Salute shopping list...

..time I think for a new post, and prompted by a review in the most recent Battlegames* by Mike Siggins on the latest offering from Warlord miniatures I thought I'd test, in my own small way, his undoubted enthusiasm for the latest plastic offerings... I think it safe to say that Mike seems to be a huge fan of these new ranges and figures, it's been discussed at length here and elsewhere whether they are really as good as we're being told they are, I'm just interested to know how many of the people who pass through here have actually put their money down, and painted them to wargame with.... be interesting to see - place your bets, oops, votes, on the poll to the left ladies and gentlemen...

* (an excellent issue by the way - the AWI article in particular was breathtaking)

..next, what more pleasant a thing to contemplate (and blog about) than my shopping list for what is quite possibly the biggest wargame show in the UK all year?!

Salute [click here] is approaching fast - Saturday 28th to be precise so thoughts as usual are turning to my shopping list.

For a wargamer I have to say I'm (generally) pretty good, and can honestly say that I don't really have a lead mountain - I buy what I need, and then paint it... if I have figures available then I don't buy more - it's stress that I don't need (all those little metal voices calling from the ready to paint box - "paint me, paint me") so when I go to the shows I'm generally looking for specific figures for specific units/periods...

You can imagine my pleasure then when I spotted that Mike at Black Hat Miniatures [click here] has just recently released the cavalry to go with those exquisite infantry that I bought at Warfare last November (which have since become Howe's Regiment of Foot and the Agenois Regiment - I told you I painted what I bought! ). So, first on the list then, a pre-order for enough Marlburian cavalry to field a squadron per side - the picture to the right by the way is the French cavalry trooper, there are separate packs for non-French, and also, commands for both. I'm looking forward to seeing these in the flesh...

Next - I suspect that this is going to be a bit of a "printed matter" year as I want a copy of this:
..I'd also like this, based on the excellent feedback I've had from fellow Old School Wargaming members and bloggers:

Next some ships - you can't buy "Trafalgar" and then not investigate the ship possibilities - and based on some comparison photo's at the Trafalgar Yahoo group I'm hoping that I'm going to find the Navwar ships at the show so that I can see them close up (Navwar's is another disappointing web site with plenty of written content, nicely laid out, but no photographs of the ships... grrrrrrr...) a quick check shows that Principles of War carry them and are at the show so fingers crossed... not looking for much - couple of the two deckers and a frigate a side - may even go American war of Independence era rather than Napoleonic so that I can keep some campaign options open.

Next we get into the "must check it out" section of the list:

Despite my general antipathy to the plastic figures, I'm enough of a geek that next I want to see what this looks like in the flesh - this was announced on the Perry website this week (I think) and is designed to fit with the ACW range - it looks to me however, like it would also fit very nicely with my existing American War of Independence figures and while I don't really need any more building type terrain I'm keen to see what this looks like as the price is very intriguing if only for all the extras you get:

Next, Matt over at the "Waterloo to Mons" [click here] blog, not satisfied with single handedly boosting Helions sales as a result of his excellent painted output of their product, has gone into business for himself with his own range of figures (Waterloo to Mons Miniatures [click here for the company web site]). The first releases are for the First Schleswig-Holstein War of 1848-1850 - not a period that I'm ever going to play I suspect, but I would like to see the figures face to face....

Before I leave I also want to get one of the specially commissioned figures I mentioned in a previous post that have been sponsored by Figures in Comfort. The figures will be sold in support of Holybush House, the organisation that helps ex service men and women who have mental health issues as a result of military service. I noticed on The Miniatures Page the other day that one of the first figure released has been painted by Brian Phillips for auction on eBay in aid of the charity - click here for more information on the auction (and more pictures):




Then for the rest of the day I'm going to mooch about, check the games, take some photo's, make impulse buys, and hopefully at some point meet up with Will of Fire at Will blog fame - I've been playing Will's American War of Independence Rules for what must be almost 10 years now and we've never met, so I definitely owe him a pint, if not for that but also the fact that I shamelessly ripped his rules off for part of my Colonial Sudan set, and I also use his Seven Years Rules (with mods) for the War of the Spanish Succession games!

...and that's it - I shall need a new pair of shoes by the end of the day!