Salute 51 recovery phase

 As I write this it is the day after Salute 51. What a day. It was definitely a successful day, traders are reporting they have had successful takings, the Warlords ran out of freebie miniatures for their goodie bags, demonstration gamers report having spent the entire day talking themselves hoarse chatting to visitors. The Distinguished Opponent and I spent most of the day there, I think we didn't leave until gone 4pm and I know there are things I didn't get to see. (We were both flagging however at this point and needed to head home to soak our poor feet.) I am sure the show is certainly wildly different from previous years back in the heady days of pipe smoking, suit wearing wargamers but it certainly is not diminishing. I give credit to South London Warlords for allowing these changes to occur, the show is more family friendly with certainly a more diverse crowd of people in attendance. If anything I think the show would be failing if it didn't change with the times. The inclusion of things like panel talks and the showing of the film "Art in Miniature" are a welcome change to the format. On the subject of the film, Distinguished Opponent and I did buy tickets to watch said film. (Only a pound so hardly breaking the bank.) The film did ask some interesting questions and there were some excellent personalities involved, I did find it a bit vexing that towards the end though as the focus seemed to mostly be on the theory that 3D printing is the future of the hobby and Heroforge are the best way to do this. A conjecture I do not agree with when there are still plenty of thriving companies dealing in casting metal, resin and plastic. Apart from that though it was enjoyable.

Look, my goblin in a cabinet! (One of five people to paint the same model!)

Once again we had fun at the ten minute painting challenge. A great ten minutes well spent, trying desperately to put some kind of shade and highlight on a tiny little halfling. It didn't help that I also seemed to have the shakes in my hands from carrying my shopping loot around for the day. I did try something that resembled tartan on the model, but I'm not sure it comes across as such.

My other entry safe at home on display in the printer tray, next to my ten minute halfling.

I entered two models in the main painting competition this year. A competition that I am sure had twice as many entries as last year. I didn't have any success, not even a compensatory "you've made the cut" card, but that was hardly surprising considering the extremely high standard of entrants this year. I blame GW for not hosting their Golden Demon competition in the UK this year, all the good painters needed somewhere to flex their skills.(Certainly not the fact that I probably just don't paint as well.) Well, if it exposes more people to the hobby outside of the monopoly GW have, it can only be a good thing. 

There were a ridiculous number of entries in the "paint last years free model" category.

I, unfortunately missed meeting up with fellow bloggers at lunchtime, due to my ticket for the film clashing with the time, but I did manage to catch up and chat with a few people at the show that I normally only chat with online. I did see a couple of Youtubers out and about too (once again only a good thing to give the show exposure) but decided they didn't need me interrupting their day. (Especially the one that I spotted in the queue at the beginning that I suspect wasn't properly awake yet.) I will mention one Youtuber though, if you want to see photos of all the gaming tables at the show (I genuinely just ran out of time to get around them all) I can recommend once again a visit to Big Lee's Youtube channel here.

My own version of Rogue Hobby's Fishing Goblin, back home.

Overall for myself, a successful day out, for the Warlords I suspect, a successful show that has moved with the times to continue to thrive. It can only be a good thing to boost this hobby and ensure we continue to be able to enjoy this excellent pastime.

To paint or not to paint, that is the question

 This is technically March's post although I am publishing in April. March has been super busy. Well, hobby busy. I have been finishing up on the Analogue hobbies challenge, painting some more Australians for the Illustrious Opponents WW2 challenge and also finishing a couple of entries for the painting competition at Salute. I even have had to interrupt precious painting time by going out and socialising twice this week, yep twice! Yesterday I was lunching with the Distinguished Opponent (Brother in Law) and a couple of other friends and the topic of how much painting we had done recently came up. I of course then had to show them the full result of my efforts for this years Analogue challenge, one friend commented that I had painted more than he had in the last decade! 

This reminded me that not everyone in the hobby is a dedicated painter. I was recently browsing YouTube and ended up watching a video from Siege Studios. As a business they will paint your models for you at various levels of quality depending on how much you pay. I have always completely ignored their stand at shows declaring there is nothing they could do for me, why pay someone else to paint my models? But after chatting to my friend I thought again, maybe some people don't actually find the same enjoyment I do in painting. My friend commented he loves restoring and converting models and really enjoys gaming, but finds painting a chore. I personally went through a period where I really didn't actually enjoy the gaming side of things. (That's another story involving too much meta-gaming.) So I guess everyone's hobby experience is different and if someone wants someone else to paint their models, so be it. 

