Salute 2016 Writeup

Saturday was the annual Salute convention at the Edexcel in London. To my shame, despite living so close this was actually my first one! So armed with a budget (which was quickly broken) I got up far too early on a Saturday morning and made my way to London town.

Good start, I'm in the right place!

Queue was long but moved swiftly (unlike comic-con which takes aaaages)

And then we were in! Instantly greeted by a hall full of hobby enthusiasts.

Hawk Wargames had this awesome large sized spaceship on their stand!

Along with cabinets of beautifully painted miniatures (a common theme at the show!)

The upcoming Halo: Ground Command game from Spartan Games

Mierce Miniatures stand was constantly packed!

They had a demo board set up for people to try the game

Element Games are one of my favourite web retailers and they had a well stocked stand and a host of helpful staff on hand.

This fantastic Warhammer 30k display was put on by the South London Warlords (hosts of the convention)

This one was an unfamiliar product to me. Freebooter's Fate, a skirmish level fantastic pirate setting. Had a lovely chat with the guys on the stand and admired the miniatures which had some very characterful sculpts (the goblins in particular giving me serious Rackham vibes) I couldn't resist picking a few up! 

They also had this wonderful demo table set up.

Salute is also host to the more historical side of the hobby, it doesn't particularly interest me but the standard of the tables set up was incredible!

 Wayland had the biggest stand at the event, practically the size of a small supermarket. Sadly they didn't have a single paint available when I asked and that is pretty much my experience with Wayland :P

I took a look at the miniatures entered for the painting competitions and took a few photos, Rackham Orcs!

 This was the mini I entered, my Nurse from Thirdman Games. Sadly didn't place but the standard was fantastic!

Back to the games, some more impressive exhibition boards

This one even had a working volcano with dry ice and other lighting effects!

With the theme of this year's Salute being Steampunk, what could be more perfect than a visit to the Infamy stand?

  They had this wonderful demo board on show

JoeK Minis had a small stand selling their Odyssey miniatures (and info on their currently running kickstarter)

KR Multicase had this eyecatching display set up right by the entrance.

Painting superstar Angel Giraldez was there as part of the Harder & Steenbeck stand. He did several demos throughout the day. I was lucky enough to get this picture because every time I went near his stand after this it looked like the shot below

Fortunately I'm tall as every time Angel did a demo the crowd was 4 or 5 thick trying to catch a glimpse of the man at work!

 Another amazing military board

This was the biggest board on display, hard to take it all in!

An Infinity demo game

Forge World had a busy stand at the event

 Figone had a stand selling his and other miniatures (as well as displaying painted pieces) I had a great chat with Jérémie Bonamant Teboul about the upcoming Volume 2 of his Figopedia series (as well as a little whisper about Volume3!)

 Hasslefree's stand was always crammed with people. I would have liked to have a browse but I hate being crowded!

 Studio Mcvey had a stand selling off limited Resin versions of the miniatures they've done for CMON's The Others board game. I broke my budget severely here!

 The Purgatory stand showed off WIP's of some of their upcoming releases.

 There wasn't a lot of cosplay but this space marine obviously stood out!

There was a playable demo of the upcoming game based on the Eisenhorn series. Personally the demo looked....bad to me. A shame as I love the books and have long thought a game could be great.

 More amazing boards!

Guild Ball had a very busy stand, lots of demo stations set up that seemed constantly busy.

They also had demos of their upcoming kickstarter for the Dark Souls board game (launches this evening at 8pm/9pm) 

I had a go of the demo and it captures the spirit of the video game really well. Has some really interesting mechanics and I'm tempted to get it!

 Eavier Metal (one of the leading facebopok groups for miniature painting) Ran a speed painting competition sponsored by Kromlech and Army Painter. The challenge was 25 mins to paint an ork.  The competition was entertaining to spectate (sadly I didn't get a chance to compete as I came by late and wanted to go see the painting competition prize giving after!)

The table with the prize winners on display, some awe inspiring pieces. I didn't take many photos because better ones will follow from the Salute team. Edit: And here they are! dropbox link

 As the event started to wind down I wandered around again and found things I hadn't noticed, lik this amazing demo game inspired by the Mad Max Fury Road truck chase.

Incredible craftmanship on show

In conclusion I had a great day, met some people that I've been chatting with online for a few years but not met face to face. Got to pick the brains of some people that have inspired me for years like Mike Mcvey and Jérémie Bonamant Teboul. I'll definitely be back next year and I'd like to take part in a few more of the exhibition games!

I'll probably do a second article tomorrow/next week doing unboxings of the stuff I bought as well as the freebie event miniature.