Salute 2014 - emergence from winter quarters...

I'm back..... 

In many ways the outing to Salute  felt like the emergence from Winter Quarters.  Its not been a very harsh winter in terms of snow and ice but does seem to have been very long, cold grey and wet. 

Unfortunately no walkthrough from Joe Dever this year. 

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=342445

But someone steps into the breach...   

Shedwars blog

Overall – my usual feelings that if this is the flagship wargames event then couldn’t it somewhow be better ?  Better lighting, more participation games, less of the whole shopping scrum aspect (so that the games would be better) and generally more “inviting”. 

But, it is what it is, and I’ll carry on with my view that the Partizan’s if not the biggest shows in the UK are to me the nicest….

Returning to Salute 2014.  Once again  made the decision to get the later train (7.50 out, arrive London 10.15 ish, so I get to the show about 11.15 – I might as well get some beauty sleep than expend it just to be able to have the privelige of standing around in a long queue.  Almost came a cropper this year though – took longer to get to the show than expected once in London, and being hungry I made the decision to have a Bagel pre show entry to fortify myself.  So, I wasn’t actually claiming my goodie bag until 11.45 and the first one I had had no free figure !!!  I was told that they were basically on the last of the bags, and were close to running out of the ones with free figures in (5,000 made) and all would get would be the dice and catalogue etc… 

The only likely “limited edition” thing that was on my list were the VBCW dice from EM4 miniatures although stand TE04 had a misprint in the catalogue and I struggled to find it on my first couple of attempts and then scurried off to meet friends from the South East who had of course got into the show much earlier.  Given that one was a Salute Virgin though they were doing the walk around and as I caught up with them at 12.00 had just finished the outer ring.  I secured the dice later on.  

Quite often a number of the games at Salute have the same theme (not necessarily tied in with the actual show theme), and perhaps therefore reflect the current trends in the hobby.  This year then I would say that theme was “Steampunk”.  First up is the Oshiro Martian game which I believe won best demonstration game of the show.  

In her Majesty's Name (the Osprey rules) were being played and I took this photo for the clever use of the warehouses as the backdrop to the gaming board.   On the Oshiro game they would hold a picture of the martian landscale to provide a nice backdrop for photos.    

Finally Empire of the Dead (EOTD) had a game from the manufacturer Westwind Productions.  My photos of this came out relatively poorly.

The theme was operation overlord and there was a visually stunning game of this on a long table.  I couldn't help but feel thought that this was once again diorama vs game.   Given the recent releases though of two books of pictures of big games then perhaps I'm not in touch with the market. 

The expected traders were there and it would be harsh to single them out - Gripping Beast were demonstrating SAGA and Juglia (alhtough I don't remember seeing Muskets and Tomahawks) and Rob Broom was there with War and Conquest. 

Finally the picture of the Salute Loot......

The shop fest

Black Hat Miniarutes – Japanese Temple Guardian and 3 packs of 3 peasant spearmen

Oshiro Model Terran – Japanese Lanterns and large graves.  Some clear plastic bases to go with the railway stuff.      

Dead Man’s Hand – rules

Juglia – rules

Rendedra – tents and some fencing

Litko – explosion markers.  Originally to be used for Bolt Action pin markers, after watching a game then I think I’ll be using dice. 

Kaiser Rushforth box cum dice tray – because I feel I need one. 

Some mdf bases from Products for Wargamers

Various FIW figures from Redoubt - more on these later as they include some excellent civilians from the Body's bits range rather than the FIW proper.  

WW2 / Cold war movies

Joy Division is a film that I stumbled across.  Another site made reference to the combat scenes and equally the cold war spy thriller aspect intrigued me.

The story is told via flashbacks, so is somewhat disjointed and I need to watch it again to fully understand some of the spy elements and the betrayal/release scene.   Late war German troops with Stg 44 assault rifles, Hitler Youth with Mp40's.  

There is a fan tribute here that will give you a taste...

My used copy cost me £2.98 and at that price a bargain I feel.   

Force on Force - scenery and concepts

Up until now I'd sorted my scenery - especially what I term "scatter" scenery into four rough periods:
a) Ancients, Dark Age and Medieval - when pretty much everything was expensive and had some value.  (There was a separate box for Samurai stuff because of the cultural differences).
b) Pre Industrial - the era from the English Civil wars through to the Napoleonic wars.  Some items have become substantially cheaper than in the earlier period but the full benefit of the industrial revolution and water and steam power and machines has yet to be felt.
c) Industrial - which loosely was when the benefits of the industrial revolution were felt by the people at large.
d) Science Fiction - the realm of the future and also the oddities like the Carnivorous plants etc.

Force on Force - and I now realise Post Apocalyptic - pushed things into a fifth grouping - namely modern.  Look at the following items...

The sofa is probably good for the Victorian era onwards (so fits into Industrial) as do the Mattresses since the circular bits represent coil springs.  "Wheelie Bin" - I would say 1990's onwards, although research on Wikepedia would put it at 1970 onwards in Western Europe...

Wheelie bin

And lastly metal beer kegs...

1950's onwards.  (The beer kegs came out of a model railway bargain bin - OK, so at OO/HO scale then a little tiny for 28mm but given that beer kegs come in all sorts of sizes, then perfectly acceptable).  

So, I think we are going to have a new category, probably "Modern Era".   

I see the Sofa as a hotel reject, with springs coming through the covers and now found outside a shanty hut having been "rescued" from the disposal lorry.  As one of the Gripping Beast boys said, what it really needs is a couple of children sitting on it who are playing.  

