Sunday 5 February 2017

Vapnartak 2017 Loot and current WiP

Hi folks,

I'm horribly aware that I've not had much new to post recently - having now missed two of my submission deadlines for the AHPC. This has been down to having to prep stuff and then working my way through batches of infantry.  Thankfully, only one more coat of varnish and then these guys are done!


I've started some of the vehicles for this batch:


These just need a tidy up before the wash goes on...

Anyway, that proves that I've not been idle - just slow. I really forgot how slow infantry models are to paint - especially ones I'm not familiar with. Technically, I've made good time with them, as it normally takes me about 2 weeks to complete a platoon/unit. I've had less time than that on these guys and only have the basing to do - something that for a lot of them will require the vehicles to be finished.

Back to the other event then. Today I went over to York (about an hours drive) where I met up with some of the club guys and did a few laps around the Vapnartak show. It was, initially, pretty busy. It calmed down as the day went on, but the first hour was a blur of being barged into, waiting in queues to squeeze between tiny gaps left between stalls and cursing people with massive backpacks, poor personal hygiene and partners/kids (who were not buying anything themselves but choosing the worst places to stand and look bored).

When some of us eventually met up, we moved out of the way to stop and chat - but I'm pretty sure that's the wrong thing to do. We should have followed everyone else's lead - finding the narrowest space between two stalls and stopping to have a leisurely chat....

Shows are not a part of the hobby that are good for my blood pressure.

Enough ranting! Onto the loot.

At the bring and buy stalls (the space and crowd in this area would be a rant on it's own) I managed to come across a good deal on all of this lot (apart from the magnetic sheeting, bought at a stand):


Retail price for all of this would be £115.50 - I paid £50. This brings the total number of these buildings I own to something like 20. At some point, I'm going to have to spent a lot of time assembling and customising them! I still need a church and outbuildings, but should have a decent sized village now.

Flushed with success from this find, I also picked up something I really don't need. A boxed Flames of War British Rifle company... This is the older metal version and seems to have all the models. I paid £15 for this, as it seemed like a good price. I'm now well on the way to having a full Battalion worth of British infantry. It does make the decision on which colour to paint the Canadians a bit easier!

Flames of War wise, Steve provided me with a box of spare mid war German SS figures he had. Not sure I will be able to use them all, but a good portion of them will come in useful (I'm now in my 3rd month of waiting on the SS Company boxed set from Wayland).

Model wise, my 6mm and 3mm collections got a boost due to Magister Militum and Tumbling Dice being in attendance. My small GHQ Cold War Brit army received re-enforcements in the form of some FV-438 Swingfires and FV-432 81mm Mortars. Looking at my force tonight, with reference to the army book, I need more of the APC FV432's before I can use the Mortars. I've Tracked Rapier and Abbots coming from Heroics and Ros at some point, which are units GHQ has no models for.

My 3mm purchasing should provide enough for a strong starting 3mm British army:

2 x Chieftain Mk 11 packs
1 x Tracked Rapier pack
1 x Milan pack
1 x FV432 pack
1 x Abbot pack - interestingly this pack has 2 OP vehicles and some spotters - something the US and Russian packs were supposed to have but were missing.
1 x FV432 Mortar pack
1 x FV438 Swingfire pack
1 x Spartan MCT pack
1 x Scorpion pack
4 x Lynx AH. 1's from Tumbling Dice
6 x Harrier Gr3's (also from Tumbling dice).

Each of the vehicle packs has 15 vehicles each (other than the Abbots) so I've enough for two tank squadrons and a mech inf company. I'll still need some bits to fill out the recce options, but this should give the basis for a solid force. It's a bit weird doing the same game in two scales, but honestly they are totally different in scope when played.

Other purchases were some tiny dice (for Team Yankee 3mm) and a paint pot holder from Warbases:


Games wise, I saw no 15mm WW2 being played at all. A lot of 28mm action and there seemed to be a lot of WW1 stuff going on (WW1 in the desert no less). I only took a couple of pictures (left my phone in the car until I went and got it after the first couple of laps) and there were some cracking games on display. But a lack of Sci-fi or smaller scale stuff.





So a good show, with some good buys. I just need to gulp down some Prozac before risking crowds!

13 comments:

  1. missed you today, nice haul though

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  2. Nice report and that is some great loot that you picked up!

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  3. The B&B at York is terrible. The only one I've experienced that was worse was the old Partizan shows. I just bypassed it. But you're now the second blogger that I've read about managing to get a steal from it. Serves me right!

    If I'm remembering correctly, that first game photo you've shown is the 'Brompton Bankers' from Northallerton.

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  4. Great pics, and a very impressive project. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. The Table top sale is a victim of its own success. In what way is it terrible ? if it's down to numbers we will be looking at a different buyer wiring mechanism. If it's down to other things what do our paying visitors VB want to see. We have limited manpower to do all the jobs in running the biggest show in the North and the table top sale takes less personell than a bring and buy. YWGS welcomes any idea to improve it. We provide the sale as a service to gamers.

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    1. Personally I think the tabletop sale is a great thing, and I've got good deals there both this year and last. But the layout and space, for the popularity, just doesn't fit. Have you considered running it along the walls/windows of one of the upper levels? Having all the stalls on one side rather than both sides and a little more lateral space between stalls would help with the crowding (although there will still be some at the stalls, thats inevitible. I can only compare it to Falkirk, where they have probably the same number (ish?) of tables but spread round the outside of a hall. It's still very busy, but at least your not pushed along with the traffic and can move to where it's quieter till things calm down. Not an easy thing to sort, and the show itself was great. My main issues were in some of the traders stands, where they had created a bottleneck themselves, or trader stands on the side levels where they seemed to be only a meter apart.

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    2. @ArmouredHunterMaster: Hello, thank you for the explanation. I don't want to hijack James' blog, so I'll try and keep my reply short and explain my issue.

      The issue I have with the table top / bring and buy at Vapnartak is the cramped nature of the location and the ensuing traffic jam of crowds this creates - effecting both the tasks of being able to view and buy from the table top / bring and buy, and the trader's stall (I believe it was Midlam Miniatures) which I wasn't able to properly purchase from at one point due to the long line of people trying to access the bring and buy.
      I can't comment on any issues you mention concerning payment, as I didn't visit the bring and buy.
      My calling it "terrible" is purely aimed at the issue noted above, as I can't comment further on it as I didn't use it.

      If you would like further feedback from myself, or other paying visitors, then I would suggest the YWGS provide a customer feedback system on either a blog (open to all comments), or the club's Facebook page or the Vapnartak show Facebook page.

      Thank you.
      Roy

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    3. Personally I wasn't able to buy anything (or see much) in the bring and buy. I entered it, got caught in the scrum and was pretty much pushed along between 2 lines of tables then spat out the other side! Its a great idea, but the lack of space is a problem.

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  6. Very nice haul Jamie! Wish I could find a deal like that to add to my own 15mm building collection. (Yes, I'm envious of you)

    Nice to see you've been working on stuff though - I know too well how long it takes to paint up a platoon of infantry and am cringing for you, that's a lot of work.

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  7. Excellent bargain on the 4Ground buildings James, I have several of those bought via eBay and they really are great models, the colouring saves so much time. Know what you mean re crowds, that's why I stopped attending shows a few years ago.

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  8. Some nice looking troops, and some decent looking games too.

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  9. It was a grand day out overall... it must have busy to not actually bump into you !

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  10. Good deal on the buildings James, a great day out overall.

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