Track and Ruin

This is a unique post about a show in being a non-photo special – namely because it wasn’t until I got to Dover I noticed I’d forgotten my camera.  Regardless of this slight error we pushed on to the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone for the On Track model show. Five quid entrance fee with children going free might seem a little steep but in the modellers world it’s bargain, and this is a solid reason why gamers should go to modelling shows. The main reason is to see just how well models can actually be made especially as the wargaming standard has rocketed over the years. However, as hinted at above, the incredibly high prices modellers suffer is a solid morale booster for the dedicated gamer; a half inch thick, five inch by five inch chunk of rubberised horsehair for a fiver, a tiny zip lock bag of dead leaf  litter for four, but the most terrifying was the square foot of haberdashers insulation ever so slightly treated to be used as grass for fifteen.

Not all the traders are so harshly priced and there’s tons of interesting bits and pieces for just about all scales, solid and much liked traders like Sgts Mess, Milicast, SHQ Miniatures and a great book dealer whose card I’ve lost. Also a couple of games tables, one of a forest edging onto a village with 88’s concealed within the trees and an eager British force approaching unawares, the other being the Crush the Kaiser lads.  The KtK folk are not only proper charmers, and producers of a cracking set of WW1 rules but they also put on a quite stunning table which really travels around. Not content with making us all envious of their trenches they’ve got a new table under way. Good to see them again.

The modelling competition was packed with great entrances and not as frantically packed as Euromilitaire making it a much more comfortable view for the visitor. A distinct lack of rucksacked camera-toting fools taking up all the room under the delusion of them being more important than any other visitor too. Small, perfectly formed and well worth a visit.

 

Tags: bash, crush the kaiser, Folkestone, Leas Cliff Hall, milicast, On track model show, scale modelling, sgts mess, shq miniatures