Off the Painting Table (Sept18), part 2

Back in July I bought some civilian figures to ‘pimp up’ my tabletop set up. I seem to recall that some figures came from Black Tree and others from Col Bill’s, but I cannot be sure. Well, I have painted them up and added them to my growing collection of accessory figures. I’m not sure when I will need three Kings or an Archbishop in a game or, for that matter, a nagging wife restrained in a head brace! The beggars, preacher, monk and female costermongers will find more use.

Last weekend I went to the Colours show in Newbury. Again I could not find a copy of the Saga Crusades book, nor a number of other items I wanted. I think some major vendors (Caliver; Foundary; Gripping Beast etc.) are no longer attending Colours, which is disappointing. I think the venue is the best I have encountered at any show, with plenty of room and natural daylight, plus free parking. The only negative factor is the restricted room afforded to the Bring and Buy area; why the organisers don’t improve this is a mystery to me! I did spend some time talking to a couple of traders (Barwell, Great Escape Games) about airbrushing techniques (paints, thinner, cleaning etc.), and I now feel more confident about starting to use my new airbrush equipment. I bought some paints and (finally) a dice tower from Dave’s Wargames, shown below.

I called in on Peter Pig, who were demonstrating their new Western rules. I have a copy, but from my first reading I’m not convinced that they provide what I require when matching Plains Indians against 7^th Cavalry. I have yet to play them and hopefully they will get an outing in October. Regarding other games on show, I was most impressed by a WW1 28mm desert game and a large ECW FK&P game. Otherwise there were the usual types of game; a large tank-fest Operation Goodwood, a few Cold War games, a Samurai skirmish, some ancient Roman versus barbarian games etc. etc. Overall, not very inspiring and I came away from the show feeling slightly disappointed. I think the Colours organisers need to re-energise the show in some way, it has dropped in importance to me behind other shows and this is a shame.