I've already posted my initial thoughts on Salute 2016 but having slept on it I have one additional observation to make and I suspect many others felt the same way as I. This years Salute had a weird vibe about it from the start. Several people and traders said the same thing and essentially I think it boils down to the fact that this years show had fewer Clubs and more traders running games. Consequently it felt more like a trade show this year rather than a celebration of our hobby. I've no idea of this was a commercial decision on behalf of the organisers or just the way it turned out but it did feel like there was a lot of unused space that could have been filled by more club demo's and participation games. I still enjoyed my day but it definitely felt different this year. I'd be interested to know what you thought.
It took a long time to sort through the 600+ pictures I took during the day! Many were reference shots of labels and posters so once I have the info transferred to the accompanying pictures I delete these. There were also a LOT of blurry pics and badly lit ones so the 600 got trimmed down to about 250, and that takes time. Then I label them, add tags and upload them, all of which takes a lot longer than writing this post! I have them in some sort of order now and here's a selection of my favourites.
There were many more smaller Demo's and lost of small Participation games but most of these seemed to be run by traders. Lots to see and even more traders to try and get around made the day even more exhausting than usual... or maybe I'm just getting old?!
It took a long time to sort through the 600+ pictures I took during the day! Many were reference shots of labels and posters so once I have the info transferred to the accompanying pictures I delete these. There were also a LOT of blurry pics and badly lit ones so the 600 got trimmed down to about 250, and that takes time. Then I label them, add tags and upload them, all of which takes a lot longer than writing this post! I have them in some sort of order now and here's a selection of my favourites.
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| The obligatory shot of the queue...lots of eager gamers! |
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| Inside the vast Excel centre. |
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| Gillingham & Brown - 28mm - Action at Antietem |
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| Gillingham & Brown - 28mm - Action at Antietem |
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| The Young Padawan shooing... almost outspent me! |
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| RAF - Formula Minion |
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| Battle of Hooks Farm |
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| Chesterfield Gaming Society - 28mm - Kings of War |
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| Swordpoint - 28mm |
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| Bill Gaskin & Friends -- 28mm - SYW - Battle of Wilhelmsta |
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| Bill Gaskin & Friends -- 28mm - SYW - Battle of Wilhelmsta |
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| Ian Smith & Friends - 40mm - Battle of Adrodas - Penninsula |
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| Ian Smith & Friends - 40mm - Battle of Adrodas - Penninsula |
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| Loughton Strike Force - 28mm - Russo-Finnish War - Battle of Raate Road |
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| Loughton Strike Force - 28mm - Russo-Finnish War - Battle of Raate Road |
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| Loughton Strike Force - 28mm - Russo-Finnish War - Battle of Raate Road |
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| Operation Overlord Participation Game - Based on the Avalon Hill Boardgame I actually signed up for a game and then completely forgot the time and missed my slot! Sorry guys, the game looked excellent. |
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| Emily meets the locals |
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| Postie gives me a tickle! |
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| The Padawn at the EM4 stand. She bought a lot from here! |
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| Adrian McWalter and Quinton Dalton - Napoleonic - O'er the Hills |
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| Adrian McWalter and Quinton Dalton - Napoleonic - O'er the Hills |
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| New Buckenham Historical Wargamers - 28mm - Agincourt |
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| Maidstone Wargames Society - 3mm - Road to Homs |
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| The Blogger Meet Up. Great to see everyone again. See y'all next year! |
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| Heroics and Ros - 6mm - 1986 - Soviet Invasion of Nato |
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| Victrix - 54mm - Spain 1800 |
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| Victrix - 54mm - Spain 1800 |
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| Tunbridge Wells Wargaming Society - 15mm - All Quiet on the Martian Front |
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| Tunbridge Wells Wargaming Society - 15mm - All Quiet on the Martian Front |
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| A big Fantasy game but without a sign saying who was running it. |
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| Lost of Fantasy miniatures |
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| Someone is impressed! |
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| Sheffield Runelords - 1/24th - Mad Max: Stop the Truck |
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| Crew & Nantwich Club - 28mm - ECW - The Bloody Siege of Bristol |
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| Crew & Nantwich Club - 28mm - ECW - The Bloody Siege of Bristol |
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| Crew & Nantwich Club - 28mm - ECW - The Bloody Siege of Bristol |
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| K&R |
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| Essex Gamers - 28mm - The Tet Offensive |
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| Essex Gamers - 28mm - The Tet Offensive |
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| Hammers Slammers |
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| Dalauppror - 28mm - Foteviken 1134 |
There were many more smaller Demo's and lost of small Participation games but most of these seemed to be run by traders. Lots to see and even more traders to try and get around made the day even more exhausting than usual... or maybe I'm just getting old?!
Splendid tables, splendid pictures!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness you were there with your camera! Cracking shots Lee.
ReplyDeleteA good addition to the picture pool from this years show, Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNice to see a pic of our stand. We are amongst a dwindling band of market-stall type traders amongst the growing tendency to have very impressive, pro displays; I'm too old to think about getting slick and glossy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your purchases....!
Doug (em4)
great pictures - thanks for both taking them and then spending the time organizing the whole "scene"
ReplyDeleteLooks like an great day.
ReplyDeleteGreat pics Lee! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, Lee. Lots of variety on show. Ta for posting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a splendid selection of games!
ReplyDeleteGreat pis thanks for posting Lee.
ReplyDeleteallAll the best
Airhead
Great pics Lee!!! I haven't even diwn lusded mine yet!!!
ReplyDeleteWell done for posting these great pics so quickly! I got told off for not taking a picture of the space marine guy, but now my wife is happy!
ReplyDeleteGreate Salute picture AAR !!! Thanks !
ReplyDeleteGreat pics and despite what the programme etc said it should have been "New Buckenham Historical Wargamers - 28mm - Agincourt", not "Buckinhamshire Wargames Club - 28mm - Agincourt". I think we gave up trying to get it corrected in the end :)
ReplyDeleteI'll alter my labels...i do like to get it correct but with hundreds of photos its often very difficult. Great looking game by the way.
DeleteNot a problem, was wrong in all the official publicity anyway. Cheers for the comments too.
DeleteExcellent pictures! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat Minions game looks so cute!
Greetings
Peter
Lee,
ReplyDeleteThose are very good images, putting my humble attempts to shame. You're right about the 'feel' of the show, although its difficult to label what it was exactly. Still a great day out.
Great pics Lee, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the report and the organizing and sharing of all of those pictures.
ReplyDeleteGood to see even more stuff I missed!
ReplyDelete