SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Forum for discussion about Wargaming, Painting, Books, Terrain, Research and general banter!
User avatar
barr7430
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 5905
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: EK,Scotland
Contact:

SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by barr7430 » Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:31 pm

I tell you what. I was mightily vexed by the number of dressy-upy people at SALUTE today. My question is this... If you have a full Star Wars stormtrooper outfit, do you wear it at home? Do you close the curtains? The dressy-upy weirdness was getting really out of control. Bob witnessed the disturbing sight of these SW types making someone get down and do press ups as a punishment :shock: What's next, ethnic cleansing of DBA gamers???

I saw people dressed up as Jack the Ripper and other Victorian horrors. There was someone who was either Fred Flinstone, Barney Rubble, Johnny Weissmuller's mother or George of the Jungle. Bob thought he was one of the Slag brothers from Wacky Races :roll:

There were people dressed up as farties too. I mean, if you are going to dress up, dress up as Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan, not as some middle age maintenance worker in the mid war RAF :shock: There were Vikings?? sitting about on wooden thrones, a bank manager dressed up as Marshal Massena's older brother and a variety of extremely weird looking extras from a Rutland TV mini series adaptation of Pirates of the Caribbean.. pirates of Hyde Park boating lake? There was a bloke wearing a green orc mask... maybe it's me but what the f*** is going on with this lark?

Is it a s- e -x game?

The 9 year old French Grenadier and the 50 something Napoleonic renenactors from the Argos warehouse looked fairly normal this year compared to the arte nouveau pretenders to the camp throne. I fully experted to see the return of the Barking Chapter of the SS Germania Division.

The hobby is a broad church but really, it was like Extras meets Wife Swap meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show..........

now, where are my tablets? I need a lie down
"If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are probably right"

Henry Ford
User avatar
Duke of Plaza-Toro
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Colonel
Posts: 280
Joined: Sat May 31, 2008 5:18 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by Duke of Plaza-Toro » Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:31 am

barr7430 wrote:What's next, ethnic cleansing of DBA gamers???
Actually, that's not a bad idea...


Other than that - how was the show Barry?
In enterprise of martial kind, When there was any fighting, He led his regiment from behind -
He found it less exciting.

http://worldcrisisinminiature.wordpress.com/
User avatar
barr7430
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 5905
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: EK,Scotland
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by barr7430 » Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:28 am

I honestly saw very little of it. Victrix 54mm game looked nice. I saw a massive Naps game by the Essex jet set gang which looked splendid. Lots of very ordinary games but I am not in a fair position to comment as I had two limited spins of 15 minutes each through the aircraft hanger and was on very specific seek and find missions with both(I sought but never found anything alas). Maybe someone better wualified can fill in!
"If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are probably right"

Henry Ford
User avatar
j1mwallace
Major General
Major General
Posts: 724
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Dumfries, Scotland

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by j1mwallace » Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:58 pm

A couple of years ago I went with my brother to the Texas renaissance fair in Houston. On first passing through the front door I was greeted by a squad of Romans in full battle gear then an enormous black guy dressed as some sort of Conan the barbarian in a leather gimp mask followed by legions of imperial storm troopers including at least 4 Darth vaders and hundreds of scantily clad cave girls. Some extremely scantily clad. ( photos on request) and half a dozen faeries. Not at any point in the entire 8 hours that we were there did we see anyone in anything faintly resembling renaissance attire. Great laugh but I see what you mean with dressy up people.
User avatar
barr7430
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 5905
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: EK,Scotland
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by barr7430 » Sun Apr 22, 2012 5:17 pm

Fairies Jim? :shock:
"If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are probably right"

Henry Ford
PaulMc
Colonel
Colonel
Posts: 321
Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:53 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by PaulMc » Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:55 pm

See what you mean about the dressy uppy types. I've been looking at pics people have posted online.

Some of them seemed to have dressed up to compliment their games, as if looking at the table wouldn't give any clue as to what the theme or period was. There's nothing else for it Barry, next year you shall have to don periwig and big wide brimmed hat with all the other trimmings when you do a BLB game.
"We shall attack across the minefield, under cover of daylight!"
User avatar
j1mwallace
Major General
Major General
Posts: 724
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Dumfries, Scotland

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by j1mwallace » Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:11 pm

