Warhammer World : My Pilgrimage to Nottingham and GW HQ Part 1

Pilgrimage.  According to Wikipedia, the definition of the word is this:

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone's own beliefs. Wikipedia

Now, there are many places of significance in the world for one might travel or journey to.  Mecca.  Jerusalem.  Madison Square Garden.  Juno Beach.  The Hockey Hall of Fame.

For me, it's Warhammer World in Nottingham, UK.

I have immersed myself in the lore and history of the Games Workshop universes since the late Eighties, when I was barely older than what my son is now.  I have read just about every publication that GW has ever put out.  I have painted literally thousands of their miniatures and models.  I have played endless numbers of games.  Purchased all sorts of third party licensed offerings set in The Old World and the 41st millennium.  Wrote about tactics, painting, sportsmanship, and other topics on countless forums, blogs, websites, and other forms of media.  Taken part in competitions, contests, festivals and events sponsored or inspired by their games.  And I have even worked for the company itself, doing my best to foster an entire generation of GW geeks in my rain-soaked part of the world.

But something I have never done before was travel to the place where Games Workshop is based... the one place in the world where I could see GW history up close and in person.  That place is Warhammer World, in the UK city of Nottingham... 7,403 km away from my home in Vancouver, Canada.

Now, as a married family man, it's not like I just pulled out a credit card and decided to book a trip all by myself for a weekend there.  For me, the supposed justification was a trip with the wife and son to the UK to visit my brother-in-law and his wife, who were living in Bath for a period of time.  While planning for the trip, I somehow managed to convince the wife that Nottingham would be a worthwhile detour on the way back to London, before heading back to Canada.  She wasn't sure what was there for her and the kid, but I did my best to play up the local "castle", and the local ties to the Robin Hood mythos. In the end, my wife is not a dull woman, and I was as transparent as a sheet of glass.  Thankfully, she's got the patience of Mother Teresa... she has to... she's married to me.

Well, long story short, we got to Nottingham, which is supposedly the gaming capital of the UK (if not the world).  Apparently there are a number of gaming companies HQ'ed there, including Warlord Games (my old boss from GW, Martin Perkins, works there.  My wife wasn't willing to put up with another gaming related place that trip but I really need to go visit him there one day).  We settled in to a hotel that was recommended to us by a number of people on the "Ex-GW Employee" Facebook Group (filled with, you guessed it, ex GW employees... some bitter and resentful, but the overwhelming majority are definitely not), as it was clean, inexpensive, and within walking distance of GW HQ.  Then we got to kick about in Nottingham and see a little bit of the town before heading to WW.

Nottingham Castle in the distance

Built on a sandstone hill, Nottingham has a castle called, aptly enough, Nottingham Castle.  However, as it's more of a stately manor (the original castle having been destroyed during The End Times), it might not satisfy your craving to see old castles when travelling in the UK (for that, we rented a car and drove all over the southwest UK the week earlier).   That being said, it's still a really neat place to check out.

The view from the top of the hill was fantastic, and gives you a good sense of why it was a place of strategic significance.

While not exceptionally old by UK standards, it certainly pre-dates anything we have back home.

More views of the surrounding area:

We found a pretty decent museum within.  I can't remember the context of this pic though:

For some reason, I took a lot of pics of old doors.  Something about them really interested me:

The following pic was of some random building nearby.  I couldn't help but be reminded of all the Warhammer Fantasy terrain the Eavy Metal studio built back in the nineties... now I know where they got the ideas from:

Hey, it's Robin Hood!  Now I know we're in Nottingham:

More museum pics.  The artwork within was stunning.  We simply don't have art like this at home, and if we did, it wouldn't be in this quantity either...

I simply LOVE the architecture in this town.  It wasn't just the buildings as a whole, but all the little particular details too:

I have to also give a special mention to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, quite possibly the oldest inn in all the UK.  Named such, because it was supposed to be founded sometime during the 3rd Crusade and served many who were about to embark on the long journey (1189AD, according to Wikipedia).  Built right into the side of the sandstone hill, it's a rather neat drinking establishment, and you can really feel the history while enjoying a pint.

