Salute is over for another year!!

Well I am sitting here aching from head to foot from lots of walking at Salute 50 on Friday and Saturday, my old bones are suffering!

It felt really strange and very hard for me to be there this year and not to be at the reins like I have been for the past thirteen or fourteen years, knowing that a phone call or radio call from me wasn’t going to get any issues fixed was one of the hardest things I have had to deal with for a long time… and I didn’t like it at all ☹️

I have always had a good strong team working with me over the years, a team that I have been able to rely on totally to get things done or to fix any issues that arise ( and a lot do arise during the build on the Friday and during the show on the Saturday! ) there were times when things seemed a bit…. Strained.

I spoke to many people at the show, and it seems that some of them were not completely satisfied with how the event was managed.

However it is worth noting that running a show can be a demanding task with a very steep learning curve, and there’s always room for improvement.

I’m optimistic that the organizers will take any feedback into account and will make improvements for next years show.

Lots of little things happened that will hopefully give the coordinator and the show team the opportunity to learn from and be better prepared to handle them and issues like them at future shows.

From my point of view the show did struggle in some places but was excellent in others, lots of new ideas were brought to the planning table from an influx of younger committee members this last year which was great and this added a new enthusiasm to the mix, which has to be good for the future of the show and the club, but as I said the show did struggle in places and those issues will have to be addressed.

We had probably one of the biggest number of visitors at the door this year, bigger than we have had for a very long time, this has to be partly due to the new Social Media ideas from the new committee members and partly due to a lot of gamers just wanting to forget about all the worries of the past few years with COVID etc and wanting to get back to visiting shows and getting back into social gaming again, every game at the show seemed to have a good number of visitors looking on with interest or actually playing, which was great to see.

And the trade stands had their normal crowds of buying gamers! I tried three times to get to one stand during the show to buy a few bits, but it was so busy I had to walk away a few times but I kept returning hoping to get to the front… the fourth time was the charm and I managed to get a few 15mm vehicles to add to my sci-fi forces. 😊

The things that didn’t go as well as they maybe should have, are things that I don’t need to air on here, I am sure they will be discussed in full during the debriefs over the next few weeks and will of course will be mentioned on many blogs, forums and Facebook, but hopefully these will be looked at and plans will be put in place to deal with them for any future shows.

The compulsory “this is what it looks like on the Friday evening” not a soul to be seen…
The room with a view!! the show from one of the upper offices.

So all in all a good show and a good start for the South London Warlords post COVID shows, which I know not only drained most of my energy over the two days but my wallet as well!

I managed to get, as I said above, a few 15mm sci-fi vehicles from one of my favourite traders at the show, Brigade Models, it has been a few years since I have had time to actually walk around the show and see everything there, but as I was not in charge this year I had plenty of time to enjoy the show and see what was on offer… and boy there was a lot!!

My feet ache!!

Lots of great traders some new some old giving plenty of choices whatever you were at the show to buy, and the games this year, like many previous years were really diverse and, in many cases, spectacular… “How many spearmen did you paint? Oh my that is a lot!!”

I guess there will be the usual criticism’s of the show, some warranted and some not so much, whatever your experience was of the show you have recognise the amount of work and effort put in by everyone at the club, including all the friends and family who were there on the day.

On to what I got at the show ( apart from sore feet! ) the first thing I was given from a good friend was three VTOL’s in 15mm to use in my new sci-fi rules!

Yep I was intending to buy some models at the show but the first ones I get are given to me 😁

These are great but they will cause me a few problems… I have no idea how to put them together or what they should look like when they are put together, so I will now have to do some searching on the internet to see if I can work out who makes them and get some pictures of them to help me put them together, there are also a couple of bits missing from the other packs so I will need to do a little bit of modelling, but not too much of a problem as they were free.

Next my only purchase on the day ( I didn’t have a big budget this year at all ☹ ) as I said these are from Brigade Games and are from their 15mm sci-fi range, and to be honest I have no idea what factions they are from I wasn’t reading any of the little labels on their stand, I just liked the models and thought that they would make excellent addition’s to my armies.

