The Oldest Of The Old. Reading Part 2

When I posted the photos on my blog yesterday I forgot some that were on my phone and on 'A's which he has sent me . Here we see damming evidence of gluttony - my good self in the act of buying a Cornish pasty , on various motorway service stations you find these caravans selling 'Authentic Cornish Pasties' - BUT - I have yet to see one actually open for trading and so when I found this one on our journey down to Reading I felt honour bound to buy one .

Exhibit A !

Those dammed donuts ! , we thought it a jolly jape to buy these, but towards to the end of the box we were a little jaded by their sweet goodness .

'A' with the air of a Early Christian Martyr devouring one of the last donuts.

The highlight of the show for me was a display by John Curry of the original Tony Bath's flats used to illustrate the Ancient battle in Donald Featherstone's  book on wargaming.

These were pirated home casts from some flats that Tony Bath got hold of from friends returning from doing National Service in Germany (there being no way then of buying them commercially from abroad)

They had placed then on a proper 'Old School' type table with slab hills and old fashioned plastic trees.

The famous elephants which caused such destruction in 'The Battle of the Trimos River' in Featherstone's book.

The figures are a fine mix of armies ranging from Ancient Egyptians through to Romans and of course being set in fictional  Hyboria this didn't matter !.

The Roman Onanger stone thrower . The figures were about 30mm and painted in a very plain style with no shading (I suspect using Humbrol or Airfix paints) and mounted on cardboard from boxes.

Around the back of the display were some of the flats from the collection of Deryck Guyler who as well of being a comedy actor from the 1960/70's was a keen wargamer and collector .

Deryck  Guyler , Actor - for our younger viewers.

These had a more detailed paint job and sophisticated basing . Deryck was a founding member of The Society of Ancients , it's first president and an authority on the Roman army. It must be part of my mid-life wargaming crisis that I thought these figures and their display to far out rival any modern offerings at the show.