Heresy & Heroes

Hello all! I have returned from a smashing (if a little exhausting) weekend in Nottingham and I have many tales to tell. It was a great event as always and I have plenty of pictures to share with you, including, yes, Necromunda minis (which you’ll no doubt have seen yourselves by now) but I can’t tell you how excited I am about the return of that old favourite. But before I get all giddy over that, let’s start at the beginning.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Nottingham is a fantastically pretty town and the first thing I did was head to the pub, and then another, and then another. This was on Saturday and after a very fun night out in some lovely bars and more pubs, I spent the night in the Ibis hotel which was very pleasant indeed – I would recommend it to any looking to stay in Nottingham. Simple, comfortable, clean and in a good location. The next morning, after a slap-up breakfast at Annie’s (seriously, screw your hotel breakfast and go here instead) we set off down the canal to Warhammer World.

It really is a very pretty little walk and a good way to burn off some of the amazing breakfast before reaching Warhammer world (it’s about 1.5 miles from the town centre). Once there, I have this tip for anyone attending; if you’re not there to buy something being released on the day, don’t bother getting there too early or standing in the queue. Go and chill out for a bit. Admire the rhino, or the space marine statue, or sit down in the lovely little garden they have there and soak in the sun and the atmosphere.

Once in line, we received a flyer and our lanyard and that’s when we got the news. The flyer for the day had a nice big fold out of the Escher ganger featured in the Necromunda marketing material. Oh, the excitement. But we’ll get to that shortly. As soon as I was through the doors I set off for the Forge World store to bagsy my buy from the day (more on that later too) and then over to the Painting Competition area to get my Leviathan installed on the vehicles shelf.

It looked a bit lonely at the time but the cabinet filled up eventually so he had some company. And then it was into the design studio, and first up was this…

Great artwork! But getting to see the miniatures was even better…

Yes, you’ve seen them all in the post on Warhammer Community but I can’t tell you how good these looked in the flesh. My pictures don’t do them justice, partly because of the scrum around them to get images – they were like Hollywood stars on the red carpet! And the guys there were very happy to share some great info:

• The scale will pretty much match the old miniatures – the Escher ladies might be a bit taller but only because they can model heels now which they couldn’t do in metal all those years ago.
• The game will continue to get support – this won’t just be a boxed game release.
• The rules will be unique and defined, but will match 8th Edition in many ways.

All good there then! I’d been hoping to see some Heresy Blood Angels stuff on the day, but I understand why they’d be holding that back – Necromunda was stealing everything’s limelight. I seriously cannot wait until later in the year when this comes out. Expect H&H to go very Underhive heavy for a few months at least.

One bit of other news though is that Adeptus Titanicus may be a bit further off than we thought. Necromunda hasn’t pushed it back, but apparently there’s just so much to do and they want to do the best job with it. Necromunda was always on the slate for the release slot it’s going to have, and I’m glad they’re putting the hours and effort into nailing the rebirth of the epic game.

Blood Bowl was next up and the Elf Team is coming along very nicely. Expect to see this coming soon to a blood-soaked pitch near you:

And the snow covered pitch was looking rather good too…

And then there were all of the new releases that were on show that day. The Orion dropship for the Custodes appeared to be getting the most ‘Ooo’s and it was certainly a beast – bigger than I expected, certainly. Here it is next to a Thunderhawk:

And in fact, the Legio Custodes are now really starting to look like a proper army. The dreads and new terminators have filled their ranks fantastically…

The new Sicarans are also looking pretty darn solid and the new variants were on show as well, alongside the older versions.

After all the ooh-ing and aah-ing in this part of the hall, I went back to the painting competition to check on my entrant and scope out the competitors. It then struck me that something was indeed different this year. Firstly, there were a lot more gaming tables in use with huge knight and titan battles featuring on several. It’s great to see the gaming element return to days like this. Secondly, and it may have been because of the gaming, the event didn’t seem quite as busy. Still hugely popular, but there seemed to be a little more space, and fewer enormous queues which was great. It also meant that there were fewer entrants in the painting competition than last year, but the standard was still incredibly high.

Alas, there were now a fair few red Leviathans in there and my chap no longer stood out. Eventually the competition was won by the Lightning Strike Fighter that you can see there and it was a very worthy winner – incredible details. Alas, I didn’t catch the name of the winner but it was well deserved. I did overhear a couple of people lauding my effort and that certainly put a smile on my face. Always good to hear that.

Next up, I popped into the hall of miniatures. I won’t show you everything in there (I’ve highlighted much of it before) but I’ll show you a new bit and a couple of well angled shots of some old favourites. The karadr-, the Kharhad-, the krh-, The steam punk space dwarves attacking the forces of Death was a particular favourite of the new batch:

And, as mentioned, I got some shots of a couple of oldies-but-goodies from some tasty angles as well. See below…

And then I just wanted to share this. I remember the release of this chariot so vividly from my youth, and the Necromancer that you can see standing at the back there was among the first miniatures I ever painted. I love seeing this retro-hammer stuff in these halls. Always a pleasure.

