Salute 2014 - the annual exodus.....

Pics first and this week I shall finish filling it full of the usual waffling...suffice to say a great weekend away, met up with friends, both old and new, and can't wait for next year...............

Me...getting excited as usual near the Tower of London....

The building site that is London....

Below is the Dickens Inn where we were meeting for a drink or two....after buying my first beer since the beginning of Lent (shortened due to Salute...) I received a text to say there had been a change of game plan and we were now meeting at the Fox near Excel......grrrrr. Very beautiful area to drink in but hideously expensive....

A couple of hours (and a few drinks) later at the Fox....

We were assembled in an empty warehouse before being let in...I had thoughts of the St Valentine's Massacre..........

First stop was Heresy Miniatures....this marvellous mini, a remake of one of his early pieces and now cast in resin.......

The fabled dragon..I am about 240 on the list I think?

Black Scorpion Miniatures...now only cast in resin......grrrrrrr...bring back the lead....

although resin is fine for this beast.....

Oshiro Model Terrain had some stunning one off pieces on display.....

Ammon Miniatures had some truly weird and lovely pieces up for grabs....

Jimbibbly (off Oshiro Model Terrain) & Co from the most excellent Lead Adventure Forum hosted a wonderful VSF Martian game...I do highly recommend the forum. One of my main hobby forums.

Demented Games have an upcoming Kickstarter for their good-looking Steampunk Adventure game 'Twisted'

Those boys at 4Ground did themselves proud once again...see the pre release fantasy buildings below.....

These fantasy are incredible............

The Royal Artillery Museum put on a nice re-enactment display. I didn't get chance to chat to them but they were busy throughout the day.

Troublemaker Games had their new Timeline 300 10mm Steampunk pieces on show...they have another game soon to be released via the Indeigogo platform....

Renedra were showing how they cast plastic orcs.....

and adobe buildings....

and the Perry twins were showing...well....ambrosia from Heaven....

Clockwork Goblin miniatures...alternate World War 2 range....

Warlord Games showing the future of 3D sculpting.....

and the wonderful Wojtek, a simply great guy that I had a nice chat to. Check my earlier post for pics of the Pirate greens he did for Black Tree Design some years back....yet to see the light of day but helped him land a place in the Warlord family! He is now the proud possessor of a pair of blog minis....

Lovely paint job and set piece on an old Metal Magic figure....I think anyway. 

Nice chat with John Treadaway about the South London Warlords' Pelennor Fields game...

Spectre Miniatures are launching onto an unsuspecting world in the form of a Kickstarter soon...keep a lookout as it looks to be huge. Their website is being launched soon http://spectreminiatures.com/ although currently just active on Facebook here. Click and 'like' them if you do Facebook. 

To quote them;

SPECTRE miniatures unveils a world of modern warfare and covert 

operations set initially within deepest Africa.

Combining traditional sculpting and digital modelling we've created a 

unique and characterful range of 80 miniatures with an arsenal of

highly detailed weapons and equipment. Our range contains miniatures 

representing SAS, Delta Force, intelligence agents, military 

contractors, warlords and African militia.

Become part of an immersive, world-spanning story through a 

comprehensive range of tabletop miniatures, wargames terrain and 

unique rules set.

Reinforce the fight on Kickstarter - May 1st.

Mantic plastics..........

Frother's own Akula generally cuts corners on his display games every year......the year he didn't do Dune.

Eureka Miniatures over from Australia......showing their new licenced Michael Moorock's Runestaff range.... my old buddy Tony Yates sculpted a ton of Runestaff figures for a French company some decades ago...they all disappeared and he never saw them released...grrrrrrrrr....

Prodos Games Mutant Chronicles 'Warzone Resurrection'

Prodos Games prototypes for their Alien games...all officially licenced and probably costing them a veritable bomb. Wonderful looking sculpts.....

A collection of British manufacturers going under the collective title of 'British Indie'. 

Warploque Miniatures c/o of Alex. Website not active yet so just on Facebook here.

Infamy Miniatures

White Dragon Miniatures

I've got to know Paul at Mad Clown ever since he stated showing his sculpts on Frothers Unite forum. I love his work and picked up my pre-order at the show. First time I've met him and he is a top bloke. Very active on Facebook here.

Annoyingly out of focus shot of this little set piece...he is planning more.....

Zinge Industries showcasing some of their upcoming releases....also on Facebook here.

Frothers game of bees and honey....very busy throughout the day...

Gripping Beast SAGA game...

Gripping Beast gladiatorial combat...JUGULA...to quote them;

Fantastic new game from the designer of SAGA, Alex Buchel is two games in one. It has full rules for Gladiator Combat plus a fantastic Careers mode where players take the role of a Lanista, establish their own Ludus and battle their way from illegal fight pits on the fringes of the Roman Empire to the Arenas of Italy and eventually, with luck and skill, the Coliseum itself!

The Dice Bag Lady...everyone should own one of these!

Thundercloud Miniatures showing the start of their Avendora line. Check the website out for more details including a free download of the rules....

Sarissa Precision advance viaducts.....we need these...out soon apparently. Loads of plans afoot as well....

Certainly helped my this talent model maker....

Victrix advance pics....

Darkstar Miniatures...sculpting and casting services...also on Facebook here.

