This Was Salute 2012

Oh yes... it's big...

So, one of the reasons for the relative lack of posts on the blog lately is that I was out of town... WAY out of town, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. On 19 April we left Winnipeg bound for sunny London, England and a European holiday. Our good friend (and founding Conscript) Curt and his lovely wife Sarah were going to be in London at the same time as we would be... oh, and Salute just happened to be on as well ;-)

I'd never been to a "big" British show before, so Salute would be a bit of a first. I did attend Partizan during our last Euro-trip in 2009 but I had the feeling that Salute would be another order of magnitude entirely... and I wasn't wrong... on to the pictures...

One for Greg B. and modern skirmish fans, a very cool modern game in 28mm

 

The terrain in this game was particularly inspiring

Aspern-Essling game in 15mm

Belgium 1940 game

Straightforward WotR game in 28mm

Some chaps from the Continent put on this nice Great War game in 28mm

15mm sci-fi monster game mashup

I badly want an Eagle lander for myself!

Frothers' strangely compelling monochromatic (and mono-sided) terrain

Another superb Great War game

Some Areonef-y madness. Weird Victoriana was a recurring theme

Beautiful feudal Japanese game with outstanding terrain

Clubby Ancients game

Warma-hordes on a lovely table

An interesting skirmish layout

Pretty cool 40K game

See what I mean about steampunk Victoriana?

Gorgeous buildings here

A very sharp "7TV" game featuring the perfect supervillain base

More Victoriana.

The German folks running this game said that the buildings will soon be commercially available :-)

Early WW2 game featuring bystanders Tintin and Snowy :-)

Forgeworld's cabinet of goodness

New FW flyer

My favourite photo from Salute - will be the subject of its own post :-D

I'm a sucker for display games with water features...

This one was mental... battle of Corunna on a 12 by 20-foot table...

Out-of-control detail in the Corunna game... you can read about it in Wargames Illustrated

Crimean War game by Barry Hilton

Peninsular War game in 54mm (!)

The Warlords' own "Captain Scarlet" participation game

40K Apocalypse madness

The venue - London ExCel

Thoughts on Salute... rather overwhelming to a provincial chap like me. Seven hours was hardly enough to see it all. Fortunately I had a shopping list with me, prepared in advance, but even then stuff got missed. Other than the amazing display games and incredible variety of retail opportunities, I think what I enjoyed most about Salute was meeting and chatting with the "celebrities" of our hobby, some of whom I am fortunate to have met on my last trip in 2009. Shouts out due to top chap (talented and prolific sculptor) Paul Hicks, Paul Sawyer of Warlord Games, Kev White of Hasslefree, Nic Robson and Rob Walter of Eureka (my wife loved the shirt, Rob - thanks again), the very cool Perry twins (especially Michael who we jawed with for a bit about reenacting and other stuff), and most impressively for me, Rick Priestley who very generously shared some of his time for a chat with a couple of guys from Canada. Plus of course meeting the superstar bloggers, "Postie's Rejects" - a great bunch of lads.

After Salute Curt and Sarah parted ways with us, heading to the south of France while we went to Germany, eventually making our way to Paris via Verdun, Arras and the Somme. Perhaps some more posts from that part of the trip soon.