It's March so it must be....Boot Sales!!!

Today saw the first of our local boot sales opening up for the season so SWMBO and I headed up the A127 to Dunton, a short drive away. This boot sale is usually huge and we have sometimes not even managed to get around it before exhaustion has set in! I am happy to say that the season kicked off in fine style with a couple of books and a goody bag of 20mm plastic figures and sundry other items (more of which later). The first book is the Complete Encyclopedia of the World's Battleships and Battlecruisers from 1860 to 1945 by Tony Gibbons. I have owned a copy of this in the past but it disposed of a number of years ago (and I almost immediately regretted doing so!) so it was a most welcome acquisition - particularly as it has being going for some very high prices on ebay and such like. The condition is absolutely pristine and it is the Salamander edition rather than the later book club version. The pictures of ships covering 1860 to 1914 is very inspiring and so this will be one to dip into for inspiration should I need any....;-)

From the same seller I also acquired a copy of Dog Boats at War - Royal Navy D class MTBs and MGBs 1939 - 1945 by Leonard Reynolds. Coastal forces naval games are something I would like to try at some point and certainly there is plenty of 'kit' available and rules available for this 'up close and personal' form of combat (although I would probably make my own....;-) The book covers operations in home waters and the Mediterranean and includes a large number of pictures and maps, technical specifications and orders of battle etc.

The price of these two combined was £6 which is a pretty good deal to kick off the season with!

I also picked up a goody bag from a guy that was just packing up to leave in the shape of an Airfix Roman Fort and a copy of their Fort Sahara - together with an unopened pack of Ancient Britons, some French Foreign Legion and Arabs, two packs of plastic rod and three 75mm metal figures (all the same) of what can only be described as a stylised 19th century idea of what a ancient Gallic Warrior would look like! I am not sure what I will do with these although there are some very good figure painters at the club that could probably find a use for one of them. This bag of bits came to £5 which for the plastic rod alone was good value - the other bits I will either find a use for or will offload at some point. The Foreign Legion and Arab figures do look very nice though.....

This little lot will go some way towards making up for the fact that I had completely forgotten about the Skirmish Toy and Plastic Soldier show in Kent today and so have missed it!