Skelp Show Report!

Started by Leon, 10 October 2011, 04:58:17 AM

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Leon

10 October 2011, 04:58:17 AM Last Edit: 11 October 2011, 08:22:26 PM by Leon
The Skelp show is the furthest show distance wise, and is another Friday set off for us.  We were on the road by half 1, with a journey of just under 5 hours ahead of us.  The traffic gods continued the theme from last weekend, as an accident and the rush hour traffic around Edinburgh meant it took us nearly 6 hours to get upto Dundee.  We'd booked into a Premier Inn there, for the bargain sum of £29 for the two of us, and the handy pub next door was knocking out a carvery at an equally reasonable £4.75!  Happy days...  :D

Saturday morning we finished off the 20 minutes up to Forfar, and were at the venue shortly after 7, ready for it to open at half past.  Forum member Mexican Dave was already there when we arrived, so we killed some time chatting with him.  The show is held in the centre of Forfar, in the Reid Hall.  I didn't grab a pic this time around, so here's one from last year!




We'd booked an extra table for Minibits, so the combined Pendraken team was taking up a nice 24ft along one wall, with Graham from Graham's Wuerkshoppe next to us (he mentioned he reads the Show Reports!).




All of the traders are within the one hall...





...and upstairs is a Bring and Buy and the Painting Comps.

There'd been a couple of online mutterings about people not coming to this one due to Dave Thomas not being there this year (he was at a wedding I believe), but that didn't seem to affect numbers at all, as from the moment the doors opened, there were a good number of people coming in.  We always do well up at Skelp though, as there are a lot of the Angus club members who game in 10mm, including both GordonY and Mexican Dave!  

Despite the long drive, this is one of the most enjoyable shows on the circuit, as it's such a friendly atmosphere.  We spent most of the morning chatting with folk, with the odd sale thrown in for good measure!

Unfortunately, around lunch time, the numbers seemed to disappear, and by 2pm, it seemed like the only folk still there were the gamers and the traders.  Speaking with some of the other traders, business had been slow (one had only just covered the cost of the table).  I heard that the total through the door was only 100, but I'm not sure how many they normally expect, so it's hard to gauge whether that's good or bad.  We did see a bit of a resurge towards the end of the day though, so it could be just that people had nipped out for lunch.

The thing with Skelp though, and it's unique selling point, is that it's just a really nice show.  Everyone's friendly, you can spend time talking to people, you can wander off and leave the stand while you grab a bacon bun, it's all good.  For anyone in the local vicinity who maybe hasn't had a run over to this show, it's definitely worth a trip, as there are a nice selection of traders, some great display/participation games, and a very well-supported painting competition, with some excellent prizes.  There's always a bit of a debate over Skelp or Targe, but when they're both so close to each other, there's no reason not to go and support both events.

At half 3-ish, the painting competition winners were announced, and we started packing away.  There's well over £100 of combined prizes for the comps, with each trader matching the table hire with vouchers for the winners, so it's always worth entering.  Actually Dave entered a few years back with some display figures and managed to win!

The show wound down pretty quickly once the winners had been sorted out, and we had the van all packed up and were back on the road for 5pm.  It's really the only negative to this show, as there's just no fun about a 5 hour road trip after a day's work!  The weather was awful on the way back as well, and then the Forth Road Bridge was down to one lane, which killed us for time again!  I managed to grab a shot from the van of the neighbouring rail bridge, which had disappeared into the clouds!




Righty then, onto the games.  I didn't take any notes, so I'm working from memory on some, and others I grabbed a shot of the description boards on the tables.


The Canadian Arctic, 1944










WWII Coastal Forces







55 Minutes in Peking








The Great Escape




Han Chinese











ECW










Rif Wars I believe, using the 28's from Rif Raf Miniatures










This one was a 1:200th Modern game








Fantasy Participation







And a single recruit for the Auxiliaries, as Erik from Figures in Comfort joined up!





All in all, as mentioned above, a fun day, and another good one for us.  Despite the afternoon being quiet, we had a storming morning, and the till showed a similar figure to last year.  We'll be back next year as always, and hopefully we'll see you all again there.  Thank you to the Angus Club!   8)
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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

The "Not sure" looks very like the Peking game we did at "Gauntlet".

IanS
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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
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nikharwood

Nice pics Leon - and no drinks on any of those tables  :)

GordonY

11 October 2011, 08:04:27 AM #3 Last Edit: 11 October 2011, 08:07:07 AM by GordonY
Yeah Nik, we dont get a licence to sell drink, so its just Coke all day.  :(

and as usual, the combination of the Pendraken stand, some cash in my wallet and the attention span of a goldfish, resulted in a new project for both me and Mexican Dave. (he had money in his wallet as well)

Mine is Fall of France 1940

His is the FPW (cos he's getting Black Powder fr Xmas)

and like a fool I forgot to ask a few questions on that 1:200th modern game, those tanks were pre-painted plastics  :o