Today I went to the West Midland Military Show in Aldersley. I think the last time I went to this show was at a different venue and probably in 1993! I don’t normally make shows in the Midlands or the West but I’d arranged to visit good friends in Birmingham on Saturday night and drove over to the show this morning. It’s put on by Alumwell Wargames and I have to admit I really enjoyed it. The leisure center took a little finding (good signage up until the crucial right turn which says Aldersley Stadium where all others refer to Aldersley Leisure Village!). The free parking was great, IF you could actually find a space. It seemed very busy and full. But the venue was good. A LARGE sports hall, well lit, with the whole show under one roof. Traders (of which there was a good selection) mostly round the outside, and games, traders, re-enactors and modelling displays in the middle.
I hadn’t really planned to take pictures as I was mainly going to pick stuff up from Michael at Angel Barracks and Pete at Baccus, but some of the games were so good I felt I had to! As ever, I’d have liked to see more info on who was doing what game as I didn’t really have the time to quiz everyone. If there’s a poster or info sheet I usually just snap that for later reference! Anyway, rather than a detailed breakdown I’ll just put up two galleries of my favourite games and then a general one for the show. And then I’ll waffle a bit…
These are a few of my favourite things!
Pics 1 and 2 are of a very well presented Ride with the Devil ACW game
Pics 3,4,5,6 are of the Fishguard 1797 game put on by Mark Davies and Martin Small. It was a pleasure chatting to Mark about the game and seeing the amount of work a conversions that went in to it. The militia dragoons apparently starting life as Perry Hussars!
Pics 7-15 were the highlight of the show for me. A pirate game put on by Shrewsbury Wargames Society. Now I will admit to bias here as this was the club I started gaming with in the late 70’s! Although I’ve bumped into club members at other shows this was the first time I’d seen a club demo game and it was a pleasure to chat with Chris and Keith (who I don’t think I’ve seen for over 25 years!) and also to bump into Tym who over the same period I think I’ve only chatted to on TMP once! The game was excellent and I hope the photos do it justice. Lovely paint jobs, ships and terrain. If there’s an award for best demo game this would get my vote!
The last pics are of a great looking Hougoumont game. This used teddy bear fur and this worked really well.
I took quite a few other pictures but don’t really have the details of the who and what.
The ACW on the hexes looked good. The FWC looked very red/pink! The Culloden was neat. And I missed others…
The nice thing about going to a ‘western’ show was seeing demo games from clubs that just don’t make it up north!
Now, to the serious stuff. What did I buy? Not a lot really. Diesel cost my near £70 for the round trip which was more than I planned. I had dice, paint and some nice SF critters to collect from Angel Barracks. Some 6mm Dark Age things from Baccus (of which more in a week or so) and I ended up with a few other 6mm packs as well. There was an excellent 6mm painting workshop there as well and I had a nice chat with the guy, Mike Salwey, currently sculpting the 6mm Ottoman range. These are VERY nice and for a first time sculptor are truly excellent. I look forward to seeing the rest of the range. And buying some more!
In other news, Battlegames 28 arrived on Saturday morning. I’ve yet to read the bulk of it but therein lies the final part of the report on last years Ayton game and I’m quite pleased to see that the Uhlans of my Savage Swans made the front cover!
As they charged across the bridge to do battle with the massed Guard cuirassiers, I’m sure someone from the game will happily point out that they bounced off and minutes later were seen heading in the opposite direction!
I even got recognised from my photo in the mag and was stopped for a chat by Ubique
So all in all a good weekend…
Some nice eye candy on show there, thanks for posting!
Photos 5, 6 and 7 on the unattributed set are from a AWI game put on by Birmingham Wargames Society .
Great pics, It looks like it was a great show!!
Wish I had got accross to that one, especially as I missed out on Heroes
Nice pics and I suspect that mag cover will get framed
Ian
I went to this show, my 3rd visit in 4 years. It gets better each year and it was good to see new traders, old traders and a return after a break, Bicorne. I spent time talking to traders and display game folk, Fishguard and Pirates. Spent a few pounds and joined the scrum of the bring and buy, it would be rude not to. Thanks to all involved.
Nice to see you, if briefly! Fame at last with your pics of our FWC game. It’s not just pink, it’s space pink 😉
Lovely photographs and congrats on the Battlegames cover. Nice to be able to put a face to a blog.
Regards,
Matt
Sorry I couldn’t make it, looks like it was a good show. Have to try a bit harder next year. See you at Derby?
Mick