SALUTE 2017: Sat, 22nd April @ ExCel London - POST YOUR SHOW REPORTS HERE..

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**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Cheers Ruglud

Those new models look nice. The beauty about them is that not only are they for ME (obviously) which I play, but they would be good for using in other games as well. Put me down for a box or two.

**Ruglud**

Loved this picture:

**NAVARRO**

Tooooo many pictures to sort out /edit and time is short, managed to start the coverage today.

Free stuff there and loots on the update 1 and 2.

http://mr-bugman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/salute-2017-coverage-part1.html

http://mr-bugman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/salute-2017-coverage-part2.html

This year I got so much for free it was not even funny… Hilarious actually since my wife was not expecting a bag full of precious things.

Got 2 freebies bags, 3 rulebooks, miniatures etc.

Picture looks like I spent a fortune but actually I have not.

**Ruglud**

Excellent haul Navarro - I'm off to read your first two blog entries now

BTW - where did you get the bag full of greenstuff - I was on the look out for such an amount but failed to find it :(

Some more blogs for you all to read...

http://bigredbat.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/in-action-shots-of-raphia-at-salute.html
http://28mmvictorianwarfare.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/salute-2017.html
http://deadleadproject.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/salute.html
http://dagobbosgrotto.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/post-salute-post.html

**xKillGorex**

Damn I so want to get to salute but it would take over 3 hours to get to, did anyone get to the spectre miniatures stand. Those guys have sucked me right in to spectre operations.

**Azreal13**

NAVARRO wrote:

Picture looks like I spent a fortune but actually I have not.

That's what we tell your wife if we see her, right?

**NAVARRO**

Got the greenstuff at Troll trader they sell it really cheap in huge quantities bags. Failing that go for Heresy miniatures they have some of the freshest GS but not has cheap.

Believe it or not I struggled to find milliput this year. No one had it except on store.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Azreal13 wrote:
NAVARRO wrote:

Picture looks like I spent a fortune but actually I have not.

That's what we tell your wife if we see her, right?

Last years probably but this year has been the year I spent the least.

**Ruglud**

Ahh, there you go - I saw the Troll Trader stand and it was literally heaving... So I didn't venture in, just peered in from the sidelines ! Next year maybe... Will check them online though and see what deals they might have (tend to find the TT ebay store does better deals then their regular online store for such items...)

That's something I'd like to see more of at Salute though, more hobby tools, accessories, paints, etc... Everyone had the Army Painter glues, but I prefer Humbrol (liquid poly) -
but didn't see any of this on the stands...

Was great to see the company selling airbrushes and equipment this year though (albeit somewhat expensive for my tastes...) - Barwell BodyWorks I believe, will have to investigate them some more as I'd like to get some use out of my airbrush set-up eventually

**NAVARRO**

Totally agree the hobby supplies have been dropping each year to more specialised miniatures/terrain traders. If shops like antenociti and others don't go to salute ( like this year) it becomes harder to get basic generic goods.

**Fifty**

xKillGorex wrote:
Damn I so want to get to salute but it would take over 3 hours to get to, did anyone get to the spectre miniatures stand. Those guys have sucked me right in to spectre operations.

I did. I bought a couple of their new Civilian Vehicle Alfas, and the range of civilians, plus banker, blackmailer and the sheikh. I'll be posting photos shortly!

**xKillGorex**

Did you see the new razor buggy. Am looking to pick some up for my us spec ops teams. But yeah the sheik is on my list after I finish the next 6 ops guys.

**Fifty**

xKillGorex wrote:
Did you see the new razor buggy. Am looking to pick some up for my us spec ops teams. But yeah the sheik is on my list after I finish the next 6 ops guys.

I did, but I already have two buggies from Anvil Industries, so I don't need another.

**CragHack**

That Frostgrave table :O

**xKillGorex**

Fifty wrote:
xKillGorex wrote:
Damn I so want to get to salute but it would take over 3 hours to get to, did anyone get to the spectre miniatures stand. Those guys have sucked me right in to spectre operations.

I did. I bought a couple of their new Civilian Vehicle Alfas, and the range of civilians, plus banker, blackmailer and the sheikh. I'll be posting photos shortly!

Ah I've looked at the zinge one online, how does it scale against spectre minis.

**Orlanth**

I didn't take pictures, but I did bring a wallet and two sturdy bags.

I left with the bags fairly full and the wallet empty,

**Ruglud**

Orlanth wrote:
I didn't take pictures, but I did bring a wallet and two sturdy bags.

I left with the bags fairly full and the wallet empty,

Stop teasing and show us the pictures of your loot

**Fifty**

I helped out at Anvil Industries doing demos for Afterlife. It was lots of fun.

This is the board that was in the back of the Defender.

And this was the far smaller board on the front of the Defender.

The Salute free miniature visited Afterlife...

The first place I went was Zinge Industries. They sell little £1 bags of miscast items. I spent £31...

I bought two cars from Spectre Miniatures

And two cars from Urban Construct

And four cars from Mantic - The Walking Dead terrain set.

These are one of each vehicle lined up, along with my Afterlife Cobra APC and Instigator

These were also from Spectre Miniatures

From Studio Miniatures

And finally, a useful wall for Frostgrave to go with my tower.

**Ruglud**

Damn - I forgot about the Zinge miscasts... AGAIN... Think I may go and sulk now...

Great haul though, I especially liked the Italian Job minis on Urban Constructs stand

**Pacific**

Many thanks for the coverage guys, great to see all of that stuff in the photos and blogs!

Salute just seems to go from strength to strength, and even on Dakka don't think we have had this sort of coverage and a thread stretching to 4 pages before

**chucklehead**

Had a great time myself. Always a good day out, even if you only go for a mooch around, so much to see. Spent too much, but I'm sure I'm in good company there.

