Triples Show Report!

Started by Leon, 25 May 2011, 12:45:36 AM

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Leon

25 May 2011, 12:45:36 AM Last Edit: 25 May 2011, 12:50:26 AM by Leon
This weekend was the Triples show in Sheffield, held in the English Institute of Sport.  Last year, the event had clashed a little with Salute, so this year the date was pushed back into May.

The venue is open on the Friday for traders to set up early, so we left Pendraken HQ at midday, and made the short trip down the M1, stopping off at Baccus HQ en route to drop off some waste metal buckets.  Arriving at the venue at 3pm, there were a good number of traders who had taken advantage of setting up the day before.  Once the van was unpacked, we parked it up at the venue and headed off on foot to the Etap hotel 100 yards down the road.  

Unfortunately, the Etap hotel wasn't quite what we were expecting.  The rooms were very small, with a double bed, and a single bunk bed over the top, which isn't ideal.  There also isn't a door on the shower, so when either of us used it, the other person had to leave the room, or risk a rather unappealing eyefull...  :-&  I decided the bunkbed wasn't for me, and dragged the foam mattress on to the floor instead.  We went in search of food on the Friday night, but found there weren't many pubs or food outlets in the local area, so had to settle for chicken and chips from a takeaway called 'Kurry-licious'!  A few pints followed in the 3 pubs that were actually open, with Dave Thomas and Phil.

On an aside, the Etap only had one pillow for me, so I laid there unable to get to sleep for hours.  At 3am, as I gave up and started to get dressed to go to reception for another one, Dave stirred, looked at me, and said "Here you go, I've got a spare..."   >:(

Saturday morning we headed over to the venue about 8-ish, and finished getting the stand ready.  Dave headed off to get the bacon butties in, while I put the finishing touches to everything.



I had the trees with me for this one, in their little displays.



This one is spread through two large halls, and a couple of smaller areas upstairs.  We were in the main hall, with the majority of the display games:



The other hall was through a small corridor, containing some more traders, games and the bar:



The cafe was down the hall, and had stocked up a lot more than last year, when they ran out of bacon after only 2 minutes!  

Advertised opening was 10am, but the doors opened shortly after 9:30am, and the customers starting drifting in to the main hall.  Business was slow through the morning, until around lunch time, when things picked up and we had a busy spell through til about 2pm.  There were a lot of familiar faces who popped by, first up was AndyMac, who dropped off the painted samples of the new LofA range.  The painting on these is fantastic, and we quickly made up a small display for them.  They certainly caught the eye of a lot of folk passing by during the two days!






Other Forum members who came by over the 2 days included Eldamarelf, Andyrob, Dazza, Black Knight, Dour Puritan, agtfos, Mick Boddy, new member Alan, and a few others.  I'm hopeless at remembering real name - Forum names, so if you're at a show, remember to identify yourself!

Saturday afternoon drifted by slowly, with a lot of people coming and browsing through the stand.  The Dungeon in particular was getting some good attention, with a couple of people intrigued by the space-saving idea of coffee table Dungeoneering!

The show was advertised to stay open until 6pm on the Saturday, but as the numbers drifted out late in the afternoon, the organisers announced that closing would be at 5 instead.  I think this was a good thing, as some of the traders had travelled long distances on the Saturday morning, and were ready for something to eat and a nap!

We had agreed to go out on the Saturday night for an Indian, so me and Dave hopped on the tram system (which is excellent, by the way!) and headed into the city centre, to a place called Aagrah, in Leopold Square.  We were booked in at 8pm, but me and Dave were rather early at 7, and ended up sitting there for a while!  Dave was getting pretty antsy as it got closer to 8, but all was forgotten when we were joined by Eldamarelf, John? from Ironclad Miniatures, the folks from Donnington Miniatures and a couple of people from the Penarth Wargames group.  The grub was fantastic (although I have no idea why Eldamarelf went to an Indian and had a shellfish platter...?) and afterwards we popped to a bar upstairs where Dave enjoyed a Mojito!

On Sunday we had a short lie-in and mooched over to the venue around 9ish.  The Sunday's of 2-day shows tend to be quiet affairs, so we weren't getting our hopes up, but from opening, we actually had a fairly brisk trade for most of the day.  Quite a few people popped by over the course of the day, and it was nice to be able to take time to chat with folk for a change.  

One piece of bad news on the Sunday, was that someone decided they didn't fancy paying for the full Dungeons, and pinched the Monsters from both the Dungeon and the Booster sets.  We've never had any trouble of this kind at this show, so it was a real shame.

In an awesomely bad piece of time keeping, I managed to forget to get any pics until about 3pm on the Sunday, so it was a rather rushed affair.  I did manage to get quite a few though, so we'll start off with the two 10mm games which were going on.

First up was the BKC display game put together by the guys from Barnsley Association of Wargamers.  This one was situated right in front of our stand, and it was a great help to be able to show customers what can be done in this scale so easily.  I only got the one decent picture on my camera, but there are a load more on their club site here: http://www.barnsleywargames.co.uk/events/triples-2011





The other 10mm game was the ICW game put on by Forum member agtfos.  I got a few more pics of this one:










And here's some of the other games on show:























































































Despite the busier Sunday, overall the show wasn't as good as last year from a trade point of view.  However, the Sheffield Wargamers had taken a lot of feedback on board from last years show, and had made some very positive changes.  For some reason though, it didn't seem like there were as many people there this time.  Whether that is due to the proximity of the Partizan show (next weekend) or not, we'll have to wait and see.

Still, we enjoyed ourselves, the weather was good, and we've got a weekend off now before the hat-trick of Glasgow / Durham / St Helens.

So, finally, we added a few new members to the Pendraken Auxiliaries!














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Squirrel

Thanks for the pics and report Leon. Looks like there were some great games going on!

Real bummer you got ripped by some low-life (trying to be polite....)

Hopefully you all had a good time, despite that and the sleeping arrangements ........

Cheers,

Kev

Bishop Lord

As always great show report Leon,I had to miss Triples this year >:( . Ive still got the small trophy for best 10mm 2010/11 which I was giving you at Triples so it will now be Phallanx if thats okay?

I like the photo of the Lady in a pink top with the helmet on its the look at the chaps face in the back ground got to be worth a caption? ;D ;D

Jason.
" there is no more Jerusalem, I shall go to Cyprus..."

2014 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Leon

There was an older lady wandering around on Saturday in a dressing gown and slippers... now that was worth a caption!  :D
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

nikharwood

Nice rep mate - such a shame that there are light-fingered feckers about....grr..next time I can lend you a German Shepherd if you like  :d

Quote from: Bishop Lord on 25 May 2011, 01:16:00 PM
I like the photo of the Lady in a pink top with the helmet on its the look at the chaps face in the back ground got to be worth a caption? ;D ;D

"Hmm...nice plumage..."

:D