Derby World Wargames 2013

These are some photos of just a few of the outstanding demo games at this weekend's Derby Wargames show. The first group include the Warlord Games demo of Pegasus Bridge. A really amazing set-up as you can see. Second in the set is an alternative history game taking the 1984 Miners strike and developing it into a full blown civil war. Called 'The Battle for Trafalgar Square', the detail was fantastic - right down to small led lights placed amongst the explosions. I particularly loved the firefight erupting in front of the National Portrait Gallery - I guess there weren't the usual trail of tourists spilling out the doors on that day! The next up was a rather nice Arab-Israeli game (28mm?) with probably the most tanks I've ever seen fielded on a gaming table. Finally there was a lovely 6mm Maurice game placed in a Marquee with the participants in period costume. Great to see so much effort gone into the presentation of these games.

The show as a whole seemed like a roaring success. There were visible far more people in attendance last year, plus the canteen area had been expanded to afford more seating etc. Traders were also on the increase, so definitely lots of choice for the punters.

On the personal front I managed to pick up my preorders from Pendraken (Austro-Prussian and Franco Prussian army packs) and also got chance to buy some 10mm WW2 armour. The book stalls such as Paul Meekins etc were just an absolute feast for the eyes, and I came away with some coffee table books on Normandy '44 and some tasty Axis uniform and equipment books. A special mention has to go to 'Treefellas' who did me a nice deal on an Orange Grove (with tiny oranges no less!) and some bocage hedgerows.

The Painted Hall, Old Naval College, Greenwich. London.

Just back from a fantastic weekend in London. Having been to the Imperial War Museum several times I guessed it was the turn of the Naval College and National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Having almost passed straight by it, we happened to notice The Painted Hall a few yards away. It's an incredibly impressive structure with a beautifully decorated interior. I had no idea that it was the place the bodies of both Nelson and Collingwood were left in state before being interred at St. Paul's Cathedral. Very fitting surroundings for two extremely brave men. Underneath is a long tunnel that connects both ends of the building, and at the bottom of a set of stairs is a truly lovely scale model of the Japanese warship 'Yashima'. If like us, you were passing through the area to get to the Maritime Museum, you could do yourself a favour and drop by The Painted Hall. The panorama photo included above was taken by my girlfriend (who had a better technological grasp of the camera than I had!) and shows the buildings of the Old Naval College in all their glory.

1866 Saxon Infantry - 10mm Pendraken.

The second of the Pendraken Army packs is almost complete. This time it's the 1866 Saxon Army, which during the campaign fought with great distinction. Again I had to spend a few nights trawling the internet for information on uniforms etc. It was suggested that the Saxon's wore a sort of Cornflour Blue, and whereas some collectors had satisfied themselves with (as I recall) the Foundry paint system which produces something akin to the Bavarian colour of uniform, I'd also heard some folks opting for a Vallejo middle blue. This seemed fine although with a highlight on top I was afraid of it appearing too much like sky blue. Hence I went for the Vallejo dark blue and highlighted from there. The photo only shows the infantry minus their command stands because I forgot to include any in my online basket when ordering (Pendraken Army packs usually come without them) - so I'll probably have to grab some from their stand at the Derby show in a few weeks.
On another note I've just had the other Douglas Fermer book come through the door from Amazon called 'France at Bay' about the Siege of Paris and other events towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. If it's anything like his Sedan book, it'll be a stormer.