And that was about it for the day. We lunched at Bugmans of course and while delicious, I do have to say that we as community, and I include myself in this, are not the leanest nor most svelte of peoples. And the menu at Bugmans does not help. Delicious yes, but everything is dripping with grease and cheese. The amount of Ogre Burgers being devoured was almost obscene. A few more healthy options would be greatly appreciated.

On the way out I took a quick snap of the 8th Edition box set miniatures duking it out in yet another great diorama.

A great day out and loads of fun. I quick pub stop and a short and comfortable train journey home and that was that. I’d like to thank the folks at Forge World and Warhammer World for putting on yet another excellent day. And I of course came back with a little something to add to my Grey Tide for future painting. I shall look forward to that, and I hope you enjoyed my run down of the day in this post. Onwards!

Yes, regular readers, it is that time of year again when I break out for the fair city of Nottingham and the Geek-vana that is Forge World Open Day. Those of you who have long subscribed to my drivel will know all too well that each year I pop up there for a weekend of general merriment and resin shopping, and because I am now a veteran of such days, I thought I’d give you some tips on preparing for the day, and a peek at what I’m taking with me to the painting competition.

Getting There

The trip from London to Nottingham (and back again) can actually be very enjoyable. The car is a good choice if you don’t mind spending 2.5 to 3 Hours on the M1. No, no, if you’re coming from London (and being a Londoner I’m assuming you are because we don’t really believe that the rest of the country actually exists in any tangible way), the train is the way to go. If you book far enough in advance, a 1st Class ticket will cost you about £5.00 more than a standard ticket and I do like my soft, comfy seats and free coffee. To get from the station (or central Nottingham) to Warhammer World, your best options are either a good walk or a short taxi. I believe busses/trams also head out that way, though I’m more of a walk/taxi sort of person myself, and a stroll by the canal on a sunny day is more than passable.

Staying There

Nottingham has some fine hotels to stay at, and plenty of awful ones. My advice: unless you’re happy to see the funny side of tragedy, don’t stay at the Britannia. I’ve gone Ibis this year, so I’ll let you know how that goes in my follow up post. All I know is that it can’t be worse (well done, idiot, you’ve just jinxed yourself).

There’s also a hell of a lot to do in Nottingham, and not all of it revolves around Warhammer or Robin Hood. There’s the castle (which, in truth, does have a fair bit of Robin Hood going on), a lace museum, and a small, regional art gallery, and… well, I’m sure you’ll find something to keep you busy. If you’re anything like me though, you’ll prefer to be at a good ol’ Nottingham Pub. And boy, do they have some ol’ ones up there.

Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem is one of those pubs and I definitely recommend stopping in – it’s where I spent a pleasant early afternoon last year. But there are lots of others. The Pit And The Pendulum, The Castle, Ye Olde Salutation, The Round House and plenty of others are worth visiting. Even the Pitcher & Piano (slightly poncy chain of pubs in the UK for them that don’t know) is built inside an old church and looks amazing.

Enough Of The Tour Guide Schtick!

Quite right. So, what Am I bringing to this year’s painting competition? Well, I had intended to bring a freshly painted Varag Ghoul-Chewer to show off, given that it’s my current project, but alas, I have not had time to complete it…

What can I say? Being a man about town leaves one only so many hours to paint and there simply haven’t been enough. So instead, I spent a couple of hours last night tidying up an old favourite and making a display base for him. Here he is:

Yes, the big fella is coming along with me and will be in the display cases there. I’m not hoping to win – the standards are very high (and I don’t have a smoke machine or flashing lights all over it, and it wasn’t the most expensive thing there), but I do like to hover nearby and listen out for any compliments that might come my way. So if you see it while you’re there. Don’t forget to exclaim something like “Wow! This Blood Angels Leviathan Dreadnought Is Amazing! My Mind Is Blown! Wow!” or words to that effect. I can’t promise I’ll be there to hear it, but the judges might be and that’s cool. 😉

Now, the thing I love most about the above picture is that the “display base” is a bit of a hack. I didn’t have a plinth big enough for this guy’s base so I had to improvise. I thought about using some CDs maybe, or the lid of a tub of soup, but then I looked at my paint palette and turned it over and…

Yep. I turned it over, sprayed it black, coated it with ‘Ardcoat and it works! It started life as the lid for an old tub of Citadel sand, became my palette, and now it’s moonlighting as a display base. In a way, I think it’s rather fitting that my palette should end up attending the show – after all, it contributed greatly to painting process.

So if you’re coming up to Nottingham this weekend, I hope you get a chance to see it in the flesh, and if you see me in the flesh, do tell me to put some clothes on and come over and say hello.

And Will Sir Be Shopping?

Oh, indeed Sir will. I won’t say exactly what I’m buying yet, but it’s big. Well, for GW it would be big. In Forge World terms it’s small/medium but it’s still big to me. It won’t be anything from the ‘first chance to buy’ that you can see here:

But how about that Legio Custodes Dropship!? And why can’t the Blood Bowl troll look as good as that Minotaur!? All good stuff that I look forward to seeing in the bare resin.

So, I’m in for a good weekend, I reckon. I shall report back as usual with as many interesting pictures that I can take (which you’ll probably have already seen on other sites by the time I get round to posting but whatevs). I hope you have a good weekend too. Onwards!