Salute Part Two.......

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.

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.................

Salute 2013.

I'm all excited about attending Salute this weekend. It has been some years since I went to Salute. I think I was a tad naive then, as I entered the painting competition expecting to win!
 I came a healthy second,but for the life of me I can't remember my entry, I think it was either a unit of Foundry Scots from the English Civil war or it was a unit of Citidal War's of the Roses long bowmen.
 I will not be embarrassing myself this time in the painting competition  as the standard is way too high, and is of course full of professional painters. All of whom are top notch.
  This time I am really keen to see the games, and get a good look at what is on show, and how I can pinch a few ideas from the games.
  I hope I don't get too side tracked at the trade stands and end up buying some figures that have nothing to do with my two current projects.

 Clearly I am not as excited as Paolo at the top of the page, but I am more excited than the two chumps below..........

 These photographs are purely for the benefit of all football loving northerners, especially John and Neil, after the weekends wonderful result in the Toon..........
 Anyone in the know, will realise that my affiliations lie with the red and white's.

 I had to mention the match and apologise to all non loving football [ soccer] fans.
 Still you could always refight the battle that took place in the historic streets around the central station in Newcastle, where infantry attempted to attack cavalry, and still came off second best.

Clearly heavy infantry are no match for a horse.

A Blatant Advert for Aut Cesar Aut Nihil.

I sometimes think I can use a computer and the internet, only to get a kick in the soft tissues, which reminds me I know nothing about the 21st Century. I set up a sister blog, for my renaissance project linked to my main blog. It seemed easy, it seemed simple. Well I was wrong.

For some reason I have a very poor following on my other blog, and I cannot understand why.

So in a blatant attempt to drum up a bit of interest, I have added some photographs from my other blog, showing my inaugural renaissance battle. 

 I wont add a witty text. That is on my other blog, button to the right of this page. [ Hint]

 I will say that it was a colourful and interesting battle with a lot of eye candy.

 So give it a try, and jump across to the time of Cesare Borgia.

A Call to Muster or when is Spring again?

 Sometimes I wonder if God isn't punishing the British for some reason. Perhaps their creation of the Spice Girls, allowing Simon Cowell onto television, letting Tony Liar well be Tony Liar or some other such perversity.
Because God just keeps p****ing on us. Above is a town that I passed through on the way to Call to Muster in Middlesbrough, the road was fairly clear, but the wind chill made you cry.
 I had offered to put a game on when I first heard about the return of Dave and Tom to the wargame show world. John and I have always put games on at their shows, and always have enjoyed it. The weather made me think it wasn't such a good idea. But a promise is a promise.
  Neil, John's son wanted to give his Russian WW2 army a run out using the PSG rules, Battleground Kursk. John wanted to use his lovely? German army, and I just wanted a reason to replace the boards that I had left in Newcastle during a very senior moment. An arrangement made in heaven.
  Anyway on arrival it was evident that some people had listened to the news, the Daily Express or such like threatening Armageddon again. So Tom and Dave were let down by a few groups and traders,however the majority braved the wind, and battled through the no show snow.

I should give a detailed description of what took place in the game based around Russia in 1944, but I am not a tankie really, although I do love the models. What I do know is the rules are very good, play very well and are understandable to a dimwit like me. Oh and a Geman Ferdinand is virtually indestructible.  Guess who had that in his command.
   I think I would have been quite happy to blast away at the Russian army all day with that tank,safe in the knowledge that it just couldnt be destroyed. I want a regiment of them please.

 I have put these photographs on the blog, purely for aesthetic reasons, as I know Neil has taken lots of photographs on his blog, The Old Hunwickian. I wanted to show readers my glowing explosions,and what happens if a Russian artillery team mess with my Ferdinand.

 My offending Ferdinand in action, painted by John and commanded by yours truly.

Because Tom and Dave are starting again virtually from scratch, trade was hit and miss. I know they struggled to get the show advertised, and the weather warnings frightened off would be punters, but up until the watershed at 2.00pm things seemed pretty busy.

I hope all the traders did ok. The pair have always tried to keep costs down, and the food was cheap and cheerful. Always a good example in these times of recession.

