Salute 2019- The Scene!

The annual London based gaming and hobby fest that is Salute seems to roll around faster and faster each year, and this time was no exception. Jack had volunteered to host a Batman the Miniatures Game display table for the show, and after some deliberation decided on using an extended version of his Axis Chemicals board. Dom and Mark came and joined us as well, making our League complete.

Having been commissioned by Jack to make most of the existing buildings, it made sense to do the rest. The kits are sourced from a variety of manufacturers, and are all MDF. Broadly speaking, they were sourced from Knights of Dice, Multiverse Gaming and Sarissa Precision, there may be more, and apologies to the manufacturers if there are!

 I'll do a dedicated piece on here at some stage about working with MDF, but my preferred method is to build them using Gorilla wood glue, seal them with a brushed on mix of PVA and black emulsion paint. Let dry for 24 hours, then prime and spray like any other model. I then use washes, and sponged on paint for weathering, and artists oils to bring everything to life. Takes a little while with the various drying stages, but the effect is worth it.

In addition to the scenery, I also painted up Jacks Joker crew, made from their Batbox with the addition of Jokers Daugther substituting out Gaggy. These were painted to be reminiscent of the Mime scene from Time Burton's Batman movie, with a bit of a cyberpunk twist thrown in. These were great figures to work on, and full of character. They were also very simple and clean to build, which was welcome with time for the project being pretty tight.

Conveniently, Knight Models new Dark Knight Rises starter set was released at Salute too, and Jack spent Friday getting the new Tumbler model built. sadly, we didn't get time to paint it to use on the day, but I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing more about it on here soon... For those curious, the kit is around the same size as the Eaglemoss one. The set drew a huge amount of attention at the  show, and seemed to be hugely popular with 3 Traders at least selling out of their stock.

Our game seemed to draw a crowd from the start, with people being drawn to the classic display and characters on show. Dom and Mark played a game, with Dom using the Suicide Squad, and Mark using Society. The dice totally abandoned Dom, I saw him role mutiple snake eyes in the space of a few minutes. Leading to a very happy looking Mark fairly quickly.

Perhaps the greatest and most unexpected part of the day however, was being awarded the Jim Clark Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Game Runner Up! It was a fantastic event, and brilliant day, and if you can make it next year, I really recommend it. Also, keep an eye on the Batman Miniature Game and DC Universe Miniature Game support group on Facebook, as the boards will  be used in up coming tournaments if you fancy playing on them.

Thanks to Jack for organsing the table, Dom and Mark for travelling to the event, and everyone who stopped by to say hello. Now, how to win that Gold next year...

Gotham will endure.

Andy