West Midlands Millitary Show 2012

I went to the West Midlands Military Show with my son Charlie. It is a medium sized historic war gaming show in Wolverhampton. It's been around for years, but this is only the second time I have been, an Charlie's first. There were a lot of retailers there, and I fished up a few bargains and came across a few games and retailers that were new to me. I also had a chance to see some stunning table tops. Here's a pile of pictures of some of the best. I apologies that I never wrote the name of the individuals and groups who created these masterpieces. If you recognise any of them and want to credit their creators properly please post a comment at the end of this entry.

This was a lovely 28mm cowboy town, apparently under attack by a large number of bandits. The scenery was great, as were the minis. I thought it was a bit too busy, but impressive nether the less.

Here a couple of shots of a Victorian city-scape for a horror skirmish game. Jaw droppingly good scenery! The majority of the buildings were scratch built!

As always at these kind of shows there were a number of re-enactment groups. We thought the guy running the WW2 table was very friendly and knowledgeable. Charlie was impressed with the Bren Gun- but damn those things are heavy. I wouldn't fancy lugging one from here to Berlin!

Charlie enjoyed a game of Pike and Shot, using a homegrown rules set. It was a lot of fun and easy to pick up. The group running it , the Sir Gilbert Hoghton's Company of Foote, were very friendly and welcoming.

Another spectacular board from (I think) the Shewsbury Wargaming Society. This one is a pirate themed battle, featuring a large number of none-combatant villagers. The shear number and range of civilians was remarkable- and every were I looked there were amusing details like the string quartet and the man proposing to the goat herdess.

My own extravagant purchases included (but were not restricted to) a couple of Britannia Miniatures 'Technicals' and a crashed Black Hawk helicopters for my African board, a new laser cut MDF house from 4 Ground, some sailors for VBCW, and some 28mm sheep.

Overall, we had a great day out. I spent too much money, and so now I am going to have to put some stuff on eBay to pay form Salute next month.