Wednesday 10 April 2019

"Salute" Loot 2019

"Dead Man's Hand" WIPs - John Bridges, the Scarred Man and Ned Kelly
This year's traditional trip to the ExCeL convention centre in Custom House, East London has once again added a few more baubles to my horde of metal, plastic and resin miniatures, as well as greatly widened my interest in yet another genre or two. In fact, one of the main reasons I enjoy attending this show is that some manufacturer somewhere will throw me a real ‘curve ball’ and before I know it, I’ll have bought heavily into a new game system I hadn’t previously even heard of.

Fortunately, financially-wise at least, that didn’t quite happen during “Salute” 2019, but I did still walk away with a few Wild West miniatures by “Great Escape Games” for their “Dead Man’s Hand” rule-set. Even though I don’t currently have any particular intention in purchasing and playing the 28mm skirmish game itself, I did find it impossibly hard to resist purchasing a box of models disconcertingly based upon an Undead Magnificent Seven.
"Time Robbers" WIPs - The Minotaur and two models from the Ultimate Evil set
Obviously I needed some opposition for the skull-headed Malevolent Seven, and spotted amongst the stall’s single figure blister packs an excellent proxy for “DC Comics” Jonah Hex in the guise of the Scarred Man and Rooster Cogburn with John Bridges (albeit I would have much preferred one resembling John Wayne’s original incarnation). In addition, whilst searching this excellent range I also spotted a boxed set featuring Ned Kelly’s formidably armoured lawbreakers. The bucket-wearing Australian bushranger has always been a favourite Wild West villain of mine, even if he did his shooting on the other side of the world, so there was no way I could resist picking his gang up as well…

A couple of years ago at “Salute” 2016 “Northumbrian Tin Soldier” caught me completely off-guard with half a dozen 28mm white metal "Time Robbers” based upon the band of dwarves from the 1981 motion picture "Time Bandits". Rather embarrassingly, apart from basing and priming the figures I have never touched them again, however that may now all change, as at this show the Tyne & Wear-based manufacturer’s captured my imagination once again by serving up both an Ultimate Evil set of four miniatures, alongside a blister comprising of Agamemnon and a giant Minotaur.
"Dust Tactics" WIPs - Three members of the Cultist Fire Squad
Quite possibly one of my most unexpected buys of “Salute” 2019 however, came from a chance encounter with “Dust Studio”, who I had totally forgotten about following a rather painful “Kickstarter” experience way back in 2014. I’d always been a big fan of “Dust Tactics” up until this point, and at the time pledged very enthusiastically for all things “Operation Babylon”. Sadly, ‘behind-the-scene’ bust-ups over backer rewards seemed to stall the distribution of my goodies for an eternity, and ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth for the genre.

To my utter astonishment though, a quick look at the “Dust Studio” display cabinet was all that was needed to immediately reignite my enthusiasm back up as I saw the Hong Kong-headquartered company have recently introduced a Cthulhu Mythos faction into their 1947 A.D. universe, and crammed it with just the sort of baddies one would expect to see in an Indiana Jones or Ray Harryhausen motion picture. Resultantly, I couldn’t stop myself from picking up a box of unassembled Cultist Fire Squad figures, Mi-Go Raiders and (more) Nazi killer Gorilla Squad members, as well as later digging out my dusty old collection of miniatures in anticipation for a painting frenzy…

20 comments:

  1. Sounds as though your wallet was hit hard Simon. I do like the Time Robbers figures, what a weird but great film Time Bandits is.

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    1. My wallet wasn't hit quite as hard as it could have been, Ray, judging by some of the deals I clearly missed - having since seen them on "Salute" 2019 Youtube reviews etc. "Time Bandits" is one of my fave films, so it was impossible to resist scooping the "Time Robbers" up.

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  2. Cool purchases. Yesbshows can be a total changer of ones interests

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    1. Thanks Simon. "Salute" always conjures up something I hadn't been anticipating.

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  3. I always like after show swag posts. They allow you to ponder not only what is upcoming but also what one might have bought.

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    1. That's why I enjoy swag posts too, Clint. I love seeing what people bought, why they bought them and what they intend doing with them.

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  4. Quite a haul you got, I hope your not going to regret any of these impulsive buys (I know I did, many times even, in the past 😕). But luckily it sounds like you already have a project in mind.
    Have fun!

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    1. All these minis should get painted this year, Wouter - I hope!! I'm especially determined to get the "Dust Tactics" minis finished quickly as I have something of a backlog from that range that I'd like to dig into.

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  5. Sounds like an interesting haul Simon :)

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    1. Cheers Tamsin, and obviously it was great to see you (and Ray) once again. I thought your swag was very promising too, especially all the "Strontium Dog" stuff :-)

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  6. What a great haul, Simon. I very much approve of your DMH purchases, given my love of the Wild West and the Weird West. Do you have a rule set in mind for using them?

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I hope to cover the freebie minis from the show soon too, as I managed to pick up a few sample sprues from stalls and inside my goodie bag. I'm not sure of a rule-set yet for my Cowboys, but probably something homebrew...

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  7. Nice haul Simon, with some great looking models in there, Time Bandits was awesome ! Was this all the unplanned purchases ?

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    1. Cheers Dave. I usually end up doing a couple of "Salute" Loot purchase postings per show, as there's always so much going on, and this year will be no exception. I'll post up the second part, which looks more at the freebies etc, during the next week or so, as rather than just show off my buys I like to pen my thoughts behind why I bought them.

      Btw your stall features very favourably during this two-part "Salute" review on "YouTube": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz5n0YXtdcM

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  8. A nice haul of figures there Simon, and rather restrained by your standards....unless there is more to come of course ;-)

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. Um... yes there is a second part to this posting planned... ahem.

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    1. Cheers Steve. Hopefully I'll see you there one year?

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  10. Oh Id really love to, but my emphysema makes it increasingly impossible to attend big events any more.. age ( at 55 I`m starting to feel it in my bones lol), 2 hours travel to the airport, the flight, more travel to the event, then standing up all day at the event itself... not to mention the return trip, would do me in LOL. Travelling and flying to see Dave (Stone) last year took its toll on me as it is (was ill for a week after)... and there I got to sit down all week end. But you are welcome to visit us anytime and meet the crowd :-)

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    1. Thanks for the invite Steve, and I'm sorry to hear health isn't what it once was. I'll certainly let you know if it looks like I'll be coming over to your neck of the woods :-)

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