This is the major Wargames event in Kent, annually held at the Angel Centre, Tonbridge and organised superbly by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society. Its small but well attended by traders (39 listed in the programme)12 demonstration games and has an excellent bring and buy sale. Years ago I attended Salute and Colours and this show is a lot less stressful!! in fact its a very friendly show where traders and attendees are willing to talk and swap info etc I could not recommend this show highly enough. Most traders it seemed were happy with trade and there was a lot of temptation on view! Below are some Vikings on display on the Tunbridge Wells Societies stand which demonstrated one of the periods they wargamed regularly at the club.
It was great to be able to talk to traders who I buy from on the web and find out future plans. With one of my current interests being WW1 and Belgians in particular it was good to find out 'Brigade Models' future plans. The Belgian machine gun dog carts should make it for Salute and the first of the horse 'greens' has been completed for the cavalry there was further talk about bicycles and Belgian armoured cars!! If anyone has a cunning idea about how to replicate bicycle wheels realisticaly in 28mm answers on a postcard please! Also does anyone have plans of WW1 Belgian armoured cars?!
'Black Hat'had some superb and varied figures on display and I had to buy the Dwarf with gatling gun! (its called something else!)and the Panda eating lunch (again called something else!) but they had on release their new 15mm War of the Spanish Succession Cavalry and very nice they are too........ see the British cavalry below.
These will be followed soon by Dragoons, Artillery and 'Generals' nice to know a range you start buying continues.
'Tumbling Dice' are a new company to me and I liked their American Civil War 1/72nd figures which seem to blend well with 1/72nd plastics...hurrah from my point of view as I have collected plastics for the ACW for a long time, due mostly to companies producing decent figures at a very reasonable price, well moulded and in proportion which cannot always be said of metal figure company styles. I had a long chat with the owner about the Battle of the River Medway when the Dutch 'did over' the British Fleet upstream of Chatham in 1667. A new venture could well be the naval actions of the Anglo Dutch Wars (another Richard Scollins illustration in MM somewhere!)
'Caliver books' had loads of tempting titles including a new book on the Armies and Uniforms of the Monmouth Rebellion by Christopher Scott a very nice publication indeed full of colour and information about one of my 'favourite' battles.
Finally there were many stands with the excellent Osprey books on offer including one with new/secondhand at £5 each or 6 for £25 a bargain and they were being rapidly snapped up. The bring and buy had lots on offer including a few years old copies of MM at its zenith!
The game on display were excellent and 'flying' games very popular including Southend and Rayleigh Wargames 'Sakishima Gunto' WW2 far east carrier battles with ingenious 'radio aerial' stands imported from USA blue hex playing surface metal planes & Tamiya etc ships superb
and Mid Anglia Wargamers 'Dawn Patrol'was a masterpiece of patience with all that rigging in evidence on the Gothas and Handley Pages!!
....They were using Air war 1918 rules by Wessex Games.
Back to terra firma with Crawley Wargames Club and the Battle of the Alma 1854
......and the superb terrain was up for sale!!!
The 'Maidstone Wargames Society' which has an open day on the 13th june 2009 at Linton Village Hall had a fantasy demonstration game 'The Second Battle of Magd Tuiredh' underway using Celtos figures
Other 'cold' looking wintergames were put on by both South East London Wargames Group (SELWG) with napoleons Retreat From Russia
....and Loughton Strike Force with 'Winter War' WW2 eastern front tank battle
Well it was a very enjoyable show and probably the only one I will get to with family commitments usually taking precedence at weekends and I must admit to buying 'Munchkin' a fun game for all the family and work colleagues too!
1 comment:
excellent report. Made me wish I was there. Shows the benefit of being there in the flesh. Trouble is with conventions is that can they derail all your plans and offer great distractions to your spending.
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