Shildon 2016

Bren-gun Carrier on a railway flat-bed.

Well, I did make it to "Stand To", the show at Shildon Railway Museum, following yet another magical mystery tour (thanks for nothing Sat Nav) through the wild lands of County Durham.
A quick look around the games, traders and museum quickly followed, just to get my bearings of what was going on and where was followed by a more determined wander to decide where to spend my limited funds.
I was with four others (friend, #Son, + grandchild, the Son-in-law and our mutual southern friend-recently moved North).

The hall on our arrival

The place was never going to be full of visitors (despite there be NO entry fee!) but we'd arrived early and there was a steady stream of visitors throughout our time there.

The one-man-show that is Andrew Wiley, (who seems now to be a fixture at most NE shows) was there with his excellent Wild West game (Fittingly using Dead Mans Hand rules iirc) ; the town is almost 100% made from card using "Finger and Toe" models.
I quickly came away form the table having witnessed the poor sole in the centre of the table taking his first shot and scoring a '1' on a d20 - jamming his gun!

Early doors at Dave Docherty's Sudan game

I met up briefly with fellow blogger Roy Williamson, ( of the blog Never mind thejankers) and would chat with him  later too.
Dave Docherty (top bloke), of the blog One man and his Brushes put on the Sudan game (better piccies and write-up on Roy's blog btw). The game looked great and was very much to my taste; I would say "Old School" but that term seems to mean different things to different folks these days.
The game followed a fairly well-worn path of a desert column moving across the table to relieve a beleaguered garrison at the other end.
I did love everything about this game , a period that I have quite a large collection of figures for (though not a single one painted!)

Some time later the column has moved up the table

Looking back at the game later on, the desert column had moved some way up the (very large) table, but were still well short of their objective.
Alas I didn't stay around until the end, but there were people around the table all day long, rolling dice to fight off the various Ansar attacks.

A second desert game was put on by Redcar Iron Beards (iirc) using 15mm figures (as far as I could tell), once more with great looking figures.

Superb brushwork

For the fantasy fans, two very enthusiastic chaps from Catterick Gamers put on a fantasy display using Warhammer 40k figures (I think).
The enthusiasm of these guys for their game was unbounded as was their painting - both figures and scenery. Though not my cup of tea, it was difficult not to be drawn in by their love of what they do.
Their table, though busy with figures was not overly so, a feature I've noticed (and disliked) in a lot of this type of fantasy game.

Super looking terrain.

 Their great detailed terrain matched well with their figures etc. and had obviously had some TLC when built.

More of their great terrain

And yet more.

t was a bit disappointing to only have four games on show, just another tow or so would have made a big difference imo.
I was surprised not to see more of a showing from some of the local groups, Redcar and Catterick or hardly local!
The traders were, as always, very welcoming and I could easily have spent well over my limited budget.
I chatted with most of the traders as they weren't exactly inundated with punters, bu did have a steady trickle .


In conclusion, I did thoroughly enjoy the show (getting out is always a boon), it was easy going, the people in attendance were welcoming and the company I was with were good crack.

Whilst there are a lot of shows within an hour or so of where I live I do hope this one continues and garners support in the coming years.