Salute 2019, first thoughts

Hi!
I attended Salute 2019.
It was the first time in around 30 years that I have attended the show. The last time was in Kensington Town Hall.
And still Stingray was on! I think the figures for the Stingray game were smaller than the original in the 80's. I may be wrong.

The trip down was uneventful.

The first surprise was the price of entry on the door. £20. Really?
You could still buy online which would save £10. But why have such a high door price when contact less is in use? What if someone who was attending another event wanted a look around? It would certainly put them off.
The queue wasn't long and as 10 a.m came it was only a few minutes until I was inside. It wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting a long wait and slow grind. Thankfully it wasn't.

The queue at 09:59

I took a tour of the outer trade stands, which was my main reason for attending the show. To see what I had been missing manufacturer wise. There were many familiar names on show. I bought a few things (which I'll catalogue in the another post) and began the a tour of the inner tables and trade stands.  A few which I will check out in the near future ste pictured below.

I took a couple of photo's of some games I liked the look of.

How could you not like Mammoths?

The Skirmish at Stablethorpe. An ECW game.

A few pictures of the Battle of Lutzen by the Friends of General Haig

The Black River Debacle by Gringo 40's. My choice for best looking game.

At 12:00, I met up with the Bloggers near the painting competition. Big Lee, Postie Ray, Tasmin Peter , Alistair and Miles. Some of who's blogs I have read frequently and some I hadn't. But I will now!

After a pleasant chat we went our separate ways.
I went to lunch then continued where I had left off with my tour of the hall.
Yes, it was tiring. But I wanted to be certain the see everything.

A surprise was that some merchants were cash only. They lost my sale on the day. I don't carry much money on me nowadays.

After an interesting day it was time to leave. I enjoyed meeting the Bloggers and seeing the displays and participation games. Many were well presented. Some had spoilt the display with coffee cups and other clutter as can be seen in the pictures.. I thought those days were over at big shows.

A last picture before I left the show.

It is only a few weeks until Campaign in Milton Keynes which I will attend. Hopefully, the wargames bank balance may be back in the black by then!

To come. A few pieces picked up on the day.

6mm ECW cavalry

Hi!
Only a couple of weeks and I've getting the cavalry in shape.
A quick shot of the 6mm Heroics & Ros ECW cavalry,
I decided to base them on DBR bases 40 x 30 mm for the cavalry. Where I normally base them in two rows of 6 I decided on two rows of 5. It give a little more space on the base. I didn't want 'boot to boot' cavalry lines. It also gave me two extra bases so I'm not complaining!

Above are some primed and partly painted dragoons.
In the middle are the Chariot miniature psiloi and a Japanese ashigaru drum figure and drum.

Slowly clearing the library

Hi!

I have now sold 3 books and 4 booklets in the library clear out.

The latest to go are these from Partizan Press.

Currently, I am painting the Heroics and Ros English Civil War figures. I am happy to let these booklets go to someone else who will appreciate the information they give. I have taken some information from them, names and uniform colours mainly.

What, then, am I going to do with the gains made? I have no idea as yet. When the library is depleted, or totally gone, I will decide. Perhaps some really decent French and Indian Wars buildings and terrain. Or Frostgrave. 

The other thing is the Cuban Independence Wars that has been in Miniature wargames recently. My wife, being Cuban is all for it!

Thank you for dropping by

6mm ECW ready to paint.

Hi!
Today I spent sometime prepping the ECW figures from Heroics and Ros (heroicsandros.).
Basically, a spray paint job undercoat.
I will check the bases I will use again before starting to paint. The Polish and Ottomans are DBR based so I want it to be compatible and not too different. Indecision is a terrible thing. Probably why my troops hesitate to move because they think I'll change my mind!
I'll should change my pseudonym to The Grand Old Duke of York!

As you can see, the weather in Milton Keynes isn't the snow-swept UK that is on the news today.

I will be taking a break at the end of May to attend a wedding in the US. If they let me in. I'm hoping New Hampshire is going to be warm and inviting.

