Salute part one.

Well I'm back from Salute and all is well in my little world, weary, bleary and a lot lighter in the wallet.
 First impressions? Very impressive, just from an organisational point of view.
 Second impressions, god its big, and very hard to take everything in.
I would recommend anyone wanting to go for the first time, is buy a queue buster ticket, and get there early. I was lucky, and even the queue for the early entry was long.
 I was about number 30, and got in just before 10.00am.
I know a person would just had an ordinary ticket didn't get in until 11.30am, that's how long the queue was.

 The next thing I would advise is, go straight to the trader you need to buy from, before the rush starts and buy what you need straight away. I headed straight for Dave Thomas to buy the new renaissance Italian releases, Peter Pig for a rule book and a set of some other rules for Neil, and quickly bought what I needed. An hour later, all three were sold out of these items. I unfortunately forgot to buy some Perry plastic figures and when I went back at 2.00pm Dave Thomas told me he was also sold out of them. He had had a very good day.

Everything after that just seemed a blur. I bumped into Duncan Macfarlane at a trade stall which was nice to see,and we had a bit talk about things.

I cant remember who provided the majority of the games that I photographed, as I am not that organised, and no doubt other bloggers were better organised than me, I was too busy darting round like a kid in a sweet shop, enjoying my bit self. I do know that at 11.00am I had to sit down for a cup of tea and attempt to show restraint from buying things.

 I was particularly impressed with the Victorian Military Society who put on a static display. I loved these figures.

 The photograph below is of a display of Peter Laing figures, very early ones. They were very good, and looked great painted.

I took this photograph of the new Perry 3 up's, as impressive as ever.

One of the things I was particularly interested in was the painting competition,especially as our friend Dave Jarvis was again attempting to win the best historical entry. Now the first thing that struck me was how few entries were in the historical category. That didn't detract from the quality of the painting, but I view the Salute show as a pretty prestigious event. I only wish other wargames shows would bring this back. Below are the entries for the historical category.

1] Teutonic Knights. Now I am pretty certain these figures are actually from the Deus Vult advertisement which would be disconcerting if I had entered.  But that is just my personal view, and I do seem to be out of step with most others, so nothing wrong with that I suppose.

2] Dave Jarvis entry. I can only apologise for showing favoritism, by having two photographs of them.

 3] A small group of Pro Gloria landsnects. Very well done, but I think would have looked better as a larger unit. I still would have been very pleased if I had painted them.

4] A display of every French Napoleonic hussar unit, from Perry plastics. Well presented and a bit reminiscent of a Northern Militaire type of display. Again very well done, and nice to have in a display cabinet.

5] And finally a unit of Perry plastic War of the Roses figures. I can only apologise for the poor photograph, but by this time it was getting a tad busy. I was told by an attendant that he expected these to win, they were by last years winner. These were very well done as is to be expected.

And have you picked a winner yet?

I know its a subjective thing, and we all have different ideas about what looks great. 

The winner was.... the Teutonic Knights!

Now I will admit that I am biased, but I am also very fair, but I spent a fair time around the entries gauging peoples comments. I also spoke to the great Bill Gaskin who picked the same winner as me, so that must mean something. I thought Dave had won it by a country mile. But what do I know.

 I just thought that Dave's entry were not only beautifully painted but also told a story. I like the knights, but I thought the white wasn't well executed, it is a very hard colour to do. They just looked a bit too brash.  It was also a shame that there was no second place.

I didnt really examine the sci fi entries  but these two figures did catch my eye. They were really well executed.

I will discuss the remainder of SALUTE in part two of my account.................