Salute 2013

By now, plenty of others have blogged about Salute and I don't really have much to add, certainly on the news front.  My immediate impressions on arrival were that the spacing and arrangements of tables was much better, creating more of a sense of space and providing wider thoroughfares.  I think the Warlords have cracked the venue now.  The advance tickets queue was, once again, enormous, although it did get us all in reasonably quickly.  I have felt for a couple of years that the Warlords should sell a smaller number of these tickets, and I heard one of the ushers make this point to the people behind me in the queue.  General attendance seemed up; the number of games seemed down.  As always, there were several traders I'd never heard of and others I had expected but weren't there (where was North Star?).

I felt (as did some of my companions) that the "wow factor" in the demo games was rather lacking - that's not to moan about what I know is a huge effort from anyone who goes to the trouble of putting on a game at Salute, but simply a subjective view.  With a couple of exceptions, the historical games seemed smaller and less ambitious than usual; and there were some I'm sure I'd seen before, either last year or the year before (probably because they are essentially adverts for particular products).   Also, and again with a couple of notable exceptions, there was the familiar fare of WW1, WW2, Dark Ages, ACW and Naps (plus masses of sci-fi and fantasy).  I know those are the most popular periods, but again there seemed a lot that was familliar or just a different take on something another club has done previously.  I'm not complaining - it's always a pleasure to see well-presented games; but in my view Salute can (and should) be pushing the boundaries in terms of presentation and periods and I thought this year was a little flat.  Perhaps this is just what happens when you hit middle-age...

I've also found that over the past 3-4 years I've spent far more time socialising than viewing and shopping.  I'm very happy about that, and enjoyed catching up with several internet and "real-life" chums.  I do enjoy wandering around the games with someone else, especially if their idea of wargaming aesthetics is similar to mine, and this year I did the rounds with another blogger, Malcolm Rose (also a Napoleonic expert and wine importer).  There were a few people I missed "bumping into", such as Legatus Hedlius, who I've never managed to meet at a Salute despite him being one of the tallest wargamers I've ever met and so hard to miss! (And why is it that you always "bump into" those people you've specifically arranged to meet later?)  I enjoyed several glasses of wine with Malcolm and some mates after the show, committing the school boy error of drinking on a completely empty stomach. Ouch.  I caught up with Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures, having missed him last year - he has some interesting AWI plans.

I exercised birthday boy rights to spend a bit more than usual this year without feel
ing guilty (I'm sure Hugo doesn't really want to go to university anyway, so there's no point in saving for it): the new NZ Wars figures from Empress; more AWI cavalry from Eureka; some Galloping Major F&IW settlers for AWI militia; latest editions of various mags (I congratulated Henry Hyde on his "reverse takeover" of Miniature Wargames); the Wargamers' Annual 2013; Warlord's new "Black Powder" Waterloo supplement (an indulgence - the Perry eye-candy was too good to pass up); the new scenario book for the First Carlist War (more on this in a few days); the latest Perry AWI packs; David Bickley's Indian Mutiny rules; lots of paints.  I felt that the price of metal figures seemed to have increased - I bought a few packs of 6 figures that were nudging £10; but then I was reminded that this is about £1.50 per 25mm figure and I suppose that's not excessive.  It does, though, remind one just how important plastics are now if you have ambitions beyond skirmish gaming.

Here are some photos.  They are by no means comprehensive.  I've missed a lot of games and these are just a few I happened to pass when I had my camera out.

This 15mm Stalingrad game from Arbuthnot's Terra Firma League of Gentlemen had excellent terrain and attention to detail:

I think this was Nottingham Irregulars with more WW2 Eastern Front action, this time in 25mm:

 

 

Battlefront had Little Round Top in 25mm.  This was one of two excellent "hills" I saw:

The other excellent modelling of gradual height was the Continental Wars Society's 6mm 1866 Austro-Prussian War game.  Beautifully painted figures too:

Frothers Unite had a "Return to the Planet of the Apes" game, with well-thought out terrain:

One of my favourites was the Lance & Longbow Society's 25mm Battle of Cravant, 1423:

Not sure who thins game was from, but it seemed to be centred around a downed WW2 German bomber:

Didn't ctch the name of these guyes either, but it was an early WW1 games:

The only AWI game.  Again, I didn't catch the name of the club, but they were from the Continent.  To me it looked like Eutaw Springs:

 

Waterloo by the Essex Gamesters (who were all dressed in period costume).  I think they were actually playing the game, but for me there were too many French in bicornes and other anacronisms.  In 25mm, the best way to do Waterloo, in my opinion, is bite-sized chunks.  It was impressive, though:

I wasnt sure whether this was Korea or Vietnam.  Nice terrain again, though:

Finally, another of my favourites, Loughton Strike's Force's Mexixan-American War game:

40th Birthday

I'm 40 today, a date shared with Charlie Chaplin, Dusty Springfield, ex-Pope Benedict and, so I'm told, some bloke called Rafa Benitez.  My office desk is covered in about a tonne of glitter and someone has put up lots of photos of me as a baby/toddler with, er, "witty" captions.  I suspect the hand of the Kiwi. My birthday always tends to co-incide with Salute,  The very first Salute I attended was actually on my birthday - I think in 1986 when I was 13.  Happily, my spending power is rather better nowadays than it was when I was 13, even with 2 money-devouring children; so I'm looking forward to a couple of "birthday treats" on Saturday.  In the meantime, this seems an appropriate opportunity to thank everyone who reads, follows and comments on this blog and for the extra enjoyment of the hobby I have had from such contact.  Here are some of my favourite photos from the achives to celebrate past 7 years of blogging about toy soldiers.