Whilst on Force on Force I've been looking at cheap scenery....

All three vehicles came from Poundland, and there's a few others already in the Force on Force Box.  The Humvee is 5mm too long for true 1/56tj scale on my calculations.  The Tractor - admittedly large although with a small seat I see as one of the new generation of "super tractors" - probably supplied by a kindly meaning but ill informed church/charity given African standards of maintenance and the cost of spare parts.   

Having just done a bit of surfing then might be time to go back and see if I can get a couple more of hte minibuses for use as Taxis with a respray...

  

 

Force on Force - books and videos

Force on Force

I’ve been shopping on books as they say, reading and watching videos..

Firstly Osprey apparently re-released some older titles, including Russia’s War in Afghanistan (1986).  It is clear from the text that this was written whilst the war was ongoing (Russia withdrew in February 1989) and information (as is probably the case with anything involving the modern Russian military) is somewhat patchy.   From a modelling viewpoint then enough to paint Russian troops.

The other Osprey to drop though my letter box this month is Russian Security and Paramilitary Forces since 1991.   I ordered this in advance of publication so it has only been out for a week or so, but it looks like a good one on a first glance through.   

 

The Book Depository had a  bit of a sale (around 30-35% off) Force on Force titles and I took the opportunity to get a couple more of the expansions:

Day of the Rangers – the cattle raid scenario in this is what I played at a convention that got me first interested in Force on Force as a set of rules, whilst the movie Black Hawk Down has long since been a favourite. 

The other was Enduring Freedom – The war in Afghanistan.

Of the others that leaves the following which are of little interest except possibly the Vietnam book, which having had the chance to look through and hear reviews on may be the weakest of the various books:

Ambush Valley - Vietnam –

Road to Bagdhad – Iraq 2003

Fallujah – Iraq 2004

Cold War gone Hot – Mid 1980’s Cold War

I've only had the books a couple of days but have already been through Day of the Rangers listing the scenarios and figures needed.   Often this comes down to a US Platoon of assorted composition but say 30-40 figures and lots and lots of Somalis, especially with the random Somali reinforcements rule.   I think this may be a somewhat longer term project than I first thought, probably to provide some variety on the painting desk.  

Which brings me to some videos I ended up watching....

Part 1 (of 3) sets the background to the French in Mali in 2013 and the "live action footage" starts at around 2 minute 30 seconds.  All three parts are worth watching I felt and some of the scenes like the Malian soldiers relaxing and then in combat bring home that there - in the African context - then mixed camouflage uniforms and equipment are very much the order of the day.   

And then this - Danish Soldiers fighting the Taliban...

Gutsy stuff to be running anywhere when there are bullets flying around, and the sound of the Squad Assault weapon opening up at 2 minutes in...   Not hard to see why the Germans regarded the rest of the squad as ammunition carriers for the MG42.  

Lastly, another book. £1 from our local Poundland (where everything is £1) - where the author brings home the reality of TOE lists which we gamers are so concerned with - he is charged with forming a platoon from scratch which never seems to be fully up to strength and gets the wanted and unwanted, never seems to have enough equipment to fully go round and ends up with some very grubby jobs..

Warhammer Porn

Ok, so the title may well increase the page view count.

One of the blogs I follow picked up on this posting on a Telegraph blog.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100227407/if-david-cameron-must-ban-anything-let-it-be-warhammer-fantasy-games/

Many comments seem to see it as poorly written satire, written I suspect by someone who was sucked in and spat out by the whole Games Workshop slick marketing machine.  I'm surprised that the guy could become a historian, which I think involves looking at primary sources and evaluating evidence.

Not that I would normally buy the telegraph unless it comes with a free bottle of water (and is cheaper than buying the water on its own) at airport or railway station, or it has a really, really, interesting sounding article.   I forgot to look if he used the word Space Marine in the article.

Attacking the lead and paper mountain

The last two years have seen me buy stuff but generally not much chance to paint it or read it.  Now that things have quietened down on the domestic front and I'm no longer so tired from lengthy car journeys to and fro the Midlands I've started to sort it.

First the lead and resin mountain:

Bins labelled - Samurai, VBCW, ECW, FIW, Force on Force, Ancients and Scenery pretty much reflecting my current interests.  I remembered buying most of it - the exceptions being some of the Ainsty resin scenery when I was in my "scatter scenery" mode, and some barricades from Fantascene and some FIW Indians from AW Miniatures

Then onto the book mountain:

I've skimmed through some of these but that's all.  Again, the rules and reference books pretty much reflect the miniatures buying.  

Too hot to paint currently but clearing the painting desk is next.  

ECW additions and a new camera

As life starts to return to some sense of normality after the last few years when other pressures affected my gaming and painting time then I'm starting to look over the EBay figure auction scene again to finish off or expand various forces.  

One recent bargain buy was a group of 19 ECW "forlorn hope" - in reality an assortment of plastic and metal Warlord Games figures.   First time I've seen the Warlord ECW figures - I've got a couple of boxes of their plastic stuff around and a couple of metal personality figures but haven't looked at them in much depth.  The following is a selection - also trying out the new camera I got a couple of weeks ago.  

The next picture is a close up of the 3 (plastic) painted figures.   And I'm really impressed with the camera to say it was £99.  Still not sure I'm a fan of multiple based figures - it makes movement easier but can hinder storage.  The thorny problem of decent storage for ECW pikemen still needs to be solved.  I think the figures have been washed with army painter dip...