Salute 2026

 So, it is that time of year again, the great pilgrimage to the Excel centre for Salute.

Entry was was well organised, utilising a second hall to take the queue (so as not to upset the other attendees at the centre).

Not sure why, but the Titan Owners Club holds a special fascination. Some of them had very garish light shows. It was the only photograph from the show that came out in focus.

So what did I buy?

Some Death Robots for Scrap Jacks.

A lander for invading East London.

A Five Parsecs From Home variant for gaming colonising other planets.

A Solo roleplaying game based on Fallout (more later).

And a Five X from Y variant: Paranoia: SixFive Clones From Alpha Complex.

I also bought the Fallout Hollywood Heroes set and the Brotherhood of Steel starter set.

Salute 2024

 Once again Salute was at London's Excel centre.

Getting in was as well organised as ever, an adjacent exhibition unit was set aside for the queue, with the unit opening at 0900 for the show starting at 1000.

I got in the queue at about 0948, and was in the show at about 1010.

My plan was to go straight to the Sarissa Precision stand to buy the recently released plastic box sets and thermoplastic figures of Quar. On the way i saw the demonstration game from the Titan Owners club - 28mm scale Adeptus Titanicus!

I did get slightly distracted by the Pendraken stand, where I bought some of their 10mm scale Modern figures and vehicles. The new Chieftains look good.

There was a demonstration game of This Quar's War on the stand and a big stack of the new Coftyran and Crusader plastics, together with two blister packs of the thermoplastic figures. There was some concern that the two people asking about them would have to fight over them, but it turns out there was a display stand of them elsewhere.

I picked up the Crusader officers, H11a LMG and Spagen packs and the Coftyran officers, trench raiders and RCO howitzer.

There was a vey big castle board on display.

It was a very good day, and there will be more posts about things later.

Renedra 20 foot container as cover

 I reviewed the Renedra 20 foot container earlier , but mentioned that I would take some photographs of the container in use as cover.

Empress Miniatures HMMWV.

Empress Miniatures GAZ Tigr.

Empress BMD-1

Clockwork Goblin/Warlord M8 Grizzly walker.

Warlord M4A4C

The cupola peeking over the container.

Empress Miniatures Challenger 2.

Oshiro Models SFV05 / Command hover vehicle

 At Salute 2023 I bought a SFV05 / Command hover vehicle from Oshiro Model terrain.

It is a simple resin kit and comes complete with a "hover" stand, two discs of clear acrylic (top right in photograph).

The fit of the top and bottom parts of the hull was okay, improved by some gentle sanding using sand paper on a glass plate.

In the above photograph the hover stand still has its white protective cover on.

The two halves of the hull were glued with two part epoxy, this gave time to adjust the position, though I had to file/sand some epoxy where it had squeezed out.

The model was undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray all over.

Citadel Mechanicum Standard Grey was then sprayed over, leaving some of the Chaos Black as shadow.

Citadel Corax White was the sprayed as a sort of Zenithal highlight.

Oops, wonky turret. T added an aerial using brass rod and plastruct tubing.

A drip that needs tidying.

Advancing through the market district.

Renedra 20 foot container

 At Salute, Renedra released their injection moulded 20 and 40 foot containers (plus barrels and pallets).

I bought two of their 20 foot container packs.

The 

The pack builds two containers with opening doors and four pallets.

Each container requires three sprues - top and bottom sprue; sides sprue; end and doors sprue.

What is not clear from the instructions is that the sides sit on top of the base, not on the outside. The fit is good once you work out how the bits go together, however there is no assistance in holding the walls together (it does require at least three hands to balance them).

Once assembled, it looks like a corrugated container. 

A nice detail is their is a ventilator on one side.

The end brackets - which in real life are used to attach them to a wagon or lorry, or to hold them together when stacking - are lacking in detail, and the normal slots (which are used by the big fork lid trucks) are missing. However, these are gaming pieces and not model railway

The door detail is good, and the doors open and the interior walls are detailed.

This one has been undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray, then Citadel Corax White.

I do need to get some suitable decals, probably from model railway suppliers.

Comparison shots

Ainsty (~1/62), Renedra (1/56), Unknown but either 1/48 or 1/50,  O Gauge (1/43)

Of course, there is always a need for something to carry it.

I am thinking of trying to extend a Crooked Dice Tortuga lorry. The container fits in the flat bed. I could probably do with another set of wheels as well as extending the frames.