The great UK tour recap
May 4, 2019This was actually written a couple of weeks ago already, but I decided to leave it mostly in its original state as a fun memory.
What a few weeks it’s been! I’m currently writing this post on a train from Carlisle to London, where we’ll spend a day and a half before heading home. The last two weeks have included not only Salute, but also some amazing views – pretty much all of Lord of the Rings was present – and wonderful people as we’ve hiked some 175 km (roughly 109 miles) through Yorkshire, Durham and Cumberland along the glorious Pennine Way. As it is, this post will mostly just be one big photo dump of Salute photos with some holiday stuff thrown in.
Salute was super fun as usual! I mostly spent the day with folks from Random Platypus and Frothers, enjoying the participation games put on by people from these lovely communities. There was urban warfare in the form of Carnage City Chronicles and Wild in the Streets, anthropomorphic animal hijinks in Burrows and Badgers, Doom-like deathmatch on a wonderful scifi corridor board as well as Project Fear, a tongue-in-cheek post-Brexitpocalyptic game of activists trying to reach the last ferry from Dover. This last one also holds special meaning for me as I painted two minis for it! Look for the pink shirted shotgun guy and the guy in blue. For more information on the Random Platypus games, do check out the blog posts here and here. Oh, and I’m also pretty stoked that one of my painted minis was actually a display model on a trade stand – look for Carla, the knife-wielding lady shown in the Wild in the Streets cabinet.
I was somewhat moderate in my shopping, although I did pick up all the new pirates that Black Scorpion just released as well as their Salute special edition mini. As I figured I’d done most of my shopping, I came upon a retailer who was clearing their stock of Freebooter’s Fate minis at a very low price. I’ve always been interested in FF minis, but the price point has just been way too high for me even though the miniatures are lovely. At a clearance price of just £5 per blister, I just couldn’t pass up on them this time! Apparently I was so excited about this that I completely managed to miss Alex of Leadballoony, after a good long while of planning. There’s always next year, luckily.
Well, enough with the talk, it’s photo time! You can click on any photo for a larger version, which should open in a new tab.
A pair of honeymooners – make of that what you will!
Dawn of the Lead 
Brilliant pictures all round! My wife and I love your Pennine Way photos in particular – some of the valleys, with the farms and trees, always make us think of The Shire! Glad you enjoyed all of it!
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Thanks John, glad you enjoyed them! There were definite Shire vibes there. We did make a fair few Rohan references too, especially when walking the moorland.
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Nice mate. Great photos too.
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Cheers IRO, it was an awesome trip 🙂
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Cracking pics mate – if the Pennine way wasn’t on my list of hikes to do before, it definitely is now!
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Cheers Alex! It’s definitely highly recommended. Whether you’re looking for taxing, grueling days or super quaint villages and leisurely strolls, the Way has it all.
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Wow, great photos! 😀
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Thanks ignitedmoth! My phone also wanted to replace moth with Mitch, so I’m afraid I’ll think of you as Mitch from now on 😀
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Lmao “Ignited Mitch”. 😛 I like it! Haha
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Looks like a fantastic show. I also liked the little shipping container shout-out that you had there. The realistic painting on the sheep and the terrain boards in those final few photos really take the cake for me, though! 😉
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Thanks Azazel! Getting those sheep just right was a major effort, glad it paid off! The shipping container was from Jon at Ainsty – he and many of the others I’ve met on the Frothers forum have taken to calling me Justin, because of my youthful looks and thus resemblance to Justin Bieber 😀
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Baby, baby, baby – oh!
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That looks like a truly splendid trip all around. Lots of great miniatures and terrifically fun sounding games. Lovely scenery. Good companionship. Thank you very much for sharing this. The Meaningful Boat VII! Does she by any chance call at any inland ports in the United States?
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Thanks SymphonicPoet, glad you liked it! It definitely was a great trip. As for meaningful boats…you never know where they’ll turn up and they seem to be unstoppable.
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