My visit to GWHQ Nottingham

After years and years of reading White Dwarf, reading tournament reports, looking at painting websites, talking to friends who had been.... I had entertained thoughts about going to GWHQ in Nottingham, but that has always been a bit of a pipe dream.

However, in June I went to England (for the first time ever) on family business, and took the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Nottingham.

After previous email communications with Nick Bayton at Warhammer World about which weekday was best to visit (answer - Wednesday, where they are open until 10pm...) I arrived in Nottingham from Sheppey about lunchtime.

Once I had checked into the B&B I pretty much jogged the 10 minutes to GW. Once I got there and made my way past the ground level, that had....

Rhino out front

Hello Mr Space Marine!

Lurtz

The World Eaters storming the breach - Istvaan IV

... and made my way upstairs to Level 2. This is where the shop, the hall, and Bugmans Bar are.

One of the cool things they had at the landing was a display of a "history of Citadel miniatures", including all the Mike McVey dioramas that were displayed in White Dwarf. Pretty cool. So cool I failed to take many if any photos... idiot.

After oogling these for a while, I pushed through the double door to the hall, and (manfully) uttered the same single word Jeff Kent did when he saw the latest Dark Elf army book...

"OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG"

View of hall from shop towards Bugmans

View of hall from Bugmans

Bugmans

So, roughly, there are 80 tables all set to go, plus several Apocalypse sized tables and special ones like the Zone Mortalis table and the LotR Goblintown (both of which I watched GW Design Studio employees playing Kill Team on).

Here's a selection of tables (which you could just turn up and play on if they weren't booked by other players). Note that you can play on any table as they all have terrain, and drink pints while you are at it. Sounds terrible? It is.... not.

After the overwhelming awesomeness that was the hall, I popped upstairs to have a look at the Hall of Miniatures. Here's a selection of shots of the cabinets. Apologies for the quality, the lighting is designed for looking at the minis with your eyes, not for taking photos.

I took a photo of pretty much every cabinet, and there were at least 27, plus some other ones in the middle of the room with GW employee models and the big Space Wolf vs Tyranid diorama. Absolutely amazing stuff.

This is the visit that resparked my desire to get back into the hobby to which I am very grateful.

To all those who are thinking of going, DO IT. To those who are visiting the UK, make sure a day at Warhammer World is in your itinerary.

And all I can say to those that live locally and have conversations that start:
"Hey, you want to go down to GW tonight for a pint, meal, and a couple of games?"
....