Sunday 9 June 2013

I have been to....Broadside 2013

This was a really good half day out and no mistake although officialdom served to make the ending somewhat, ahem, challenging....more of which later however.

Broadside is the wargames show organised by the Milton Hundreds Wargames Club in Kent and was held in the Swallows Centre, Sittingbourne. I would post a link to their website but it has been hacked and closed down as a result so the best I can do is to post the details listed on the following site - Brigade Models MHWC.

For me the best thing about days like this is catching up with old friends and in that respect the blogging fraternity was very well represented. I chatted with Fran, Lee, Postie and Ray of the famous Posties Rejects - I caught up with Clint and his legendary chocolate truffles, Tamsin P the mythical beast (don't forget the Pyrates - it is spelt like that - as it is really funny) and figure painter par excellence and the redoubtable Mr Cordery. The spectrum of blogs covered looks something like this:

Wargaming Miscellany

The Angry Lurker

Wargaming Girl

Anything but a 1

Don't throw a 1

Big Lee's Miniature Adventures

My first order of business was with Dave Lanchester of David Lanchester's Military Books to offload some spare titles from the collection and to take a long and envious look at some of the titles he has on offer. This was swiftly followed by a visit to Brigade Models to pick up a couple of packs of their really good 1/1200th scale Middle Eastern buildings. Brigade Tony is a sterling chap and he has been the source of all my ship flags for a number of years and with this new range of buildings (designed to be used with the Land Ironclads rules) he is really on to a winner in my opinion. I have a number of plans for these which will feature on the blog in due course.

Brigade Tony - before I had spent some money with him - he was smiling afterwards though....;-)


One half of Clint's very nice looking 1/2400th Napoleonic naval game....


....and the half half of the combatants who did not want to be left out....;-) To Clint though - many thanks for the Chocolate!


Those awfully nice Pilum Painting People - Pilum Painting


A beautiful looking Sudan game in 28mm....


....with a very impressive looking gunboat.


The Rejects were in action on the Boyne - once again I managed to miss out on a group shot of the gang in all its glory - sorry chaps! To Ray - once again many thanks for the 'secret project'.


Mr Fox and SEEMS took to the skies with this 1940 furball over France, being the first action of the day. 


A 109 is trailing rather a lot of smoke but the Stuka seems to be unaffected and looking longingly at the target in front of it....


Courtesy of Bob Cordery - a pair of very welcome titles for the collection - especially the one on the right....We also discussed matters Chaco related and much food for thought has come out of this so thanks again Bob.


This was my 'Oooh Shiny' moment - but not in quite the way you would imagine.....


1930s tanks in action - what's not to love? This also has a cunning ulterior motive....


Bargains of the day though - all four of the above titles for the meagre sum of £5 each!

It was great to catch up with a lot of old friends (and new) and my only regret was that I did not allow myself enough time to take part in one of the club aerial dogfights. My parking ticket for the car had run out and I was loathe to part with even more money so basically I ran out of time. There was a warden lurking as well and so I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed for home. Still, it was a great day out all the same and I am quite sure that I will be able to revisit the scenarios Mr Fox had devised at a later date.

On the basis of today Broadside is very much a booked date in my calender and I shall look forward to next year with relish.

20 comments:

PanzerKaput said...

Looks like a great show and a great day out there

The Angry Lurker said...

A pleasure as always David, I thought you took several pictures of the Reject cast!

TamsinP said...

Good to meet you too David and thanks for bringing along those books. I'll definitely look up that George MacDonald Fraser book.

David Crook said...

Hi Panzerkaput,

It was a great day and it is a good show to visit. Shame about the ending but that is the way it goes with many parking spots these days.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Fran,

You are quite right BUT they were all on Lee's camera....D'oH!!

Great catching up with you all though and the game looked stunning.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Tamsin,

I am sure they will give you plenty of ideas for scenarios and the Pyrates plenty of inspiration for some outlandish characters!

It was a please meeting you as well.

All the very best,

DC

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Anything naval stirring David?

Ray Rousell said...

A pleasure as always Mr Crook!

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

It was great to see you (thanks for the book and the models!) ... and it was a great little show.

I hope to write my blog entry about BROADSIDE later tonight or early tomorrow.

All the best,

Bob

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

I have the last batch of models from Stonewall for the 1/2400th WW1 set up currently en route and once they arrive they are first on the paint tray. This will be the RN and HSF with the dreadnought portion of Fezia and Rusland thrown in for good measure.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Ray,

The Rejects were on top form and it was great to catch up with you all once again. The game looked gorgeous despite having to slow down the river crossing....;-)

All the best and many thanks once again,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

I shall look forward to reading your blog entry and to reading the books I got from you - one in particular! Very inspirational indeed - as was the show in many ways.

All the best,

DC

Clint said...

Hi Dave Firstly many thanks for the book and your very kind words about the game set up.

(I still can't pronounce Xebecs)!

Brilliant to meet you again. I wish I had known about your parking dilemma I had a spare parking voucher that would have allowed for all day parking.

But at least you did not get stung... Andy (Ainsty Castings) got a £50, parking ticket. We have a club member who knows several of the councillors and we are going to TRY to get that reversed though.... A small chance but we can at least try!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the photo and link...fame at last!!! It was a quiet but enjoyable day.
Andy (Pilum Painting).

busrider53 said...

Hi
I would have liked to go to Broadside but a previously arranged outing prevented it.
Do you have a current contact email for the Rainham wargame club.
I am a long time wargamer wanting to get back into the hobby.
Many thanks
Andy

David Crook said...

Hi Clint,

The table looked really effective and I am sure you will get a lot more use from it with further naval adventures!

The chocolate was delicious and SWMBO expresses her appreciation for the same (which means I may be asking you for some more...).

The parking was a pain to be sure - I only usualy stay for half a day at these events but on this occasion did not have the choice. The fact you have to key in your registration number means that when you renew your ticket if you have got to the maximum time allowed you cannot buy another one! It also meant that arriving as early as I did was actualy a disadvantage as my time was up sooner rather than later.

It was a great day though and I am pleased you liked the book.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Andrew,

I must admit that the quality of your painted armies was very high and I was very tempted....;-)

I will eamina in contact with you though as who knows what is around the corner.....

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Busrider53,

If you look at the link mentioned for Nrigade models it will show the Broadside advert that has the contact numbers for the organisers.

I hope that helps.

All the best,

DC

BigLee said...

Glad you had a good day, it was great to meet up again. Its a pity about the car park because that 4hour maximum stay probably drove off a lot of visitors after lunch. It was certainly a lot quieter after 2pm.

David Crook said...

Hi Lee,

No way of dodging the car park as you have to key in the registration number. As mentioned, it was a pain arriving so early as it meant that time was up sooner rather than later.

It was great to catch up with the gang though and the game looked fantastic.

All the best,

DC