Salute 2015 Report 1of6 ( Prodos, Aliens VS Predators, Warzone, Starcraft)

Salute is probably the best wargaming convention in Europe and this year did not disappoint. Its easy to notice how the hobby is getting bigger and better from previous editions of show. This was my 4th Salute and I will try to report some of the highlights over this blog.

In the next few days, since there is plenty to cover, I will divide the info in 6 posts so its easier to manage.

Salute 2015 (Prodos, AVP, Warzone, Starcraft)

Got my train to London at 8:30 and reached Salute at 9:30, since I had the online ticket the scan was fast and the queues minimal. There is always that excitement before you enter the doors and once your in you just want to see it all, its like a strange adrenaline boost but it proves to be crucial to endure a full day of thrills.

My advice to first timers is travel light, leave coats at home, bring empty back pack and comfortable shoes... keep your wife away from this she will drag you :D also avoid to be in big groups because you will all split eventually on the show and will only get back together at the end of it. 

Most people will go immediately to Forgeworld or other stores to get the best deals etc but thats not really for me. Salute for me is to check the new releases, catch up with some old friends, report stuff and buy shiny things. Oh bring money too keep credit cards away from this show, you have been warned.

So its the beginning of the day and there is one range that I want to check more than anything else.  You guess it right AVP was my main target so geared towards Prodos stand. Last year I handled the first AVP minis and they were quite promising with great details and sharp casting. At the time there was the Kickstarter thing going on and after one painful year for Prodos and FOX I was curious to see the damn things again.

Hats of to Prodos crew dealing with people asking what the hell happened to their pledges etc, it was a patience exercise for them I guess. So less talk and more pictures:

Warzone and Starcraft

I was tempted to buy some starters because the minis are just awesome, Prodos site is a bit bland and shows little pictures online but when you see these in the flesh you notice that they are quite special. Scale wise they are 35mm ish.

Some pics of the Starcraft license ( they are tiny and hard to take pictures because the stand was in constant movement)

Warzone tables

ALIENS VS PREDATORS

2 gaming tables in full alien glory.

Drooling over this 2nd table

Facehuggers

So this got to be my favorite license and the main reason that I started Tyranids many years ago. The miniatures are perfect and for the 2nd year in a row I could not still buy them. Hopefully AVP will be up for sale shortly, Prodos folks told that the license approval is almost there and that things should be fairly quick to ship once they have the final approval from FOX. Crossing fingers that all starts to move fast, the minis, the fans, backers and Prodos deserve that this license has the best success possible.

After Prodos I moved to other stands but will cover those later.

Terrain on a budget, Ancient columns.

Hi folks

Hope you all had a good Easter with lots of chocolates.

Today the weather is just brilliant, sunny and hot which is uncommon. So its the perfect time for some outdoor activities! Typically people over here do love some bit of gardening or that sort of thing, well my idea of enjoying my garden is slightly different.

This Easter my son had one school project about creating a model based on WWII so I got him some DAS terracota sculpting clay for him to mess around (1kg for £4), it was a blast and there was plenty of leftovers... So, instead of throwing those away I decided to use them for my own wargaming terrain, which brings me to todays outdoor activity.

I picked a sharp blade and carved some ancient columns so that I can decorate my jungle table, I think these can go well either for WFB, 40k or even modern settings.

Funny thing about carving is that its easy to get carried away.

One picture for scale.

Years ago I did something similar so this is like my 2nd go at this sort of terrain, its fun and quite relaxing. So thats it, I carved some clay leftovers and enjoyed the sunny Sunday morning in my garden. It does not get better than this!

ZOMBIE INFECTION

Zombies got to be one of the most popular and mainstream genres in the modern gaming industry. There is something addictive about beating hordes of braindead rotting carcasses into a pulp. The concept is hard to resist specially if those mobs really just want to have your brains for dinner. Thats just pure win. I still remember watching my first zombie movies back in the day, I also remember the first ever resident evil game and its sequels and all of them did deliver some fun times. Today zombie games are abundant and The walking dead TV series boosted the zombie factor into another new level.

