Salute 2019 Photo Report - Part 2

Welcome back to Part two of my Salute 2019 photo report. As usual, I shot too many pictures although it has to be said there was plenty of eye candy to draw the attention of my camera lens. Having said that I enjoyed the fact that many of the games were played using what I would call 'club terrain', ie the sort you'd expect to use on a regular basis (ie it didn't look purpose built for Salute). While I love the big set-piece display games I do like the simpler club display tables because you can look at them and think "I could do that". 

Anyway without further ado, here's part 2 of my Salute 2019 Photo Report.

TooFatLardies - Malaya 1942

TooFatLardies - Malaya 1942

TooFatLardies - Malaya 1942

Spirit of the Game - a 40mm Wild West skirmish game "Blaze of Glory"

Spirit of the Game - a 40mm Wild West skirmish game "Blaze of Glory"

Loughton Strike Force - Ligney 1815 using the General d'Armee rules - 15mm Napoleonics at its best

Ligney 1815

Ligney 1815

Peterborough Wargames Club - D-Day Omaha Beach (Easy Red sector) - A stunning 15mm participation game

The redoubtable Mike Whitaker hosting the D-Day Omaha Beach game

The first wave goes in...things are about to get messy! 

Friends of General Haig - The Battle of Lutzen 1632

Friends of General Haig - The Battle of Lutzen 1632

Friends of General Haig - The Battle of Lutzen 1632

Seven Days to the River Rhine

Seven Days to the River Rhine - Russian Helicopter

A Batman-themed miniatures game

Street Wars - Zombies in the 1970's!

Red Alert

The Old Guard - 28mm Napoelnocs using the Command and Colours rule set

Old Guard - British Artillery

Nice base labels... I do like base labels. 

Flash Gordon done in Lego

Space Vixens from Mars present Mein Ehre heifst Treue - The Road to Castle Ltter 1945

Gravesend Gamers Guild - Skirmish at Staplethorpe - an ECW participation game

Gravesend Gamers Guild - Skirmish at Staplethorpe - an ECW participation game

By now it was mid-day and time for the Bloggers Meet up. Not the largest group we have ever assembled but we were earlier in the day this year. 

Mierce Miniatures - A Darklands demonstration game

Mierce Miniatures - A Darklands demonstration game

Mortem et Gloriam

Wild in the Streets

Gangs of Rome

Wigmore Warriors - Bridge over Troubled Water - A 20mm WW2 game using the Iron Cross rules

Naval Wargames Society - Stingray!

North Star Figures - This is not a Test

A WH40K game 

World War Zero

Speed painting

A game of Blitzkrieg Commander

Taking a brief break from the various games on Display I tried to get close enough to take a look at the painting competition. There didn't seem to be as many entries this year but the standard was as high as ever.

Getting near the display was a challenge! 

Ok back to the tables....

A fun looking Back to the Future game 

scimitar Wargames Group - Jerusalem during the 6 Day War using the Fate of a Nation rules. 

The cityscape was very impressive

That's it for now. Part Three will be up in a few hours. The most time-consuming part of this process is identifying the games where the clubs have failed to label their table...no signage of any kind. This is a pet hate of mine, especially as I take so many pictures. Surely if you are going to go to the effort of running a demo game then you would want visitors to know who was running the game? Don't get me wrong, I try to talk to everyone but by the end of a day like Salute, I can't remember every game so I rely heavily on table signage to help me label my pictures correctly. 

Ok, Moan over. More pictures later today so keep your eyes peeled! 

Salute 2019 Photo Report - Part 1

It's the day after Salute 2019 and I have hundreds of pictures and a wonderfully huge pile of goodies to sort through. Ray, Stuart and I were able to get inside the hall early again this year to see some of the final preparations of the Traders and Clubs. We took full advantage of this extra time to chat to traders and get our bearings. Over the next 7 hours, I shot a LOT of photo's (not a great surprise) and having now sorted through them I realise I have far too many for a single blog post. So I'm splitting this photo report in two to share as many pictures as I can. Some of these were shared on Twitter yesterday but for those that don't tweet, here they are again. 

Posties Rejects (L-R Me, Ray, David & Stuart) were inside the venue by about eight fifteen.

