Salute 2015 - the loot!

Phew!  What a day and as predicted I am somewhat behind the curve with this post due to the exhaustive debrief following a extremely tiring journey home.*  

*We had to stand for two hours on the train, not quite what we had planned!

So 'Salute 2015' has come and gone, my fifth apparently and perhaps the most enjoyable yet.  I had no real plans for purchases and so just pootled from stand to stand, game to game and looking at the photographs of the day on other blogs clearly missed a great deal!  Still myself and the 'Provost Marshal' seemed to amass a fair about of swag between us. Although mine was restraint, by comparison to previous years, I did treat myself to some shiny new Batman toys.  These are proving a welcome distraction and I'm looking forward to painting them regardless of whether or not they actually get on the table.

It seemed to me that this year was all about laser cut MDF; the future of wargaming terrain?  I was genuinely impressed by the display models on the 'Sarissa Precision' stand and a couple of packs along with some from '4Ground' managed to find their way home with me.   Some always useful packs from 'Ainsty Castings', yet another set of skirmish rules from 'Crooked Dice' and a shepherd set from 'Redoubt Enterprises' completed the purchases . 

I did manage to track down Kawe from 'Westfalia Miniatures' and bag my free promotional Halfling along with the final elements from the 'Steampunk Menagerie' kickstarter - every chap needs a Clocktopus!  I need to add at this point that Kawe was also incredibly generous and added a few other surprises to my pledge - thank you so very much!  

Speaking of gifts thank you also to 'Clint' who passed on a zombie hunter from the new 'East Street Games' Brains & Bullets game - this will be promoted to the front of the queue and I need to have a closer look at their new rules when released; thank you also for the fudge, the 'Saintly Mrs. Awdry' was deeply impressed!  I was also passed a miniature from Andrew 'Loki' Saunders, which is apparently connected to the 'Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge', but I need to clarify that a little more.

Of course the highlight for me was the Bloggers' meet at lunchtime and it was great to see so many now familiar faces and some new ones too - MikeC and Simon 'Blaxkleric' it was great to finally meet you both.

Finally then, the photographs, well the few that I took!  As usual I am armed with a camera, but failed to really do the event justice.  As my hands were busy squirrelling away my purchases the camera was consigned to the bottom of the bag.  Before that happened there were a couple of things that caught my eye.  The first, a hugely entertaining game from 'Bexley Reapers Wargaming Club' saw a troop of G.I.s running the gauntlet of marauding zombies to escape to the shore and the boats waiting for them there.  All the stops had been pulled out with regards to the terrain, including lights, sounds and even dry ice!

The latest pre-release model from 4Ground was an awesome looking Parish Church, not cheap, but my word it looked good!

More MDF on show again with the Micro Art Studio's Wolsung game, this sort of thing just seems to capture my imagination.

So that was that for another year, well done 'South London Warlords' a great show, obviously well attended by traders and clubs alike and yet comfortably so - looking forward to next year already! 

One more sleep!

Tomorrow myself and the ‘Provost Marshal’ a.k.a. RichardC will don our hunting tweeds* and set off for this great land’s mighty metropolis, determined to bag ourselves a bargain or two. ‘Salute 2015’, arguably one of Europe’s finest wargames show, is finally upon us and promises to be as spectacular as ever.

*Jeans and a T-shirt more likely!

Although, as a result, there will be no ‘Paint Table Saturday’ this week expect the obligatory post Salute post where I am sure evidence of my crumbling will power, along with photographs of the many wonderful participation games will be displayed – probably sometime after everyone else’s depending on the length of the customary debrief at a local hostelry!

This year, perhaps more than in previous years given my recent self imposed exile from our cosy corner of the blogosphere, I am particularly looking forward to catching up with fellow bloggers, if indeed we are doing this again? 

So with e-ticket printed off, train times checked and the piggy bank raided the final countdown begins!

Paint Table Saturday#76

Just a very quick post today to document recent progress and the completion of this trio of miniatures.  During the challenge, I had a convoluted idea of producing a vignette for the 'Anti-Hero' bonus round based on the Solomon Kane story, 'The Moon of Skulls'.  In the end I ran out of time and the idea got shelved, but I was desperate to get the miniatures painted.

I had spent quite a bit of time tracking down a suitable candidate for Solomon Kane and was delighted when I happened upon this chap from 'Black Army Productions'.  The only thing is that he is rather shy  young man and the angle of the head, sculpted as it is, hides lots of the lovely details.

So next up the 'Warlord Games' Club Men, faces and bases done, just need to do the rest now!  

Paint Table Saturday#75

Nestling amongst the paint pots this morning are Colonel Evelyn Wood, a Natal Native Contingent Scout and a Swazi Warrior all from the wonderful 'Empress Miniatures'.  At some point, I really need to have a good long think about what I want to achieve hobby wise - so many ideas, such little time!

  

With 'Salute' only a fortnight away I would normally, at this stage, be concocting fabulously extensive shopping lists that would see my hard earned savings dwindle before my very eyes, but not this year.  My new found predilection for Kickstarter has meant that pocket money is in short supply and so I have resigned myself to take a different tack this year.  I'm still looking forward to catching up with fellow Bloggers, if this is still happening, being inspired by the many fabulous tables on show, but expenditure will need to be curtailed - perhaps some shiny new Batman toys would be nice? 

One positive aspect of my self imposed exile from the Blogosphere is that I have managed to remain, relatively, focussed on the task in hand.  I simply wanted to clear the backlog of incomplete models that were destined for the painting challenge before new projects muscled their way onto the table.  With the exception of the Penguin and a couple of his feathered friends this has remained the case, with more and more empty spaces appearing in the queue, although I can feel my resolve weakening!

Paint Table Saturday#74

Another week gone and a little progress made on the painting front.  Two more Zombicide miniatures completed, just need to varnish them and add lashings of gore!

I also managed to add a couple of layers to some lovely 'Empress Miniatures' Zulu War miniatures that have been neglected for far too long, cracking sculpts representing Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood, a Wood's Irregular warrior and a Swazi Warrior.  

In other news, look what arrived on the 1st April!  A huge box of plastic zombie madness and a sudden reawakening for all things Zombicide!  The newly rebuilt and redecorated bay window of 'Awdry Towers' proving to be the perfect spot for a quick photograph before the Saintly Mrs. Awdry had returned from the gym!