 I had a saunter around the games, and I loved the ancient game next to us put on by the Private Soldiers.

 I know Count Belisarius also like the game, because he took virtually the same photograph of the Irregular Miniatures elephants.

I was also strangely attracted to the Garrison light cavalry as I used to have this figure in my first ever metal ancient army,still a good un.  Also you may be able to notice the Hinchliffe foot archers,again a great figure in my eyes.

Tom and Dave have to be applauded as they always attempt to invite military modelling groups from the area to exhibit. This time Darlington turned up with some lovely models.This was one of my favourites, and I am afraid my camera doesnt really do it justice.

When I saw this tank on show in another game, I had to photograph it, just purely because it was a ridiculous piece of war engineering.I think the game was put on by the Middlesbrough Gamers.

There was a fine skirmish game from the Guisborough Gamers,with some well painted buildings and a great train station.

I did a bit of buying,and one thing that caught my eye was a range of 28mm Elizabethan figures from Hoka Hey figures.It includes Irish kern, and gallowglass. They also had a very nice late gendarme, especially the barded horse.

So in conclusion a good but tiring day out, with God still dumping on us.Who would be British?

Derek Sharman, a forgotten wargame inovator

Following on from Andy's post on his blog regarding who or what caused him to take up wargaming, he mentioned a worthy who greatly helped John and I when we were struggling with wargaming.

 Derek Sharman was a gentleman who initially worked in a pet shop  [I think ] in Durham City, that as an aside sold the odd wargames figure!
 This was the late 1960's early 1970's which was how things were then. I also knew of another pet shop that also sold wargames figures in Bishop Auckland. Strange that pet shops cornered the wargaming market in my area, it was a bugger going in to buy a goldfish and coming out with some Mini Fig cavalry.
 Anyway Derek looked after the wargamers who started to hang out at the shop, and when wargaming started to take off, the pet shop owner took retirement and the Wargamers Den was born.
 As a teenager, going to Derek's shop was a thing to really look forward to, there always seemed to be something going on in the shop, either some painted figures or a game, or just other wargamers all looking for advice and ideas.
 It all seemed so new and interesting.
  What I remember of Derek Sharman was that he was really enthusiastic, he certainly seemed knowledgeable but he didnt seem that well organised. I also think Derek was better as a wargame innovator than as a businessman.
 Saying that he did organise some really good wargames shows, that seemed to draw in the public. He also had an eye for locating the shows in really atmospheric locations, like Durham Castle, Lumley Castle and the Castle Green. Also being heavily involved in the 68th society, he always managed to have a fine turn out from the re enactment societies.
 My favourite being when he got the Imperiale Guard band with David Chandler dressed up in his finery at Lumley Castle Napoleonic fair.
 I only wargamed with him twice, both times at Bishop Auckland. One where his Persian army was minced by a massive Greek army, full of Spartan hopolites, +2 for bell corselet!
 The second when Derek took it upon himself to physically charge the French Guard horse artillery up to close range of the British Guard, +2 for British musket fire! The result was carnage.
  It always struck me as strange that my regular wargaming opponent then, seemed to get +2 for every unit he had! Still I was just learning the game then.
 Like I say Derek was more an ideas person than a general and businessman.

 The one thing he was however,was very kind, and apart from allowing me to buy George Gush's Renaissance Armies book on HP, he also gave me a set of his ancient rules, and discounted a lot of Garrison ancient Persian figures when I was struggling to pay for them.
I'm hoping other wargamers who came across Derek can fill in some of the gaps,because to be fair, he did an awful lot for wargaming in Durham County and deserves a bit of recognition, even if it is only in this blog.
I understand that Derek lives near Berwick and is heavily involved as a tourist guide.

A Call to Muster 23rd March 2013

  I thought I should remind any wargamers who live anywhere near the North East of England that A CALL TO MUSTER show is going ahead in late March 2013.
 Tom and David, have always worked hard to put on a good wargames show, and since the demise of their venue in Stockton and ill health, their shows were a great miss.
 Anyway they are back, and have put together a new show, with a fair number of wargames clubs and trade.
 Support it if you can, all proceeds always go to charity, and they have always put on a good day. We will be there.


I