The Rejects at Salute 2011.

The Rejects headed to Salute this year with little money but good intentions, there was myself, Ray, Surjit, and Postie (The Daddy). We got to the show about 0955hrs and proceeded to the end of a bloody long queue but within 5 mins we were moving and got into the venue before a lot of ticket holders did (result!), headed for the Bring and Buy and with my one item waited for 25mins to register (some people in front of me had 30 or 40 items!). It was a good show in the sweatbox this year again, plenty of space is one of the good things to say about this venue, picked up some early WW2 british from SHQ, early war germans from Grubby Tanks (got some Kreigsmarine aswell but I think they're too early as they should be wearing helmets by the time of my project), some Pz 38 T's from Pegasus Hobbies, varnish, paints, some bases from Warbases. Nice free figure, free 6mm car and a nice bag from KR (RRP £14.99) more than making up for the £11.00 entry fee. Took some pictures but as usual not enough as you are there more for the product, this is not too say that the games weren't brilliant that were put on, it's just you forget to take a picture or remember you have a bloody camera.

The other good thing was meeting fellow bloggers and putting faces to names (pictures and links to their blogs below) and just meeting friends especially from my homeland. Postie (Reject's self appointed leader even provided a picnic of chicken sandwiches, cheese scones, crisps, chocolate bars and drinks which we had outside the venue literally sitting on the dock of the bay).

We left the show about 1530hrs and nearly on the motorway when Ray got a text message saying he had won a raffle prize from the Hougoumont people, so pretending to be Ray I rang back and asked what he had won (2 signed prints and 3 musketballs from the field of Waterloo), so back we go and collect the prize (Ray gave me one of the musket balls under protest) and startes the journey home again. Good Day out.

On a footnote I went to the Bring and Buy stand to collect the vikings I had put on sale that morning (they still hadn't been sold at 1430hrs when I checked) and was asked was I picking up, I said I was and he surprised me by coming back with some money a few minutes later, first time time I have left Salute with money that wasn't shrapnel. Result!

Pictures are the usual quality and vagueness and better will be found elsewhere today but they're personal to me and my lurking disability.

The end of the queue plus us four.

The Reject's, Postie, Surjit and Ray from  http://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/

The crowds press forward, the end is in sight.

The Bring and Buy, constant traffic all day and well run by the Salute boys.

Paul from Sho3box http://sho3box.wordpress.com/ good man, good blog and fellow zombie lover and Irishman.

Big game, big scale.

3 poor tigers.

Akula's Battlefield 2011.

The man himself Akula running his Battlefield 2011 game in aid of Combat Stress, more information here on his blog http://akulasblog.blogspot.com/ 

Stunning figure for several reasons but the main one being the paintjob.

Fellow blogger Pulp Citizen http://pulp-citizen.blogspot.com/ explaining the mechanics of the game he was hosting.

Battles in Miniature game Miniature Militia, actually on an oval playing board which I failed to get in the picture.

Paul from Battles in Miniature http://battlesinminiature.blogspot.com/

Only took this picture after we came back for the second time, obligatory Star Wars picture.

Angry Movie Lurker Review 34: London Boulevard (3 STARS?)

.....good day at Salute yesterday, I was bloody knackered but mostly from listening to Ray moan about his feet and back, will put some photos and bullshit up tommorow, hope the rest of your weekend is good.

"London Boulevard" is the story of a man newly released from prison who falls in love with a reclusive young movie star and finds himself in a duel with a vicious gangster.

This movie has not had great reviews and I wasn't hopeful but there's a good cast and apart from the ones stated on the poster, you get David Thewlis, Ben Chaplin, Anna Friel, Eddie Marsan etc......The action is very good when it comes, the performances are very good from most (Ray Winstone is good as always, I like Farrell anyway, Anna Friel plays his loony sister very well, Keira just plays what she is in real life).

The main story is that Farrell is just out of prison (for a violence related crime) and his mate (Chaplin, playing a very good scumbag) wants his help with a bit of debt collecting and this brings him into the world of psycho crime boss Winstone (excellently demented performance) and they try to blackmail Farrell into getting back into crime but Farrell has landed a gig protecting/looking after Knightley (lot of baggage and emotional angst and required love story) with the aid of her hanger on Thewlis (brilliant performance), there are little side stories about his sister (irritating character), a homeless man, a bent copper but a decision he doesn't follow through comes back to haunt him.

This is a grim movie with very little to be taken out of it and would have just got 3 STARS for it's entertainment value until the bleeding director turns the ending of the movie into his version of Layer Cake and should have just called the movie Layer Cake 2, really, really fucking annoyed me and I sat at the end going you bloody twat (maybe he never saw the movie but someone on the set must have). If you want a word of warning and decide to watch this movie and up until a couple of minutes from the end it was worth watching, stop watching at the end from when the a gun is dismantled and the pieces put in a drawer, if not you may be annoyed or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

As per usual the rating guide is at the end of the blog page.  

28mm Painted Wargames Foundry Viking Cavalry and Infantry.

Going through my figure boxes at the weekend and came across my vikings from Wargames Foundry which I painted several years ago and have decided to take a few pictures before I sell them to fund an expedition to Salute 2011 in April, it's the largest show I go to and where I pick up figures and supplies for the rest of the year (not that I don't buy a few trifles online throughout the year either) but this now unused collection plus some overtime and a painting commision will hopefully fund this years expedition.

Some pictures of the cavalry and some infantry, took pictures of all 102 figures in groups over the weekend and have a terrible group shot aswell.