Well we have now finished Salute 2012 and what a great day it was, although very tiring! I didn't get to leave the table from 8 o'clock in the morning when we got there until about 3pm when I did manage to get a quick trip round the show! It was really good to see everyone and our thanks go to all of you who stopped by to say hi (including some friends of yours Sander - but unfortunately I didn't get their names!). We met loads of interesting and friendly people who were very complimentary about our efforts which was nice!
Now those of you who have done show games will know that it is inevitable that something gets forgotten, and so it was yesterday. Unfortunately the "something" was charging my camera battery, so at the moment I have no photos to show you. But I did take some on my phone, and if I can work out how to post those I will! And lots of other people took pictures and I'm going to try to link up to those too.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Friday, 20 April 2012
Race to the Sea is almost ready!
We're off to Salute first thing in the morning - leaving home at a time a friend calls "O-dark-early"! The set is just about as finished as we can get it, and will hopefully look really good. No photos of the finished version until we get to Salute I'm afraid - it's kind of a tradition that we never, ever actually see the whole finished version of a set all laid out until we get to the show and do it! In fact this set is the first to properly fit into the shed as it's a 10x6 layout, so fairly small for us!
Anyway for those of you coming along tomorrow (and it's a real shame not to see you there Sander!) do come and find us, we are on table GB23 in the top left hand corner from the main doors.
Anyway for those of you coming along tomorrow (and it's a real shame not to see you there Sander!) do come and find us, we are on table GB23 in the top left hand corner from the main doors.
Monday, 9 April 2012
Building Race to the Sea Part Three!
Sorry not to have posted lately but we've been busy since we've been away! As you can see from the pictures most of the painting is done and we've spent today going flocking mad! There's still quite a bit to do but it is looking a lot better than it did before!
The town buildings still need working on too, but that will be taken care of before Salute. Less than two weeks to go and the clock is certainly ticking. But at least we are a lot further forward this year than we usually are!
I'm working hard on the figures too, at least the French Fusiliers Marin battalion are done thanks to the great work by Sander who converted and painted them all for us! The Belgian infantry are coming along and the Germans too. I've still got three batteries of Belgian artillery to finish but we'll get there.
The town buildings still need working on too, but that will be taken care of before Salute. Less than two weeks to go and the clock is certainly ticking. But at least we are a lot further forward this year than we usually are!
I'm working hard on the figures too, at least the French Fusiliers Marin battalion are done thanks to the great work by Sander who converted and painted them all for us! The Belgian infantry are coming along and the Germans too. I've still got three batteries of Belgian artillery to finish but we'll get there.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Building Race to the Sea Part Two
We've been working hard on Race to the Sea. Lots of "whittling" going on, cutting in the roads and bridges and getting more buildings. There's still a long way to go but it is slowly taking shape. At least this year we have started building for Salute a bit earlier for once - but I'll bet we'll still be doing last minute stuff as ever!
Here's a few more photos of last night's work.
That's a Convoy Models Minerva armoured car on the bridge - obviously not yet finished!
And Richard, our "chief whittler" in action!!
Here's a few more photos of last night's work.
That's a Convoy Models Minerva armoured car on the bridge - obviously not yet finished!
And Richard, our "chief whittler" in action!!
Friday, 24 February 2012
Building Race to the Sea begins!
We've started building our new show game for the 2012 season, based on the battle in October 1914 around the town of Dixmuide. We're not trying to represent Dixmuide as it was then 100% accurately, just a representation of a small Belgian town by a canal! But we are showing an area of flood, as the sluice gates were opened at Nieupoort later that month and the whole area up to the canal and railway embankment flooded, so we are including a part of that area. Naturally we want a game that is going to look dramatic as well as play well!
The Battle for Dixmuide was really important for the course of WW1, but often overlooked in favour of battles such as 1st Ypres. If the remains of the Belgian army, who had fallen back from Antwerp, and some French infantry and a brigade of French Fusiliers Marin had not valiantly held Dixmuide, the Germans may have reached the Channel ports and cut the British Army off from its supplies!
