Salute 2013

Just one (used without permission from a forum) picture of the show as others already posted hundreds of quality pictures. 

As I'm staring in disbelief at last Saturday's purchases I'm trying to decide what to unpack first and worse, what to start painting next.
We (Rob, Jacco and me) had a great weekend again. A fine show and far busier than other years. Demo games were good overall with some fantastic displays but also a few tables rather poor in quality and presentation.  My feeling is though (can't prove it with stats or anything) that fantasy is taking over very slowly. Each year fantasy traders and games seem to occupy a bit more floor space. Now I can live with a bit of steampunk or an ocassional sci-fi game but all this, warmachine, warhammer, warmahordes, warwhatever is not the thing I'm travelling to London for. Hope I'ts just me or I was walking circles at the wrong area of the venue.

Is fantasy very slowly taking over? Look at that Dreadball, Kings of War

Traders were off course well represented and it was nice speaking to them and seeing some of their miniatures in the flesh. One of the downsides of the internet really is that there are no surprises anymore at a wargame show. We can now follow the complete miniature birth from sketch to metal, examine 3-ups or bid on one of the 100's of kickstarters and what not. Can be fun at home but it takes away a part of the excitement of visiting the traders.
But that brings me to my first buy of the day. A not yet released (will be very soon) unit of French Dragoons by Offensive Minatures, lovely minis and a great addition to my French collection.
While at the Offensive booth I was so pleased with this surprise that I also bought their US Airborne figures. Not that I already painted a platoon years ago, but they looked awesome and I wanted to be over-prepared for the release of Chain of Command this summer.

my US Airborne calling for reinforcements

Other cool purchases included the Dead Man's Hand old west rules with their miniatures. The old west is one of my top favorite periods and I've been collecting and painting this for years. I've bought one of the pre-painted old west buildings as well to see if it would fit my collection that's a mix of my own painted buildings and Paul Darnell's work. Judge for yourself.

Paul's Hardware store

Building 1 DMH

My own Saloon

I must say I like the DMH building and if you would use only their buildings they should be very effective in their own style. Think I need to repaint some of it to blend them into my town.  Boardwalks are very nicely done and the picture doesn't do them justice really. They are not that far off my own boardwalks in terms of colour. I've assembled the building in about two hours and I was delighted that all parts just fitted 100%. Never did a laser cut building before but it was easy. Great Escape Games have big plans for this range with 24 buildings, interiors and even wallpapers if you really want to go nuts on these.

Staying in the Old West theme I also bought the train from Redoubt. As I wanted the train to actually get paint on it I've asked Ray and Postie from Battleaxe Painting Service to paint it for me. So you can expect some pictures from the train in the future at Ray's place.

Don't hurry Ray, the guys in the station house have enough entertainment for now

Another highlight of Salute was the blogger meetup at the Big Red Dot. Always good to see digital friends in person. I feel I could easily spend the day just chatting with all of you and order the goodies online later.
We've also had a fantastic time at the pre-Salute drinks @TheFox. While last year we had the privilege to spent the evening with Curt and Dallas from Canada now we had a great time with the guys from 'Club Landwehr'  from Malaga, Spain. There were quite a few of them and we certainly enjoyed the chats, laughter and beers.
Carlos, Francisco: "To your painting award!"

Rob, Carlos, Jacco and Francisco

Salute and two new periods

Yes! it's that time of the year again. Next friday we drive off to London for our yearly visit to Salute. I think it's the13th time I go. Always with the same two good friends Jacco and Rob, always the same simple schedule. Friday we get lost in a bar in London, Saturday we get lost at the traders stands at Salute and have few drinks at the Fox after. At that stage we are starting to realize what we bought and forgot to buy and things settle in. Time to recover and go for good food. Sunday morning we drive back and have breakfast at the same old road restaurant which name I alway forget. It's terrible but..it's tradition...
The only thing that is subject to change over these years is the Hotel. We can't get any closer than we are this year so that saves me some footsteps carrying stuff back to the Hotel during the day.

I will also be attending (if I'm not buying myself in another period at the time) and say hello to the rejects and fellow bloggers at around one o' clock. Details are here. I'm not sure if the Dutch chapter looks that smart though.

On to the new beginnings...

First on the list is a skirmish Mexican army. I've had an eye on these great miniatures from Boot Hill Miniatures for a while but with the group now moving to Mexico finally an opportunity to buy and paint them. I will collect a bunch of them @Salute but in the meantime I could paint the figures I already owned. I figured you can't get enough Mexican commanders. Not based yet as I'm not sure if I will use them in Vignettes or add some other characters to the base. I look forward to paint more of these. These are great, great sculpts.

Second one is an Early French army. I wanted to do this for ages but finally had the courage to buy the minis and make the master plan. I will start with 4 to 5 generic battalions (Marc, you do 2 as well:) who will serve as a base covering the late revolutionary period until 1806. I only need to make sure I can change the flags on the unit. Artillery is covered and I only need to find some suitable cavalry figures. With the base done I will expand to Egypt and other specific theatres. This will keep me busy for years to come presumably but the good news is I'm not in a hurry..

Last week I did some test figures and figured out the paints and tried every shortcut I could think of. I settled for this look (only need some more dirt) which I can do pretty quick for my doings. Now I need hundreds. Wish me luck.
Figures by Eureka, fantastic range and unmatched quality.

Salute 2011 and a Freebie

Salute freebie

Already bored of all the ACW on this blog lately? Well, Salute just passed so this is the time to get distracted from current projects. A full day of shopping and admiring the gorgeous tables usually means I drop everything at hand and start something completely new. This year again I was impressed by some demo games and tempted to run to the nearest trader who had at least something of that period.

Highlights
I was too busy (uhm lazy) too get my camera out on the day but there are many show reports out there and a huge picture walkthrough to be found here. Highlights for me were the The Battle of Maldon by Gripping Beast,  the Peninsular battle by League of Augsburg,  Gallipoli 1915 Warlord Games, The battle of Verneuil and the two ECW games: Battle of Worchester 1651 and By The Pike Divided. I always thought gaming ECW must be boring but who cares if it looks like this.

New minis
So for the people not in to ACW I did buy myself into a new period. And since I already own an unpainted ECW army (the grey one unfortunately) I bought some revolutionary French from Trent. Should go nice with the Brigade ones I hope...Bought a lot more additions to other unpainted armies but the major investment goes to the scenery again. Tons of painted fences, trees etc and a huge river set.
But with the main theme being ACW and a fantastic freebie I could not resist painting straight away, I am still inspired to finish the ACW army. Thank God.


 Plastics                                                     
 A word on the plastics. These minis are everywhere nowadays and new army releases are announced by the day. Good news because it gives us choice and they are cheap but it's just different IMO. Painted twelve Nap British some time ago and decided to quit them. Did just one French greatcoat to test them out and they were OK to paint and assemble.
Saturday I got excited (or confused) and bought another box of plastics. Early French. Opened up the box yesterday and closed it real quick to put it in the bottom drawer. Looking at all the sprues made me remember the time it took me to assemble them and why I put them away in the first place. No way, not that again. Give me metal. They even take up less storage space.

The one and only painted plastic Perry