Salute 2012 Round-Up

This year was the fourth time I’ve travelled to the Excel in London for Salute, the world’s biggest wargames show, which celebrated its fortieth birthday this year.

As always there was so much great stuff to take in, far more than I can easily recall, so here are some of the highlights for me:

  • The amazing 10mm SF miniatures produced by Hawk Wargames for their forthcoming DropZone Commander game. Some of the finest quality miniatures I’ve ever seen.
  • Curis’s amusing “Avengers Assemble” cartoon on the Ninjabread stand
  • Robin’s amazing Gruntz tables, whose creation I’ve been following on his blog. There seemed to be a lot of 15mm SF games this year, featuring GZG, Old Crow, Brigade and many others, but Robin’s tables stood out for me
  • Finding a very cheap Warmachine battlebox and splitting it with a friend, so now I have another game to learn! Looking forward to painting my Khador battlegroup.
  • some really nice (and surprisingly cheap) accessories and components from Anvil Industry, which would be very handy for someone wanting to create a pre-Heresy Space Marine army
  • The completely batshit insane ApORKalypse game put on by the South London Wargames people

I didn’t take many photos this year, but my esteemed colleague Steg took a bunch, and I’ve put my favourites below.

Salute 2010

A couple of friends and I went up to the Excel centre this weekend to attend Salute 2010. This is the second Salute show I’ve been to, and once again, I had a great time. The demonstration games were all amazing, and some of the display boards were simply incredible!

One of the stands I was most keen on visiting was that of Critical Mass Games, and I wasn’t disappointed. Their gorgeous 15mm SF miniatures were on display on their stand, and on their fantastic display board, entitled “The Battle of Kyushu Bay“.

The Battle Of Kyushu Bay
The Battle Of Kyushu Bay

There are more pictures on Dropship Horizon. Of course, I caved in and bought a bunch of ARC Fleet miniatures, the prototype of which I’ve already started working on:

ARC Fleet Trooper
ARC Fleet Trooper

At 40p each (plus a penny for the base!), they’re excellent value for money! You can buy them online here.

Salute Zero Nine

This saturday I wandered out to ExCel in London for the 2009 Salute show. This was the first wargames show I’ve been to for probably 15 years and I really enjoyed it – I expect I will be back next year!

My thoughts on the show: nice to see so many small exhibitors, it wasn’t dominated by the big guys. Disappointed not to see more BattleTech. Also disappointed that GW didn’t do a better job of their stalls: would have been nice to have seen their Rhino!

The photos are here, and also check out TGN for pics from other attendees.