Italian Scenery, and going to Salute 52

I'm trying to get back into the swing of my hobby after a bit of a lull and some 'real life' stuff taking up time; we have a tiny bit of progress in the 'Risorgimento'  Italy 1859 project, in the form of some scenery. 

I have no scenery whatsoever in 6mm scale, so started from scratch - need some buildings. A small order from Timecast has recently arrived, with a nice selection of their Mediterranean/Italian buildings. 

These are rather nice, made of resin with just enough detail for my taste and painting abilities,  and will hopefully paint up OK in a simple 'whitewashed walls and red roof tiles' sort of colour scheme.  Enough for a village or small town on the table. I hope.

Given the 1859 setting, a novel but  important feature of the landscsape will be railway lines, and I was pleased to find that I could buy 6mm scale railway tracks from Blotz:

 

I picked these up at the Cavalier show in February. Each pack contains 6 lengths, each 12cm hence a total of 72cm of track - I bought two 'to be sure, to be sure' as St. Patrick might have said, and that should be plenty to be going on with, given that my usual table is about 90cm square.  As you can probably see, they are in pre-cut MDF, the parts break out quite easily and assembly is simple, just slot two thin 'rail' pieces into the track-bed piece and Robert is your mother's brother*. 

So that's a start, now we need some roads, rivers, trees etc. I think some of the narrower roads I already have for 15mm scale might be used - ideally about 30mm wide, to fit the base width of my armies.  Some of this stuff might be fairly easily scratchbuilt at minimal expense ( I also suspect that some more buildings might be fairly easily produced from simple wood blocks or cardboard ), but there is a good hobby shopping opportunity coming up in a few days' time :  Salute 52,  courtesy of South London Warlords,  at the Excel Centre in London. 

                                 

I'm planning to go along, and looking forward to seeing the many games and traders who will be there. Looking at thhe list of games, the ones I am particularly interested to see include :

- Retired Wargamers Reloaded 'Gotterdamerung Berlin 1945' (GA06 on the Floor Plan)  -  which I gather will be nothing if not a large setup! 'Our largest game to date. May 1945 in Berlin and the final days of WW2 in the European Theatre of Operations'   Many readers will have seen their previous displays such as Carentan   and Pegasus Bridge , which have been excellent.  I note from the Salute program that they have a prime position on Saturday, very near the entrance, so should get a lot of attention!   Hoping to see my veteran gaming buddy Tony there, too..

 - Anschluss Publishing 'Defence of Tobruk 1941' ( GD04 )  Always a classy presentation from Anschluss, and interesting to see them tackling the North African theatre.  I bought their rules last year, I think (or was it the year before...? ), but have not tried them out,, as so often happens!

- Continental Wars Society  'Battle of Gurgulat' (GK12), Serb-Bulgarian War of 1885, Ralph Weaver and Co always  put on a good display and can be relied upon to find a battle you won't have heard of! Last year I was so impressed, I joined their society.

- Loughton Strike Force  'Warsaw 44'  (GA11) .  Another group who make lovely display games, I suspect a rubble-strewn urban terrain to compare and contrast with the Berlin game mentioned above. 

- Per Broden and Wyre Forest Wargamers 'The Crossing of Duna 1701' (GL09), 6mm Great Northern War, I assume they might be using 'Twilight of...' rules which Wyre Forest produce.  Their large Poltava game was a highlight at Salute in 2021  

- Wars of the Gelderland Succession 'Vauban's Wars' (GG02) - an 18th Century Imaginations Siege Game.  Having grown up with Charles Grant 'The War Game' this ticks a few boxes, and it will be  interesting to see a siege game, from the period when formal siege warfare was at its peak. 

- Yarkshire Gamer 'Battle of Mentana 1867 - Rome or Death'   Can Garibaldi capture Rome? Given my current project, this is a must, and Ken the Yarkshire Gamer  needs no introduction. On Instagram I have seen that he is using Gringo 40s figures  for this, the Garibaldini units he has painted look splendid.

 That's enough to be going on with, there are loads more games of course, I have noted about 40 I'd like to see, and I admit I have not inlcuded Fantasy or Sci-Fi offerings - there are bound to be some visually spectacular exmaples of those, even if the gaming itself is not my thing! 

Also over 140 traders are listed in the program, so plenty of shopping opportunities, to put it mildly! And hopefully a few familiar faces in the crowd and at the tables? I see that Ray from Postie's Rejects has suggested the usual Bloggers' Meet Up   at 1pm, at the big red dot on the plan below,  and I will certainly try to be there - happy to meet anyone who reads this blog!    

  

So, plenty to look forward to at the weekend, and there's a bit of face-to-face gaming in the offing next week too, so things are looking up.   Now to get busy painting those Italian buildings..  Next post will likely be reporting my day at Salute, and how footsore I feel afterwards!  Until then keep well. everyone. 

* for the benefit of non-British readers, see  Bob's Your Uncle  - I admit I didn't know anything about its origin!