Salute 2024

 I'm still struggling to return to this blog; not sure why, but I will give it another go.  In the meantime, here is the annual Salute round up.  I took the boys again, having gone solo last time.  That makes for a very different experiences, as I can't just wander around chatting to the gamers and doing my own thing.  I knew that they would begin to lose it around 2.20pm (and in Monty's case he did actually manage to lose a stash of brightly-coloured dice he'd chosen for himself), and I barely got to chat with any of the demo people.  We'd wanted to try to find some participation games that they could join, and that was pretty hard as they all seemed to be very busy.  However, we did manage to have a go at "Gaslands" (a sort of Mad Max car racing game), which we play at home and I'd thought (correctly, as it turned out) that we weren't quite getting it right.    

Thoughts generally?  It was very hot and crowded this year.  There was pretty much no ventilation and cool air, which made being the hall really rather uncomfortable (I'm probably showing my age now, a little bit).  The recent trends of (i) lots more smaller games than impactful big ones, and (ii) a large fantasy, sci-fi presence were continued.  I thought that the large historical games of old had almost gone for good on my first walk around, until I found the row where they seemed to be "hiding"; they were universally fantastic.  Something new was a covered stage/auditorium area, which had a series of talks and discussions with hobby luminaries.  Shopping wasn't as good as I remembered - lots of fantasy/sci-fi systems being sold and the usual historical "big names" (although with some notable absentees, like Dixon and Gripping Beast), but I thought there were fewer terrain suppliers.  Luckily Wayland Games had their massive shop which allowed Hugo and Monty to spend their money on Batman Lego and Pokemon cards respectively.  My purchases were relatively modest: the latest Jon Sutherland 19th century scenario books from Caliver (for NZ and Australian battles); some Perry Ottomans from Dave Thomas (who no longer carries the other ranges I'm interested in); two packs of brushes from Artmaster (which I've realised is all I need for the 12 months between shows - they are superb); and a load of replacement Foundry paint packs. 

So many thanks to the Warlords and everyone else who contributed to the show.  As always, the photos are of things I just happened to see and have a chance to snap - apologies to those I've missed out.

Let's start with one of the biggies, To the Strongest's ECW game, the Relief of Norchester:

      

Sally 4th Games had a fantasy game set in the world of the Wizard of Ozz:

"Tigers of Tracy-Bogage", a Normandy 1944 games from Sheppey Models and Milton Hundred Wargames Club:

The Battle of Thapsus from Society of Ancients:

Duncan's Band of Brothers had a trio of games representing the post-D-Day attack on Carentan.  These looked terrific:

Another very good looking game was South East Scotland Wargames Club's fictional "Battle of Nivelle, 1815":

Maidstone Wargames Society had this impressive Battle of Britain game:

"The Assault on Fort Mulgrave, Toulon December 1793" by Caseshot Publishing: 

There were some medieval re-enactors, some of whom put on a fencing display:

This was one of the largest games at the show, which I think was Cornwall Wargames Association's "Gallants of Fowey, 1457" game:

Another massive game, Stalingrad 1944 from Too Fat Lardies:

Loughton Strike Force had this very impressive "Saigon '68" game:

"The American Civil War in Paper" from Peter's Paper Boys:

Retired Wargames Reloaded had this fantastic 1944 Pegasus Bridge game:

Now this was amazing: the 15th century Siege of Gradara with a replica of the castle town in 25mm:

Crawley Wargames Club had a "Darkest Africa" game with real African props:

London Wargames Guild's 1041 Viking attack on London - another stunning game:

Various fantasy, super-hero and sci-fi games:

Osprey Games were showcasing their "A World Transformed" (horror WW1 on a recovered Dogger Bank) and "The Silver Bayonet" (horror Napoleonics in Egypt):

Brecon Wargames Club's WW2 "DAK Attack":

A couple of other games the details of which I didn't catch:

Navarre Infantry - 1st battalion

This is the third unit of Carlist infantry I painted towards the end of 2020 (I was determined to erase my Carlist War lead-pile).  I assigned it to Navarre, for no particular reason.  The troops are wearing the same greatcoat and trousers uniforms as my first Guipuzcoa battalion, although I used a deeper red for the trousers.  It's quite a smart look, I think.  Navarre, a northern province in Spain that bordered on the Basque region, was a natural recruiting ground for the Carlist cause.  The province's rugged, mountainous terrain made it difficult to subdue, and consequently it managed to maintain a semblance of autonomy from  the middle ages into the 19th century.  In fact, it was only with the Carlist defeat in 1841 that the province was brought fully into the territory of the Spanish crown.  Conrad Cairns tells us that twelve battalions were raised in Navarre for the Army of the North, together with the elite guides.

I remember that at this stage in 2020 I was having real problems painting the faces.  I hadn't yet bought my glasses, which I now have to use for any type of painting, and so I found the eyes particularly difficult.  Some of them are pretty crappy, to be honest; but others are ok.  The great thing about these figures is that there's not much detail on them outside of the faces - just overcoats with minimal kit.  So they were good figures to do whilst I was beginning to feel a bit visually impaired.  I'm going to need a few more units like this.    

20 figures.  Painted December 2020.  Flag by Adolfo Ramos.

Valencian volunteers - 2nd battalion

This is the counterpart to the other unit of Valencians that I posted on Tuesday.  A "brigade" photo is below.  There's no much else to say that wasn't in my earlier post.  The jackets and berets were painted using the Foundry "Deep Blue 20" palette.  I like the poses of these figures, particularly the command figures (there's an excellent drummer with a bandaged head in the second row).  There's lots more FCW stuff coming up - more Carlist infantry, then Isabelino high command and cavalry.  Once that's all posted, I'll get up to date with the Paraguayan War.  After that, it will probably be time for some Frostgrave and 7-TV!     

20 figures. Painted November - December 2020.  Flag by Adolfo Ramos.

Valencian volunteers - 1st battalion

Now that Salute and the Coronation are out of the way, it's time to return to full-time blogging, with almost 4 years' worth of stuff to photograph and post about.  I'm going to start catching up with some First Carlist War units.  I painted two units of Valencian volunteers in autumn 2020, having spent most of Lockdown painting fantasy stuff for "Frostgrave".  The Perry range has two poses of these troops, marching and a more aggressive advancing.  Most of the Valencians troops were part of Cabrera's Army of the Centre, so they can join my Ontoria Hussars and Cabrera's Guard.  But both the Perry-published Conrad Cairns book and Gabriele Esposito's Osprey MAA state that there also two battalions of Valencians in the Army of the North, the troops having been raised in a Carlist march across Spain in June to December 1836.  

Cairns states that there were seven battalions in the Army of the Centre and some of these were dressed in trousers and greatcoats, so much like other Carlist troops.  He also states that "some  replaced trousers with the traditional zaraguell, a white kilt word by the inhabitants of the countryside around Valencia".  Esposito states that the first four battalions had dark blue greatcoats and white trousers, whereas the remainder had blue jackets and wore elements of civilian clothing, like the Zaraguell.  So that's what we have here.  I probably should have mixed up the waistcoat colours a bit more - they are mainly brown, albeit different shades of brown, drab and khaki. The flag is a "black banner", which were known to have been used by the Army of the Centre.  Apparently these troops were not particularly reliable, being more suited to hit-and-run skirmishing than stand-up engagement.

20 figures.  Painted October-November 2020.  Flag from Alberto Ramos (I think).