Claymore Rep.....

I used to be a member of South East Scotland Wargames Club for may a year until about three years ago when we moved back down to the North East of England (Not to be confused with the North East of Scotland- very important!) and as such I was a regular working at Claymore since it's days at Meadowbank until the first show at the newer venue of the Granton Campus of Edinburgh College.

It's been a few years since I last graced Claymore, largely down to a serious illness (now thankfully under control although only very recently- still have to rest up quite a bit). so, I'd been released from hospital for a week and part of my ongoing recovery is a mix of exercise and rest, mainly resting to tell you the truth (thankfully the Ashes series is in full swing!). So, it was a question of do I or don't I go to Claymore? Will it be too tiring?

By the title of this post it is obvious which choice I made.

It was really great to be back up in Edinburgh as I have a real fondness for the place as it was my home for nigh on a decade. Claymore especially which Scotlands premier show.

We aimed to get there for 10am but in fact only managed to make it by 12 noon, largely due to a tractor on the A1, the most lunatic of drivers one could ever encounter and the fact that I was feeling knackered out. It was fantastic to catch up with all the guys from SESWC and many others I got to know in the war games scene in Scotland who seemed very pleased to see me , the sentiment certainly mutual. In fact it took me three hours to leave the smaller hall and very little time to actually check out all the wares and look at all the games on display! I have to say that although I did miss many of the games it was worth the trip just to catch up with everyone and learn how folk were.

One of the few games that really caught my eye was Claymore Castings The Eagle game. The miniatures were painted up by David Imrie and Andrew. David had based the game on the film The Eagle, more about it on his blog, Saxon Dog.

Another game that caught my eye was Durham Wargames Group 28mm Star & Amazons: the French in Dahomey  Durham is the last club that I attended and has it's own premises. I'll be back guys, sooner than you may think!

Right next to the Durham Club game was this, I didn't have the time to enquire as to exactly what it was but I'm guessing by the figures that it may have been a VBCW game or some kind of WWI thing? Answers on a postcard please.

Sadly that was all the time i had to look around at the games as it was time to visit Dave Lancaster Books (of The Lance and Longbow Society fame and former editor of Hobilar the journal of said society. This years Claymore purchases were made predominately from Dave Thomas' famous (my wallet informs me that infamous is more correct!) stall barring a book about the British in the Sudan from Dave Lancaster as feature below:

Rather than listing them all I have decided to add pics:

Interesting books:

Medieval:

For the Battle of Bosworth demo game to be put on at Salute next year. I'm painting up both Richard III's army and that of Henry Tudor as it will nice to actually complete the armies for both sides and very much round of my Wars of the Roses collections.

Seduction!

After seeing the Perry Miniatures range for the Retreat from Moscow range I just had to buy them. The figures conjure up the atmosphere of the retreat like nothing I've ever seen in a range of miniatures. Add to that the usual Perry dynamism and these figures are going to be ideally suited to a skirmish game which will be demoed at a show near you in the not so distant future.

And that, as they say, was that.

Darrell.