I think it’s a sad state of affairs when, at funerals, the minister/celebrant says “I didn’t actually know him, but..” So for that reason I’ll pass you over to our Chairman, Paul Gandy, who was lucky enough to be able to count Peter as one of his close friends….
JP
It is with much sadness that I must tell you of the passing of one of South Wales MAFVA’s most liked and highly respected club members, Peter Denyer who sadly passed away on Friday 24th March 2023. Peter had been a member of the MAFVA for quite some time, and was an active member of the South Wales branch since about 2010. He was always willing to pass on any helpful hints or suggestions to anyone who asked. Nothing seemed to faze him, from scratchbuilding a 1/35th scale Russian fire-fighting tank, from one photo in a Tankograd book, to making a huge 1/76th scale WWII German Dora railgun.
Peter at the Cardiff Model Railway Exhibition in 2016 with his 1/76th scale Dora Railgun.
Peter was diagnosed with an aggressive form of stomach cancer 25 years ago and was given the stark choice of having his stomach completely removed, or dying within a week. He had the operation and was expected to live for about 5 years longer, but typical of Peter, he confounded the experts and lived five times longer. He always lived his life to the full, all of the time. He used to smoke roll-ups at quite a rate, but the doctors told him that if the stomach cancer wouldn’t kill him, they weren’t going to criticise him for his fags.
When Peter first joined us he would often apply the decals for a kit directly onto the bare plastic of the kit, if it was a close enough colour. Similarly, tiny bits of etched brass were consigned to the bin, as why put them on if you can’t see them? Over the years his standard and quality of model making improved considerably, with many of his later models very nicely done. From his earlier beginnings, he soon became very proficient at applying decals to such things as the huge markings on a 1/24th scale truck of rock group AC/DC.
Peter joined us at model shows such as the Avon IPMS show in Thornbury, near Bristol and at Weston-super Mare and Yeovil, but never travelled much further from South Wales than that, although he always loved the Bring ‘N’ Buy stand at the IPMS Scale Modelworld in Telford each year.
The best way to describe Peter is that he was, without a doubt, one of the world’s great characters and will be sadly missed. Our condolences to his wife of 50 years Cheryl, and his daughter Carol and son Richard.
Paul Gandy
Peter at one of our South Wales MAFVA club meetings in 2019.