Colours show Newbury.

[martin goddard]

PP was at the show on sat 7th.
The weather was nice.
The journey was nice.
Stewart and Nigel worked very hard indeed. Thanks to them.
For us the show was quieter than usual, but that probably reflects the ongoing use of the internet.

The floor above us was very busy indeed with  games of all types.  Got a bit noisy I thought?
I did not go down to the ground floor during the show.  Thus i have no idea how busy that was.

Stewart ran  Pirate land raid games (6 or so in the day). I think it was well recieved. Lots of interest in the plastic ships that decorate the dockside area.
Nigel was busy selling things on the stand.  The new Indian bowmen were popular as were the broadside markers.

Met lots of chums up there.
The staff at the show were very helpful, so thanks to them too.

Odd things.
1.A couple of wargamers came along to tell us about the exciting news from warlord that they intend to do a  ship game. Good for them. They were obviously excited, but why inflict that information on us? 
2.Another informed me that wargamers will be spending a lot less on Peter Pig products  if Brexit goes ahead. The reason; they will need all their funds for coping with the lack of food for sale.  Gosh!  I can always sell those two cans of sardines that I have put by. Just dig them up and get on with accepting bids.
3. Some chap came over to tell us that he is no longer gaming in 15mm size. Good to know.

[shedman]

Have you ever thought of doing an Oddball personality figure for those guys?

[Stewart 46A]

Yes pleasant day, thanks tomMartin for driving and buy a nice meal on the way home.
A couple of gamers played the Pirate land raid and thought it better then blood and plunder and they have preordered the new sailing ships from Warlord and surprised to learn they Peter Pig did sailing ships, rules and sea mats, all for the Pirates.

Had to tell some chap off for getting his dinner out on the games table.

Had some positive feed back on the Bovington show this year and have 8 new traders wanting trade stands next year.

[Leslie BT]

All in all sounds like a fine day out was had by all other than the slob who wanted to eat his lunch on your gaming table.

[Leslie BT]

So do you have a date for next year Bovi show?

[John Watson]

It was noted that you hadn't been seen on the ground floor. I can't really the number of people who came up to me and said " That Martin chap from Peter what's its name. I haven't seen him down here. Have you?"
Seriously though I think the show was a bit quieter this year and I gather that the footfall was down on previous years.
Re the issue of food shortages stopping warmers buying PP products, this is the first evidence I have that Brexit will help reduce obesity in Britain, so perhaps, Martin, you should add a slogan to the website.

Peter Pig miniatures - clinically proven to help reduce obesity.

[Martin Smith]

Ground floor was looking 'busy', but that may be because the traders were crammed in a bit too much (is ground floor 'premium territory'?). I think Richard of Mag Mil was saying they were squeezed for space with Col Bills.
1st floor was a tad more civilised 😊

[Colonel Kilgore]

Mmm... I did wonder what was gong to happen to that chap's lunch as he started unpacking it on the chair next to him prior to your game, Stewart!

I enjoyed the show. It's very slickly run from a punter's perspective: ample free, well-signposted and well-managed parking, close to the venue; no queues (I arrived at 10:15 this year, so a little after it officially opened at 10:00 and a well-oiled machine to remove your £6 at the door; seemingly better-organised food; lots of greenery to look at if you eat your lunch on the stands or inside overlooking the racecourse.

As usual, the ground floor was heaving for the first couple of hours. When I want back through about 1pm, it had eased considerably. In comparison to that "dungeon" on the entrance level, Martin and those few other vendors on the first floor have a much better pitch, as you can actually see what you're browsing.

I did find that there were fewer stand-out display games than usual, and it was largely a question of the same stands, many in the same place, as last year.

It struck me how hard it is to show off the smaller scale of figure in such an environment. Bacchus do a great job with lit stands holding painted figures (as do Pendraken), while Heroics and Ros seemed to have a largely empty box of unpainted things.

I think that Peter Pig was the only manufacturer with a demo game, and very nice it looked too - well done Stewart on keeping those Pirate raids going!

I did like Donnington's stand - expertly-painted figures under some high-power strip lighting. Many of the larger scale vendors / resellers just had blister packs of their wares, leaving me thinking afterwards that the industry doesn't do marketing very well!

Peter Pig's stand looked rather busier than many others, so I hope business was still not too bad.

I have a few photos, which I'll post here in due course.

[Leman (Andy)]

TBH I couldn't tell whether it was busier than usual or not. Our 15mm Samurai/Korean game was in a different pitch from last year, as was Bruce Weigle's 6mm - in fact, considering he had come from the US to demonstrate his newer 1871 rules, as applied to one of his 1859 scenarios, and that he had lugged one of his beautiful hand built scenario boards along with him, he seemed to have been given a pretty mundane pitch compared to when he was last at Colours.

Most of the games appeared to be doable at home or in a club setting, but there were a couple of 28mm affairs that appeared to have been in a d*** measuring contest!

[Colonel Kilgore]

TBH I couldn't tell whether it was busier than usual or not. Our 15mm Samurai/Korean game was in a different pitch from last year, as was Bruce Weigle's 6mm - in fact, considering he had come from the US to demonstrate his newer 1871 rules, as applied to one of his 1859 scenarios, and that he had lugged one of his beautiful hand built scenario boards along with him, he seemed to have been given a pretty mundane pitch compared to when he was last at Colours.

Most of the games appeared to be doable at home or in a club setting, but there were a couple of 28mm affairs that appeared to have been in a d*** measuring contest!

Wow - I missed Bruce Weigle's thing altogether on Saturday. It was lovely last year, and in a good spot. That is a pity.

Your Samurai / Korean game was lovely, Andy. Sorry we didn't get to chat - you were deep in conversation when I passed by!

[Noggin]

Having been to Colours for many years there was a definite lack of people compared to previous years. Many times I have arrived at 10 'o' clock and joined the queue - not this year.

I had very little trouble looking at any stand as there was never a hoard of hungry gamers at any I visited. As for the bring and buy, I don't think I have ever witnessed such a small number of viewers.

Some very nice display games. Liked the Bruce Wiegle game, superb game board and visually stunning. Nice Koreans from Leman et al and I also liked the Rapid Fire game and the TTS Mancetter game.

Rest service at the PP stand as always

[martin goddard]

Thanks to anyone that dropped by. I thought the show was a bit quieter. Albeit Stewart makes a lot of noise whilst swearing at his dice

[Colonel Kilgore]

Here's Stewart's Pirate game:



Nice ships, Martin!

[Colonel Kilgore]

And the (also) very nice Japanese vs. Korean game, by Liverpool Wargames Club:

[martin goddard]

Yes, the ships.........
Very high quality photo Simon. Camera on your phone?