David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Thursday 10 January 2019

“I likes a bargain, I does!”

On the ‘first Sunday after soap and backa’ issue I found myself in the company of Phil and Jon at the biannual Penkridge Table Top Sale. Penkridge, a village in South Staffordshire, is about 8 miles north of Wolverhampton where I live so it’s a very short journey up the A449 to the venue in the Peace Memorial Hall. Admission is free and there’s usually ample parking on a Sunday, except around the immediate area. It’s a real scrum inside and superficially looks full of Games Workshop plastic tatt, but saying that I’ve never failed to get a bargain or three. Mind you, you have to be prepared to hunt around a bit! Past scores have included Redoubt F&IW painted figures at metal prices, obscure early Napoleonic medical figures, the GW Historical Waterloo and most recently four Ian Weekly Battleground hard foam Medieval/Renaissance tents and marquees for £10. I’ve already repainted two and glued them to a Warbases Terrain base I had left over ~

I need to assemble suitable detritus and figures next, a b*gger of a task since Irregular no longer do shows and their website is Steam Powered! I shall gird up my loins and manfully struggle through to get the bits and pieces I want for the task, though it may take a while...

The two remaining tents I’ve put on individual MDF bases, which size I had already in stock, so that the whole becomes more versatile on the tabletop. I need to process this in the next few weeks as Dan is coming over next month to take photos to accompany a piece I’m working on about our Italian Wars project, which may appear sometime in the late Spring I’d guess given lead in times at Wargames Illustrated ~

For those interested, the next Table Top Sale is usually in June, just before Barrage in Stafford last year for example. In truth, would I travel any distance to it? Well, no if I’m honest with you. But at a few miles up the road it’s doable in a couple of hours on a Sunday morning. If you are one of the saddos though who does fantasy games and likes GW plastic tatt it’s probably an excellent event.


20 comments:

  1. Nicely refurbished for tenting tonight.

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  2. Nice find. But this is an inclusive hobby and a lot of these GW "saddos" gravitate to historical gaming.

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    1. Inclusive? Are you a liberal John? I really doubt GW players covert to historical gamers. They might play Bolt Action running Naps as Orcs or play one of these pointless clone mini games...😉

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  3. Bolt Action was written by Alessio Cavatore, he used to work at GW and wrote their Lord of the Rings rules. Warlord is full of ex-GW employees and the Perry Twins were employed by them for ages. Liberal? No, just a muse.

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    1. Well, amusing perhaps, I'll give you that. 😉

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  4. Nice tents, great result,I have to say that I started out with elves and dwarves (pre GW) and my nephews started purely on GW games and we are all pretty much exclusively historical gamers now so we're living proof it can happen!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. Perhaps you are the exception which proves the rule?

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  5. Lovely, lovely tents I could do with a couple of these😀

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    1. Thanks Matt! There were more tents than the four I bought, perhaps he will have them in June?

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  6. Like you I do not believe the historical hobby gains many converts from the fantasy. I have tried and failed all my wargaming life to introduce the hobby. Mind you maybe I am just crap at it.

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    1. I seriously doubt that it is you. If you had seen those at the TT Sale on Sunday you would have had no doubt that they were beyond redemption.

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  7. Great find and it looks good David!

    Christopher

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    1. Always got a bargain there, twice a year too!

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  8. Mr.B. I don't know how to tell you this but I got into this wargaming malarkey via: making scale models; first meeting Peter Gilder with my late father when I was 8: Playing D&D with my mates ..fantasy stuff … I know!

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    1. You are cast into outer darkness, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the Red Dice of Doom await you...😉

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  9. I do recall you painting some of Matthew’s GW figures in the distant past. That means some purgatory at least!

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  10. That is not a mitigating circumstance!

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