I've always wondered with Salute, why is there only 1 a year? It's always so busy and I assume it's successful for the venue and the traders, so surely there is enough demand for it to be 6 monthly no?

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

If we're sharing Loot Pics?

And none of that is for me - all for members of the Loot Sharing group on FB - so it's all spoken for and being posted out tonight.

**Eldarain**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
If we're sharing Loot Pics?

And none of that is for me - all for members of the Loot Sharing group on FB - so it's all spoken for and being posted out tonight.

Noble endeavor that one. Been happy to see it working so well.

**Ruglud**

Interesting read on this blog

Salute 2017 - from the Trader's perspective

Now there is no getting away from it Salute is one of the most important single days in a Trader's year. I'm not saying that a bad 'un can stuff your year no it is not THAT important but a good 'un can mean you can have some "Jam today" with your usual bread and water. Mind you last year we had extra Jam so there was no way this year was going to match those dizzy heights.

I knew this before hand- plenty of chaps had told me they were not going this year - reasons many and varied including "It is mostly fantasy now" and - often this- it's too bloody expensive what with parking and entrance you've dropped £30 plus before you are in -then the prices for cha and wads are ruinous .... so some chaps did not go.- they bought their gear by mail instead.

Nevertheless we were still knackered by the end of the day and could afford to eat that night and even have a half of shandy to wash it down!

Overall though I did get the impression that the show was having a slightly "off" year. No big deal, it happens. No real surprise after the very high point of last year. I don't think any of this was down to the organiser just chaps taking a breather. There certainly were far fewer European chaps about. I never had to do the "4 customers in 3 different languages at the same time" thing that has been a feature of more than one past Salute. Possibly because of their election, there seemed to be a lack of Frenchmen. I don't recall any Italians though there were several Spanish and some Germans.

However the Brexit nonsense makes you wonder if perhaps some chaps just don't feel as welcome here as they used to. It does make you wonder.

I still didn't get a look round and saw no historical games that took my fancy on my couple of trips to the kharsi.. Indeed only at 1 Participation game did I linger. This being the Tring Club's 40mm Wars of the Roses game. A deliberately simple entry level game using my Romanoff Miniatures Warriors for the Working Day range. Now running a PP game is a skill I don't really have but this seemed popular and was well presented. Nice one Boys.

Don't get me wrong here it is still the best gig in town but not this year quite topping their own high standards.

**NAVARRO**

Update 3 is now ready.

http://mr-bugman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/salute-2017-coverage-part3.html

Still many more pictures to sort out.

**Pacific**

Interesting article Ruglud. Having not gone this year I can't attest to that being correct or not but wouldn't be surprised if it were true. It's probably a combination of factors, maybe as those described and also some other gaming shows seemingly getting bigger such as the Birmingham games Expo (which has been pushed a lot this year)

I also generally think (and this goes for a lot of shows and has been for some time) that quite often the special offers are pretty crappy, very minimal discounts. It might have flown in the catalogue or pre-internet days when you would go to the shows for your big purchases and new army deals, but there are so many vendors on the internet now with quality sites it's much easier to plan and order from your own home. Who knows!

**Scrub**

That makes for an interesting read Ruglud if only because I share the same sentiments.
I certainly felt that this year's Salute was muted by comparison to 2016. Even the coverage and advertisement leading up to the event felt a bit more constrained, with hindsight.
Still a nice day out (obviously!) but I didn't feel there was quite as much to see as usual. This has been my third Salute event and it certainly felt the most muted. The hall just felt emptier. I didn't think there were as many traders this time though I'm happy to admit that getting up at 3:30am to catch a train to London might have impacted my assessment there. Grumpyness can do that to a person!

Although seeing new releases, discovering new model companies and seeing cool models up close is primarily why I go (Spectre, Whitedragon miniatures, Warmill scenery and 4ground tables are all excellent examples of this) I felt a tad disappointed by the more established retail stores and even companies within the industry that didn't have much to offer in the way of deals or incentives to get me to part with money this year. (Boo first world problems)
Other than Troll Trader, though they're always good like that!

Talking of which... Battlefront selling kit at full RRP from their stall or Troll Trader undercutting them by more than half in some cases was the most glaringly obvious to me.

Even Forgeworld seemed quieter than usual. It usually has the largest queue at any one time as far as I've ever noticed on my previous outings but that award went to Guildball last saturday from what I saw.

On a foreign visitors note... I helped mediate between some Spaniards and stall holders in a few places (complete strangers to me!) and I definitely heard a fair amount of French being spoken but they could just have easily been Canadian so no judgement from me there! German, Dutch and Italians were also present and I'm certain I heard some North American English.

I'm sure I even heard a Scot! >_>

So in short, not a vintage year in my books!

**Silent_King**

From a (small) trader's perspective, I will echo that it seemed a bit quieter this year. It is still invaluable in terms of meeting new people and increasing exposure, so it remains a great deal for that.

**Ruglud**

Thanks Silent_KIng, that's an interesting insight into the value of the show not just being measured in GBP. Would love to hear some more traders point of view about the show.. Hopefully some who frequent Dakka will stop by...

**rich1231**

Well from our perspective (Wayland and Warcradle) it was a success. It is a huge amount of work for us but it is a great chance to meet customers. We worked really hard this year to minimize the time spent queuing, to this end we had 8 tills active all day. I think it made the difference having the extra few this year as I didn't see more than a few people waiting at any time to be served. But we were up 20% on last year so it seemed to do the trick.

My feet are still recovering.

**NAVARRO**

Some of the traders I talked too were quite happy with how things were moving.

I personally did not notice a slow down, the people were there and the mornings at salute are always relentless waves of people.

Well Update 4 is live now.

http://mr-bugman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/salute-2017-coverage-part4.html