Tuesday 31 March 2009

Salute '09

Saturday was Salute, at the ExCel centre, London. We set off around 0630,(yawn!) and travelled down by car. Thankfully traffic wasn't too heavy, and after a brief McD feed, we were off again, getting there parked and ready to go by 1100, so not bad going for 250 miles I reckon. Easy to get to, parking was good (£12 for the day) and t'was only a short walk to the event.

The first thing that hit me was the size of the place...not having been since Kensington, it's massive! Loads of room to move around, and no push & shoving. There was even space for those with the oversized rucksacks. There were a lot of decent games, streets of traders, and quality food nearby. Here's just a few pictures..
Victorian Society, smashing uniforms and gear..

Loughton Strike Force groups "PanzerGrenadier" game, Assault on the Reichstag. Truly a marvel with quality terrain and buildings, a real treat to look at.



Now this is large scale gaming, with engines and all..very realistic too.

A stunning model for the Colditz game..

And another stunning model for an Aztec (I think) game..

Reenactors were there too..

The Loughton Club crowd, having a good yabber..

Some Salute Organisers er organising..

A really good day out was had, and it was good to meet up with some old pals, Tim Hall, Dave Brown, Kev, Henry Hyde, Giles, Timmo, Andy et al. Buying wise, OG hasn't got me special wagon yet but it is on order, and some TSS terrain was obtained, along with some exotic bits and pieces. The standards of the games was good, some were different, and it was well organised from what I saw. After a slight argument with the SatNav and a detour, and a good feed at a Little Chef, we got home around 10pm. A 530 mile round trip, but well worth it!

2 comments:

johnpreece said...

Looks like it was worth the effort.

The scenery for some of those games is fantastic. But absolutely huge! I imagine that most of it must just be broken up after a few months.

I have enough troble storing a roll of cloth and a few plastic buildings. Where the hell could you put an entire Aztec city?

John

Peeler said...

Hi John, it was well worth the trip,a good day was had. As for the size of the secenics and buildings..I have no idea, other than to think that some lucky gamers also own warehouses for storage, and a collection of transit vans for transport. Stunning stuff really. :-)