Wargames Show Thoughts

Hi!

Well blow me down! As we were driving down from Worcester to Portsmouth with the latest load of our belongings I realised that the Colours wargame show was on and we were going to drive by it!

I dropped in in hopes of finding some old school miniatures and left my girlfriend eating sushi in the car.

Sadly I was somewhat disappointed after paying £6 to get in to find that although the show is massive, it does suffer from my usual pet hates of the wargames show. As soon as I walked in I was met with a wall of B.O. as hundreds of excited, and seemingly unwashed men hurtled back and forth. I made some attempt to get to the bring and buy, the best source of old yet cheap miniatures, but couldn't bring myself to elbow my way through the three deep scrum of bargain seekers (it reminded me of the little old ladies at car boot sales who will happily trample others to death in search of a bargain)

I next moved onto Gateshead Gamings stall which in the past has been a brilliant source for old miniatures but found it difficult to get at and they didn't have anything I was looking for. By this time the heat and smell was starting to get to me so I decided to take one last look round before heading out and found an old book stand which happened to be selling some old Harlequin miniature blister packs for £2.50 each.

I picked up several packs of Goblins and Elves as I fondly remember having them when I first started gaming in the mid 90s. Not quite old school but good enough for me! The miniatures themselves are really nicely sculpted, the goblins are by Kev Adams and full of character while I believe the Elves are by Chas Elliot as they are very similar looking to the Heartbreaker range he sculpted.

I now have enough miniatures to keep me entertained for some time and to form the basis for a couple of warbands for Song of Blades. The Elves will form the core of my Grey Elven force while the goblins will make an excellent rabble!

Once I have chance I will post some pictures of them here and hope to get chance to paint them as soon as possible!

So I spent less than an hour in the show and £14 on miniatures! I hate to moan about conventions as they can be a brilliant day out and source of all sorts of inspiration and miniatures but I think its going to be the last one I attend for some time. Its a bit of a shame that wargamers seem to live up to the stereotypical unwashed nerd so often. It will be interesting to compare my experience of the MCM in London in October when my girlfriend and I both hope to be there as traders. Will we experience a different type of geek?

All the best