Sunday 22 April 2012

Salute 2012, My Thoughts - part one

I'm sure others will write the same; a long and arduous journey down to Salute 2012, a late finish arriving home shattered and ready for bed after an exhausting day. But that six hours spent at Excel was just a blur, passing as if just a few minutes and I am so glad I took the camera to record what was just a fantastic day out, really top-notch entertainment and as this first brief post details, inspirational terrain and terrain modelling.

Although not attempting to score the displays, or place them in any order - these three gaming boards/displays were worth the diesel and entry price alone.

Photos One and Two - Show the beautifully modelled Salute Samurai Gaming Board, full details can be found here. I picked this as my first post showing the games on display at Salute because it was just beautiful, a clean, well modelled display board that just screamed quality and attention to detail. No gimmicks, 'over-the-top' modelling or excessive highlighting - just a display board to be proud of. 

The lesson I learnt from this table is that clean and crisp terrain properly executed can add so much to our hobby.



Photos Three and Four - The TV7 Mountain Lair. If the fist terrain board is simple then this piece of engineering is the exact opposite - the build diary has been detailed here and I recommend that you settle down with a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit and read how this inspirational model was built, detailed and displayed.

The attention to (every) detail was just fantastic - once again top notch and as sections were removed to show the similarly detailed interiors - I was just full of admiration for the modellers who helped with this huge undertaking.

The lesson I take away from this build - is detail, detail and then even more detail. You can never have too much.



Photos Five to Eight - Show yet another aspect to our hobby - 'true artistry in terrain building'. The Vitrix Battle for La Vejol. A 54mm display game that for me ticked all the boxes, a breathtaking piece of terrain, beautiful miniatures and that added little extra, perfection. Yes perfection. These buildings, both sculpting and painting were some of the very best I have ever seen and really captured the sun-bleached villages of The Spanish Peninsular with pantile roofs, parched and scattered ground covering and decaying plaster - I really was 'blown-away' by this board.

I take away from this superb modelling an aim that my terrain building will improve and one day equal these examples. I also hope that I will be able to replicate the subtle colours in my next Spanish-inspired building.





There you have it - my first impressions of salute 2012 - a show that I have not attended for over twenty years. There will be more to follow, but rather than loads of images - I thought this more structured and themed post would be of interest.

Tony

3 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

Nicely done Tony, I agree especially about the Samurai set up!

Ubique Matt said...

Nice terrain pieces, very 'clean' looking. One day I'll actually go to Salute (hopefully).

Regards,
Matt

Lasgunpacker said...

Looking forward to the other posts... always very envious of folks who can go to salute.