Salute 2010

Well, Salute 2010 has been and gone. Another very enjoyable day out, this year with David along too. WD were not invited to run a game this year, so I did not see much of other WD members. Caught a glimpse of Bob Cordery and John Bassett across the hall, but not close enough to say hello to.

David wanted to come this year as he has decided to get back into figure painting. We had a good time wandering round the show and looking at all the games and trading stands - the biggest concentration of wargaming in one place anywhere in the UK.

I had my shopping list prepared and made sure that I went to those stands first. First off, Kallistra for two packs of their Single Hex Brook Set. I needed two packs to get enough of the curve pieces.

Then on to QRF for a whole lot of odds and ends really. Geoff had kindly taken my pre-order even though I had missed their deadline by a day, much appreciated!

So I purchased 8 packs of Highlanders (64 figures). These will serve in a dual capacity. Firstly, as Highlanders in the ECW for battles like the Montrose campaigns, secondly as Jacobites for the Jacobite Rebellions. I blame Ian Drury for the latter! His rules "Redcoats and Rebels" got me interested in the Jacobite Rebellion, then I picked up a copy of Culloden by John Prebble, at The Lee Flower Show. Fascinating stuff! With Prebble's book giving the historical background and Ian's rules and complete scenarios for all the battles, all I needed were the Highlanders - I would press my AWI British into service as the opposing forces.

Along with the Highlanders, I bought 2 packs of 3 pdr guns (6 guns) and a pack of Coehorn Mortars. These diminutive little mortars are quite unusual as battlefield artillery, so quite nice to do. The pack contained 4 mortars so I will base them as 2 batteries of 2 each. Crews will come from the AWI British again. A single pack of Jacobite Lowland Cavalry (4 figures) completed the Jacobite force.

I also purchased from QRF 3 packs (12 figures) of ECW Heavy Cavalry. These will replace some Essex figures in the Parliamentarian army. I know it's stylised and an over simplification, but I like the idea that the Parliament horse should all have helmets and breastplates while the Royalists have big floppy hats! Also, the ones being replaced are a bit big and needed 25mm bases rather than 20mm.

Finally in the bag from QRF were a pack of AWI British Light Infantry and a pack of Queen's American Rangers. While working on my updated rules for the American Revolution, I realised that the British had "unbrigaded" their light infantry in the same way as the Grenadiers. The light infantry tended to wear caps or cut down tricornes, so I needed some specific light infantry to represent them. Secondly, the Minfigs "ready made army" that I bought years ago and that forms the bulk of my AWI Brits included some loyalist figures, Butler's Rangers. While a somewhat iconic AWI unit, I discovered that they spent pretty much the whole war fighting Indians and were never involved in any of the major battles. On the other hand, the Queen's American Rangers were. Exit one unit of Butler's Rangers to be replaced by the QAR!

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with the figures that have been replaced. One thought is to take them to COW and see if anyone is interested in buying them...

My other purchases were some more Coat d'Arms paint from Black Hat Miniatures and a copy of "Empire", a campaign game of the Punic Wars by Philip Sabin (from the Society of Ancients).

David bought a couple of "Warmachine" models, two starter packs of Coat d'Arms paints and a paint brush.

Oh, one last thing, I bought a box of the Perry WOTR figures (along with a free mounted commander).

A good day out, a good haul (everything I planned) and before the end of the evening I had some of the QRF figures cleaned up, on the painting table, undercoated and painting started!

Salute 2009

Salute this year was at the end of March, rather than late in April.

I wasn't helping on the WD stand (although I did have a go at "Solferino in 30 Minutes"),so I paid the full punter's rate, but I thought it was still worth it. I didn't actually purchase that much, a stream set and a pack of single hexes from Kallistra, some 5mm magnetic tape and that was about it.

Salute 2007

Salute 2007, bought more Kallistra terrain (!). Some more Essex WOTR figures, some small dice (from EM4) and the new Crusader ancients rule book. Also some Coat d'Arms paints from Black Hat (to replace the stuff the kids ruined).

Played a RF2 game on the Hexon II terrain, slightly modified for the hexes. Seemed to work well. The 2/3 scale maps nicely onto the 4” hexes.

By chance discovered that felt “sticks” to the Hexon II flock quite nicely. Using it for woods, crops etc.

April - June 2002

27th April, Salute. Good show, loads going on. (David went with Bernard, Graham, Iain and Thomas). Helped Bob and Tim run the Megablitz game. Bought the rules, also PBI2, AK47 mortar crew and dead and some extra river sections. Megablitz worked well with lots of people showing interest. Afterwards, I decided to ditch "Bastogne to Berlin" in favour of MB, so I bought a reel of magnetic tape and some steel paper (£7-50). Started rebasing 1/300 scale forces. Have standardised on 2cm * 4cm bases (except for Transport and Leg infantry).

Have decided to model units from Patton's III Army and its opponents. It looks as if I'll be able to create 2 or 3 armoured divisions and at least 2 infantry divisions for each side. Will need to buy some extra models to fill some gaps in the orbats…

June 02: David continues with LOTR. He's made a really nice hill and his painting technique is improving! Clearing up room for Terri's visit. Finished painting the Irregular village pack (people, animals, packages, cart), extra figs for 1460 campaign rules, new Essex dismounted knights, a group of monks and a few extra 15mm pirates.

Bought the 1/300 WW2 stuff to fill out the MB orbats. Painting and basing now.
Set up the next ECW campaign battle (the 14 vs. 8 element one).

Discovered a useful trick on the Internet. My bases are Avocado Green mount board. I bought a brown marker pen and coloured the edges of the bases brown - they look much better now. So much so - I'm doing ALL the bases I have (and that's a lot!).

Salute etc.

I want some ships to try "For What We Are About to Receive" (FWAATR, a naval game by John Armatys). Created some profile ship designs from Tom’s Milpics. Three different sizes for different rates. Will need to mark rating and nationality on them.

Salute - Usual team on the WD stand. This year we had more games than we needed (unlike last year!). Used TTT a couple of times but the mainstay game was Bob’s “Relief of Jakdan Wells” using his SCWaRes rules. Players definitely got into the “spirit” of this game! We also ran “Stalingrad - the Matrix Game” with great success. There were several spectators at one point. A good day was had by all and Bob even signed up a new member. Bought the river system from Marbeth Designs and the new version of DBA. Found out how Bob gets his FIMO models so neat - he uses a pasta making machine!

DBA2.0 has some interesting changes. Camps are now a reasonable size and BUAs are included. Several small changes to the army lists (presumably as a result of more accurate historical research?). Worked out a list of camps to make. Biggest change is actually the renumbering to correspond to the DBM army list books. Applying the changes to the armies I have has resulted in some minor rebasing and a few extra figures are needed.....

As it happened, I needed to go to Castlepoint on the Wednesday.... how handy, Essex Miniatures are only 4 miles away in Canvey Island! Had a nice time browsing their displays, a vast range of miniatures and the staff are very friendly. Bought 8 25mm archers for the WOTR armies, some extra troops to allow Seljuk Turks to morph into Syrians, a war wagon for the Pechenegs and 2 Bedouin style tents. Browsing around Canvey Island (an uninspiring little place) I found a shop that was selling the “Weapons & Warriors” pirate game by Pressman for £5-99. Two brigs for six quid plus half a dozen palm trees, 20 25mm pirates and sundry other bits and pieces can’t be bad. Improvement work will be needed on these.

When I got home I discovered that the last figures I bought for WOTR were also Essex, so that was rather nice. Started painting these figures and two of the river sections.