Wednesday 8 November 2017

Crisis 2017


Once again the Phat cats demo team hit mainland Europe like the 11th Armoured Division and we headed up to Antwerp via Bastone!

On the way we picked up part of the Hysterical team...


so chatty....


whilst me and Lee basically treated this as lads weekend away! 


getting the shopping in for the trip, and a fuck ton of beer for Lee's lovely wife! 

we headed towards Bastone and I was really looking forward to this being a band of brothers fan I snapped a few pics at bastone..


Sherman M1a something... 


being adult like in the various short film bits 


thought it was ironic for Rob! 


Now this did impress me I've not seen a hetzer up close and personal before and its a real low silloute and quite small! superb looking bit of kit!



The classic kublewagon, I'd quite happily chug around in one of these on a day to day basis! 


one of the theatres that explained a personal point of view of the battle


doesn't look that bad from this side.... 


yea those poor tankers! note how the penetration hit is pretty much bang on the star, I've read that the Germans used them as aim points but this really did hit the brutality of it home! 


the shrapnel damage inside was shocking. enough said on that one! 


and the memorial that is just next to the museum


a massive statue of one of the most iconic pictures of the victory celebrations in the US

So thoughts on the Bastone part of the trip, it was "ok" the last two years have been far more moving with regards to the human sacrifice that was made and this didn't have the same impact for some reason?

Onto Antwerp!!

** Advance warning **

this is about 150 pics, and it basically involved me running around blasting pics, No details were taken and I apologise for that in advance! 


operation get back to Antwerp in one piece! 


the Queue from the outside, huge amount of people! 

 

some quick promo shots for the book of face! 


Lee in his element!

So onto the tables! 


an actual demo table just for kids, bloody superb! 


lovely Japanese table




never sick of seeing Russian green! 




more jungle goodness,


this is a scratch built building, very very nice and the chap explained how he did it all, 




these looked superb, I think they were hand made? 


these 2 modern tables I was really impressed by, the sub base I loved and would love to have a go on it! 








the classic 40k gets a roll out

 

lord of the rings! 


a stonking test of Honor board, the painting on the models was draw dropping! 





some K47 loving



the maus was a good touch


and an underground base for good measure! 




some kind of north American type game, the attention to detail was great 








Fall out, looks "alright" ;) 










the spectre board, again lovely work 




this looked great and the amount of work was bonkers! 







something a bit more unusual






some funky looking post apocalyptic type terrain 




John carters mars type game, 





















this I really liked, the scatter really made it look nice, 






a weird post apoloc type game, the over grown jungle look was well executed 









African themed game, liked the village alot! 



now these boys completely silenced me! I've never seen so much effort go into a single table! 



























The Anton seal of approval!! 









Ed doing his thing! 


I might have gone via Prodos......


Lee still doing his thing! 


Towards the end of the day, we'd drank a "few" by this point! 


the post show pic, superb work all around! 


Operation on the Lash is about to kick off!


So after having many laughs with the guys including the magabotato boys lets say what happens in the field stays in the field!

So exit plan engaged and off to blighty we headed via a V weapons site!











Now this place was very educational, and pulled no punches with regards to the slave labour that was used to build these weapons and bases. Hence only pics on the actual weapons it was quite surreal walking through tunnels that were dug out by hand and thinking about working conditions and witness statements from survivors and what the Nazi's did. 

And that was that! 

Crisis done, Superb trip as always and massive thanks to Lee for the epic driving and not killing me on the way despite forgetting my passport......

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