Apparently Barry Hill has passed away too.
I don't now when. Might be years ago?
Barry was the ESSEX stockist at shows.
His stand would be loaded with the Essex blue boxes containing 15mm armies. Very popular back then.
This was through the 1980-1995 period.
He also had a company called Falcon figures UK.
He was based in Wiltshire, with Devizes and Chippenham being his home shows.
He moved to the Philippines and ran a painting business from there.
I don't have much other information but wanted to comment on a man who was a significant part of the wargaming hobby for many years.
martin :)
Barry died of cardiac arrest following complications in Dec 2023, aged 75.
Hi son Barry Hill jr continues the family business. He sculpts still (he did a lot of the Lurkio ranges ) but has moved to digital sculpting now. I don't know about the painting service . It became so hard to sent stuff back and forth to the Philippines following the 2020 duties changes I gave up then .
Fun fact was that Barry snr was the person who came up with the Lurkio monika a long time ago , some Frankie Howard quote .. when the first blog I did was 'a funny thing happened on the way to to forum '
I remember him at shows - the "lurkio" thing probably represents his humour - I recall buying some Falcon sheep and he quipped "are they for the Welsh?" I was a bit slow and puzzled as I hadnt bought any Welsh so replied with a straight answer......☺
I also recall buying the first edition of DBA from him at a show in Newcastle.
He attended a lot with his stock of Essex miniatures until there was a fall out and accusations of piracy.
I still have a lot of Falcon figures in the unpainted pile of shame / opportunity.
Neil
Thank goodness nobody said anything when I bought goats at a show about 10 years ago. That could have led to an arrest in these days of preciousness.
A good chap. Nice to know the story. Thanks.
martin :)