Salute 2016

"No Infinity this week" I hear you say. Well yes that's true but I have one arguably better, A big ol' trip to Salute. For those of you who don't know its the big gaming event held every year in London at the ExCel centre. This event is probably my most looked forward to event going, even more so than Christmas! Basically a massive hall with many many traders and demo games running all sorts of games. Space battle games, skirmish games, mass army games, few role play games, sci-fi games, fantasy games and so on. I was good this year (really good) and only spent about £70). I managed to find a shop that was giving away the cheapest Infinity product for free when you bought 4 things. They also had a bunch of the 10th anniversary Achilles. I went halves with someone and they got the rule book and Janissary box and I got the Morat sectorial and Achilles box all for £100. The only other things I bought were a few bits of scatter terrain for less than a tenner. So in comparison to other years I was a very very good boy! Not much else to ramble on about, fun was had by all and I am already waiting for next year.

This scenery was part of a big table that went with the past two photos. It had a dungeon under a big snowy mountain.

This was a large Mad Max participation game that was running all day. Little bigger scale than normal but a lot of work went into each vehicle. They were all hand made form different kits.

When we came back a few hours later it was all kicking off!

This looks like my gaming table at home . . . sort of.

Now here is a man who loves his job.

Not my thing anymore but still have love for Games Workshop models. Wouldn't be the same with out any.

No idea what this is but it look cool. Like so many things on the day.

I wonder what awesome game this is from?

This was just a huge display board full of Vietnam stuff.

This guy is here every year marauding around like he owns the place. What a champion.

From what I could tell this game only needed a hand full of models on each side. When I first started war gaming I was keen on the big armies clashing with each other. But now I am preferring having only a few models each side and having to think about each action and movement.

 

Having played Halo many times I had no idea of the scale between some of the ships. Better play them all again I guess now I understand.

Just popping down the pound shop before I fend of the Nazis.

Someone had made a Minions game to keep the younglings entertained. 

That's some Oldhammer style painting right there. 

That Centaur looks like he is in serious distress

Randy Marsh Cosplay

Went to Comic Con 2015 in London to rock out my first attempt at cosplay and had an awesome day, met loads of great like minded people, took lots of photos and generally had an awesome time. The costume did not really take that long to make and went down a treat, my favorite pic of the day is either me with the two officers or the one giving the Halo spartan a good old fashioned tea bagging whilst brandishing an energy sword FIRST BLOOD! Anyway here is a quick how to and some of my favorite pics from the day out.

 1. Get the supplies you need, another hobby craft spesh. all the card only came to about £13 so really nothing that will break the bank. I made sure I got card that had colour going all the way through it so there was not white lines showing up on the side of the mask.

 2. To make the best circle I could I fashioned a scalpel to a bit of string and used it as a make shift campus type tool.

 3. I cant exactly show how it works as I don't have another arm but I firmly put my thumb in the middle of the face I was going to cut then pulled the string tight. Then gently scored the card in a circular shape. I didn't cut to deep as this was just a guide line for cutting out after.

 4. This was probably the longest part of the entire project, I had to sit down and cut out the entire shape with a tiny scalpel as scissors we to cumbersome and started to bend the main face shape up. When this was done I did the same over the black card but a slightly larger circle for the hair to be layered over the top.

 5. When I had the basic hair shape I cut it into a slightly less geometric shape to look like Randy Marsh

 6. Using random heavy stuff I used PVA glue and let it dry for a few hours. It need to be kept flat as PVA can sometimes make stuff bend and once that happens there is no going back.

 7. Starting to take shape now.

 8. Next I cut out each piece of the face by itself, this did not take very long at all. I thought I was going to have issues getting the eyes to look the same but it turned out alright first try.

 9. Next I got them glued together ready to be stuck to the head.

10. Last step for the face was sticking the eyes, mouth and eyebrows on. Then with a Sharpie draw on the pupils, chin and nose. I gave him red eye as well with a red Biro.

11. on the back I simply stuck down a couple of strips of card with some elastic reel tied in a knot. I tied it to tight at first and it made the mask bend so it was quite loose on the day and flopped around a but but that's better than destroying the costume.

12. The balls were made form a bean bag that was stitched down the middle to separate each nut.  I originally had this filled with bean bag beans but they did not fill out the sac enough and dragged on the ground to much and I did not want to get it dirty or break apart so I used two giant beach balls cheaply bought from Amazon.

13. When the beach balls were inflated the took the shape of the sack. You cant see it in any pictures but I had to line the inside of the balls with sheets of A4 paper as the beach balls were brightly coloured and you could see the stripes through them.

 

14. There was some chord around the top that I tied into a loop, to wear the sack I put this through the zip in my trousers and looped it around my neck under my shirt.