One of my earliest memories as a wargamer,were the photographs in the Military Modelling of Peter Gilder's Waterloo. Couple this with photographs of a Waterloo display staged in London in the 1960's it has always stayed with me and inspired me.
The re enactment at Salute 2013 was no different. The game was by Ron Ringrose and his group, and it was very impressive. I loved the presentation idea, of having a 'Napoleon' talk of the battle, it was a really effective way to get people interested. Are you reading this John, we could do The Battle of Issus, and you could dress up as Alexander!
I especially loved the battle around Palcenoit with the Young Garde.
I think the only petty observation I had was the battlefield appeared a bit small! and because of the figures a bit cramped, but I think that would be a bit churlish of me. A really well done game.
Below is my favourite game of the show. Again it is a subjective thing, but this was a 54mm Napoleonic game with lovely Victrix figures painted to a lovely standard.
What I particulary liked was the number of teenagers having a go,I am sorry I never recorded who presented the game, but they really engaged with the customers. The terrain was excellent, the scenario easy to follow, and it looked FUN.
My favourite unit on the board, Mamelukes,doing what they do best, just sitting on their bottoms looking pretty.
I also loved these Italians, God I sound like a child. Anyway well done.
This game also caught my eye. I think initially it was the large information boards, but I liked the way the terrain was done. It was noticeable on a lot of games, how much flock was in evidence, linked to hanging basket liner. I had a talk to one exponent, who showed me how to use the stuff, it is very effective and also very practical.
The game below was a small AWI game, which I have photographed, as the people who put it on were a French group. They seemed very friendly, although my schoolboy french was S###e. Still it was good to see them.
In my concluding post I will show some more photographs and try to finish with an honest summary of my impressions.
I'm int5rigued by the flock/hanging basket reference.
ReplyDeleteEvening,
ReplyDeleteMost decent garden centres' sell a felt like material to line hanging baskets. I understand the one that we need, ie. wargamers is the one that has no plastic backing.
The stuff is a fairly tight almost horsehair fibre, muted green in colour.On your terrain boards it can be rolled out and stuck down over the rolling feature, or whatever using pvc glue. Once dry, you can cover the felt with watered down pvc glue and put scatter flock over it. The effect is very good, and being green doesn't show through when flock wears away. Personally I would be tempted to dry brush yellow highlights on the flock, but I like bright colours. Hope this helps.
Robbie.
Thanks Robbie, will be taking a trip to a garden centre then I guess.
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