WMMS 10th March 2013 Photo Show Report

Well WMMS is a firm favourite for me and my gaming friends from the club. Its not a massive show by some standards. But it is fairly big, it has a good range of traders, games and it has the bonus of being close (within an hour or so drive) and being in March. Our first proper show attendance of the year.

So, having had a less than fantastic couple of weeks leading up to the show with uncertainty at work and ill health, it was nice to have something of a day out to look forward too.

So in the snow at 8.50am I rocked up at Micks (and Nathan, the spawn) for the drive down, and was soon joined by Paul.. but err no Dave! Eventually with every one present we headed for the West Midlands Military Show (WMMS) and apart from a slight diversion, and the odd snow flurry, the drive was fairly straight forward.

Thank fully due to Nathan being with us, parking was not an issue, as we could legitimately deploy the Blue Badge. The one snag with WMMS is the parking. There is just not enough for when events are held at the venue and it means people parking on the grass. Not a problem in the main, but it can get interesting if people are not sencible with the parking.

Anyhow.. we walked in around 9.30am.. and were met with a queue.! Eh?? A Queue.. usually by now people are in and walking about and the show has started. So this year it was interesting to see the organisers sticking strictly to the 10am start time. We waited away from the queue, then we were subsumed into the queue as more and more people arrived..

Then the queue began to move and we were in.. no hassle, and £3 entry and away we went. I didn't do my usualy habbit of heading for the bring and buy, as frankly, with the stritch entry it was not point, till some people had put things up for sale. So I waited and browsed about.

There seemed plenty of people in the morning but soon the numbers began to drop. The bring and buy was rather empty in place and certainly didn't have as much as it has had in previous years.

The view from the balcony.

View across the hall

It was busier in the morning but quiet in the afternoon. I actually kind of liked it, meant I had room to move about, though not good for the traders alas.

View toward the entrance.

I grabbed two £1 War related DVDs on impulse and that was it. I had a good look at some bits and was doing well, untill I fatedly headed fro Ainsty Castings, and spotted some RPG books in boxes.. infact a large collection of West End Games (WEG) Star Wars books. In fact a huge! Collection. And I had a good trawl, but I could not recall what I had at home and on the spur of the moment I asked Andy if he was open to offers on good portion and he replied yes, but not having that much cash on me, Andy then replied, he had a card machine.. oh dear.. one nail in my gaming budget coffin later. I now have a huge stack of books sitting waiting collection. (Cheers Andy, was a great offer).

And it was time for tea! So up to the cafe for a cuppa and catch up wth a mate of mine.

So here are some photos from the day with a few notes and info and a conclusion etc below.. Apologies for any photos or games where I don't have the info on or get it wrong.

Should re-iterate, the photos were taken in the afternoon once it had really quietened down. It was much busier in the morning, but in the five or so years of going, it was noticeble that numbers were down this year.

View up the hall to the left side.

View up the hall to the right side.

28mm Sharpe Skirmish Game. Very nice.

Lovely game and figures. Can you spot the lady?

Oooerr !

 

Caught having a break for lunch. New figures ready to go!

FOW I think..

Hmmm memory gone again sorry..

Errr and again.

 

See, there are punters somewhere!!!  Still think it was a great show and day out.

Kallistra hexon terrain with small scale figures.. Looks good. Not a big fan with 28mm the hexes seem to stick out a bit. But nice folks donated a present to arecent club charity raffle and I won a set of their hills, so cannot complain.

See the hexon stull does look good at small scale.

Suspect advertising.. free figure painting!

A battle field in miniature.. literally!

 

 

I cannot paint that small.. its silly! But looks nice.

Models.. hmmm looked nice but many I had seen already a couple of weeks back at the Cheshire Militaire.. so frankly.. for me as gamer,, scrap em and get some more traders! The area of "models" seems to be growing. None of the exhibitors seemed keen to be there either.. Most sat very glumly behind their stands talking amoungst them selves and when you enquired, you got an odd look or just ignored!

 

Nice, but rather see more Wargames Traders or demo tables.

Some seriously nice work. But unless those displaying cheer up and become more sociable.. I could happily live with out them!

Victorian murder / horror game.. nice!

A crisp clean table.. maybe too crisp and clean the period.. lol.

She is just having a nap Sir.. honest!

28mm VBCW type game on hexon kallistra terrain.. nice terrain, but not sure 28mm fits with the hexon.

Imprint 1:50th scale vehicles.. mmmmm nice!

I was sorely tempted.

These guys are a regular at WMMS and have a great display and it seemed to have grown. very nice.

Just a few of their collection on show.

I want one!

Not sure what this game was.. its was tiny and it was busy and I didn't wish to disturb.. but they appeared to be having fun.

The Wings of Glory game.. my club mates went to town on this in the afternoon.. Nathan well,, you will see later!

A very impressive 28mm ACW game. Lovely table, nice figures. Only snag was that some of the figure bases had light patches that stood out a bit sharply against the cloth.

Figure basing, drawing the eye too much with clash of colours to cloth.

 

Somethings in the woods.. Great table and lovely battle.

Murder, mayhem and brother v brother!

 

Cowboys! Looked interesting.

 

Battlefield Kursk demo table with the rules writer I believe.

20mm Scale WW2 Battle Field Kurk Game

Lovely buildings.. possible gran manner.. not sure.

 

I spy Germans!

An interesting game of LRDG actions in WW2.

Great info board.. very few games had them. Why not??

The game was well in progress by the time I took the photos.. looked good mind.

 

Thats a lot of damage at the air field.

One old coger, masquarading as an efficient employee, and often seen at our club. Hope you had a good day Will.

So exciting they were fall asleep in their chairs ;)

War of Independace.. line up and shoot it out style me thinks. !

 

From the other table edge.. nice figures.

6mm game I think.. modern ish period.. not sure on the rules etc..

Looked vaguely vietnam.. not too struck on the brown cloth mind.

 

Ainsty Castings,, with his new displays.. hard to miss. :) And some great bargains. Cheers Andy!

Lovely dragons, but rather pricy and probably not a look of use for gaming and too fragile for the table. But nice!  

Hmmm no one wants to get their feet wet!

Ah a familar face.. Len our Chairman, pretending to demo some Dystopian wars.. they claim they had lots of partakers in the game.. I saw none.. hmmmm  fishy!

But that could just bt he fact they are french!

 

Nice figures in the range and some lovely painting.

Arh club mates, at play.. yes most of the afternoon shooting down germans in a game of Wings of Glory.

Errrr.. hmm next!

Wings of Glory, the He111s on their way to london and only a couple of brits to stop them!

28mm scale WW2 game.

 

Nathan, walking away with the prize, after his lethal rounds of shooting.. the german pilots stood no chance.. only his dad came close to beating him. The roars of laughter and dissbelief that came as damage was dealt each turn, you actually started to feel sorry for the Germans!

And so.. the day was done and we headed home. Again WMMS proved to be a great day out. I found stuff I wanted and I met up with friends, had a laugh with friends and came home tired! So all in all a great day and I look forward to WMMS 2014.. as I think its still one of the best shows in the year!