SALUTE 2012

This is the voice of the Mysterons

Ahoy there. Welcome to another post aboard the Folly of War. This week I set sail for SALUTE 2012 for the first time ever. All I can say is wargame heaven. There was an astounding amount of different companies, games and miniatures out there. Highlights of this year was the giant game of Captain Scarlet which, brought me back to the days of youth watching the program with my dad on a Friday evening. I couldn't believe the detail of the scenery!

  

Dystopian Wars was also present and again the tables that Spartan games has were really inspirational. One table used all three elements of the game (Land, sea and air). It displayed a battle involving a beach landing on a central island.

Here comes the clowns. (EDEN)

New games that caught my eye were EDEN and Dropzone. EDEN (a french game) is another post apocalyptic skirmish game. The reason I took this game was the miniatures in particular the gang of psychopathic clowns and circus freaks (watch this space I may be getting some soon). The other game of note was Dropzone (released later this year). Now, I came to SALUTE having just completed Mass Effect 3 then I saw the miniatures of the ships for one of the alien races and my jaw dropped. I am not saying that Hawk Miniatures have ripped of EA but make your decision here (naughty). However I will be ordering as many of those minis as I can.

Knees not included

Finally a product review. Many readers will know I am a HUGE fan of Flames of War and SALUTE gave me the chance of buying a new Axis army as I only have Allies. Blood, Guts, and Glory has just hit the shelves and I really wanted to paint some tanks. Scouring the trade stands I came across the Plastic Toy Soldier Company (check them out here). An issue that many wargamers have is budget and Flames can be a little pricey when it comes to buying tanks. The Plastic Toy Soldier Company solves this problem. Money in hand I purchased two boxes of plastic Panther Gs for the same price as one of battlefront's resin boxes. The quality of these models is very good to high but as they are plastic lack certain details, such as anti mine paste and stowage. The sprue gives you options to make three variants of panther and crew. I have started to work on them using liquid green stuff for the anti mine paste and adding twigs and sponge for added camouflage. Overall, I feel that this company have got it spot on with the cost to detail ratio. These are perfect for any Flames game and with a growing product list (the Panthers have only just come out), this company will be making more of an appearance in my Flames purchases.

My Panther G with added camo.

There were so many wonderful things at SALUTE this year and I could have spent all weekend at the EXCEL centre. I recommend anyone to go as I will definitely be going next year. I leave you with a picture of one other small purchase all fear the mighty knitted Cthulu!

Fear his mighty button eyes!!!