Once again the trip to East Stoke in the heart of English Civil War country was upon us......Bring Out Your Lead, hosted by the Ansells at Wargames Foundry HQ, is a 3 day roller coaster of wargaming and the meeting of like-minded people who love the hobby. Many thanks to Diane, Maria, Alisa, Lucy, Harry and Sam as usual.....food and drink kept everyone going into each evening. Unfortunately Marcus was full of man-flu this year so kept himself quarantined away from us all. I've already booked the hotel for next year.....31st July-2nd August 2020.
I arranged to meet Mark (Asgard) Stevenson at Games Workshop first thing on the Friday... I was quite worried as I'd encountered no traffic problem all the way from Stockport to Nottingham and felt sure something must have been looming but no, I got there in 2 hours as per Sat Nav. Uncanny. We did the rounds there (including a rather nice bacon sandwich and cuppa in Bugman's Bar)...
The gaming hall is very impressive....the Perry Twins, amongst others, helped paint the walls...
Bugman's Bar... this will be the scene of much frivolity next year when we celebrate Mark's 111th birthday...
The battle of Pelennor Fields...
The latest Space Marines... Funko Pop style...
A couple of incredible Forge World pieces I had to take pics of...
We then moved on to have a quick look at Warlord Games and Northstar, both of whom are only a short drive away on the same estate. It was later pointed out that Lucid Eye are there as well... grrrrr... I'd have loved to pop in there... maybe next time. I picked up some green stuff and some plastic skeletons (why not indeed, I hear you ask) and then we moved on...
Parked up in the car park......
One of the many things I love about visiting Foundry is the rural aspect......meeting chickens burrowing away for insects in a natural environment is wonderful to see.
The marquee in sight at last....
I said a quick hello to everyone and popped over to see my good friend Tony Yates. Tony loves sculpting characters from the Adventure Time cartoon series.....he says they're for his grandchildren.....
I love watching him work... he was busy both Friday and Saturday sketching for people and discussing all aspects of the hobby...
I asked if he could do a Nodgbad for me...
Mark pointed out that he bore a striking resemblance to the classic British actor Terry Thomas so Tony added him... Peter Firmin has said before now that Basil Brush, not Nogbad, was based on Terry, but I like the thought anyway...
A couple of Tony's sculpts we'd hoped to get cast up but with Marcus being ill it wasn't possible.
Kev Adams was the next stop. Like Tony, he was only there for Friday and Saturday, sculpting heads in aid of prostate cancer research. I joined the queue having purchased the Orc executioner set (Orcling assistant is optional)...
The assistant is for Jamie Loft who unfortunately couldn't be here this weekend.
I took pics of a few of the sculpts but there were a lot more done including a 3-headed one for some of the guys from Warlord Games....hopefully they'll post pics at some point as will other people.
Maria got Kev to convert one of the old Citadel Fishmen....there are 2 of the old Citadel Sci-Fi conversions available on the Warmonger site and this one should be up soon...
The master at work... he makes it seem so effortless...
Having a laugh with ex-GW Alan Merrett, another top bloke...
and Nigel Stillman...........
And of course Rick Priestley... talking to a strange fellow indeed on the right... (Mark of course)
Lots of games on all over the weekend capturing the spirit of Oldhammer... to be encouraged...
The Spacehulk 3D board... more pics later in play...
Harry Howell's Mighty Empires board.....all the tiles are his conversions that I've been following on Facebook for a while.....greater love hath no man....
Some of the greats in conversation....Bryan Ansell being videoed and John Blanche and Tony Ackland chatting away to Phil Gregory...
Sneaky pic of me to prove to my girlfriend that I actually was away for the weekend at BOYL....
I think that's Curtis of Ramshackle Games facing off against Christian Weiß...
The Temple of the Goddess Rigg... I totally missed the Friday game... I should be hanged. All packed away though ready for Sunday...
The BOYL mini... sculpted by the uber talented John Pickford.
