the dinner. Dinner was a sit down three course meal at the Returned Services League club about 200m from the shop.
We had 30 at the dinner including 6 wives who also seemed to enjoy themselves (or are good at pretending !). Dinner was followed by an introduction by myself followed by an informative talk by Andy.
Andy covered his background in Scotland, the Royal Marines, short time in the Royal Hong Kong Police and defection to the Civil Service (for which he tripled his pay ! – incidentally he reminded me that in those days an Inspectors starting pay was about HK$2,400 or about US$310). He then mentioned his pubs (Mad Dogs and Joe Bananas) and the start of K&C with due credit to Laura his first wife for the idea. He said the series which had the most influence in getting his brand known was the original Arnhem series.
His story about his first US show was interesting. He and Laura set up at Chicago (I did not make a note of the year but I think this would be the year before Arnhem series). He mentioned in those days they could not accept credit card or cheques and at the end of the day their pockets were full of cash. However during the show he noticed that there was massive interest at another traders tables and went over to look. It was Frontline with a great display of Charge of the Light Brigade with assorted cavalry, artillery and infantry. Andy said he was impressed (and depressed !) at how well they had done the series and that night was already thinking how he could make a similar impact. That was when the Arnhem and matt paint idea was born.
The talk was well received and there were plenty of questions. This was followed by all attendees receiving a K&C denim shirt, a showbag of goodies from me (a Diecast Titanic produced by me, two Dragon 1/72 tanks and some coasters) and copies of sketches drawn by Andy. For those interested the sketches were of the Aussie officer from EA03, a US Army Sgt that looks like Bogart, Galland and Molders and three Napoleonic figures.
For those who want detail he ate the steak and the pavlova but I forget which soup ! (It should also be noted that at breakfast he did eat Vegemite !)
There were again plenty of photos taken which will be uploaded here once sorted from different cameras (Oz or Simmo please note I need some help as not quite worked out photobucket).
The following morning we visited a small military museum in Brisbane before fling off to Canberra. Cold and raining when we arrived. We stayed at the Olims Hotel 5 minutes walk from the War Memorial.
(more to come in next post in about half an hour).
Regards
Brett
Hi guys,
Time for me to provide some information about Andy and Helen’s visit and drop a few hints as to what he said about forthcoming releases and over time include many photos.
A&H arrived on the Thursday and came to the shop where my wife, Gerelou, was “holding the fort” .My wife surprised me by knowing Gordon’s wife Sue from the late 1980’s. In those days King and Country was located in Wyndham Street in Central, Hong Kong. Gerelou worked next door in a furniture shop called Anabelles. She is from the Phillipines as is Sue and naturally they got along. That was K&C’s first shop before moving to Pacific Place.
After a visit to the shop we took A&H to the city centre for a quick look at the statues in ANZAC Square and then up to Mount Cootha for the view over the city. Then it was off to Hog’s Breath for a dinner and then the Hotel.
On the Friday I put them to work in the shop unpacking my latest shipment of K&C and re-arranging my displays. Andy re-did the WWI diorama (on Simmo’s custom base) and a dio of WWII US V German forces again on a Simmo base. We moved the Berghof to a new location.
I have a personal collection of leaders on display including retired ones (if anybody has a spare Kuribashi I am still looking for one). When I looked at it later in the day I was horrified to see Andy had helped himself from there when re-arranging my displays ! I had to rescue the retired guys from the various displays before my eagle eyed customers started trying to buy them.
We were ably assisted by Kiwi and Howard. Kiwi re-did my Napoleonic display and it was a vast improvement upon my previous efforts. There will be photos of the displays (I was even thinking to Ebay the whole Andy dio with photo – just joking Andy !!!).
The first customer to come in when Andy was here was the Scottish wife of a ex British army guy now in the Australian Army. She was picking up 2 EA bagpipers for her husband who had been away on a big exercise up north. So he was the lucky one to get the first boxes personalised by Andy.
Throughout the day more collectors came in to meet A&H and I think he would have been talking non-stop from about 1 - 8pm. He met a good variety of collectors and some Treefroggers and some non-toy soldiers collectors who happened to come in.. I am happy to report Andy survived meeting Simmo and they got on very well (as I knew they would !). Whilst Andy may not be able to meet everybody’s wish lists he is happy to know they are interested. He had a good chat to all who came in. Helen had a good chat to a regular, Jeanette, who collects SOHK and has made 13 trips to Hong Kong !!! This was followed by a small group of us having a Chinese dinner near the shop.
On the Saturday we went to History Alive, a re-enactment show that features Romans, Medieval, Napoleonics, WWI and WWII and Vietnam.
Unfortunately the number of re-enactors were down due to a major Army exercise and other clashing events. The 1/1 scale German halftrack owned by one of my collectors was not present due to real war games with US forces going on and the owner being involved in those. The Light Horse were at another event with most of the Civil War guys.
The location was Fort Lytton which was built after the Crimean War (1854) when Australia thought the Russians were coming. It has disappearing guns and protected the river. See images at http://members.iinet.net.au/~cryanaj/fort/tour.html
Throughout the day we met various groups. One was the WWII Italian re-enactors and all I can say is that Andy showed them something that made them happy. We got some good photos with various groups and vehicles etc. which will be posted. Met up with OzDigger at the show.
After the show we went back to the shop for a last minute panic whilst I got final bits ready for the dinner. Dinner was a sit down three course meal at the Returned Services League club about 200m from the shop.
We had 30 at the dinner including 6 wives who also seemed to enjoy themselves (or are good at pretending !). Dinner was followed by an introduction by myself followed by an informative talk by Andy.
Andy covered his background in Scotland, the Royal Marines, short time in the Royal Hong Kong Police and defection to the Civil Service (for which he tripled his pay ! – incidentally he reminded me that in those days an Inspectors starting pay was about HK$2,400 or about US$310). He then mentioned his pubs (Mad Dogs and Joe Bananas) and the start of K&C with due credit to Laura his first wife for the idea. He said the series which had the most influence in getting his brand known was the original Arnhem series.
His story about his first US show was interesting. He and Laura set up at Chicago (I did not make a note of the year but I think this would be the year before Arnhem series). He mentioned in those days they could not accept credit card or cheques and at the end of the day their pockets were full of cash. However during the show he noticed that there was massive interest at another traders tables and went over to look. It was Frontline with a great display of Charge of the Light Brigade with assorted cavalry, artillery and infantry. Andy said he was impressed (and depressed !) at how well they had done the series and that night was already thinking how he could make a similar impact. That was when the Arnhem and matt paint idea was born.
The talk was well received and there were plenty of questions. This was followed by all attendees receiving a K&C denim shirt, a showbag of goodies from me (a Diecast Titanic produced by me, two Dragon 1/72 tanks and some coasters) and copies of sketches drawn by Andy. For those interested the sketches were of the Aussie officer from EA03, a US Army Sgt that looks like Bogart, Galland and Molders and three Napoleonic figures.
For those who want detail he ate the steak and the pavlova but I forget which soup ! (It should also be noted that at breakfast he did eat Vegemite !)
There were again plenty of photos taken which will be uploaded here once sorted from different cameras (Oz or Simmo please note I need some help as not quite worked out photobucket).
The following morning we visited a small military museum in Brisbane before fling off to Canberra. Cold and raining when we arrived. We stayed at the Olims Hotel 5 minutes walk from the War Memorial.
(more to come in next post in about half an hour).
Regards
Brett