 

3rd Chasseurs, 2nd battalion

A couple of years ago, I painted the 4th Chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard and at the beginning of this year I had the urge to paint another battalion.  One of my aims for this year is to paint the complete chasseur division of the Guard for the Waterloo campaign.  The orbat provides for 6 battalions - 1 each of the 1st and 4th Regiments and two each from the 2nd and 3rd.  The Perries give you multiple options, with figures in greatcoats and in full dress, both in standing and advancing poses.  You then have the special figures in scruffy hats which are designed specifically for the 3rd and 4th Regiments.  In order to utilise all these figures, I decided to start off with a very scruffy 4th Regiment and work backwards with each battalion looking less scruffy than the last.  Therefore, this second battalion of the 3rd Regiment uses mostly the specific figures with varied hats but also incorporates some chasseurs in bearskins.  The first battalion of the 3rd Regiment will be completely in bearskins.  Readers will notice that it's the rank-and-file who have the bearskins, and not the command figures.  I expect that any bearskins that were going would have been nabbed by the officers, but never mind.

The 3rd Chasseurs appear in the "General de Brigade" scenario on the final attack of the Guard at Waterloo, where it consists of two battalions of 24 figures each.  For the greatcoats, I used the same recipe as with my French artillery and the 4th Chasseurs - the Foundry "French Blue 65" palette with a final light highlight of "Deep Blue 20B".  I gave more of the figures grey or greying (as with the sappeur) hair than I did with the 4th Chasseurs, as I wanted these chaps to look like grizzled old veterans.  The bases are the larger ones from the Perry plastic boxes, with the edges painted brown to match the rest of my collection. Not much more to say, really.  I don't know when I'll get around to the 1st battalion, but that will then be one "brigade" finished and all the chassuer battalions I'd need for the GdB scenario mentioned earlier.   I do like these figures.  There's something very satisfying about marching French infantry in dark blue overcoats - probably because they're quick to paint! 

24 figures. Painted January/February 2013.

George Washington's wheelbarrow

This is something I've wanted to paint for a while.  During my trip to Boston in April 2007 the Kiwi and I visited Christ Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  There was a small display inside which recounted the history of the church and it stated that George Washington and his wife Martha prayed there.  The display also referred to Washington leaving his famous wheelbarrow outside the church while he prayed.  I had hoped to paint this up but couldn't find a suitable model.  However, the Westphalia Miniatures wounded Frenchman set that I bought recently came with an extra wheelbarrow.  Thinking about how to use it, I recalled Washington's wheelbarrow and so tried to find out more.

Much is written about Washington's horses, Nelson and Blueskin, but not so much about his

wheelbarrow. Washington's wheelbarrow accompanied him throughout his campaigns.  It reminded him of his Virginia plantation home and became a symbol of the independent society that he hoped his armed struggle would bring about.  He used it to transport personal items that he didn't carry on his person, such as a spare telescope, extra pistols and ammunition and fodder for his horses.  The wheelbarrow often found itself in the think of battle.  At Long Island in 1776 is was almost left behind in the American fortifications as Washington retreated across and the sergeant in charge of the wheelbarrow's safety, Ebenezer Crouch of the 2nd New York regiment, was demoted to the ranks for his negligence.  On 9 October 1781, as Washington prepared to fire the first cannon shots against the besieged British inside Yorktown, in was in his wheelbarrow that the relevant shot was brought to him.  The wheelbarrow could also turn into an impromptu soapbox.  In May 1782, Washington's army was encamped along the Hudson River and the men, bored, underfed and with pay heavily in arrears, started thinking of mutiny.  A plot developed in the 1st Connecticut regiment, whereby the men would march to the nearest arsenal, seize the cannon and then descend on the Connecticut legislature to demand their pay.  The soldier in charge of the wheelbarrow at this time was a certain Ambrose Gaylord, of the 1st Connecticut.  He tipped off Washington about his unit's intentions. Washington calmly walked to the regiment's lines, upended his wheelbarrow to create a speaking platform and gave an inspirational speech that stopped the mutiny in its tracks. 

I wanted the wheelbarrow to look like it was made from Virginian wood and also as if it had seen action.  I quickly realised I had no idea how to do either of those things, and so painted it to my standard "wood" recipe. Still, I'm glad to be able to add this old campaigner to my American forces.  I might allow it to add a +1 on morale throws when attached to an American unit.

1 wheelbarrow. Painted 1 April 2013.