Border Reiver Show Report!

Started by Leon, 06 September 2011, 05:36:21 AM

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Leon

06 September 2011, 05:36:21 AM Last Edit: 14 September 2011, 04:19:23 AM by Leon
The Border Reiver show is held in the Metro Arena up in Newcastle, and is less than an hours drive from Pendraken HQ.  It's a good job really, as when I got there at ten past 6 in the morning, Dave was still in bed!  We got on the road about 6:45 though, and arrived at the venue about half 7-ish.  For some reason, despite the weather being good all the way up, the heavens opened as quickly as the van doors did, and we were soon unloading in sporadic showers.  Luckily though, the access for this one is great, and we could get straight inside and out of the rain.

The show is spread out in the concourse area of the arena, with stands dotted in and around the alcoves and food stands, and under the various sets of stairs leading into the arena itself.  It's an odd layout, but works very nicely, allowing a great deal of pottering about, checking the good number of trade stands.  There were a couple of newer companies at this one, which is always a positive thing, and the couple I spoke to at the end of the day reported a good days trading.






Before the doors opened, Dave headed off to grab us some breakfast.  Despite him only going for two bacon butties, a coffee and a Coke, he soon came running back, as the £10 he'd taken with him wasn't enough!  Meanwhile, I got busy putting the finishing touches to the stand.




The queue began to grow as we got closer to 10am, and fortunately for them the rain had eased off as soon as the traders had got themselves inside.  The doors opened promptly, allowing a good number of folk to come streaming in.  There must have been a lot of people waiting out there, as the queue was still visible out of the window for some time.  Business took a while to pick up, as people had a good look around before reaching for the pennies!

We had chance to speak with a load of people, with a couple of Forum members in there, including Jim Ando, Bertalucci and Tommy Atkins!  Also, there were a lot more younger folk about, something which I don't normally notice, so maybe the north-east is producing the next generation of gamers, to keep it the hotbed of wargaming it has always been?

If there's a negative to this show, it's the price of the food.  I'd assume that they're normally dealing with music/comedy shows, where people are maybe a bit less reluctant to pay the prices, but £2 for a 500ml bottle of Coke was a bit steep, as was the £3 for a slice of pizza.  Next year, a savvy trader should add a couple of cases of drinks to their stand, they'd make a fortune!

Whilst we were never 'busy' during the course of the day, we were never slow either, and ticked over quite nicely, chatting away with folk, and winning over a couple of new converts to the 10mm cause.  The afternoon went by quickly as well, and we weren't prepared at all come closing time and found we were a bit behind ourselves.

I'd not realised that this year they were closing the show at 3pm (I think someone mentioned that there was another event going on that night, which needed prepping for), so I had to literally run round the games to grab some pictures.  Unfortunately, some of them had already been dismantled, so I missed a couple.  If anyone else has any pics as well, please add them!  I'll also be investing in a new camera after Colours, as this one is awful.  Something nice and shiny with a good macro methinks....  :-\

As we pushed the first trolley load of stuff out to the van, the skies decided it was that time again, and we got another drenching as we packed away!

Overall, a great day out was had by all.  This one is well-organised and friendly, and is well worth a visit if you're in the area.  Just bring a packed lunch with you...  ;)


My slightly rushed games pics   :-[  :

Star Wars:



I missed the details of this one unfortunately:





Some 15mm stuff:



This was a FOW Desert game.  There was a spotlight, just about visible in this first pic, which was on during the day, and put a great lighting affect on the table.





Critical Mass put on one of their 15mm Sci-Fi games:





There was a 10mm game there, but I'm mortified that I didn't get any pics of it.  Next week at Colours I'm gonna photo the shizzle out of the games!

It's been a while, but we got another recruit into the Pendraken Auxliaries!



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!

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Thaks for the photos and captions.

IanS
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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
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