The Other Partizan

The ‘Other Partizan’ show at Newark goes from strength to strength in it’s new location at the Newark Show Ground and under the steady stewardship of the organisors, Laurence Baldwin and Richard Tyndall. This will be the last time that the show will run in August – it moves to October for next year. This can only be an improvement as far I can see. The summer slot has meant that it can get rather too warm in parts of the exhibition hall when the sun is at full strength and there are other pressures on both traders and visitors, in the form of Holidays, that get in the way of attendance. October should be less of a problem with regards to temperature and it is a great time to get back to your hobby with the nights drawing in and fewer distractions elsewhere. That said, with over 800 people through the doors this year, attendance is not a problem!

It was the first time in years that I was there as a customer rather than a trader. We have an arrangement with Sarissa Precision to take some of our ranges to shows, so Sarissa were doing the hard work whilst I loafed around at the show! It was a pleasure to wander around the games and chat to friends without having to look over my shoulder at what was going on at my stand. I stayed the full day, fueling up on coffee and other refreshments at the excellent catering facilities in the hall. The show has a nice friendly atmosphere, there’s plenty of space, even with such a good attendance. The lighting is excellent, so you can see just how much work has gone into painting the miniatures on display.  Free car parking, as well and easy access is a nice bonus! The great strength of the show is it’s consistency, so that you know which traders will be there, enabling you to plan your purchases. That said, it was good to see a couple of new traders and one in particular, ABC brushes, managed to prise open my wallet!

The format of having the inspirational demonstration games ( look but dont touch) at one end of the hall and most of the participation games at the other end made it clear where you could join in and roll some dice. That said, I find that the guys playing the demo games to be very welcoming and open to conversation. I think that it would help if the participation games were on smaller tables and had clearer ‘guest’ seating. Some sort of indication as to how long the game would take would also help. I found that I didn’t engage as much with the participation games as I didn’t know how long I would be committed to a particular game. Perhaps some of the manufacturers could persuaded to move their games into this area. Mind you, it’s easy to come up with ideas but as a trader, I know how much time and effort goes into just getting the stand to the show and manning it without having to find the resources to run a ‘remote’ demo. You also want your customers to be able to see that the product on the table is available to purchase. So I am mindful that as a spectator, my observations are at odds with playing on the pitch, so to speak!

Without wishing to be controversial, I actually think that from a Historical Gamers point of view, the Partisan shows are superior to Salute, with quality winning over quantity. The relaxed, friendly atmosphere, easy free parking and access, great selection of traders (yes I am biased here!), great showcase of historical games, a history resource area and good value refreshments mean that you will have an enjoyable day with more of your money spent on your hobby rather than the logistics of being there. If you can make a weekend of it, there is plenty of History around Newark to absorb you, from the Newark Aviation Museum (which is next to the Newark showground) to the Town of Newark itself, cradle of the English Civil War! Oh, and Stokes field down the road, if you fancy a bit of WOTR history. With Games Workshop in Nottingham, about 40 minutes drive away, you can even scratch your fantasy and 40K itch, so to speak!

I’ve posted a selection of the games that caught my eye through out the blog post and below. They are only a small selection of the games on show and really don’t show half of what is there. The pictures do not do justice to some of the larger games. A really great day out for me and I’m very much looking forward to the next Partizan. If you can get there, you will not be disappointed!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you are unable to get to a show, don’t worry, at Arcane Scenery we have a huge selection of products to help you with your hobby and even better we send your order out post free, to most world wide locations! You can see our shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY SHOP

To keep up to date with the partizan Shows, visit their web page here:

PARTIZAN SHOW

To see the Wargames Illustrated Video of the show, click here:

WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED TOP GUIDE

Happy Modelling!