Salute in London?

[mahon]

I hope things get better soon. Salute is not as important as your family...

[Skrit]

True enough Mahon!

[Cyberpaddy66]

Family first, one of the great unwritten rules... I hope everything is OK over there.

[arctica]

Well there was a good turnout for Salute 09, as this was my first convention i wasn't sure what to expect. Lots to see, i really liked the smart max store, with all their new mausen earth and smog models. Was good to see the freebooter mechanical fairies too, they are so detailed and tiny too. Those were the main highlights for me but saying that there was so much to see, spent a few hours wandering around.Alot of the usual stuff like GW, FW, Privateer Press, lots and lots of historical stuff which i don't remember the name for but were displaying huge amounts of painted models (i think some of them could give Gareth a run for his money with the sheer quantity). There was alot of stands of suppliers of materials such as boxes and bases etc. Even saw from black cat bases an alien model with a sheep on it's back, some very cool stuff. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I think the biggest hit which seems evident from many other forums were the smartmax stall because of the quality and appeal of the whole system.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/vie ... ?tid=32025 - as displayed by a whole post just for it in CMON

The historical stuff was really quite interesting, it was quite cool watching the re-enactments too but they only did some drills and marching. Some remote controlled tanks with IR sensors battling each other out which looked quite fun. Lots of people playing on tables there, demonstrating different games and i even got to see a big cthulu monster on one of the boards. Seeing alot of the game systems in the flesh was nice too, and seeing some that i'd never delved into at all.

I even entered the painting competition with my eldar bonesinger, but only got a good effort lol. But one of the entries was a 2008 golden demon winner (or possibly silver, dont remember which) and i had a weird feeling of it being quite "naff" or not very sportsman like as it were, but it wasn't against the rules. One experience i have learnt from my first competition is that i think im thinking too much about the competition itself and i should just do what im doing and paint for fun, im not sure im up to competitive painting yet. Still i learnt how much more i need to improve before i get up to the top quality standards and i still have so much to learn, different techniques and refining my own too. Most of the entries were of a very good standard and i was in awe of some of the models.

Overall it was a nice enjoyable day lots to see and lots of friendly people :)might go again next year. Apparently the first 4000 people got a free miniature, i arrived at midday and wasn't given one so im guessing they must have had a fair few visitors.

Here are some links i pilfered from various other forums with photos:
http://exponentwargames.blogspot.com/20 ... -2009.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boristfrog ... 095153258/

next time i'll take me camera but you all know how good my photography skills are like

[Skrit]

Sounds like you had a good time. Definitly something worth checking out next year.

[Demi_morgana]

I really regret I couldn't see this with my own eyezzz:

Click to see full-sized image

I saw some wip photos of still unpainted city - stunning!!!

[Nameless]

what a great red cross I see, Demi...

I wish we had such event in Poland.

[Demi_morgana]

strange - I can see the pic...
how about now?

Click to see full-sized image

[Nameless]

another red cross

[Demi_morgana]