Mention of the late Clive Smithers came up in an email exchange this week with a friend, who remembered that around this time of year Clive would have been burning the midnight oil, researching and perfecting one of the celebrated April Fool pranks he used to post on his blog.
I was involved in the skulduggery surrounding a couple of them, my favourite of which was the JRR Tolkien Hoax of 2010. All right, I confess I took a minor role in the construction of the plot, but I was responsible for this photo, which spread far and wide among the online fora of the gullible; the picture is a rather crude assemblage of bits from here and there, the medium was PhotoShop, but the idea was solidly Clive's.
This July will be the 5th anniversary of Clive's passing, which is certainly worth a respectful nod when it comes around. I realise that these have been a hectic few years, but my friend and I were both surprised that it was only 5 years, and we agreed that Clive would have been less than impressed with most of what has happened since.
His family planned to preserve his blogs, and as far as I know they are all still online.
Donjons and Flagons - still makes me laugh! I have a unit of Prussian fusiliers from his collection which I refer to as ‘Clive’s own’.
ReplyDeleteAh yes - shades of Plastidip...? I have some HH Portuguese infantry in the retouching queue which were Clive's - some of them were mine before he had them, but I suspect they are all Plastidipped anyway. No escape.
DeleteI managed to get hold of some of his Spencer Smiths, which came with a whole load of 1/72 plastic AWI.
ReplyDeleteMissed out on some of his inter-war stuff which appeared on eBay.
Neil
Hi Neil
DeleteSome disgruntlement concerning the sale of Clive's collections. It is good that his family got something for them, but the auction was clumsily handled, and many of the items were bought by dealers (or people who try to be dealers), who stuck them on eBay at very hefty mark-up prices.
Yes, I do understand that this is how the market works, but a lot of people looking for a quick profit got badly singed, which is also how the market works.