Thanks for viewing.

The city takes shape. 6mm Leven buildings for ancient wargames

At last i'm getting somewhere. Later than expected but creeping ever onward to the goal.
Here are the Leven Miniatures (levenminiatures.co.uk) middle east buildings I got as a  Christmas present.  I think they look good enough. I will add to them at some future point. A small shrine at least for a village or two.

Library clear-out

I've decided to slim down the library.
First to go will be books, some of which I have had a long time. Re-read and cherished I hope they will be appreciated as much as I have appreciated them.
They are classics of the wargame literature.
Books by Grant, Heath and Barker.
More books and rules will follow. Perhaps most.
These are the books I've just posted on eBay:-

I'm sure those who have been in the hobby for a while will know of these three books.
Wargame Tactics by Grant has been one of my favourite books. The battle of Behistun castle being a favourite read over the time. Even if the Sassanian's did lose.

A wargamers' guide to the Crusades never took off with me. I had a one time two small armies of 13th century English armies, Simon de Montfort and the Earl de Warrene. I had planned to paint a Saracen army but it never took off. Hence, probably the least read book on my shelf. The armies were sold to a wargame shop in Aylesbury along with a 15mm Macedonian Successor army. They were much better painted than my 25mm armies at the time, even if they were with Humbrol!

Alexanders the Greats' Campaigns was a boon when it came out. The campaign aspect is possibly too detailed for many nowadays. But plenty of good reference material for those wanting to know about ancient logistics and probable costings.

'Till next time

2019 painting challenge

Hi!
I was wondering what my painting schedule for this year should look like.

Firstly, finish the Frostgrave soldiers, the old school Persians  (foot and cavalry -riders only, the horse have been done months ago), the Sumerian buildings and a few pieces of the 6mm Napoleonics artillery left over from previously. It doesn't sound much but I'll expect to close these off by the end of March. Really, hoping to finish by the end of February.

Next will be the 6mm Heroics and Ros English Civil War armies. There are a lot. I have to break them down into two armies. I'd partly done this before they were stored away. Whenever that was!
I will need to look again. The problem will be basing. I'm inclined to put each battalion/regiment of foot on the same base. But 80mm seems too large so I will look at 60mm basing.
DBA/DBR recommend 3 bases of 40mm wide which is rather a lot of space to take up on the table for a unit IMHO, where 2 bases of shot and 1 of pike would be the norm. Where as 40mm seems too small. I'll experiment.
Further to this, unit and army frontages were never so conforming as DBX makes out.
Incidentally, I will be having variable unit sizes, as happened in reality. I'm not sure if any rules cater for this but a factor can be subtracted when shooting or in melee should the need arise. Or added.
I will set a start and end date of March through to the end of September. Rather long, granted. Fortune or mishap could easily arise to alter this.

Having written the above, the next day I got then out to check!

As can be seen, quite a few to do.
There are a few irregular miniature figures here, but not many. Mostly they are the artillery train, crews and guns. I think they are more appealing models then H&R.
Arrayed with the pile are some bases I will try out.

This is the pile mostly sorted.
I have an abundance of cavalry but not as many pike and shot as I thought. I have 6 regiments divided previously with a pack or two of pike and shot to separate.
As can be seen, a nice artillery park. Nine canon of various sizes.

So having looked at what is to do I have tried a few base sizes already and come to my preferred size.
It will tend to be 80 x 40 mm.  The number of figures will be 45, 30 shot and 15 pike. Some units may contain less to give the visual appeal I am looking for
If I do some London Trained Bands I will base them on 3, 40 x 40 mm bases with the increase in figure count accordingly. Possibly.
All, of course, subject to change on whim!

The horse, I am not sure the base size I prefer yet.

A few figures are partially painted as I bought them from eBay years ago. A bit rough but I can smarten them up a bit.

I expect I will start with the horse. It seems my default position if I have them.


This will leave October through to the end of the year to paint the French and Indian Wars figures. Hopefully I will be ahead by then to give some extra time.