First off there are two resin and metal heavy tanks, these will add some big firepower to my forces, plus two resin and metal Self Propelled Guns which will also add some much-needed heavy support to my forces, and then to finish off my small purchase I bought a pair of resin and metal armoured personnel carriers.

All of these are going to give me a lot of fun putting together and painting over the next few weeks.

And well last but certainly not least I was given a small box on the day by a friend saying “this is for you”

I was busy at the time and didn’t get much chance to look at it, only when I was relaxing later in the show did I actually realise what it was…

Kev gave me this and I am really chuffed 😊 this is this year’s Salute 50 model painted by Kevin Dallimore and I love it, thank you Sir that was really nice of you…. But you have now caused me a big problem, can you come around and fix the problem for me? All you need to do is paint all the rest of my figures as they do not look good next to this!!! 😉

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12 Comments

  1. Richard Bradley

    Thanks for the report…interesting!
    You may want to correct a couple of typos?
    Paragraph 2 ‘reigns’ should be ‘reins’, unless you are a king!
    Towards the end ‘The compulsory “this is what it looks like on the Friday evening” not a sole to be seen…’ should be ‘soul’, unless you mean fish!
    Please delete or don’t publish this comment, I want to help, not embarrass!

    • Mac

      Hi Richard,
      Not embarrassing at all, I blame the spell checker not picking them up!!

      Thanks for the help… all fixed now 😉

      Mac

  2. Dave

    Speaking as someone who helped run a game at the show, I’ve nothing but praise for the organisation beforehand and on the day – from my perspective there was so much positivity from punters and traders alike – Salute is by far the biggest show around and I’m sure there will be gripes from some, but we all do this as volunteers and I know you and the team will be back bigger and better than ever next year Mac, all the best best to you and the Warlords!

    • Mac

      Hi Dave,

      Thanks for your comments.

      I also received a lot of good comments from visitors, traders and gamers at the show, most seemed to have a good day.

      The Salute team always have to look at the show as a whole and take on board all criticism’s, and look at what can be done to alleviate any issues in future shows.
      So hopefully the next show will bigger and better as you say.

      Mac

  3. Jeremy Ramsey

    You’re being very coy. What didn’t work? I’ve been attending Salute since the late-70s and it seemed to be a pretty good effort to me.

    • Mac

      Hi Jeremy,

      Coy! that’s a new one, I have been called many things over the years but that is not one of them.

      No I felt the show on the whole was good, I know from past experience that problems arise during the build day and the show day, most are never seen by the public or traders / gamers in the hall.

      The ones that occurred at this years show will have to be looked at and dealt with by this years committee or the new committee after the clubs AGM.

      We go through this process after every show.
      Mac

  4. Zac

    Hi Mac!
    My phone suddenly started doing inter-web so I’m back on line again!

    Gota say that Viking is one sweet fig the paint job is nice too he would make a great general I’m jealous.

    I didn’t go to the show i went to the shop and took advantage of the secret sale wow it never cease to amaze me what a Clusterfuck that place is.
    I’ve never been to a sale where nothing is priced!

    I got some nice toy soldiers from anvil industries and some z-clips zombies which are rather cruede but full of character.

    Can you do me a favor and try and get your boss to order the ranger hunters I’ve been waiting for since
    the 14th of March and I know he is yet to place the order!

    • Mac

      Hi Zac,

      Yeah the figure is nice and of course Kev’s painting is lovely as always, I am just not sure what to do with the figure at the moment…

      Glad you managed to get some stuff from the sale at the shop mate.

      I will chase your order when I am back in this Saturday for you mate, hopefully I can get things moving.

      Mac

  5. Zac

    Hi Mac
    I got a call from the shop that my ranger hunters have turned up.
    Only another 8 nights watch box’s and I can finally get going on my free people’s army.

  6. Nick Hughes

    Great to see Salute back on deck and getting plenty of positive feedback. Wonderful to see a new crew bringing new ideas to freshen the door sales.
    Salute is a mainstay of the gaming community and miniature trading followers, traders and grognards. Fantastic to see it up and running again.

    • Mac

      Hi Nick,

      Its good to hear from you mate.

      All I will say is that it is good to see the show back up and running again and I am glad it is getting plenty of positive feedback.

      And I missed you being there causing me loads of trouble!!! 😉

      Mac

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