Those despicable Perry twins....sculptors of reknown and emptiers of my wallet for too many years to count....

Winner of the game of the show Honnington Wargames Group. D Day landings on a 121 scale.....

Visitors from a passing Imperial cruiser.....

My good pal Levied Troop's game....

Ah....le Pissoir.....

and what a Fenris Games' Griffin House should look like if completed...unlike mine of course...

I had a great long chat with Kev Adams who was on the Wargames Foundry stand encouraging Orc and Goblin sales. Another top bloke. I also spoke to Marcus and Diane Ansell and got to finally pass them some of my blog mini. Makes a change from them sending me stuff over the years. Foundry are making a big move over to Newark shortly and I will be shooting down there at the first opportunity. I think they will all miss Curzon street as it has been their 'home' for some time but when you see the pics of the new place......there really is no comparison!

To quote Marcus from the Foundry site & newsletter (hope that's ok!)....

We’ve dug out all sorts of barely released and never released items to take this year's Salute. This includes a Victorian Egyptian Adventure range, unseen Trojans (including 11 chariots (!) apparently there are actually 15: but I couldn’t find the others) , Napoleonic Mamelukes, unseen Hittites, Carthaginians, Ancient Spaniards and barely released Persians We have also discovered stocks of loads of Kevin Adams Orcs and suchlike many of which have barely been seen by the public. In fact Kevin himself will be coming along to keep them company.

I didn't get to read the Foundry email in full before I left on Friday so knew nothing of the Victorian Egyptian Adventure range....grrrrrr. I should have checked over the racks but I was too busy chatting to them all...... The cards below speak for themselves.....shoot them an email and tell them Tony Blair sent you...they may appreciate the humor!

More Warlord sci-fi.....

Warlord Games vehicle WIPs....

First of the new Warlord-Italeri brotherhood.....I spoke to Airfix a year and half ago about this sort of thing.... did they listen? No.

advance sneak peaks of Warlord Games' work in progress vehicles

World War !......oh my, dreamy time stuff!

I picked up a new charity piece by Empress Miniatures.....I'll let them give the details;

Many of you would have read of our good friend Ignatiff's appeal. If not I will let Steve explain it in his own words.

 "As some of you will know, my younger sister died in May this year of a misdiagnosed melanoma. It started under her big toe and ended up in her brain, and killed her very quickly indeed.  She left behind a wonderful husband and three lovely young teenage girls.

The cancer spread so fast that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her properly, and so in her memory, and to raise awareness of the dangers of melanomas, I - and two equally unhinged friends, Rodger Williams and Peter Martin - have decided to raise £100,000 for MASScot by taking part in the 2014 Mongol Rally.

The Mongol Rally takes place annually between the UK and Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia.  It’s a three week, eight thousand mile drive, across inhospitable terrain, along some of the worst roads in the world….and all in a car which has an engine no bigger than 1L. And they don't like you to take a 4WD car either (not that that would make much of a difference in a 1L car…).

Our route will take us through Europe, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and then - finally - Mongolia.  We expect to complete it in three weeks.  And while it will be ‘epic’ in the true sense of the word, it will also be bloody hard work.

The charity we are raising money for is a small Scottish cancer charity, based in Glasgow, called ‘Melanoma Action and Support Scotland’ a.k.a. ‘MASScot’ (Charity Registration No. SC040286).      They were, and continue to be, hugely supportive of my sisters family through these very difficult times.

All money raised through donations and sponsorship will go directly to the charity. All costs will be covered by the three of us.

Can I ask you therefore to dig deep and support something that is very close to my heart and in a very good cause.

You can read more about The Mongol Rally here: http://www.theadventurists.com/the-adventures/mongol-rally

Thank you all for reading this.

best regards

Steve"

As both Keith and I are members of this drinking, sorry wargaming, club and I have known Steve for a few years in our other life   Empress wondered how we could help. In the end we thought that we would do what we do best. We designed and created  a figure especially for this appeal. We also persuaded, although it was far from hard to convince them. In fact we could not stop the little loves, both Paul Hicks and Stewart of Griffin Moulds to donate their services free of charge, as we did ours.

We wanted something funny, in period and that lots of gamers could use for the interwar and WW2 period. The solution came in the creation of the Grandson of Flashman VC.

Boy Flashman, as he is known to the other officers in the mess. Slightly effete and with the good looks and charm of a young David Niven. 

The Lead Adventure Forum thread is here. Well worth putting a few pounds towards.

A quick pic of the ticket that did not win the raffle.....

The freebie figure this year was an Alan Perry sculpt of Commander Maud, based on the Kenneth Moore character in the film The Longest Day.

These are already being sold on ebay for silly prices as usual...may be worth waiting a while for the furore to go down.......I've posted pics of the previous years minis on the Lost Minis WIKI here.

Salute of course would not be Salute without an after show drinkie or two......various Frothers and Lead Adventure Forum folks after the event.....we are not a shy bunch it must be said...

A quick curry and I said goodbye to the boys who kept up the annual drinking tradition....I really am getting too old.....

Sunday morning and the London Marathon was in full swing.....

This quite amused me on the British Rail loo seat....

and I always realise how much I miss the munchkins especially when I come home to this....

Any comments appreciated as always or email; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk