Tuesday 1 March 2016

The Laugh in Cavalier

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Cavalier show in Tonbridge - and in the words of Wallace and Gromit it was 'A Grand Day Out'!




The haul. There are few things in life more pleasurable than acquiring a new book (or 4).


To begin with I spent some time with Dave Lanchester helping to set up his stand. This is always good fun and is a good opportunity to see what's new in the remaindered and secondhand book world.  I must confess that it is seldom I visit Dave's stand without buying something and the three books you see in the picture (not the Turkish title) are now residing happily in the library in the man cave. Needless to say there are a number of ideas that these new acquisitions will be supporting in due course.



Caliver Books were also in attendance and after a brief catch up with Dave Ryan money duly changed hands and the Ottoman uniform title was also added to the collection. For the record I reckon that I have enough uniform material on the Turkish army from 1912 to 1923 in my collection so producing an army should not be a problem (other than painting it of course....).



I also chatted to Tony at Brigade Models and picked up a couple of packs of 1/1200th scale buildings - the Ancient Roman set and the Middle Eastern village with a couple of Mosques. The former will provide some background for the Salamis project whilst the latter ties in with my next purchase....

Tumbling Dice were also present and the painted examples of their 1/2400th scale Russo Japanese War ships (and the new American range for the Spanish War of 1898 or the Great White Fleet) are really very nice indeed. I managed to avoid buying any of these - for the moment anyhow - but I did pick up a 1/600th WW1 starter pack with German artillery. These 3mm figures are very nice indeed and although purchased as an experiment have a lot of potential for a number of ideas I am currently planning.



A gathering of Rejects with Postie keeping his hands firmly on his wallet in case One Lover Ray opts for another bacon sandwich....Big Lee striking a manly Hannibal like pose whilst Clint heartily wishes he was elsewhere....


Aside from the retail therapy (which is pleasant enough in its own right) Cavalier was also a chance to catch up with old friends and acquaintances, to chat about projects old and new and to see what kind of games were being played and displayed. One of the main orders of business for myself was meeting up with Bob Cordery of Wargaming Miscellany fame. We had a transaction to conclude involving two boxes of blue Hexon tiles and a box of extremely useful books - which will feature in a later post. Bob and I also discussed an idea I have been toying around with and as ever his input was very useful - especially some of the names he came up with - again, more of which in a later post!


I was hoping to get some of my pictures of the games on display but for some reason the resolution was not great so I will leave that to the other bloggers that were present.


All in all it was a grand day (or in my case half a day) out with just the right balance of camaraderie, retail therapy and inspiration.

9 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

A right rogues gallery!

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

It was great to see you on Sunday ... and thanks for the Hexon II! I hope that the books I passed on to you met your expectations.

It sounds as if you had a good day, and passed on a bit of cash to a number of traders for some excellent stuff.

All the best,

Bob

David Crook said...

Hi Fran,

Rogues indeed but with hearts of gold....

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

The books will be put to very good use indeed - and you will be seeing some of my thoughts in a blog post soon!

As ever, it was a pleasure catching up with you and I am pleased that the Hexon will take your naval ideas into another direction.

All the best,

DC

Ray Rousell said...

Great to catch up Dave and have a good chat again.

Jonathan Freitag said...

That is an interesting quartet of books.

David Crook said...

Hi Ray,

Always a pleasure when the Rejects are in town - adding a little tone to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl!

My show calendar for this year is going to be very light for a variety of reasons so it was doubly appreciated (plus I wanted to get the book to Lee).

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Jonathan,

I must confess the two Eastern Front titles were kind of impulse purchases although in my defence I had been considering them for some time now! The ancient title is in support of my Salamis project and the Turkish uniform book I have been after for a while.

All good and for specific purposes - which makes a change from usual 'ooh that looks nice' approach!

All the best,

DC

BigLee said...

A grand day indeed. It was really good to meet up with friends and I seemed to spend most of the day chatting to people and laughing heartily. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday!