Salute 2013: ExCel Centre

Picture stolen and cropped from Sydney's blog.

Didn't go to Salute last year as I was suffering from work related stress, but did manage to attend this year. Photographic evidence as proof provided above. I didn't take a camera to take pictures of the show, so you will all have to go to the following sites to see pictures:

Roundwood's World Wargaming Girl, here, here, here and here.

The Angry Lurker, here and here.

Anything I might have added to the above would, I think, appear redundant.

Did I enjoy the show? In hindsight yes, but at the time not so much. I had been having a rough week and as one of my friends said to me on the day, "You sound like you are ready to throw yourself under the wargaming table." I only bought one thing, and that was the new issue of Miniature Wargames.

However, I met up with Henry, which was good. Bumped into friends, which is always good. Had Tamsin sweep me up in passing and give me a hug, so still all good. 

Also, I got to see and ask questions about Dropzone Commander from Hawk Games, which will help me finish my review for Miniature wargames. I then went to talk to Richard and the other guys from TooFatLardies, and saw Chain of Command demonstrated in the flesh, which was awesome.  

Nick has done a podcast you can listen to here.

Left around 15.00 and came home as my feet hurt and I was feeling pretty exhausted by it all. I really had trouble coping with the level of illumination in the hall, which I found quite upsetting as I couldn't focus on anything properly. 

I was told that this was a sign of getting old, and needing more light to be able to see things clearly.

Got home, put my feet up and read the new white cover issue of Miniature Wargames. Bliss. It felt like the first time I read the first issue, back in 1984 when I was ever so young. I may no longer be young, but the joy I got from reading the issue recharged my enthusiasm for my hobby.

RAF Hendon

    

Martin in front of a Eurofighter whose idea it was to go and see the museum.  A good call all round.

This Thursday I traveled up to Colindale on the Northern Line to visit the RAF museum at Hendon to meet up with my friend Martin and have a look at all the lovely aircraft they have on show.  Only took one picture inside the main museum, but did remember to take some in the Battle-of-Britain building exhibit where they were showing clips from the BoB movie.  The music is just so awe inspiring, which made me feel like a five year old again and want to run around using my hands to make goggles.

Wicked looking Ju-87 Stuka.  In the background are a Ju-88, Me-110 and He-111.  Interestingly the Ju-88 had BMW emblem on the engines, while the Me-110 had the Mercedes-Benz tri-point logo on the exhausts.

A section V2/A4 missile which heralded the start of the space race after the war.

Sunderland flying boat in all its glory.

An impressive lawn ornament as you are ever likely to have, a Bristol Blood hound Mk2.

I really enjoyed the day out and walking around the museum, which is huge.  Had a very nice scone, cream and jam as a treat in the afternoon too.  We met up with my partner in the evening at Forbidden Plant and went to Gars for a slap up Chinese meal to round out the excellent day.
  

Shooting at Bisley Camp

  

The money shot as they say in the film industry.

Yesterday I was Bisley Camp shooting as a guest of the Magna Shooting Club.  For a full gun geek post go here.

It was cold out there in the wilds of Bisley Camp, and I was really grateful that I dressed appropriately with two fleeces on to keep me warm.  The day was a present from my partner so that I could write about shooting in the novel I'm writing, and it certainly gave me some insights into my cousin Ewan's comments about not festooning rifles with scopes.
 

New Glasses for Painting

I have some new glasses for painting with.  Designed to give me ultra close-up vision, which work up to a point, but I'm getting old and it is still hard to see as well as I use to. At this rate I'll be up-scaling to 30mm, or whatever 25mm is called nowadays? 

As you can see above I've started works on some more Scope Dogs, and below some Diving Beetles from VOTOMS so that I have some figures to play Heavy Gear Blitz with.

I have played a couple of games of HGB with Roger and we are planning to meet up sometime to play a few more. I have mixed feelings about the rules.  

On one hand there is a great little game trying to break out of the book, on the other the layout of the rule book is less than optimal, which makes it hard to find the rules. On the rules side of thing, some of the writing is overly complex, or maybe I should say that the rules explain simple things in an overly complex way with too much jargon for my taste.  YMMV.

The great parts of  the game are the artwork, back story and general design of the Gears.  I am slowly getting my NuCoal Jerboa painted too, as can be seen below.

Battlegames

Battlegames comes to the end of its thirty–four issue journey as Henry receives the call to a new adventure that of editing Miniature Wargames.  Like all true stories, rather than fairy–tales, when one quest ends, another quest come along.  All stories evoke feelings in the readers, and the story of Battlegames is the story of Henry responding to the call to produce a wargame magazine that covers what wargamers actually do down the club, or at home, rather than what people think they do.

I am of course dead chuffed that my article on BattleTech will appear in the very last issue of Battlegames.  For those readers of Miniature Wargames that fear a return to the days when Miniature Wargames did not feature SF articles, I think you can rest assured that Henry will publish SF in his magazine.  I see no evidence to suggest anything to the contrary.

25 Years of BattleTech Woot FTW or what?! :-)
  

Announcement

 

 
I want to separate my writing blogs from my gaming blogs, as I don't imagine that many of my subscribers want to read about the trial and tribulations of writing a novel.  However, if you do want to read such things then if you subscribe to the new blog, imaginatively titled Ashley R Pollard you will get the updates as they come.

See you on the flip side.