Partizan: Another Great Day Out.

 

Short of a wedding or a funeral there are two days in the year that I always keep free: those for Partizan I and II. I always have a sore throat the following day as I am not used to talking so much, but I see people at this show, that I don't get to see during the rest of the year. This time was certainly no different and in between a great deal of chatting I also got to see the usual collection of excellent display games that this particular show always offers. 

Rather than go through even the highlights, which would take a long time, I thought I would concentrate on one of the offerings. It wasn't to be honest a game at all, but it was one of the loveliest examples of painting and terrain making excellence that I have ever seen. Not only that but the figures were not commercially available but are the result of an incredible amount of design, conversion and animation. For those of you who haven't guessed already, I am of course talking about Bill Gaskin's beautiful Seven Years War display. And a display is what it was; nothing moved all day and it certainly wasn't a wargame, but it was a great example of what, an admittedly ridiculously talented person can do given time and effort. I also looked at a large number of very impressive games at the show and enjoyed the evident pleasure that the players were getting from playing them. It is fun to go back to games throughout the day and see what progress, if any, the attacking side has made and this is wargaming at its best for me, even as an observer. Bill's game though sent me home both inspired and determined to improve my own skills whether as a painter or terrain maker. It was particularly the case with this game, as I am in the early stages of a very large and ambitious Seven Years War project myself.

This is why I think that such displays, even though not really a wargame, can be so valuable. Over the years my own ability to put on the kind of aesthetically pleasing games that I aspire to has been helped massively by such people as Bill, Colin Rumford, the Perrys and many, many others. As a mark of my appreciation here are some of the photos I took on the day. Enjoy!

So there we are. My own collection will be commercially available figures with little or no conversion but I can hopefully imbue them with a bit of Gaskin magic, even if it is only the basing!!