"Stand To" (Games and Trains)

Trains, with the venue in the background.

I attended yet another wargame show, "Stand To", setting a record for me of two in one year and three overall in about five year, prior to which wargaming had been placed on a back-burner for at least another five years.
I had convinced my ever-patient wife to drive myself, my son and grandson to the event and after an early Sunday morning start we arrived at the venue by a bit of a magical mystery route (I was "navigating") we eventually arrived.

View from near the efront of the building and  the cafe

The venue was the large "Locomotion" the National Railway Museum Shildon, a large 'shed' of a hall containing trains and games,
Strangely,  whilst the presence of the trains was obvious, the presence of any organisers wasn't!
That's not to say the event wasn't organised, there were very helpful people on car park duty  and as entrance was free, no one stopped you at the door. The organisers "Wear Valley Gamers" seemingly had little to do whilst the show was underway and most likely their work was mostly before the show opened to Joe-public and the clear-up afterwards. Whether due to a lack of manpower or whatever I did think that there should have been some form of display put on by WWG, even if it was just a static display.

Main Street Bonita (sp?)

There were three games present at the show, nearest the entrance was a western game put on by a sole chap from Consett (apologies for forgetting your name)
I'd seen this set-up at the Border Reiver show and was still impressed by it. A simple enough set up, but with lots of eye candy to gratify my card-terrain needs.
The buildings were mostly made from the models from "Finger and Toe" (I think there was at least one scratch-build) and I think the rules used were "Dead Man's Hand".

View of main street

Whilst the lighting in the hall was amongst the best I've encountered at a wargame show, I still had to 'photoshop' my photographs to lighten their dull appearance. It may have been just my lack of skill at photography that was at fault of course or that my auto-flash camera function wasn't playing nice, but I'd bet on the former.
The western genre of game  has always appealed to me from my early days with the original 3-step "Western gunfight rules" and I would have liked to taken part in this participation game, but with limited time and a two year old toddler in tow, it wasn't going to be.

Pleasing enough game.

The second game I headed towards was a game put on by Redcar Iron Beards War gaming club.
 It was some form of fantasy  game and whilst I don't wish to be disrespectful of the genre, this GW style fantasy gaming doesn't really appeal to me.
The people running the game were very friendly and chatty although I did tell them I felt let down that not one of them had a beard despite their club's name, which they took in good spirit (especially the lady)!

General view of the huge table

The third  and last game on my tour of the games on offer was a vast 28mm Renaissance  game put on by "The Independent Wargmames Group" who have been putting on games at shows from way back when. You can see Robbie's take on "Stand To" (and far better piccies of his figures) HERE

The Blurry Cavalry of one side...

Pleasing enough the game was being played throughout the time I was there with Robbie having little time to participate as he seemed to be constantly chatting to all and sundry who came to take a peek. 

...versus the Blurry cavalry of the other side.

My photographs do very little justice to quality of brush-work on the figures, (from a wide range of manufacturers), but this period has to be one of the most colourful  to wargame in and was a clash between the Venetians  and Turks in one of the Venetian colonies.



"Where's the loot?" I hear you ask. Well, despite free entry and the numerous traders (can recall at least a dozen or more), I left with no more than two packs of square MDF bases (for a print'n'play boardgame)  and a packet of four Collie dogs form the very friendly Colonel Bill's establishment of fine repute and I reckon you live without seeing more unpainted lead,

The trains were a nice diversion from the traders and games (my highlight being a restored "Wagon Lit s" second-class carriage of the Orient Express type).
The venue was great, the footfall from both wargamers and public was at best moderate and the show could do with a lot more of both. The traders were as ever very friendly, including those staffing the museum shop (with a very large range of train models, buildings accessories etc. and once more all could have probably done with a more punters spending cash.
Finally, the cafe was of typical museum expense and quality (probably a bit understaffed too).

"Where's the loot?" I hear you ask. Well, despite free entry and the numerous traders (can recall at least a dozen or more), I left with no more than two packs of square MDF bases (for a print'n'play boardgame)  and a packet of four Collie dogs form the very friendly Colonel Bill's establishment of fine repute and I reckon you live without seeing more unpainted lead,


It was a great day out and I chatted to many old friends, unfortunately though I didn't have the time to say cheerio, for after two hours  or so and my pocket money all spent, the wife and toddler were bored and I was informed we were departing  - something about slides and swings outside.
 I'm hoping that this small, friendly, show (now entering it's third year ?) does continue and grows in support next year.

That's it for this week, next week I'll be posting about my trial in tribulations of my new building project that started about  two and a half years ago!

Progress on my other project has been a bit quite of late but you can read what I've been up to HERE