Edit; updated 23rd June 2026
Spartans, or St Helens Wargames Society, have been going for donkey's years and the Phalanx show for more than 20. It's only a forty minute drive for me so, although I am 'financially embarassed' at the moment, I went as I usually do!
The queue for the bring and buy had already started... resellers waiting patiently unfortunately as always. I chatted to one (I've known for years) and he'd already been around the show picking stuff up before it opened. It really is not cricket you know... I thought I'd taken a pic of the bring and buy but can't find it. It is always heaving and the ocassional odour can be mind numbing. In truth the bo issues at shows used to be far worse although it can still be eye wateringly bad.
I had a quick walk round, chat with Dave Thomas and then a coffee and bacon sandwich... very nice.
The games are randomly placed here. There were some cracking participation displays put on.
I had a nice chat with John at Athena Miniatures. He has been picking up old ranges and producing new ones for quite a while now. Well worth looking at - everyone needs to pick up his dwarf barmaid at the very least... perfect for my bar room brawl minis (mostly out of stock at the moment unfortunately)
He also has (some of?) the old Pig Iron sci-fi. Good to see them back in production.
This dwarf command was sculpted by the legendary Bob Olley.
Poor pic of the barmaid, check his site out for a better one!
More games...
This (partly) naval game was great.
It was a joy to see masses of painted Dixon Miniatures Samurai. They really are marvellous.
Some very nice printed scenic items... I would have loved the bridge but maybe another time.
My favourite find of the day. A £2 trip down memory lane. I'll be popping this in a box frame at some point. So many memories. Had a nice chat with the seller who'd bought it from Woolworths back in the day for that ticket price.
Some v.cheap Samurai. From Essex and Bakerloo(?). The Essex Samurai seem to be from their fantasy range but not sure on the Bakerloo... vague memories of that being on some of the old Stratagem SciFi 'not' Sontaran bases from many years ago.
Edit, checked the Sontaran bases and they are the same so obviously some of the Samurai were Duncans! New pics below;
Had to get this pack of crows/ravens from Warbases. Their ranges are great.
A sneaky old Minifigs dragon found hiding away on the bring and buy... it was originally in the Valley of the Four Winds range but had tiny little wings.
Had to pick this up off Templar Wargames... never heard of them before but well worth checking out.
A weird old Hinchliffe (small 25mm) mini... X3? Anyone know anything?
Edit - thanks to Peter Llloyd;
The X range was for miniatures not sculpted by Peter Gilder, they were oddly lumped all together under X codes regardless of sculptor or historical period. X3 is from the 'Scots of the English Civil War' set, and is listed as 'Highlander standing firing musket with claymore'.
I did manage to get the freebies from a recent edition of Wargames Illustrated... £2 which was quite ok. I love reading gladiatorial rulesets and this has the bonus of a plastic sprue of combatants and more.
Well, that's it for now. I've not posted about Phalanx before - do leave a comment if you like it and I'll post again next year. Well worth a visit.
enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk
