Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Salute

I went to Salute with my little boy on Saturday. It was defintely more crowded this year but it was laid out much better. I still managed to miss some traders I wanted to see, though: notably Copplestone.

There seemed to be a lot more women and children there too this year; there was a painting area and 4 out of the 10 people painting were girls when I went by.

I went mainly to look at some figures I had been thinking about buying where I wanted to check their size compatibility with ones I alreaady had.

Very unhappy about the SS re-enactors presence and I commented to that effect on The Miniatures Page in a thread that has over 290 posts now. Had an overwhelming amount of support and a couple of nice personal messages from Allen Curtis, author of the Warhammer Ancient Battles Hannibal supplement.


My favourite Game was this Teutonic Knights siege set in Lithuania.


The guys there were very friendly and they told me that they had taken a year to scratchbuild the scenery, castle and houses. The amazing thing is they actually look the way buildings in Lithuania still do. I suspect the techniques haven't changed that much in 800 years. They said they had visited the country to get a feel for it and it showed.


I also loved the cog on this wonderful river. All the set up needed to give it total authenticity was a couple of models of leggy blondes tucked away somewhere.

As regards purchases I wasn't too bad:
Persians
The Vendel Persians are quite large but will still look OK with my Foundry Greeks and Macedonians. Now I know that Artizan have commissioned Steve Saleh to do a Persian line I will hold off buying any more. I don't know much about the Persians so don't know if Persian Wars Persians and ones from Alexander's time were the same or not. There is an Osprey and another new Osprey on the Persians has just come out so I will have to pick them up once the Artizan figures come out. There are going to be a pig to paint, however.

Vikings
I had a look at Mark Sims' new Vikings for Crusader. I loved his Foundry ones although some were a little too Warhammer for me so most of my rank and file is Gripping Beast and, latterly, Artizan. I am still not conviced by the dollies he is using for some of his Dark Ages figures. They do seem a little short and squat. Some of the armoured figures looked better. I suppose I will just have to get a few and see, as I decided not to buy any there and then.

Early Saxons
I did buy some of Musketeer miniatures early Saxons. These look great and, oddly, seem to work size wise with both Gripping Beast Arthurian and Artizan Vikings. I can see myself getting a lot of these for my Arthurian Saxon army. I was also impressed by their Great Northern War and Armies of the Caliphates ranges. A firm worth watching.

Foundry
The Foundry stall was rather disappointing. Rather small and very little stock but much of it was new which was something. The greens for their Anglo Saxons looked good and I bought a nice Minotaur and Theseus for my little boy who is doing the Ancient Greeks at school. I had been tempted by the Foundry books before but had never seen one. I bought the book on Troops in Colonial Africa and it is going to be very useful for the Sudan and East Africa in World War One. Beautifully produced too.
Binders
Bought a couple of binders each for Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames. Just don't have room on my shelves at the moment for them. I also bought some back issues of MW as it seems to be getting more and more difficult to get it in WH Smiths.

Magnetic Basing
I bought some more steel paper so I can add magnetic bases to more of my figures. The green paper will be for movement trays and the white to put inside one box so I can take stuff to the club without it all falling over.

Touching History Scenery Guides
I bought the new one which contains the Sudan stuff and they threw in the Peninsula War one for free. They are becoming more eye-candy and less step by step guide (probably as the techniques are the same) but they are still useful and inspirational and as the author is based in Addlestone I am supporting a local Surrey business!

Spears and Pikes
I bought some nice steel spears and pikes with proper leaf ends. The pikes wil be for my imminent Macedonian phalangites.

Companion Punic Wars
got some of their Velites for my Italian Allies. They are nice figures and will be compatible with my Crusader and A&A ones. They are also the only firm I have seen who sell wolfskin and normal troops in separate packs. I also bought a box of ancient Spanish. This was a bit disappointing as there were only 21 figures instead of 24 and only 4 poses. Nevertheless, the figures are nice and will work with the Crusader and A&A ones.

I'm not sure I will go next year as the South London Warlords are obviously run by bunch of idiots and I don't know if I want to give them any more of my money. There are lots of other good shows worth supporting like Warfare, Colours and SELWG.

1 comment:

  1. It sounds as it you were quite restrained with your purchases. The Foundry stall was odd - they only seemed to be selling "new" stuff that they haven't officially released, plus paints and a few books.

    I love the Musketeer Miniatures stuff, and it's fun watching everyone jump on the Arthurian bandwagon. Did you see West Wind's new Arthurians? They looked compatible with the ranges you mention, although they all have separate heads which can sometimes be more trouble than they're worth. But they also had nice vignette of burning druids, the death of Arthur etc.

    Giles

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