In my extensive research (watching lots of different chat show style wargaming channels on YouTube) it has also become apparent that some players don't even paint their models before a game. Grey plastic models on the table, how very dare they? I have also learnt to accept that too. I can understand if they don't want to paint them, in the past I have put together a great looking kit then not wanted to paint it in case my paintwork somehow ruins the model. A feeling I have less these days, but there is still the odd occasion. My copies of Space Crusade and Space Hulk don't have a lick of paint on them. I could use the excuse that they are board games and don't warrant it, but really I just don't want to ruin the models. Although my recent foray into painting second edition style 40K has given me some confidence that I probably could do it.

Yep during the Analogue challenge I had great fun painting Orks and Space Marines, I think I may have removed my fingerprints with all the Biostrip I have been using to clean up old models, but I am proud of the results.

It's a bit of a photo dump, so I might save the Orks for another post. I embraced the use of another hobby product for these, Micro-Set and Micro-Sol. They really do help with adding transfers (and keeping them on the model) and a layer of clear acrylic paint on top helps too. 

April I will be attending Salute again this year. I have been trying to persuade Illustrious Opponent he wants to come but we will see, I will however be attending with Distinguished Opponent and possibly a couple of chaps from the club.  The necessities will be of course, speed painting and seeing if any of the other bloggers are getting together for a chinwag. I am once again braving the painting competition, not expecting to win any awards, but its fun putting stuff in the glass cabinets.

Me, last year at Salute, my entry circled. (I swear I do own other hoodies!)

One of my entries this year is a bit delicate, a 3D print that already I have had to sculpt a part of myself to replace some damage. I shall have to pack it delicately and hope nothing happens in transit. 

Shopping wise, there are already a couple of items various companies are teasing on the internet that may be limited in number too that I think my first half hour of the show will be running around grabbing those items. I'm not planning any new projects though, so any other purchases will just be whims I'm sure.  I have a copy of the show guide already, so I might do a little research beforehand to see anything worth investigating. Watch this space...

Double hobby challenge update

 I know, I know I missed January. I was busy though, busy posting on the Analogue Hobbies Challenge over here. (I go by the label PeterB, the link should take you to a list of my posts). I have just about managed to keep up with the self inflicted target of posting at least once a week. I have managed to kill at least three brushes and had to buy extra paint on numerous occasions. Yes, February is almost over too, but thanks to it being a leap year, I have an extra day to get this blog posted! 

I have been using the Analogue Challenge to encourage myself to continue with the plan of recreating a second edition style 40K tabletop game. Only in models though probably, more than likely I will use Xenos Rampant rules. I have not been able yet to find a reasonably priced period Ork Dreadnought though, so in true cheapskate style I recreated a copy of the cardboard standee Dread that came with the 2nd edition starter set. I made a base for it out of an old slotta base and added some bits of sprue offcut to make a raised slot for the card to slip in.

The project is not yet done though, I have a period Ork Warlord model to paint and I am looking for some kind of battlewagon proxy. I will probably also paint up a Rhino and some Devastator Space Marines, both of which I already have. They just need a strip and repaint.

The Illustrious Opponent has also announced a Hobby Challenge for the beginning of the year that I couldn't say no to. A version of a Tale of Four Gamers, each of us has an equivalent of £30 each month starting January to buy models for a 20mm WW2 force. Once we have enough, the Illustrious Opponent intends to host a gaming day with scenarios designed to test them. In honour of one of our number having emigrated to Australia, I declared I would try an Australian force. 

They have been fun to paint, mainly because most of the work is done by the Sepia wash they all get. I paint them a base white, the webbing tan and the socks brown and tan. Then the model gets a wash and then extra details are added. 20mm is a new scale to me, large enough that I can manage to paint them without squinting, small enough that I don't get lost in painting loads of detail. (In fact I basically paint them with the level of detail I used to paint 28mm!) 

In other news the local club has been dipping a toe into the new Warhammer the Old World rules. Obviously getting hold of any models for said rules is like finding hens teeth. Luckily regular readers with good memory will recall the Night Goblin army I painted up back in July 22. It's almost like I predicted the rules would come back! I decided to paint up one more unit for them to add that extra character and will be giving the army it's first outing next week. I expect to get a proper drumming of course, newly painted model syndrome will most likely be in effect. (Plus I am a terrible Warhammer commander)

I have also been playing a fair bit of Masters of the Universe at the club. Its nice to actually get the models on the table after all that painting, especially with all that terrain I had to paint. I'm looking forward to Salute in April when I can hopefully get my hands on the Princess of Power herself, She-Ra. With Swift Wind obviously.  Finally, in a similar style I have been painting some models from Crooked Dice. People of my vintage may recognise them...

These were super fun to paint. The sculpts from Crooked Dice are really high quality. It's nice that you can still get good quality metal models.  It isn't all plastic or 3D printed yet.