And finally we started looking around for GW HQ / Warhammer World.  As I recollect, it was located in amongst an industrial area of town, so one might assume that it might be hard to find.  No worries there... they did a pretty good job of making their building stand out:

We had walked over from a nearby hotel that we were staying at, but we could see that the parking lot was already filling up, and the doors had just opened for the day.  Either it was going to be a busy day in the gaming hall, or there were a lot of keen employees already in the building (hmmm... I wonder which car was Jes Goodwin's?  What brand / make of car would he drive?  Something eldar-y, I bet...).

Before heading into the building, we had to check out two neat things in the car park:

Looks just like a giant size version of the old push-fit plastic Space Marines from years ago, eh?

And check out the Rhino APC!

I believe this was made by Relic Entertainment to promote the first Dawn of War computer game, and has since moved here and was repainted in Ultramarines colours (originally Blood Ravens, in an ironic twist).

It's pretty big... not sure 10 Space Marines in power armour would fit comfortably in the back, but 10 humans might.  But the thing I really geeked out over was just how nice the weathering was... I don't know how much of it was by human hands, or by Mother Nature, but I will definitely be referring back to these pics in the future before starting any new tank paintjobs.

Now this was 2017, and Age of Sigmar had just released not long before, and 8th edition 40K had not brought about the Primaris Space Marines yet.  So I had a feeling that there would be a LOT of AoS stuff within the building, in order to push the new hotness.  I'm not a big fan of AoS (yet), and as an old school guy, seeing the old Fantasy stuff was going to be more exciting to me than Sigmarines... er, I mean, Stormcast Eternals.  So, it was a bit strange to me to see the new AoS symbol on the outside of the building, instead of the big chunky and less ornate Sigmar warhammer of the Old World.  I have to admit that I'm STILL bitter that they didn't find a way to put the new game in the classic (and better, imo) setting.

Heading into the building, I had expectations of being surrounded by miniatures displays and fantastic looking dioramas.  Even from the moment you step into the front lobby, those expectations were definitely met:

Despite my misgivings about AoS, there's no denying that they released some nice minis for it.  And this diorama was damn nice.

These display cases were just a taste of what was to come.

Now, as I recall, you then pass through another set of doors into a gift shop, which then leads to the gaming hall (Bugman's Bar is beyond that), or to the Warhammer World gallery (which has an admission fee to enter).

The staff in the gift shop were rather pleasant to deal with. This security guy was particularly interested in my hobbit / son:

While there was much to see in the shop, I was eager to get into the galleries.  So we quickly paid our admission and headed through the next set of doors.  The first room absolutely blew me away.

John Blanche's amazing diorama from the 1980s.

With an emphasis on the history of Games Workshop, it was filled with all the old-school nostalgia that really warms the heart of an older gamer / painter like myself.  These are the works of art that I grew up with in the eighties and nineties.  I remember staring at pics of these models in the pages of White Dwarf, studying every detail I could possibly make out (remember, this was pre-internet).

Ever wonder what happened to some of these classic minis?  I certainly did.

This box of multi-part Imperial Guard were some of my very first 40K minis, when I really got serious about playing the game in '92.

The painting these guys put out at this time was revolutionary.  Most of us were still using either using Testors enamels, or mucking about with early acrylic hobby paints and learning to ink wash and drybrush.

There were a few years where the head of the Eavy Metal painting team (Games Workshop's in-house painting studio), Mike McVey, was solely tasked with producing some amazing dioramas.  Absolutely gorgeous works of art that still stand up extremely well by today's standards in terms of technical proficiency.  However, keep in mind that we likely wouldn't BE where we are today, if he hadn't been pushing the envelope so hard back then.

Ah, this classic Undead army featured in so many White Dwarf issues, it was like seeing the Mona Lisa in person.

Anyway, back to the Mike McVey dioramas:

The above box diorama was produced to promote the release of Warhammer Quest, back in 1995 or so?  This was miniature storytelling at its very best.

