It is that time of year again, time for another Fall In convention, put on by HMGS. My buddy in St. Louis was planning on going to play in the Bold Action Tournament. We agreed to meet up and go together, hitting a few historical spots along the way!
The convention was held at the old reliable Lancaster Host Resort (now a remodeled Wyndham property) in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Truth be told, Fall-In was always my least favorite of the three conventions (for various reasons)…. However, I still attend, as it is still normally nothing to sneeze at. This year, was quite a surprise. I think this might be the best Fall-In ever and that it has surpassed Cold Wars.
Almost all the games were nicely displayed and pleasant to look at. There are always a few subpar set ups, but these were very rare now. The convention has the normal convention games, tourney games, open games, painting classes, presentations, vendor hall and flea market. If you have been to this location, everything was laid out as usual.
I myself spent a lot of time (as usual) in the vendor hall and the flea market (more in the latter than usual). I also took a few classes in Hobby U on painting lighting effects and star scapes on capes. I was not too interested in most of the presentation in the War College, but did attend one on the role of the seldom mention Chinese army in WWII. That was very interesting, if a bit unusual in style.
The vendor hall was quite full, with a few missing vendors, but these slots were taken by a whole new batch of new vendors. I like new vendors, to switch things up, so was happy about that. One of my favorite vendors was Vatican Enterprises. It has been a quarter century since they have been in attendance! They were showing off their new 3d printed version of their standard foam buildings (which I love), in different scales. I spent way too much on new stuff! Guess I will have many more things to post on the blog!
The flea market is the big story to me. They had it upstairs in the theater room. Normally, this room is way too dark, but HMGS put in addition overhead temporary lights to brighten the place up. Wow, what a difference. In addition, the space was full of people selling stuff, with plenty of space to walk up and down the isles. No more squeezing past too many people that are hygienically challenged for overburdened with oversized backpacks! I saw a number of the usual suspects there selling their stuff and a number thinking they could get Ebay pricing. However, most of the people had stuff to move and there were plenty of great deals, which I availed myself to…
By Sunday, my back was killing me and my car was full of booty, so it was time to drive home and inventory the damage!
- Manteuffe.