Back From Partizan (be warned - lots and lots of pics)

Well, what a great day I've had - it truly made up for the early Sunday start to catch the train to Newark. I had to wait a while for a cab to turn up in the taxi rank and there were two guys in the queue ahead of me. When they told the cabbie they wanted to go to the showground I quickly asked if they were going to Partizan and they were, so we shared the cab. They were Queenslanders on a European trip and had decided to take in Partizan while they were over here. So, to Dave and Shaun - if you read this, I do hope you enjoyed the show.

Not having been to the previous venue, I can't comment on that, but the new venue is possibly the best I've been to for a show. It was roomy, and the lighting was perfect for taking pics - lots of natural light through the windows and skylight panels and the artificial lights seemed to be daylight balanced. That meant no fiddling about with the camera to try to get the light balance (and ending up with a lot of blurry pics). Just point and click.

At 1pm we had the inaugural Northern meetup of bloggers which was quite well attended. There were a few other bloggers at the show, but they weren't able to get away from their games.

So, some meetup pics to kick things off:

DaveD taking a pic of me taking a pic of ....

Left to right in pic below: Curt, Loki (hiding at the back), Sidney Roundwood, Gareth(?), Ian, Tom(?), me (kneeling), DaveD, Craig Cartmell, Gary Amos, (forgot your name - how embarassing; kneeling), Martin C, Pete (Panzerkaput)

Thanks to Lady Sarah for taking the pic with my camera!)

Other bloggers who were at the show who didn't make it into these pics: Simon Miller, Henry Hyde, Roy Williamson(?), Graham (Cran Tara), Mike Whitaker, RedTroop...I'm sure there were some others. I know I kept getting stopped for a chat by people who read or follow my blog.


After arriving I decided to get pics of all the games before doing any shopping. OK, so I did do some shopping in between taking pics, but not a lot.

Aggro! (Ainsty Castings):

Saga (Gripping Beast):

The Chicago Way (Great Escape Games):

Leicester Phat Cats?

Kings of War (Mantic Games):

Blitzkrieg Miniatures:

?

?

Wargames Developments:

Grantham Strategy Club?:

The Men Who Would Be King (Peterborough Wargames Club):

Raft Racing (KB Club?):

Chariot Racing (KB Club?):

Wings of Glory (Wings of Glory Aerodrome):

Sails of Glory (Wings of Glory Aerodrome):

COGS/GCN:

Minions Racing (RAF Wargames Association):

?

7TV (Crooked Dice):

?

The Bunker:

Nottingham Wargames Club:

?

Frostgrave (North Star):

?

?

This game really stood out - what an inspired idea!:

That's right - clothes pegs!

Battle of the Somme (Kallistra):

WSS (Grimsby Wargames Club):

Napoleonic Anglo-Dutch Wars Naval (Grimsby Wargames Club):

Taken a bit later on

2nd St Albans (Like a Stonewall Games):

ACW (Bramley Barns Wargames Club):

Perry Miniatures:

Battle of Cisercium(?) using "To The Strongest" (Simon Miller):

I promised not to let on that this was actually a fantasy battle...

Caliver Books:

AWI game (Steve Jones):

Underground in a Maginot Line fort at Fort Vaux, Verdun (James Morris/Lenton Gamer):

VBCW (Very British Civil Forum - Panzerkaput et al):

Sharpe Practice 2 (??):

Panzerfauste:

?

League of Gentlemen Alchemists?

It's the little details that give games terrain the extra "je ne sais quoi"

French Indo-China (Westbury Wargames):

Graham Cummings/Crann Tara Miniatures:

Mansfield Wargames Club:

Sharp Practice (Lincoln Miniature Warfare Society):

Once the bloggers meetup was over, another round of the games and the traders was in order. I then joined Curt, Lady Sarah, Sidney Roundwood and DaveD in repairing for an amiable Sunday afternoon meal at the Prince Rupert in Newark. We shared starts of breaded whitebait and baked Camembert (that's two separate starters!), followed by the Rupert Bar Board (pork pie, Lincolnshire pork sausages, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and warm bread with onion gravy, mustard and pickles). Excellent food and more than excellent company. I took this pic as we left the pub:

They then dropped me off at the station to catch my train. The next train, the 17.18 from Edinburgh was delayed and would actually arrive after the 17.45 train from Leeds. I caught the latter and got home a bit before 8pm, promptly taking pics of my loot:

More markers and a second deck for "The Chicago Way"

Painting supplies

MDF bases

Blue Moon 15mm SYW Russians

The show freebie figure

A box full of bubblewrap?

No! It was my "tribute" figure from Curt for helping with the Challenge! *big grin*

Of course Curt got my Curtgeld figure along with a pack of Copplestone Beat Cops I'd picked up for him at Salute and another present - he is now the proud owner of the "Oblitterator".


As I said at the start, a thoroughly enjoyable day out.