Salute 2014

Today I went to my first major miniature show in the UK with a few local people including Jodell (thanks for the drive). The event was held at the ExCel London,brilliantly organised by The South London Warlords.  The event was amazing with majority of your typical traders and gaming company there, except for GW.  There was a lot of gaming tables, though I didn't get a chance to play since there were so much to see.  Also Salute gave out goodie bags which contained a WWII figure and a dice, which was pretty nice.

I have to say at one point I was overwhelmed with the amount of miniatures available to purchase.  I did spend quite a bit and majority of my cash went to Mierce Miniatures on Angrislaug, Draiggoch of Eryri and Druc Meat-Hulk.  If I had cash to splash I definitely would have purchased a lot more, but I now have a collection of grey plastic/resin models that require painting. 

It was fun to see the different games that genres that was on display. One particular game that caught my eyes was Freebooter which is a fantasy/pirate skirmish game, the characters were nicely designed would have like to had the chance to play.  I came across SphereWars which had some excellent fantasy elements to it.  I would have like to purchase these starter sets if I was minted. 

I was surprised by the turnout of people, I didn't know there was so many people into tabletop gaming, which is good since it shows that consoles having dominated recreational gaming.  I did see a few people that I follow on Youtube, though I didn't greet them since it's awkwardness you get when you know the person and they don't really know you, maybe next year I try harder to say 'Hi'.

There was also your typical painting competition with different entry categories.  As always some amazing work and conversions.  It was inspirational looking at the pieces on display. 

Overall I really enjoyed the show and was proper geeked out.  I will definitely be go again next year and be prepared and have a mindset what I want to buy and to do.  It was overwhelming since the amount of stalls available to browse.  

You can check out my random photos here.

Figure Painter Magazine - buy it now!

http://www.figurepaintermagazine.co.uk/

Being a new hobbyist in the miniature world, I'm always fascinated by the work people create and the realism they add through their paint work.    I do browse online a lot to look at people's work and to understand how they achieve the effect they do. 

When I was browsing on the interweb I found the website http://www.figurepaintermagazine.co.uk/.  People may already be aware of this site but they're are an independent organisation that produces a monthly PDF magazine for your miniature fix.  The magazine contains the latest news and releases on independent model companies, interviews with artist and creative tips, which have been useful.  The magazine contains a lot of pictures as well, all fitted into an average of 80 to 90 pages.  Also being a UK based mag, it features UK events.  Each mag is £1 which is a top deal considering all the contents you get.  Also once purchased you are allocated 7 times to download each mag, which is good if you manage to lose the PDF.

The advantage of having a mag like this was I got introduced to the latest releases and independent companies that I may not have known following my normal network.

Overall I'm a big fan of this magazine, this is definitely a fans' fan magazine.

Warhammer Citadel Paint in dropper bottle

The lid of my 20 years old Chaos Black paint decided to crack, which meant I cannot seal the paint pot properly.

I purchased a pack of cheap dropper bottles from eBay as spares in case the old plastic pot lids finally crack.  It was quite easy to transfer the paint into the bottle, to make it easy make a funnel using paper so you don't spill any paint.  

As for the label just heat it with a hair dryer before you peel it, so it's easy to take off. 

Few more Citadel paints from old range.