The Emperor vs Horus diorama.  So many amazing conversions, and based on a classic black and white illustration.

Again, Mike McVey builds a diorama to coincide and promote a GW box set release, this time it was Space Hulk.

Anyway, back to the Emperor vs Horus diorama, which helped cement the now classic story in all our minds.

The following is a Dark Angels diorama.  Very clean, which is unlike what many dioramas look like nowadays.  While it lacks a bit of the depth and lived-in feel of modern dioramas, it did photograph beautifully given the limitations of miniature photography and magazine print technology of the time.

Below is a Dave Andrews diorama, which I believe he entered (and won) a Golden Demon award.

Next to each diorama was a very helpful little blurb. Take particular note of the dates on each... they were revolutionary for the time, and inspired countless miniature painters to push their skills in similar ways.

Dave Andrews yet again.  I especially love how this diorama is set at an angle to the base... this is a classic tip from the Godfather of miniature dioramas, Shepherd Paine (you really need to Google him now).

Anyway, this one room was well worth the trip and price of admission.  It really hit me in the feels... seeing these works in person was like being able to go back in time and watch Wayne Gretzky win a Stanley Cup with the Oilers back when I was a kid.  It was like seeing Marilyn Munroe in person, back when she was the top starlet in Hollywood.  It was like being able to stand just below the stage in 1985 while Freddy Mercury belted out "We Are The Champions".  I was simply in awe, and it was interesting to view these works from various different angles, and hone in on details that I never noticed in the pages of White Dwarf.  And the level of technical artistry was far beyond what I would have expected.

I could have easily spent the entire day in just this one room, but my wife and kid had already gone through the next set of doors, and I had to run to catch up with them.

The following rooms were a mix of MASSIVE dioramas, and nearly endless display cabinets full of studio armies... the same minis that have populated the inside of White Dwarf magazines and countless GW rulebooks.

Hey wait... was... was that...

The Green Knight!  This was a legendary paintjob by Mike McVey, sculpted by one of the Perry Twins.  I cannot begin to estimate the number of painters who have challenged themselves to replicate this paintjob as precisely as possible. 

Once upon a time, there was even a rumour circulating about this model.  Some people speculated that Mike McVey had only painted one side of the model, as the only pics that came out of it at first were all from the same angle.

As far as I could tell, it was painted on both sides though...

More diorama goodness:

While impressive in size and scope, and the detail work was astounding, these somehow don't have quite as much character as the classic Mike McVey dioramas.  Looking at dioramas of this scale is like looking at an entire battlefield... it's just too much to take in all at once.  Whereas the older dioramas were much more intimate... like following a battle from just one person's point of view.

But that's not really a fair comparison.  I spent hours and hours staring at just a few pics of the old dioramas, and really got to know them.  However, I had an impatient wife and child in tow during this trip, and could really only spend about 5-15 minutes checking out each of these massive dioramas.  On my own, I could easily have spent an hour or two at every one of these awesome displays.

More armies... I believe the first hall was primarily Age of Sigmar themed:

Everything was behind a thick sheet of acrylic glass.  While it did make taking pictures fairly difficult due to the many light reflections, I understand the necessity of it.  It seemed to do a admirable job of protecting the displays from damage, dust, and theft.

While most people likely spent more time ogling the miniatures, I particularly enjoyed seeing the amount of work put into the groundwork and weathering. 

The little vignettes within each large diorama were especially compelling.  There was some great storytelling going on here and there.

And I think I'll leave it here for now.  I have so many more pictures to show you, but it'll have to wait for part two.  At this rate, I'm thinking it'll go for three parts in total, as I haven't even finished the AoS hall, let alone gotten to the 40K hall, the gaming hall, the Forgeworld shop, and Bugman's Bar.  There are also some pics I took during the other parts of my UK trip that I think would make a good post of reference pics for future miniature paintjobs and terrain projects.  Pics of things that made me truly appreciate the fact that Games Workshop was born in the UK rather than the US or Canada... things just wouldn't have been the same.  It's just too bad I had to make such a long pilgrimage to see all these in person...