Crisis 2019 haul

Back from yet another successful show - CRISIS 2019! It was amazing short weekend in Antwerp, great company, enjoyed a lot of good chats. The show managed to withstand the troubles of Brexit, include lots of traders from both sides of the channel and a pretty filled Bring & Buy.

I'll cover the show itself in a couple of articles of their own, as usual and as in the past. But this one, is about my haul from the show.

So what did I get myself?

• CRISIS 2019 goodie bag incl. show miniatures
• A couple of older show miniatures
• Zombies and Diplomats by The Assault Group
• Oldhammer miniatures from the Bring & Buy
• Spectre 1st Edition from the Bring & Buy
• New edition Blandford Warriors and some hoplites by Foundry
• SCW cavalry and a couple of 'Nam GIs by Empress

The event miniature was once again sculpted by Paul Hicks, one of my favorite sculptors. This time it was a duo, covering Henri De Bruyne and Joseph Lippens. As a special service they offered remaining stock of past event miniatures at the Bring & Buy. I got in touch with Tomsche and reserved King Leopold II (2006, the only Crisis miniature sculpted by the Perry Twins), Vladimir "Popski" Peniakoff (2007), Charles De Grunne (2008), Buckrider / Bokkenrijder (2010) and Mathilde van Vlaanderen (2016), for a bargain of 2 EUR each.

The goodie bag itself was quite light this year, and only covered the Crisis Gazette, which was as well surprisingly thin. I assume due to Brexit and a lot of participants being unsure on the certainty of their attendance, was a problem, as you wouldn't want to have something in the Gazette that later wouldn't be shown at the show itself.

Foundry, oh foundry. Usually they have some pretty decent show deals, like every blister for 12 EUR (so making the exchange rate 1:1), this year they were a bit more creative and it was best to place multiple small orders instead of a bigger one.

I tried getting in touch with them to pre-order the Blandford Warriors, but didn't get a reply and just hoped they would have some in stock at the show. The box "ex Citadel Warriors & Warlords" is a reproduction of the original Blandford Warriors by Citadel, and at 24 GBP for 12 Miniatures a pretty solid steal, so I didn't care much about the conversion rate. I became aware of the miniatures due to the Realm of Chaos blog and the incredibly well painted set by Ninjabread.

And I got myself a blister of hoplites as statues to go on top of the Sigmarite Dais. Unfortunately they came without pikes and I'll have to browse my bitbox for the matching weaponry.

I ittended to buy some oldhammer styled shields from Warmonger, despite their rather insane price point, but found out that there will be a shield-aid crowdfunding campaign next month and I'll participate there.

I got myself a small set of Full Metal Jacket inspired vietnam soldiers sculpted by Paul Hicks from Empress. Once again great sculpts by Hicks, and rather unpleasant buying experience with Empress buying them. I like to support Hick's work, but with the company acting like that towards customers I'll move on to buy them second hand.

The soldiers aren't intended for a new project, but more for a vignette or such, maybe with a M113 or Huey in the background.

The most pleasant experience with buying, beside the Bring & Buy, I had with The Assault Group. They offered a preorder discount of 20% on everything that would be picked up at the show. I paid upfront in pound (the conversion rate depends on your Paypal or credit card) and only had to pick it up at the show.

I got myself two sets of zombies from the White Knight miniatures range, Halflings and Humans, and a set of diplomats / politicans. The later were a stand-in, as Spectre doesn't have theirs in stock for ages and I am still waiting for hasslefree to release some of their civilians sculpts in metal (currently only in resin and at 12 GBP per miniature that is a bit step for a mission objective).

So, that's my haul. That's what I intended to buy, minus a few minor thing that could wait for next year / the time to come. I enjoyed browsing the bring & buy very much, I love looking for gems among the "masses". I even was gifted the Spectre rulebook by one of my readers. Sebastian recognised me, said he liked the things I do on the blog and gave me the book for free. So very pleasant start into the show - thanks for that.

About the traders, we had some great experiences, for example with Dave Thomas, who did not only take care of Perry Miniatures but Northstar as well, along with pre-orders and usually is open to round the price tag / give you a decent discount. At other booths, I really don't get the lack of customer orientation. You might be the only one covering franco-prussian war miniatures in 12mm, but the list of possible projects is incredibly long, so that I am able to go for something else easily.

It is a large show, there are a lots of traders. I go there to spent money and having a good time. The Tinsoldiers do their best to create a solid experience for the visitors, and with the catering, the seating areas, the organized bring & buy, they do a hell of a job to do so. Still, Crisis is the reason for our motley crew to go gather in Antwerp, but becomes are small part of the actuall prolonged weekend, with spending a good time at sights, museums, restaurants and bars being the most prominent part.