Salute 2018

Down to London for my annual jamboree in Dockland. A good curry with my daughter the night before set me up nicely, and I stay in a hotel five minutes walk from Excel, so there is no rush in the morning.

Excel seemed quieter than usual, but this may have been because the London Marathon runners were not registering there - for once the Marathon is not running on the day after Salute. Once inside the hall, it seemed about as busy as ever.

My first visit was to the Baccus stand, where I picked up some brand new WW2 artillery for both sides - 88mm Flak, Pak 40 and 10.5 leFH 18 for the Germans, and 6pdr and 25pdr for the British. I also got to hold one of their new tanks, a Sherman, but they are still not quite readywith the moulds.

After that I made a circuit of the hall, round the perimeter first, buying various bits and pieces. Studio Miniatures had a lot of nice pulp figures, and I bought three for use as survivors. Hasslefree provided some nice skyclad witches, and I bought a single 6mm city building in MDF from a company called Blotz. I then called at Great Escape Games and picked up some more Chicago Way stuff - another car, two stills, some barrels and some more casualties. Over at Ainsty I got some more barrels of different sizes - you can usually rely on Ainsty for general "stuff".

I went back to the hotel to dump my booty, and had lunch in a local cafe. Maybe next year I'll eat in the hotel. Back to the hall, and I picked up some figures from Spectre Miniatures. They do several ranges of modern special forces and irregular fighters, and I got some because they look very nice. They may be a little large, minis are increasingly "heroic" 28mm, which is really about 32mm.

I spent quite a bit of time looking for board game vendors, because I was hoping to find the Kursk supplement for Conflict of Heroes, called Storms of Steel. I thought this would be out (in a second edition) in time for Salute), but when I eventually found a likely place, Magister Militium, there was no sign. Checking on the Academy Games website the planned date now seems to be June.

I got a book, one of the Tank Battle in Miniature series, volume 2. This was the last one I needed to complete the set of five, two of which I have had since I got them from the author (Bruce Quarrie) in the seventies. I got two more, by Donald Featherstone, at the auction at the weekend event last month, and I was pleased to spot the final missing link (by Bruce, on the Russian front) on a stand here. A few more bits and pieces - some flexible 6mm fields from Timecast, and a couple of back numbers of WSS - and I was ready to go. A pretty good day all round, the train home was quite crowded but on time and I had my loot home before 8:30.

Cruising the mean streets

One of my birthday presents was a vehicle from Great Escape Games in The Chicago Way series - a Cadillac V-8 Town Sedan. This is a soft resin or hardish plastic model, with a metal driver. It went together well - the body/chassis is the majority of the model, and the rest are mostly accessories like the wheels, lights and so on. The exception is the roof/windows, which go together as a four part box and then need to be put on top of the body. In fact it sits quite well inside the top of the body, and I didn't glue it in so that the car can be shown open topped. The other thing I did was cut the windows out - I think it looks better with open spaces there than any attempt to paint it as glass. The driver is perfectly fine, not hugely characterful but does the job with or without the top on. I left him free from glue as well, so the car can be shown as empty if needed.

In the pictures the car is sitting on the Cigar Box Roaring Twenties Battle Mat, with various figures and bits of terrain - I am planning a game on there soon, but I have a bit of building to do first.

Wanna be in my Gang?

Continuing the Chicago Gangster theme in my purchases from Fiasco, here is the Pulp Figure set Bugs Malarkey's Gang. Five figures as is normal from Pulp, for £10. Three nattily dressed gunmen and one looking a little rougher in a scarf and beanie hat, plus the classic man with a violin case. They painted up very nicely, and as is standard now for me I cut away the metal bases and glued them to clear plastic bases.

More Chicago

I built the two 4Ground Chicago Way models I picked up at FIASCO last weekend - the Shotgun House and the Garage. As always with this supplier the models are really nice and solid, double thickness on all the main walls so you get a sound structure and surface detail on both sides. The house is pretty simple, a straightforward rectangular building with one interior dividing wall with door, and a porch/veranda at each end. The garage was more substantial and complicated, with an internal office with its own flat roof, and then a large space accessed by double doors which would be the workshop, presumably. There's nice glazing for the windows, including signs for the front ones, and a long covered walkway going out to one side. All pre-painted, plus signs and posters to stick on when you're finished. I have five buildings in this series now, as well as other suitable city buildings; I am looking for appropriate mats or the like.

Fiasco 2017

Over to Leeds today for Fiasco at the Royal Armouries. This is my third or fourth year - it is not too far to drive, a bit over the hour, and it's also well timed as there's not a lot of other shows going on right now. I parked up and had a quick look around, then went looking for lunch. The docks area around the Armouries is very smart, all big new buildings or modern conversions of original warehouses - but it's a bit soulless. I walked over the Ayre and up into the older part of Leeds. I found a bar/club called Revolution - no doubt very trendy at night, but for a rack of ribs and apint on Sunday lunchtime, just perfect.

Back to the show along the Ayre - someday we might come over on the narrowboat and moor close by. But that is well in the future. For this year's show I had a few specific items on the list, and I got them all. The first target was some Old West buildings from Leven - I have an idea to create a western town as a sort of diorama. I'd like to try playing a gunfighter game at 6mm, but so far I am struggling to find suitable figures, and I had no more luck today. While I was at Leven's stand I als picked up an extra building, as I often do, just because I liked the look of it. In this case it was a big British pub, called The Push, apparently based on a real building in Beverley.

After that I wanted some more Chicago buildings in 28mm, having built a couple last week. I found some 4Ground kits at Colonel Bill's stall, and I got a garage and a shotgun shack. I was tempted by a large warehouse, but at £80 it was just a little too much.

My other targets were smaller. I got a pack of gangsters from Pulp Figures - Bugs Malarchy's Mob - who will obviously be fighting around the new buildings. And I went to Baccus and picked up the Fallschirmjager Nebelwerfers - they had sold out at Salute, and I didn't get to Joy of Six, so I wanted to get hold of it, though I am not currently painting WW2.

I got away after three, and home by about half four - it was a lovely day for the first day of winter, so the drive was no problem - a good day out all told.

Chicago Shops

For a bit of a change from painting 6mm I decided to build a couple of 4Ground models I have had for a while, possibly since Salute and perhaps longer. They are for Chicago in the gangster era, two small retail premises. One is a tobacconist, with suitable posters and flyers stuck all over it, and the other is a jeweller's, a little bit more sober with stone pillar work and solid-looking doors.

4Ground do good kits, with plenty of detail, and pre-painted. For some reason I am very happy to get pre-painted terrain, especially at this larger scale, while I am very keen to paint my own figures. These models have glazed windows, with painted lettering for the large display panes; I think these are the first models in this range with glazing.

The sound of jazz, the smell of the newsprint

I have just finished painting up two of my Christmas presents, Pulp Figure packs from their Gangland Justice range. The first one is a set of five News Hounds, though they're not all reporters. It looks like we have two actual reporters, one male and one female, plus a photographer, someone who is probably the editor shouting instructions in the office, and a newsboy selling the resulting papers. All nice figures, as I have come to expect from this line, and they'll be useful as bystanders and colour in big city scenarios. They might even make a Pulp league of some sort.

The second pack was Jinx Johnson's Harlem Jazz Quartet. As the title suggests you only get four figures, though the fifth is represented, in weight of metal anyway, by the double bass. Again, more likely to be background for a scenario in a nightclub, though I can see possibilities for them as a gang for some Mr Big.