Not fairies, faeries. Diaphanously clad females with wings. Very impressive they were too. They certainly worked their magic on the assembled menfolk!
User avatar
Duke of Plaza-Toro
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Colonel
Posts: 280
Joined: Sat May 31, 2008 5:18 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by Duke of Plaza-Toro » Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:33 pm

j1mwallace wrote:A couple of years ago I went with my brother to the Texas renaissance fair in Houston...
If one went to a Reformation Fair might one expect the Spanish Inquisition?
In enterprise of martial kind, When there was any fighting, He led his regiment from behind -
He found it less exciting.

http://worldcrisisinminiature.wordpress.com/
Eugenio von Savoy
Sergeant Major of the Army
Sergeant Major of the Army
Posts: 117
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 10:19 pm
Location: Nottingham, England
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by Eugenio von Savoy » Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:50 pm

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

[The Inquisition exits]

Sorry it just popped in there... (Arghh! another quote)
Regards
Tim
LASW WG
http://www.freewebs.com/like-a-stone-wall/
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Sir Winston Churchill,
Rob Herrick
Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Posts: 419
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 1:37 am
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by Rob Herrick » Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:52 am

Barry, it could have been worse.

I was at Origins last year on Saturday. It was held in the Columbus Convention Center, and the center was double booked with a Democratic National Committee fundraiser where the keynote speaker was Vice President Joe Biden.

Origins was full of LARP (live action role players) and cosplay folks, plus the usual wargaming folks who would be a bit in period to liven things up. Security was 10-20 rather large folks in their 50s who made sure you had the proper badges and stuff before getting into the gaming areas.

Into this descends the Secret Service, in full paranoid mode because you easily have 100+ people with various degrees of strange and unusual weapons and weapon-concealing costimes walking around the place. Hillarity ensued, along with the catch phrase "No badge, no entry; I don't care how many machine guns you have!"
With Gen'l Custer Down in Mexico: Yes, one of the goals is to see how many times one can get him killed.
User avatar
barr7430
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 5905
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: EK,Scotland
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by barr7430 » Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:01 am

Well yes indeed. Surreal is the world I would use to describe that Rob.
The thing is most of the Napoleonic dresser-upers, WWII pantomimers and medieval fools in motley looked like Peewea Hermann in uniform and not Robert Redford!
"If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are probably right"

Henry Ford
User avatar
Ben Waterhouse
Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Posts: 453
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:59 am
Location: Vectis, Blighty

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by Ben Waterhouse » Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:26 am

My favorite was the Jimmy Edwards RAF type in Denison Smock, he wouldn't fit into a Spitfire...

Otherwise I had a good time, would have said hello but you were being mobbed whenever I walked past; just get on and do the supplement.

Mrs W. loved the terrain and troops (The Crimea being one of her interests)
Arma Pacis Fulcra

God, War, Drink.
User avatar
barr7430
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 5905
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: EK,Scotland
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by barr7430 » Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:46 am

You should have just interrupted! Everyone else did! :lol:

Yes, I saw Jimmy Edwards. The Gary Oldman Dracula clone was the one that spooked me a little but nothing could beat 3 or 4 years ago when I saw the utterly abhorrent sight of a fat SS stromtrooper from Pinner or somewhere buying a latte from a young Polish girl serving at Costa Coffee... what was going through her mind at that moment I dread to imagine. These guys are really the pits....
"If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are probably right"

Henry Ford
User avatar
Duke of Plaza-Toro
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Colonel
Posts: 280
Joined: Sat May 31, 2008 5:18 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by Duke of Plaza-Toro » Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:19 pm

barr7430 wrote:but nothing could beat 3 or 4 years ago when I saw the utterly abhorrent sight of a fat SS stromtrooper from Pinner or somewhere buying a latte from a young Polish girl serving at Costa Coffee... what was going through her mind at that moment I dread to imagine. These guys are really the pits....
Just because they've researched the correct Nazi badge emblems for their jacket buttons and armbands they think that just makes them enthusiastic students of history, but unfortunately most of them have no real sense of historical awareness what so ever.

(at least not the ones I've met)
In enterprise of martial kind, When there was any fighting, He led his regiment from behind -
He found it less exciting.

http://worldcrisisinminiature.wordpress.com/
User avatar
flick40
Major General
Major General
Posts: 553
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:24 pm
Location: Kansas City , Mo
Contact:

Re: SALUTE: WAS IT JUST ME OR.....

Post by flick40 » Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:33 pm

Don't go to Dragon-Con in Atlanta then. Nothing wargame or historical about that convention but lots of costumes. There are so many stormtroopers (http://www.501st.com/)in full costume you would think you are on the death-star its self. I go every year for the spectacle and to get my scy-fi geek card punched. :)

Joe
Post Reply