The Foundry cabinets... every time I visit I see some old piece of gaming history I've missed...
Artwork by the ever talented Matthew Street...
I believe this was an unreleased piece for a more recent Warmonger Gods of Battles range...for the oft underrated Warmonger ranges.
Excuse the symbology here... different times...
Can't work this one out... looks like putty work by my friend Tony Yates... wonder who 'Andy' is...
Theses are the masters for the old foam 'Mighty Fortress' - a wonderful tabletop piece that Workshop released in the 80's. My good friend Nick Green of Grumpy Old Tin supplies laser cuts accessories suitable for expanding this... available from Jamie Loft here.
Lots of Tony Yates' sculpts from back in the day. Steve Casey gave me some of these last year still in the old Citadel baggies... I passed them to Bryan so they could go on show but they're probably in one of his drawers somewhere...
I believe these are Kev Adams' painted Slann from back in the day...
Lovely old conversions that just wouldn't get in focus... unless they are in focus and that's the chaos working its way out of the cabinet...
I had to have a sausage, bacon and double-yoked egg bun for breakfast... it would have been a crime not to. The Ansell's cater for many events and it shows in the quality of the food.
If you're going to travel to Lustria, do it in style...
Space Hulk in play... Garth James at the helm...
Check out Nico's blog - http://nico-realmsofchaos.blogspot.com/
On the Sunday I decided to watch a little of the Slann battalions of Andrew 'Lustrian Frog' being battered by dwarves... doh! He was suitable chagrined.
Geoff Solomon Sim's 'Brewers Droop'. Like a fool I missed this one as well however here are some of his own pics from home... Excellent use of old Grendel dwarven scenics, now produced by Scotia Grendel (page 6 onwards for the dwarven bits but well worth looking through...)
A jolly pic of myself, Mark, Bryan and Tony. Beer was readily available throughout the day of course...
Deep in conversation with Tony...must do something about the way I perch my glasses on the top of my head...
Deep in conversation with the other Tony (Ackland, of course!)
Looking weird with Phil Gregory, top bloke.
A group shot I seem to have picked up..all qdos to the photographer!
So, overall thoughts? A resounding success that needs to be visited every year. The Ansells and co. have outdone themselves as usual. BOYL is getting more popular and deservedly so. Talking to all and sundry there are so many stories that will eventually be lost unless we, in the traditions of old, keep them alive and pass them on to other storytellers. I met up with so many great people who I'm in contact with regularly via Facebook... always great to put faces to names and, indeed, names to faces... my own profile pic is a yellow Simpsons one so people will be chatting to me for a while before realising who is jabbering on to them about old lead...
If you pop over to Tony Yates' wonderful blog there are even more pics;
As a post script of sorts I thought I'd show the hotel room from Friday night... cheap and cheerful...
A much needed feet up before beers early Friday evening...nodded off for an hour and met up with Mark for half seven...
At the end of a few beers, Mark and I stumbled into this kebab heaven... I'd been hearing rumours for a while about the 'Jungle Meat' kebab... they were well founded...
Mark's portion with chips... he did regret this later he told me... the carbs hit him when he got to bed... the poor man.
My own delicate portion on pitta bread... I opted for the small size and gladly so. Possibly in my top 3 kebabs ever eaten. I have to watch cholesterol and carbs nowadays so rarely imbibe however this was worth any health risk... my first remembered kebab was down the road from the Free Trade Hall in Manchester back in the 80's when I worked for GW retail... a fond memory of a mate and I chatting away to the Turkish staff who kept selling us some strong Turkish traditional liqueur... the next fave was in the Neukölln district of Berlin... early 90's... I had had no spicy food for almost a week and my friend took me to a kebab place he knew... the massive Turkish bread was a real 'wow' experience... I can't put 'type to blog' the effect the chilli sauce had on me the next day... suffice to say that it stays in my memory as notable...
We got a taxi on the Saturday night from opposite the kebab shop... Mark asked if I fancied another and I decided against it... health avoidance is one thing, madness another...
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