No Shows... No Sweat

 

 

Well, Vapnartak was , in my humble opinion (and you foaming at the mouthed fan-boys can bite me, if you disagree) was at the best bland.

I heard more than just I saying this.

My wife didn't even bother going to see her many friends in the hobby, which is saying a lot. Of course, if people come through the door and pay their £5 (cash only please) it's 'a great success'.

I remember another great and now no more Northern show having a similar take on things whilst their Rome burnd and the bring and buy got fiddled... But that could never happen here could it?

I confess that I looked at the list of traders and thought 'How bland...' and went twice around the tabletop sale, where, an entire section of tables were manned by dealers, who really should - if they were not already, and if so, I apologise - be in the main hall paying as traders, and incidentally filling some of the yawning chasm which I photographet just after 12:00 as we decided to call it an expensive day and retreat home via a hostelry and a lunch, rather than face the fried and pastry covered 'widowmaker' comestibles so beloved of wargamers ans which I am sure account for the usual condition of the toilets at shows all across the UK.

 

No Irregular, no Musuem Miniatures, no Curtey's and no Bunker with the effervescent Shaun McLaughlin. These people should be encouraged rather than the fiasco that is big box resellers, competing with the manufacturers themselves to slice up an ever decreasing pie filled with pap.

I think this was a final straw of sorts for myself and the Memsahib who remarked that she could find better ways to spend her money and time.

So, for at least the next few months we have placed a moratorium on shows. Honestly, I don't think that had I come into the hobby as it looks now I'd have wasted my entire life living every waking moment for toy soldiers. 

But that said, I have a lot to occupy me, as my painter completes 3000 Romans, Picts, Celts and Feudal figures as well as 1500 or so Dark Elves, Barbarians. Orcs and other marvellous miscellaneous models militant.

I'll try and get on with the pile of Hovels buildings which sit feeling unloved in the games room and I've spent about £600 to get complete sets of the Ghostbusters, Ringworld, Timeship and just yesterday, the Lords Of Creation RPG:

 

I'm just finishing up with sourcing a few last pieces for my preslotta Undead horde which, without counting the content of the old GW carrier bag and (eye-watering) purchases made over the last month, must equate to 400 pieces.

I can't work out why I never bought more cavalry... Perhaps when I was younger, cavalry seemed like a waste of money (3 foot to one mounted etc) or because I was so enamoured by the John Blanche diorama which, lived for ages under the counter at GW Sheffield and which is the main driver for me getting off my arse, and sorting/sifting a bag of still pretty good castings and fillinbg out units to make that diorama into an army. I've undertaken to do this myself too... Sort of a last 'hussah' as I start to wind up the account mortal for this particular ride on the roundabout of existence. I'll give myself a year to complete it all I think.

Whilst I am not at shows, I'll be refining the wardrobe for, as many of you know I am a prancing peacock with a penchant for Joe Brown's threads, flamboyant scarves and interesting footwear. Apropos of there being no restaurant booked this week, I ventured out yesterday morning to pick up some bits from M&S - Their strawberries and grapes are wonderful - and ended up calling in at Joe Brown's and Clark's with the expected result:

 

 We have a percussion recital and talk to go to next weekend, so that should keep me out of the shops for a bit... Lord knows, I need more wardrobe space as it is.

The point is, that whilst I admittedly felt a pang of separation anxiety when we looked at each other over a table last Sunday, I really do have better and certainly more productive things I can spend my down time involved in at present - and don't get me started on the Sheffield show scene.

 

TTFN