Throwback to Salute 2012 in London
Another throwback! 10 Years ago, I went for my first trip to Salute and it was not just any Salute, it was their 40th anniversary.
This was during my time as editor-in-chief for a large German wargaming portal, and to cover all (or at least most) of the novelties, we put it in our schedule to fly to London, take a lot of pictures, talk to a lot of people and arrange for some review material to cover in the upcoming months.
Most of the shows I participated until then where local conventions, held in community centres or similar and the largest was the Crisis 2011 in Antwerp or Action 2011 in Rheindahlen at the British Army HQ. And people already told me, wait until you see Salute, it's huge! I knew the South London Warlords from their elaborate participation tables on other shows and was eager to find out for myself.
Post-Easter Weekend Update
Welcome to the post-eastern summary of the week. The week started with the first out of an upcoming series of articles about Frostgrave, that will be dual series, one part covering my unboxing and build reviews, and the other part with Dino gathering his warbands within the Sword & Sorcery adventure.
Within the gap of the review on the Civitas Imperialis kits and the further terrain building, I covered a third party - Troublemaker with their 6mm terrain kits. And I did a review on the Goblin Wolfriders of the Oathmark range. They just announced the new light elf kit, that was supposed to be released on the Salute weekend.
As for Salute, there are a couple of virtual replacements, but they can't replace the tour and guys weekend we usually have in London. But Salute isn't the only event that was cancelled or postponed, just on friday the Tinsoldiers of Antwerp announced that Crisis won't be held in 2020. By that our other "main event", having a similar weekend in Belgium with a half-year gap is cancelled as well. I have updated the event schedule for this year accordingly.
Weekender – Home Office Week 1
So, the first week of social distancing is over. I swapped the coffee at work for a cup at home, and on friday we even had a virtual after hours drink. Where we used the infrastructure that was used for dailies, stand-ups and other meetings, for a beverage of your choice and some off-work chat. Working longer than a day or two from home was a bit strange at first, due to the lack of personal interaction, but thanks to my amazing colleagues and employer it went very well.
A side effect was that I gained an hour a day, that I wasn't commuting, and was spend on having breakfast / dinner with my family. And due to the fact, that most of my friends were in similar situations, most had already setup the facilities to work from home / participate in video calls, so we came together in the evenings for a chat and some virtual wargaming gathering a bit more often than usual.
Last Weekend Loot for O(r)ctober
It was a buzy weekend for the postman. During the week and on saturday a couple of smaller packages arrived, but I just had the time today to actually take a closer look on them. Was a bit buzy myself with the last touches on the Speed Freeks review and Saturdays visit to Spiel in Essen.
Salute 2018 Haul
The concluding post to our Operation Sealion 2018, the haul, the loot, the gathered goodies and shiny stuff made from metal, plastic and resin. If you're going by plane, make sure to have enough empty space in your luggage to cope with your buying. As mentioned before, I was quite happy about the shipping services of some of the companies (and that is the reason, why this post was postponed in comparison with the other coverage, as I was waiting for the remaining miniatures and kit to arrive).
But let's begin, this pile of boxes and blister is my yield of our trip to Nottingham and Salute. Let us begin with the main event, the Salute 2018. The South London Warlords did once again a great job with the show, and I made sure to get my hands on the 1918 memory event exclusive vignette, sculpted by Perry Miniatures. It shows a trio of Soldiers from World War one, a french, a british and a german soldier. The always have further souvenirs at their booth, so I made sure to grab two sets of dices (with a poppy on the six), a badge and a copy of last years female russian standard bearer miniature.
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).
Salute 2018 – Part 2
Let us focus on the gaming tables and participation rounds at Salute in this part of the coverage.
A table, that I was really looking forward to see, was the one by Andy Singleton and Kildaire Paintworks, it is a 20mm / 1:72 World War two Setting in the mediterranean. He documented the different kits shown in the scenario on facebook, showed work in progress on models and terrain. And it was amazing to see, how it all came together at the show. Had a great talk with Andy at the show. Always fun to exchange ideas and have a chat with fellow wargamers.
Salute 2018 – Part 1
Salute began early for us, after the day-trip to Nottingham, we we're ready and waiting at 7 a.m. at Cambridge Station.
Taking the Great Northern towards London, we had some time on our hand. It takes roughly an hour and gets you to Kings Cross without a stop. Spending that time on going through our "what-to-see", "what-to-try" and "what-to-buy" lists again and playing a match of Condottiere. Perfect size for the train.
Campaign Sea Lion 2018
It is time to take another approach and try to loot the Island for pewter, plastic and resin! Thursday we head over to the UK, for a short trip to the "Leadbelt" of Nottingham as well as paying a visit to the Salute on saturday.
Salute is the largest wargaming event in the UK, hosted by the South London Warlords at ExCel London on April 14th. Crisis in Antwerp is hard competition in size to this event, as it is larger on floor terms, but Salute is more international and has the benefit of being british homeground.
Salute 2017 haul
On April 22nd, was the Salute 2017 held by the South London Warlords. Salute is the biggest independent one-day wargaming and gaming event in the UK and likely in Europe. I visited the show last year in 2016, had a great time, as you can see here in the Parts I - IV of my coverage (Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV).
This year, due to time issues, I couldn't be there myself, but a good friend of mine, living in Cambridge, was kind enough to bring along a few items for myself and even kinder to drop by the next day (24h express wargaming goodies delivery... so great 😀 ).
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