This weekend I decided to make my second trip to the Bournemouth International Centre, Dorset, so as to visit the tabletop games show “Beachhead”. The team behind this event, now in its fifth year, are clearly becoming increasingly ambitious and it was clear from the larger trader hall and surrounding tournament areas just why they're "really pleased that it is rapidly becoming the go-to show on the South Coast.
Hoping to start slowly by circling clockwise around the venue's outer stalls first, I quickly stumbled across "Warpainter Scenics" and their collection of pre-painted garden scenery. Of particular interest was a fantastic looking collection of cabbages, beetroots, lettuces and cauliflowers all penned together in resin, as well as a large packed box full of some clearance items.
These 'end of the line' pieces were incredibly priced, and suddenly enthused with the notion of the Third Reich being bravely battled across a quaint British village green I dived in with great gusto. Ultimately, I desperately tried to be restrained, but still ended up carting away four marvellously colourful flower displays, and a load of resin pavements to encircle the numerous pre-painted cottages I already own...
Similarly as tempting were the pre-printed wargame terrain produced by "XLC Wargame Terrain", whose "Desecration City" range of heavily fortified concrete positions, seemed particularly suited to either "Warhammer 40k" or Weird War Two. Fortunately, despite being strongly tempted by some of their barracks, cell blocks and towers, I ultimately walked away with just one of their Dice Tower: Police Box kits in my hand. I'm a big advocate of populating a tabletop with just a single manufacturers' scenic items, as I think a mix of resin, plastic, and wood from different sources tends to shatter the environment's illusion, and therefore thought the dice tower would prove simple test product to try out.
Most of the show was unsurprisingly populated with the usual suspects like "Great Escape Games", "4Ground", "TTCombat", "Warlord Games" and "Plastic Soldier Company". These companies are great if you're after their very latest release or they're doing a special show deal, but it wasn't until I spied a battered box beneath the "Scotia Grendel" table that my I spied my prize pick of "Beachhead"; a load of old "Void" boxed miniatures from "I-Kore". These resin/metal marvels immediately took me back to a distant past when I was absolutely infatuated with the sci-fi skirmish rule-set, and for just a fiver each I simply couldn't stop myself picking up the lot, including a mighty Koralon Hydra.
Besides a quick visit to my regular e-store "Element Games" in order to snag their sole "Warhammer 40,000" Start Collecting! Necrons box for use with the "Space Marine Adventures" boardgame by "Games Workshop", the last dealer to catch my eye was "Precinct Omega" and their utterly bizarre range of "Ballmonsters!" Sculpted to work with the manufacturer's partially-written fantasy sports miniatures game, I thought these tiny heads were splendidly different, and despite deciding to superglue mine onto normal 25mm circular bases, as opposed to the clear plastic flight stands they come with, they should hopefully prove an interesting project to paint.