At the moment the set doesn't look like much, as it is just a lot of blue stryofoam boards with wallpaper to represent the flooded area and the canal. But I'm attaching a few photos so you can see where we have got to so far.
We'll be using the new supplement in the Crush the Kaiser series called "Over by Christmas" which will cover the period from the beginning of the war on the Western Front in August 1914 to the end of 1915 and the early part of 1916. That's still in preparation, but it should be out soon.
I'll keep you posted on developments!
These are the first of the buildings, there are more on the way (when my ebay parcel arrives from Germany!) Of course they'll need careful re-painting.
The Battle for Dixmuide was really important for the course of WW1, but often overlooked in favour of battles such as 1st Ypres. If the remains of the Belgian army, who had fallen back from Antwerp, and some French infantry and a brigade of French Fusiliers Marin had not valiantly held Dixmuide, the Germans may have reached the Channel ports and cut the British Army off from its supplies!
At the moment the set doesn't look like much, as it is just a lot of blue stryofoam boards with wallpaper to represent the flooded area and the canal. But I'm attaching a few photos so you can see where we have got to so far.
We'll be using the new supplement in the Crush the Kaiser series called "Over by Christmas" which will cover the period from the beginning of the war on the Western Front in August 1914 to the end of 1915 and the early part of 1916. That's still in preparation, but it should be out soon.
I'll keep you posted on developments!
These are the first of the buildings, there are more on the way (when my ebay parcel arrives from Germany!) Of course they'll need careful re-painting.
Friday, 11 November 2011
Photos from the Trenches of Death Diksmuide
Hopefully this will work and attached are some pictures of the preserved Trenches of Death at Diksmuide.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Crisis Show at Antwerp
What a fantastic show last weekend at Antwerp. The organisers, Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, really do pull out all the stops to make it one of the best shows on the circuit, and deserve loads of praise and thanks for all their hard work. And with a new venue next year it promises to be even better!
We really enjoyed ourselves at the show and met some very nice people. It was good to talk to everyone who came to say hi to us and discuss the set, the figures, the vehicles and so on. In fact lots of people asked me where the vehicles came from: the buses were by Keil Kraft, as was the steam lorry and one of the ambulances (although that was really a GWR parcel delivery lorry!) the Vauxhall Prince was a bootfair purchase (I bought 6 cars for £1.00) and the wagon came from Convoy Models. The observation balloon was by Roseplane, a vac-form kit that went out of production in the 80s but there are still some around if you scour e-Bay often enough! Buying the kit was one thing, putting it together quite another!
On the Sunday after the show, on the way back to the ferry, we went to Diksmuide to see the Yser Front and the Belgian "trenches of death". This is quite a forgotten area of the Front that gets overlooked by it's more popular cousins at Ypres and the Somme but if you ever get the chance you should go and see it. On a misty morning in November there was nothing more evocative of the war than walking round the preserved trenches right by the Yser - at times the Germans were just 7 metres away from the Belgian trenches.
If I can work out how to post photos on this blog I'll put some up of the trenches!
We really enjoyed ourselves at the show and met some very nice people. It was good to talk to everyone who came to say hi to us and discuss the set, the figures, the vehicles and so on. In fact lots of people asked me where the vehicles came from: the buses were by Keil Kraft, as was the steam lorry and one of the ambulances (although that was really a GWR parcel delivery lorry!) the Vauxhall Prince was a bootfair purchase (I bought 6 cars for £1.00) and the wagon came from Convoy Models. The observation balloon was by Roseplane, a vac-form kit that went out of production in the 80s but there are still some around if you scour e-Bay often enough! Buying the kit was one thing, putting it together quite another!
On the Sunday after the show, on the way back to the ferry, we went to Diksmuide to see the Yser Front and the Belgian "trenches of death". This is quite a forgotten area of the Front that gets overlooked by it's more popular cousins at Ypres and the Somme but if you ever get the chance you should go and see it. On a misty morning in November there was nothing more evocative of the war than walking round the preserved trenches right by the Yser - at times the Germans were just 7 metres away from the Belgian trenches.
If I can work out how to post photos on this blog I'll put some up of the trenches!
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