Salute

BigRedBat's amazing Zama game

I''m a bit late with my thoughts on Salute as I have been working flat out on painting the Perry Richard III and Henry Tudor figures for Guy's presentation on Bosworth at school tomorrow.

These were my main targets to buy and I also picked up a WotR gun and crew but didn't get time to paint it. Nevertheless, I am pleased that I painted Richard, Henry and two standard bearers in a day and a half. They are now packed up in a box to go to school so pictures will have to wait; but suffice to say, I am now very keen on the Wars of the Roses again. It's a popular period at Guildford Wargames Club and I would gues that maybe as many as eight of us have a WotR army. I will do a few plastics next.

I didn't actually buy anything at the Perry plastics stand (i've got four boxes to paint already!)and it was so busy I missed the fact that they are going to do plastic Mahdists! Hooray! More on my Sudan blog in a day or two on this.

Busaco

I didn't think it was a classic Salute. Parts of it seemed a bit empty but I believe that there was actually a bigger hall this year which may have explained it. Also, I didn't think there were any really stunning demonstration games to look at. There were some very good ones but I thought the standard of scenery (which is what I mainly look at) was a bit down this year. My favourite was the Battle of Busaco game which had one of the best rendered hills I have ever seen in a wargame. BigRedbat's Zama was amazing, from the figures point of view, and I was very pleased to have seen it in real life having followed its building over the last six months or so. I was glad to see that both the aforementioned games won prizes for best scenery and figures respectively. I also liked the Grand Manner/Gripping Beast Dark Ages game.

Dark Ages by gripping Beast and Grand Manner

I was so busy working on a presentation on Saturday morning I totally failed to check which issues of the various wargames magazines I was missing so I could pick up back numbers. Oh well, I can do it after the fact, I suppose. I also forgot to note down the WI and MW cds I had got so couldn't get any more to fill the gaps and enable me to get some of the binders off my shelves and into the loft.

I missed a couple of stands completely even though I meant to visit them: Battlegames, so I could renew my subscription and Mutineer Miniatures so I could get some Gurkhas. Really annoying that, but that's what happens when you don't make a list!

I was pretty restrained this year. Other than the Perry WotR figures I bought the following:

Things on my list:

Two Zulu War cannons and the Rorkes Drift personality set from Empress Miniatures.
A Great Northern Wars pack of Russians (complete with the new command figures at last).

Gripping Beast plastic Vikings. They look very compatible with the Foundry ones. Again, I have started painting one and will do a review on my Dark Ages blog later.
2 boxes of Immortal Miniatures plastic Hoplites (one box was for a friend of my sister's). Are these the most gorgeously presented plastic figures ever? More on the Spartan blog on those.

Things not on my list:

A pack of Great War Miniatures German uhlans.
A Black Scorpion naval captain for Guy's Pirates of the Caribbean project.
A big pack of New Line Designs new Mycenean pikemen. These are completely compatible with my Foundry figues and it still lingers on as a project I want to do.

Things I failed to find but wanted.

Foundry Darkest Africa Belgians. Dave Thomas didn't have any Foundry figures on his stand this year, apart from a few remaindered blisters.
A Miniature Wargames binder; they haven't got any and are redesigning them so they won't be available for sometime.

So, not too bad. Traders who I usually get something from but who weren't there include Copplestone, Grand Manner (a shock that one) and Realistic Modelling Services (I usually buy some of their trees).

No Nazis this year , thank goodness, just some silly Dark Ages re-enactors (who reminded me of that film Faintheart). Not so silly were a couple of chaps in some beautifully realised early World War 1 German uniforms. The quality of their equipment was exceptional and I took a picture of their pack as reference material.

Guy enjoyed the radio controlled tank game and the giant model panzers again. His favourite game was the attack on the Roman hill fort one.

Lastly, it was a pleasure to meet up with Matt, of Waterloo to Mons, again and hear his latest plans for his Schleswig Wars range. I am working on some of his Schleswig soldiers at preent and they are lovely little figures. Fortunately, I am enjoying painting again at the moment and have a bit more time now that I am not commuting into London quite so much.