Warhammer World : My Pilgrimage to Nottingham and GW HQ part 3

Welcome back to my 3rd and last part of my trip to Nottingham and GW HQ, circa 2017.

Upon leaving the huge "Battle for Angelus Prime" mega-diorama room, I returned to the Warhammer 40k hall to look at more regular sized large dioramas (which is to say, they would have been massive in any other context than Warhammer World).

And also the plethora of display cases of showcase paintjobs.

The above Eldar flyer has a special place in my heart.  When I first saw this paintjob featured in a Forgeworld catalogue, I knew I had to replicate it one day.  I got my chance soon afterwards, when a client had commissioned me to paint up the same model, and I decided to do an "homage" (ie blatant rip off, with just a few extra details so you could tell them apart).

Eldar super heavy flyer, by Kelly Kim (see the extra flames on the wingtips?)

It's not a particularly difficult paintjob to do, but it is incredibly time consuming.  I recommend brewing up a good size pot of tea beforehand, setting up a few hours worth of tunes, and try to zen out while freehand painting and individually highlighting all those scales.

I followed it up immediately afterwards with a much smaller Eldar grav tank in the same scheme, which I took across the border to Conflict Seattle ("Conflict" was a mini-Games Day that GW put together in various cities across Canada and the US for a time).  It managed to win the Best of Show award, the Conflict equivalent of the Slayer Sword.

Anyway, enough of my lousy paintjobs... back to Warhammer World 2017:

At the time, I believe GW was just about to release a mess of new plastic Genestealer Cult models, and I was thrilled to see them in person.  Just about anyone who was familiar with the ancient lead Genestealer Cultist models of the 90s was probably feeling the same.

All the subtle chipping and heat scorching really gives this model a real lived-in feel

Check out the really nice dust effects on the terrain!

Now, have a close look at how the flesh was done on the above hybrid.  Pretty simple shading / blacklining in the recesses, with a hint of highlighting elsewhere.  For marketing purposes, this does the trick... miniature gaming companies are often more concerned with showcasing the sculpted details... no more, no less.  However, it's often more popular among Continental European taught painters to emphasize each lump of muscle in the same way as a sphere... graduated highlighting to the top of the muscle, and graduated shading towards the bottom of the muscle:

Lozza the Protector, by Jay Martin

Conan, by Sergio Calvo Rubio

With this approach, there is much more volume and 3 dimensionality imparted to the muscle, and you are not as reliant on the ambient lighting to do the job for you.  Have a close look at the ab muscles in particular in the pic of Sergio Calvo's Conan above, compare it to the muscles of the Genestealer Hybrid in the pic before, and you'll see what I mean.

Both are excellent, of course, but the Euro approach is a bit more "painterly", and definitely more time consuming to do.  Neither is "wrong". As always, choose what works for you (but why not try both if you are daring enough?).

Simple, clean, gorgeous.

All this acrylic glass kind of reminds me of a giant fish tank

Looks like a power generator, transplanted from the Rebel base on Hoth

The final set of doors meant we were departing the Warhammer World exhibit halls.  Not that it meant that the model goodness was at an end, as we then went into the giant gaming hall.

Battles were in full swing, and it looked like people were having a really great time.

With tables and terrain this gorgeous, no one here was about to sully them by playing with unpainted armies.  See my previous rant about bare metal / plastic armies here:

http://sableandspray.blogspot.com/2014/09/painted-vs-unpainted-why-even-bother.html

After admiring so many gorgeous gaming tables (and getting plenty of inspiration for the games room at home), it was time to head to Bugman's Bar and get some lunch and a pint of beer!

Now, one thing I really loved about going to pubs in the UK was how old they were.  Pubs in Canada are considered "old" if they have been around since the '80s.  Many of the pubs I visited in the UK were older than the nation I was born in, and have an incredibly substantial feel to them.  Bugman's bar unfortunately was far newer, and lacked the ancient feel of a true English pub, but it made up for it in interesting decor.

I have that exact same Imperial Knight print hanging in my man-cave.  These were available for purchase at the shop there.

That was all the pics that I managed to take with my puny little point and shoot camera.  My wife, who is the better photographer of the two of us, took the following pics with her DSLR.  Not being a gamer, or a miniature painter, her perspective and approach was a bit different than mine.

Finally, it was time to sit back, relax, and enjoy a pint of Bugman's XXXXX.  The food was fine, the chairs were comfy, and the decor was definitely to my liking.  While I was only able to spend a single day at Warhammer World, I am definitely hoping it won't be my last.  I can't wait until my next pilgrimage to these hallowed halls!