I love to follow this thread. Everything is great. Congrats Jerry 
Thanks! The scrim is made from tissue paper,
J
Nope,he had more pressing issues,
J
Always has to happen!
J
Well welcome aboard Sir! Yes, there doesnāt look like there are a lot of folks on here yet. Hope that changes.
I thank you for your thoughtful and very kind remarks Sir! You made my day!
J
First off,welcome to the site and your first post. I am honored that I am the recipient! Thanks!
I wonder if your Pop is still living ? If he is please thank him for his service as I am sure many a wounded comrade did when he was in the war helping them survive.
I hope you got to pick his brain about Epsom and any other part of his service ? Lots of Gents from that generation do not like to open up about those times,
J
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Great job jerry , as usual
Thanks buddy,I appreciate it.
J
Yeah great detail painting on the figures especially the wounded soldiers gear on the ground
Beauty Jerry!
Thanks for the kind words. Cool icon on your heading BTW,
J
Thanks man!
J
Thanks bro lolā¦ on the old armorama site (old ??) I used a picture of Patton as my icon so I decided to change it up. Also I am kind of an airborne fanatic; I love airborne subjects and I also went to jump school in ā88ā¦so I figured what the heck
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You probably mentioned it in the past but I forgot, are you using acrylics?
Great mini-vignette JR, are those two figures customised or from sets? 
I use acrylics from Valejo,Lifecolor,AK and Andreas.
J
Both from sets but heavily modified,yes,
J
Beautiful work JR , your figs never cease to amaze !!
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Ok yes I love vallejos
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Firstly, my apologies for the slow response. Secondly, my thanks for your kind words, and welcome.
Sadly, my father passed on a couple of decades ago, he would have been about thirty years old at the time of āEpsomā and there are few of that generation still around ā although a former workmate of mine celebrated his centenary last year with a tandem parachute jump (heād been in the Parachute Regiment, amongst other things including being a Chindit). Iām starting to realise my own age, when I was a kid most of the adults around me had been involved in the war (my mother worked in an Ordnance Factory, her younger brother joined the RAF as soon as he came of age), and there were plenty of WW1 veterans around too. One of my teachers had served in the Royal Navy Coastal Forces, another had commanded a Shore Battery, and a chap at the far end of our road had been RAF Aircrew in Bomber Command. Unfortunately, I did little to find out anything about their stories: the value of the recollections of the common man as opposed to the Great and the Famous doesnāt seem to have been valued as much as it is now.
There is also the reluctance to speak of some events as you mentioned; my father had quite a few tales about his service but they were of the humorous kind. The only recollections of combat were those which took place in Britain; in, or in the vicinity of, establishments selling Alcoholic Refreshmentsā¦ He assured my mother the nearest he came to death during the war was by drowning in the Water Jump at Wetherby Racecourse, into which he had fallen in the dark while drunk; she found this all too credible. He may have omitted the fact he was evading members of the Royal Navy whom he had somehow upsetā¦ When I was older he did confide in me there had been occasions where he had had closer encounters with the Grim Reaper, but even these were recounted (with few exceptions) in an entertaining manner.
More recently I did note veterans did seem to be more open in their recollections as they grew older (or perhaps I became better at listening) and I suspect this was because as the ranks of their contemporaries thinned they found themselves without the support of others who could relate to their experiences. But even then I was reluctant to press them for additional details lest it caused them distress, and my own memory often fails to recall all that I am told, and that irks me.
Remember the Bomber crewman I mentioned earlier? I ended up buying a lock-up garage next to his some years ago, and on one occasion we met there by chance. I asked after his son whom I hadnāt seen for many years, heād moved away from the area. Very well was the reply, his job entailed him travelling all round the world, far further than the old man who had only been as far as North Africa and that briefly. It transpired heād been on a raid on the North Italian border and for some reason had went south rather than going home. It was at that point I ventured to ask what squadron he had been with, and he rattled off three sets of numbers, the first was 49 Sqn, the third I have no recall of because my brain had frozen; the second set of numbers had been ā617āā¦
I later found out he was a member of a crew brought in to replace the heavy losses on āChastiseā, they had inherited Bill Townsends āO ā Orangeā that had been tasked to the Ennepe Dam. The Italian trip had been to the Antheor Viaduct with a 12,000 lb bomb. A month later they were shot down on āSpecial Dutiesā (SOE supply mission) from RAF Tempsford: two of the crew were killed and the rest of them taken prisoner ā except for my neighbour. He was picked up by the Resistance, transported to Paris and thence to Marseilles, then to the Spanish border and a hike over the Pyrenees. There had been clandestine flights from Madrid but these were to cease, he caught the last one but it crashed on take-off with at least one fatality. Again he walked away from the wreck and along with other evaders made it the southern Spanish coast where the crew of a fishing boat were induced (financially?) to ferry them to Gibraltar and he reported for duty there some six weeks after being reported missing.
I hope this little tale gives you some amusement although off topic for this thread and perhaps makes up for my not having any useful information for your āEpsomā project.
Regards,
M
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