The lads at Warbases

Barry Hilton with Postie

Sydney Roundwood

The door opened and we had to dive out of the path of the stampede!

The Battle of Mohi 1241 - Terrain and Figures by Kallistra

The Battle of Mohi 1241

Secrets of the Third Reich

Essex Warriors Wargames Club - Gaslands

Gaslands

Hornchurch Wargames Club - 15mm WWII game using the Battlegroup rules

Mushroom to Play - Andrew Miller 

Mushroom to Play - Andrew Miller

Random Platypus - A Skirmish game 

Closeup of an excellent little village scene

More from Random Platypus - Carnage City

My eldest daughter and her partner were also at Salute. 

Wait, What and Friends - A multiplayer deathmatch using modular terrain

Gringo 40's - The Black River Debacle - a 28mm combined naval and land action against the black flags

Gringo 40's - The Black River Debacle

Gringo 40's - The Black River Debacle

Gringo 40's - The Black River Debacle

Thud and Blunder

Sons of Simon de Montfort - Some worlds are best left alone - A Warhammer 40k Participation game. 

Maidstone Wargames - Dogfight 69, The 100 hours war - The last dogfight between WWII aircraft during the war between El-Salvadore and Honduras.

Last Living Soul

The Continental Wars Society - Some wonderfully painted Flats

CWS - The Battle of Pastrengo 1848

CWS - The Battle of Pastrengo 1848

Rafael Fonseca & Friends - A Seven Years War 'what if' battle. 

The Lance and Longbow Society - The Battle of Bauge 1421

The Lance and Longbow Society - The Battle of Bauge 1421

Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society -Battle of Britain 1940

OK, that's the end of Part 1. Part two will be posted in a few hours and it's looking increasingly likely that there will need to be a Part 3 even later in the day! 

Twittering from Salute 2019

Only one more sleep until Salute 2019 and I am (as usual) unreasonably excited. Like last year Ray, Stuart (aka 'Postie') and I will be sneaking in 'behind the scenes' with early-entry passes which means we will be inside the event shortly after 8am to watch the final preparations of the Traders and Clubs. I'll be posting pictures to my Twitter account before and during the day with the hashtag #Salute2019. 

No Salute would be complete without a slew of excellent display games and as usual I will be taking a lot more pictures during the day (too many probably) and will post a selection of the best here on the Blog sometime on Sunday. Of course, Salute is also a huge trading event and this year I have a very large shopping list to fulfil. The combined entry and parking fees do make this an expensive event to attend, but I always make back the cost by saving postal charges on my purchases and this year I expect to be saving quite a bit! 

I tend to walk around in a world of my own so if you see me and I don't acknowledge you its probably because I'm lost in contemplation (or trying to ignore the pain in my arthritic knees). PLEASE feel free to interrupt my reverie and say hello, I love chatting to readers of the blog and one of the best bits about these shows is the chance to meet people and chat about our wonderful crazy hobby. If you don't see me wandering around I'll be at the Blogger Meet Up at 12 at the big red dot! 

For those that are coming, have a safe journey and I hope to see you inside. For those that aren't for various reasons, I hope my pictures give you a flavour of the day and maybe inspire you to come to  Docklands for Salute 2020!

Countdown to Salute 2019

There are just a few days to go before the biggest one day Wargaming Show in the UK calendar. Salute has become a firm favourite of mine, especially since it moved practically on my doorstep. As usual, I will be attending with Ray and Stuart of Posties Rejects and like last year we have been granted early access to see behind the scenes as the show sets up. The three of us will be wearing our Rejects shirts so if you see us please come over and say hello. 

As in previous years, Ray has put the call out for a Blogger Meet Up so those of us that talk often online get to meet in the real world for a change. It's a bit earlier this year, as in previous years we seem to have clashed with other groups gatherings. 

Blogger Meet UP - 12 o'clock at the Big Red Dot!

For me, the show is all about eye candy and shopping. I buy a lot at this show and even with the entry fee and the extortionate parking costs I still always make a saving on postage costs. I have several traders in my sights this year and have already started making a mental list of items I want to check out and buy. I expect I'll go home laden down with goodies and with a camera filled with photo's to enthuse and inspire me in coming months. I'll try to get my pictures online as soon as I can.