Lead Belt Fest!

I’ve been away for a couple of days in the East Midlands area between Nottingham and Newark mainly, the Lead Belt as wargamers have dubbed it, but also visiting the Derby Worlds Wargames Show, now confusingly in Leicestershire! I had a really good time I have to say and enjoyed both my visit to the show and my expedition to some of the Lead Belt’s major players. I met and chatted with several good chums, saw some half decent games and browsed the aisles of the show taking in much wargaming goodness. I also took the opportunity to move the Lead Lump up to Lead Swelling status. Before I give any comment on the show though I’ll show you what I bought ~

Mostly Trent Miniatures as you can see for my Wars of the French Revolution project: French Dragoon’s; French Hussar Command; British Light Dragoons; British Royal Artillery and Military Artificers. From Dave Thomas I bought some extra Perry Miniatures British Light Dragoons in Tarleton helmets and some American Militia in firing line and casualty poses, for my AWI expansion next year. From Coritani some new brushes; MDF bases from Warbases and Grass Tufts from Great Escape Games; from Redoubt a Mounted ACW Union General with an enormous beard!A decent haul I thought!
Turning to the show itself now, the first thing you’ll notice I hope is that I took no pictures of any of the games. Were they poor you might ask? Well, no; in fact there were some first class games on show and all being vigorously played! There simply just wasn’t the space around them for players let alone geriatric photographers!!!  Move over to the Traders’ area, and let’s face it that’s the main reason many folk attend these events, that again seemed very cramped between stands. I found it difficult to browse without being knocked and almost impossible to stand or sit and chat to folk I know. I didn’t venture into the Competition area as it holds no interest for me at all. But, I do wonder why this two day event survives as it seems to me Traders are being charged to subsidise folk who want to play in a competition. I’m sure Traders and the punters would happily see a better one day event with more space for both Traders and gamers! Just my two penneth as a former organiser of WMMS you understand, nothing more.
Despite my feeling about the cramped space I enjoyed my visit, but I did leave earlier than I planned as I was uncomfortable with the crowded aisles. I drove up to Nottingham and booked into my hotel for the night, The Village if you’re interested, right next door to WI HQ! After a satisfactory dinner and decent night I set off on the Lead Belt part of my tour, starting with a visit to Dan at WI HQ to discuss what I might contribute next year amongst other topics. Then, off to meet Duncan at Arcane to thank him for the Trent figures and to buy some Footsore VBCW figures from Steve: the new City Types and Gardeners and some more Militia Standard Bearers, as Pete Barfield is even as I type finishing his latest flag creations for my VBCW in Wolverhampton & S Staffs project!
From there it was a short drive out to East Stoke and Wargames Foundry. I always enjoy going there, even if I don’t buy much. I just marvel at all the figures they’ve bought to us down the years and the great skill of the myriad folk who’ve painted the display figures you see in the glass cases, those you see on their web pages of course. The welcome I find is always warm and genuine, encouraging the wallet open with little pain! I’d budgeted for a decent spend, mainly on AWI figures which I intend to work on next year (DV) to expand my AWI game’s size. You can see what I bought in the picture below. The odd piece is a 6lb Artillery piece for my RHA as they’d had none when I was there in the summer ~

Figure acquisition wise that’s probably my lot for 2017. The Lead Swelling has expanded to five Really Useful Boxes. I may go to Warfare in November with Phil, but doubt i’ll buy more lead, and Wargamer in December to see chums before the winter hiatus that breaks at WMMS. I think I shall need those new brushes I bought! But for today, that’s it, I’m off to bed. Night!