Colours 2018

So, last Saturday morning, up bright and early, fried egg sandwich and coffee for breakfast and then off up the M4 to Newbury for Colours.

The journey was uneventful and I got to the carpark with about 20 minutes to spare before the doors opened. Once inside, I made a beeline for the Bad Squiddo stand where I had a nice chat with Annie and Bruce, before picking up my pre-ordered Pulp Explorers and also some additions for my Swordmaidens.

After that, the world was my mollusc, but I knew that I needed to visit the Warlord stand early to buy stuff for a Sharp Practice FIW project I need to get finished before next January.

These will give me enough figures for three groups of skirmishers and at least three groups of line infantry, plus leaders, a musician (drummer) and a colour party. Any left over figures might end up as vignettes to be used as deployment points.

I also visited the Crooked Dice stand for some extra figures for two of my 7TV casts. Actually, I currently only have two casts, but I am planning a couple more, not sure what they will be yet, though.

I spent a lot of time wandering around, looking at the various stands and seeing what was available. Unfortunately, Wargames Foundry weren't at the show, so that meant I wasn't able to pick up any figures for a project I've had in my mind for ages now, so I won't go into that yet.

I did look at the range of 15mm figures and chat to a helpful chap on the Essex stand, which helped me to firm up ideas for an extra force for my 15mm Sharp Practice 18th century Syldavia and Borduria imagi-nations project. That is now looking like a distinct starter for 2019. I also had a helpful chat with a nice man on the Warbases stand about custom bases for my Sword and Spear 28mm Late Roman army, allowing me to reuse my Saga Romans on movement trays. While I was there, I also bought two carts and draft horses which will be useful for my 28mm Peninsular War Sharp Practice troops, together with some single and double dice frames and 7mm dice for shock recording (for both SP and CoC).

After that I visited the Coritani stand for more magnetic discs, some resin bits and textured paint. There is a nice 15mm gate and wall set, which will be useful for lots of things and a  couple of 28mm tree stumps which I think will make nice deployment point markers for Sharp Practice.

I bought two useful-looking MDF trays which fit inside Really Useful 4L boxes. I am hoping that these will make transporting my 15mm ACW and imaginations forces easier.

I couldn't go to Colours and not see Ground Zero Games. I've not really been doing a lot of 15mm Sci Fi stuff recently, but I've always like the Ixx figures, so I bought some, together with a few Darghaur. My plan here is another army for Alien Squad Leader, probably a Children Of The Gods one.

I am a big fan of the resin pieces made by The Square and these thatched buildings caught my eye. I can see them working for 15mm Sharp Practice, but also for CoC, especially Eastern Front. The oil drums piece is also going to be hugely useful for WW2 games.

Last, but most definitely not least, I bought this lovely collapsible dice tray from Saddle Goose Designs, which is run by Deborah, the wife of painting expert Matt Slade of Glenbrook Games.

It was nice to catch up with various people, Matt and Deborah, Jon Tuffley of GZG, Geoff of Ham and Jam, Annie and various others.

The club also had a presence at Colours, in the shape of Alex, Nick, Owen and Richard who were running a game of Alien Squad Leader, 100pts each of Human Cultists and Biker Gangs.