nerodine

So, Salute 2016 was pretty fantastic. Felt slightly less crunched up than last year, with wider concourses and a better layout - and plenty of brilliant things to see. It was also an expensive day and represented the last of my big miniature spending for the year before tightening the wallet. While everything was fresh in the mind, I jotted down some less-than-comprehensive notes. General Better organisation of the queue than last year, so when the doors opened it was significantly quicker to zerg into the hall. Arrangement of rows of demo tables interspersed between the stands rather than the much bigger space at the back from last year, made it feel more spacious. We rarely encountered bottlenecks wandering between stands. Not having the coffee stand at the back and rows of seats made a difference too. Miniatures I'll dive into specifics when time allows, but as a quick summary my haul includes goodies from Anvil Industries , Bendyboards , Big Child , Black Scorpion , Bro

Despite a hectic week of family events, angry babies not sleeping, work and Salute in London (more on that later), I managed to squeeze in a little time to finish another of the piratey entourage up - here's the Navigator. The sculpt on this one is bugging me as his face gets lost in among all the detail of the books and scrolls loaded up alongside it. I've plumped to add a warm glow from the candle on one side of the book pile, then a cooler green spooky glow from the mystery scroll on the other side - happy with this as it changes how the figure looks depending on the angle he's viewed from. Next up is the Preacher, who'll be a little less sensible in his choice of clothing . Getting a rhythm going for these guys now, and quite enjoying myself.

So this week's contribution to the cause is another crew member, the Cabin Boy. Everyone's welcome to give him a first name ... Played with weathered leather on the coat and it didn't work out as I wanted, but you know what? That's fine. I'll just try again on the next one to see if I can make it a little better. He's painted up as the mini-me of the Captain, who you haven't seen yet, so this is a nice test of techniques and colours before the big man himself. Yes there is a small mold line on his foot. But you didn't see it, did you ... Although after looking at the Crystal Brush finalists  this year, I did feel like putting my collection in the oven and climbing in to join 'em. But seriously ... go on, take a look , they're beautiful. Onward toward the more characterful figures in the party, with the beleaguered navigator and flamboyant preacher looming on the horizon.