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.