On the tabletop there are plenty of good minis to collect and rules that allow you to crack some zombie skulls... Yet, Zombicide managed to grab all the best bits from Boargames, Wargames, Pop culture and cool minis and created a brilliant box full of thrills. Zombicide is currently on its 3rd season Rue Morgue and the license is getting stronger and stronger.

Last year a friend of mine gifted me a pack of Zombies from Zombicide and I have to confess that these are by far the best boardgame minis I have seen, even beating the Spacehulk ones. So with that in mind I for the first time ever backed one Kickstarter ( I hate the damn things but I will rant about it on another  post). Zombicide Season 3 was a huge hit and I was pleased to be a part of it, I mean last wednesday I received my pack on the mail with all the extra free goodies and WOW! This is what I got.

I went modest with only the Infection Pledge and a few exclusive boxes like Moustache pack with Mr T. and then Oksana, Curro and Beny. To close the deal I also got some Ultimate survivors.

On paper is not much but when I opened all the boxes to check the minis I was in for a reality check!

208 minis! 

How on earth will I ever have the time to paint them all? :D

A bit of a word of advise to the married fellas, hide away the boxes, I was fool enough to lay them all on a table so when my wife got to see them she was not happy at all! If only she knew that Salute 2015 is just around the corner... I think I will join the zombivor crowd very soon!

Happy gaming!

Night Goblin Fanatic a gift from a friend

Last week I was lucky enough to get an awesome painted miniature in the mail.
It was a total surprise when one of my crazy friends decided to pick up one of his old school goblins and paint it for me.
His paintjobs are legendary and you can find more about his works at

http://demimorgana.blogspot.co.uk/

THANKS Demi!

Here you go the first finished miniature for my Goblin army this superb Fanatic painted by Demi Morgana.

Gotta love the little worm on the base!

Gaming table on a budget

Much planing was put into creating my home based gaming table. Today wargamers are spoiled with many options on the market, you can buy plastic modular tables, preprinted mats and even resin tiles. There is a viable option for almost everyone depending on how much you are willing to pay. I covered my top fav companies on the market on the previous post and there are plenty of tempting stuff there under my budget of £100.

So all this planing and thinking got me back to my roots, I mean when I started aeons ago if you wanted a table you pretty much would build one from scratch. Thing is today I do not have the time for such project so I rather buy one. Humm a decision needed to be made and guess what, I looked at all those nice companies and products on the market and in a very typical fashion I scrapped it all.

Lets go for NON wargaming companies and products and hunt some freaky things on the net ( back then we did not had the net and just wandered the local stores looking for things that we could adapt for wargaming). I started looking for fabrics and you can buy them for cheap, but it will look cheap too and not very sturdy, then I looked at floor tiles, wallpapers and not happy with the volume sales... got into cork boards and sheets but to much hassle to sort them all out for a full wargaming table.

Then by a stroke of luck I looked for artificial grass... Holly molly! The market has tons of options it really looks like some people are into having artificial grass on their gardens or balconies! Good! It looks like grass, its cheap and comes in a rolled matt. Jackpot!

I have a big dinning table so with this artificial grass matt on top Im totally sorted. Mind there are lots of different sizes, colours, textures to choose from, I went for the one that looks more sturdy and comfortable to play on also them wise Im going for classic grass table that can be transformed into jungles, woods, european country site, scifi verdant world etc.

This is what I got.

Beneath it there are some plastic bubbles to keep it more stable on the floor, for me it will be good to make it less slippery on the table. Its also waterproof and very durable when you actually walk on it so pretty safe for my little troops.

As far as texture goes its really comfortable to the touch and the colour is deep medium dark green.

The table is ready!

Even the rotting space marine approves the grass.

So thats about it I went for something a bit different that totally suits and satisfies my needs.

Budget wise I have spent the ridiculous amount of £13 total with shipping included in that! Yeah you read it right it was dirty cheap! Happy gaming folks!