Salute 2016 ......... there and back again, a traveller's tale...

Well, the day of travelling to London arrived and turned out to be wet and windy....I traveled down without a coat reasoning that previous years have always had good weather with plenty of sunshine....forgetting of course the show was early this year...doh! My usual grinning face in front of the Tower of London has been replaced by this one.......

Friday night was good fun spent in the company of Germy, Manatic, David and Jayne. Chinese meal topped it off very nicely indeed. 

The next morning was overcast and not too warm but it was only a short walk from the Ibis hotel to Excel....I was woken by the noise of someone having a long shower around 5 in the morning...very loud fan....Andy at Heresey though it might be him via conversations on Facebook but couldn't work out from the room numbers as to whether he goes on the hit list or  not.....

Tickets were scanned and bags of goodies given....

and the queue loomed....

The freebie Steamunk Mini (see last post for Kev Dallimore paint job)

Poor pic of the programme....I'd bought the Miniature Wargames mag that had all of these details in the week before and marked everything off that I needed to visit etc.....of course I then left it in the hotel.......

Quite early on I got chatting away to Kurt Causer of K-Kraft Miniatures who showed me his soon to be Kickstarted 20mm Sci Fi range....very nice..he has a lot of plans for them.

Heresy had their 'Madame' previewed...I've pre-ordered this piece with some other resin and am looking forward to it arriving!

They actually had 3 (I think) copies of the fabled dragon for sale. It truly is a work of love and art.

Fireforge Games had some of the molds for their new plastics on display...

EMP Games are new to me but had some interesting pieces on display, both fantasy ad historical They are Kickstarting a Boxer Rebellion range in May...

A couple of display games I've lost the details for.....sorry!

Mierce Miniatures had an incredible assortment of 'new to me' minis.

Steve Casey holding the fort during a lul at the Warmonger stand. 

Blight Wheel Miniatures are another of the newer manufacturers that have tons of new releases...

Some great resin from Kaha Miniatures who shared a stand with Blight wheel (thanks to Ubik of Frothers for the heads up)

No show is complete without these guys....

Wonderlands Project have taken over the Smart Max Mauser Earth series....

My local shop / gaming centre Element Games are distributing the Tabletop World range into the UK now....simply stunning. I have the small well and the larger bridge. Probably the best resin scenery on the market.....

Official Dungeons & Dragons minis.......

Meridian Miniatures have some lovely Steam Punk figures.  I chatted away to Andrew May and he said that the 'Chibi' casts were flying off the stand as well.....I got one of the Dungeon Explore type sets a while back and am still out on whether or not to go for this style.....good news for the hobby though! He is shortly releasing a new range 'Terramortis'..... 'heroic struggle for our grim future'. Bodes well!!

These robots are fantastic and a great price as well. 

Some previews of upcoming releases....

Warlord Games......so much goodness.....

Test sculpts for the Doctor Who game - the less said about the recentish Hornby ones the better.....

Nice chat with Steve Saleh who has loads of ongoing projects that he wasn't allowed to talk about.....

Freebooter Miniatures.....always a favorite of mine. Where can you go wrong with piratical goodness??

Superb 54mm Napoleonics game....

The Adventures of Paul Darke, an 18th Century smuggling game....superb terrain by Oshiro Model Terrain...

Bendy Boards had an interesting dungeon set up on display....

Various random shots....

New game company 'Roots of Magic'...

Paper English Civil War  soldiers from Helion. The book comes with simple rules as well....they also have '1066' and 'Wars of the Roses'.....hopefully more to follow.

TT Combat unveiled the beast of laser cut buildings.....

Into the bargain scrum at Wayland Games...

The Battle of Wilhelmstadt.....

Hysterical Games recent very successful Panzerfauste Kickstarter (I had to pull out due to the divorce, no pun intended)...led to the release of these wonderful weird World War 2 minis.....

The original rules by Matthew Hartley and Steve Blease. Somewhere I have a handful of the original metal sculpts.....these may be getting re-released if the demand is there....

The very amusing 'Pax Bochemannica'

Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander...I don't think this one is being cast up....

New to me 'Euphoria Miniatures'.....

Quick cheaky snap of Michael and Alan Perry....Perry Miniatures really are wonderful!

Renedra showing off their new castle kit....

And what if Essex had gone to Bristol? Stunning scenery....

Frostgrave terrain board....

Riverhorse Games seem to be going from strength to strength.....I might actually get the family into gaming once this is released...

A mock up of the boxed game.....

The 3 ups and some test castings......

Battlesystems scenery.......

Warploque Miniatures Battle for Troll Bridge...another Kickstarter coming soon...'Trouble In The North'. That really should be 'Trouble Up North' I suppose....being something of a Northerner myself...

Another random game I think....or maybe a 4Ground one?

Infamy Miniatures stunning steampunk resin....

Eureka Miniatures...say 'G'day' and get a free kangaroo.....what's not to like....although a lot of people were too shy to join in......

Caught Dags of Frother's fame who thrust a goat mini into my greasy palm. 

Hobby pal Nik Green laser cut some Oldhammer badges for the show....rather nice and thanks!

Nik did a handful of laser cut 'Oldhammer' badges - a name taken straight from Games Workshop's 'Warhammer' name to try and inspire hobbyists to play in the old style of early days GW....he was looking for Dave Needham to make sure he was ok for him to use the logo - these were giveaway badges for the Oldhammer guys as Dave runs an Oldhammer blog with this logo based on the GW design. Nik left me a bunch which I passed to Steve Casey in case any Oldhammerers turned up. No copyright infringement intended to Dave as I'm sure he doesn't intend to GW!!

What did I buy? Well, Infamy had some £20 mystery boxes full of slight miscasts etc so I jumped on one of them (not literally....) 

The overall haul....

Hasslefree's subtle viking reminiscent of a certain someone.....

I think this was a Crooked Dice game....

A 4 Ground work in progress....

Their church wreck.......

Various 'wow' displays of theirs.......

Black Scorpion goodness.....they had a bunch of miniatures we were asked not to take pics of for a new cowboy game coming out soon..

The Battle of Foteviken 1134....

Dark Ops scenery.....a lot of Frostgrave goodness around on the day...although this was for another game 'Iceheim'....

South London Warlords own Star Trek game........

Various games........

Northstar's Frostgrave minis....my Gnolls shot didn't come out so well....these are painted resin 3-ups. The plastic boxed sets will be out soon I believe....more money....

Garibaldi at Palermo......

Paranoid Miniatures 'Mythos' Kickstarter went live on the day. Currently 75% funded....

Random pic and not sure who's these are??

'O'rt The Hills' Napoleonic wargame....

Overall a great day had. I got all the new Nightfolk and the Time robbers from David and Jayne at Northumbrian Tin Soldier. I met up with my mate Tony Yates on the Foundry stand. Good chats with various 'Oldhammerers'.....if that's the word. Pete Armstrong was due a pint but we never got together somehow......that Fox@Excel pub is big and busy!  Good fun overall...did some sightseeing on the Sunday before heading back 'oop' North.

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