Salute 2018 – Part 3

As Salute being such an important event for the wargaming community, lots of companies schedule their announcements and releases for that particular saturday in April. Some of them are just teasered, some proudly announced in the newsletter before the show and others are huge surprises.

And as a enthusiast you have your hopes, what will be released or what is coming in the near future. Before the show, I hoped to have a chat with Perry Miniatures and ask them about the chances of upcoming Agincourt cavalry in plastic. And what can I say? I got lucky, there will be a plastic kit for the mounted knights, but it still heavy work in progress and we might see it towards the end of the year. It is always good to keep an eye on their workbench (there are three, one for plastic, one for metal and one for resin). Another surprise were the announcement of US infantry in desert gear as an addition for their North Africa World War 2 range. Below you can see the 3-Ups (The masters for plastic miniatures are sculpted 3 times the size of the final product and are scaled down during the production process).

Warlord Games went strong as well. With the long awaited arrival of Blood Red Skies, they had a huge gaming table with an aircraft carrier as a center piece (shown in Salute Coverage Part 2). But there was more than that, just after the pre-release of the Winter Germans in Longcoats, they showed the greens of three further plastic kits for Bolt Action. German Afrikakorps, 8th Army and new US Infantry. The 8th army box will cover lots and lots of head options, to build scottish, sikh and other regiments as well. Wojciech, one of Warlord Games sculptors, was busy working on some Gates of Antares and Bolt Action kits. In addition we were shown the plastic sprues of recent and upcoming kits, like the Landsknechts with different weapon options (those will be reviewed here for sure!), the winter Germans and the new 8,8 cm Flak (in cooperation with Italeri).

Oh and there will be some very modular range of Sci-Fi miniatures. But we'll see more on that later this year.

One of my must visits at Salute is Hasslefree Miniatures, to pick up my pre-order, be happy about the discount and the added candy. This year they proudly presented their work on the Matt Dixon Kickstarter, along with all the variants of their sculpts. There are three stages of the miniatures, Pin-Up, Sky-Clad (a.k.a. nude) and Winter (with warm gear). Some of the casts were done in special resin (as you can see from the translucent set in the bottom row). The novelties are currently pretty focused on the resin variants, I'm eagerly waiting for the metal counterparts, as I'm using these as gaming miniatures not collectors pieces.

Andy Hobday who took care in the past of Test of Honour for Warlord Games, focuses on a different project nowadays. With the extending range of Footsore Miniatures for the Dark Ages and starting Gangs of Rome with War Banner, he's been busy in the last months. At Salute he shared his booth with Sarissa Precision, who support the Gangs of Rome range with some incredibly well done MDF terrain.

Gangs of Rome got a new starter set, Blood on the Aventine, covering everything you need to get started, including a scenery piece of a temple in building. At 35 GBP, a great deal. I made sure to pick one up, so expect that one to be seen here in a review. The shown terrain was painted by March Attack.

Historic model kit manufacturer Rubicon Models was at Salute as well, bringing along their excisting range as well as showing some prototypes and early drawings of upcoming kits. Some of the new arrivals were shown on the facebook feed. I am quite excited about the early war russian vehicles, as these can be used for Spanish Civil War as well. Rubicon extends their range to infantry and collectibles as well, offering 60mm soldiers and (resin) upgrade sets for their plastic kits. They even brought along their new resin range, that they partly developed with Heer46, to cover some exotics and "paper tanks".
The UK Community Manager Steve Perry even won with his historical diorama using Rubicons models the painting competition, and it is shown in the Issue #90 of Airfix Model World.

An interesting side project to show of their new Jesserai Sci-Fi range was brought by 4Ground to the show. They 3d printed mechs in 28mm scale, it is going to be interesting to see where this is going.

I was really looking forward to the booth of Crooked Dice at the show, as I was going to pick up some of the movie stars. Their range is becoming more and more a hard competition for Hasslefree. Really like the not-Furiosa and the not-Stranger Things cops. Picked up Hasselhoff and McFly, along with some buggies. TMTerrain participated on the postapocalypse table.

Gripping Beast used Salute to promote the 2nd edition of Saga along with Swordpoint. They had some deals on Saga starter sets along with the new Dark Age and Late Roman cavalry plastic sets.

Games Workshop doesn't participate at these shows, but Forge World does. Right next to the entrace they quickly caused a queue, as not paying the shipping fee is appealing to many people and you have the chance to buy some of the show exclusives. Took care of that the day before at Warhammer Worlds hobby store.

Black Scorpion has three major ranges, one is their Cutlass pirate range, one their Tombstone western range and the other their Fantasy Football range. They released a new Ogre team for the show. Quite a good bargain at 30 GBP for 4 Ogres and 10 Goblins.

The trader Simple Miniature Games showed Malifaux and Infinity using the Plast Craft Terrain, which comes pre-painted and pre-cut, from Spain. Quite fast to assembly.

With the Hellboy Kickstarter starting on April 25th, Mantic Games made sure to keep the people excited. Had talks with the visitors and showed off some previews in the show case. But Mantic has more to offer, so they showed the novelties for Warpath, Deadzone and Kings of War / Vanguard. Make sure to check out their Mantic blog on the latest teasers.

Rob Alderman brought his company Hysterical Games to Salute, and showed up with some crazy 3d prints. In addition to Panzerfäuste and the sky battle system within the same universe of Spitfyre, he added a couple of terrain pieces to the game. After some trouble in the mold making, it is nice to see them finally available.

With the Nickstarter being delivered, it was interesting to see, what North Star Miniatures in cooperation with Osprey Games is working on. There will be a second Frostgrave Soldiers box, with a 3-Up teaser being shown at the show. And in addition to the fantasy races of the Oathmark range, they will receive humans as well (shown below) and even cavalry boxes, beginning with Goblins and Elves.

And I had to drop by Spectre Miniatures, as I really like their modern combat range and was eager to see, what new units and groups they would add to their range. I really like their pick up trucks, as these are kind a hard to come by in the right scale.

An odd series of miniatures was Twilight Miniatures, with a deep fantasy setting, far from the usual Tolkien-esque design. With lizard like creatures, riding dinosaurs. Very unique, so I had to share.

Last but not least, Steamforged Games, always attracting the crowds at the show, always a queue at the check-out. Beside their very popular Guildball range, they offer occasional kickstarter projects. In the past they took care of Dark Souls and just started Godtear as a crowdfunding campaign.

It was a fun day at the show. We filled our bags with miniatures and wargaming accessoires, enjoyed seeing new miniatures and projects and having a game or two. Once again, chapeau to the well organised show. Broad selection of traders and gaming tables, well worth the visit.

Salute is one of my favorite shows, as I have the chance to browse to items, that I barely see in stores in Germany and have to order from a broad selection of small shops, with multiple postage fees. And it makes a big difference to see a painted product picture or have the actual blister in your hand. And if you spend a bit more, you usually get a pretty nice show offer. The gaming tables, seen in Part 2 of the coverage, are high quality and not only for show, but for participation. So you get a real round offer for the wargamers taste.

After the show we headed over to Borough Market, to grab some proper food and drinks. One of the advantages of the location in London, you have quite a broad choice to go to afterwards.

Link: South London Warlords - Salute