Prompted by Kelvins post ...

When the Hodders decided to retire back in 2018 I jokingly suggested to Dave Hampson that he might be interested in buying the range. I must admit I was surprised when Dvve thought about it and went ahead - it was something to do in his forthcoming retirement.

Unfortunately things went astray when something called COVID happened - Dave works in construction and was being kept busy. Coupled with various illnesses there were delays and its only within recent time that things have moved on.

(Dave, BTW, is ex RN, with service on, amongst others. Counties, Type 42, and carriers, including the previous 'Ark Royal' [apparently he has a 'carry-on' cameo in 'Sailor']. He's a long term 'collector').

Dave doesn't drive but had plans to bring a 'pre-production' trial batch of mouldings to the Lincoln show where they could have been peer reviewed. Unfortunately there was a rail strike that Saturday and he couldn't make it. I intended to bring the models to the show but, err, I forgot - sorry.

The last three weeks have been a very busy & not easy period and I've not been able to do anything with them. There are some collectors who have been very supportive of this and I will be getting some stuff off to them when I return from a (not-restful) break after the August Bank Holiday.

We have the Liverpool Ship Show coming up on the 23rd Sept - Dave should be there and hopefully we'll have some of his models to sell, alongside John's Miniature Shipyard and, of course, more from the Alec Martin collection!

TH