Saturday 8 February 2020

"Beachhead" Loot 2020

"Warpainter Scenics" - A flower patch, vegetable patch and collection of resin cobblestone pavements
This weekend I decided to make my second trip to the Bournemouth International Centre, Dorset, so as to visit the tabletop games show “Beachhead”. The team behind this event, now in its fifth year, are clearly becoming increasingly ambitious and it was clear from the larger trader hall and surrounding tournament areas just why they're "really pleased that it is rapidly becoming the go-to show on the South Coast.

Hoping to start slowly by circling clockwise around the venue's outer stalls first, I quickly stumbled across "Warpainter Scenics" and their collection of pre-painted garden scenery. Of particular interest was a fantastic looking collection of cabbages, beetroots, lettuces and cauliflowers all penned together in resin, as well as a large packed box full of some clearance items.
"I-Kore" WIP - A long out of production Koralon Hydra
These 'end of the line' pieces were incredibly priced, and suddenly enthused with the notion of the Third Reich being bravely battled across a quaint British village green I dived in with great gusto. Ultimately, I desperately tried to be restrained, but still ended up carting away four marvellously colourful flower displays, and a load of resin pavements to encircle the numerous pre-painted cottages I already own...

Similarly as tempting were the pre-printed wargame terrain produced by "XLC Wargame Terrain", whose "Desecration City" range of heavily fortified concrete positions, seemed particularly suited to either "Warhammer 40k" or Weird War Two. Fortunately, despite being strongly tempted by some of their barracks, cell blocks and towers, I ultimately walked away with just one of their Dice Tower: Police Box kits in my hand. I'm a big advocate of populating a tabletop with just a single manufacturers' scenic items, as I think a mix of resin, plastic, and wood from different sources tends to shatter the environment's illusion, and therefore thought the dice tower would prove simple test product to try out.
"Precinct Omega" WIPs - Two large "Beachhead" show specials and a pair of smaller Microclopi
Most of the show was unsurprisingly populated with the usual suspects like "Great Escape Games", "4Ground", "TTCombat", "Warlord Games" and "Plastic Soldier Company". These companies are great if you're after their very latest release or they're doing a special show deal, but it wasn't until I spied a battered box beneath the "Scotia Grendel" table that my I spied my prize pick of "Beachhead"; a load of old "Void" boxed miniatures from "I-Kore". These resin/metal marvels immediately took me back to a distant past when I was absolutely infatuated with the sci-fi skirmish rule-set, and for just a fiver each I simply couldn't stop myself picking up the lot, including a mighty Koralon Hydra.

Besides a quick visit to my regular e-store "Element Games" in order to snag their sole "Warhammer 40,000" Start Collecting! Necrons box for use with the "Space Marine Adventures" boardgame by "Games Workshop", the last dealer to catch my eye was "Precinct Omega" and their utterly bizarre range of "Ballmonsters!" Sculpted to work with the manufacturer's partially-written fantasy sports miniatures game, I thought these tiny heads were splendidly different, and despite deciding to superglue mine onto normal 25mm circular bases, as opposed to the clear plastic flight stands they come with, they should hopefully prove an interesting project to paint.

16 comments:

  1. “I desperately tried to be restrained” - love it ... sounds like a good time was had

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    1. "Beachhead" is fast becoming my fave show of the year, Dave. Yes it has the usual sellers you can simply buy from over the interweb, but it also has a great range of 'lesser known' companies who are selling some really cool stuff - "Ballmonsters!" being a great example :-)

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  2. The bitz box I’ve been clearing has a few old Void minis in it, from a teenage dalliance with that system. Tap me up if you’re interested!

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    1. Cheers Phyllion. I'll give you a shout once I've sorted through what I've bought and worked out a painting schedule for them :-)

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  3. Showing your Iron Will of restraint in all its glory.

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  4. Nice haul Simon, I have a few bits of Void stuff up in the loft but all painted I'm afraid so don't know if that's any good for you, I do have the first and second prints of the rules book(1.1 and 1.2 I think??) let me know if any of it's any use to you.

    Oh and those balloon monsters are rather cool!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. I've spent some time digging out my old "Void" collection myself, just to see what I do and don't own. Rather embarrassingly, it comprises of a bit more than I recall. But I do have a couple of painted squads which just need to a little TLC before they could be used on the tabletop.

      Thanks for the very generous offer. I just need to dig out my own books too, to see what I already own first - if I can locate them... The "Ballmonsters!" are a lot of fun, imho :-)

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  5. Well, what an interesting set of purchases! I like the scenery a lot and the ball monsters remind me a bit of squigs! I-kore! Now there is blast from the past. I always liked Celtos more than Voud, but Kev White's sculpting was always superb in both games. Great find!

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I intended on just buying some pre-painted scenery tbh, but the "Void" second-hand stuff really caught me off-guard, and most of the models were ones I'd not seen before. You have though reminded me that I have a fair bit of "Celtos" somewhere too - weren't we going to play that once?

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  6. Not heard of Warpainter Scenics before, I shall have to go and have a closer look.

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    1. Cheers Michael. That's the main point of these loot postings - to hopefully show off some of the lesser known manufacturers out there.

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  7. Looks like you had a good time Simon, and managed to bag a few bargains too

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    1. Thanks Dave. The larger hall than last year made a huge difference, imho, as there was plenty of room to look around and think about purchases etc. Plus, I could actually bend down at look at the boxes on the floor without fear of someone stepping on me!!

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