THE PILGRIMAGE EAST - WARHAMMER WORLD

It seems many hobbyist from near and far at least wish to make the journey once in their lives.
the somewhat mecca of all things little and minituresque. OK its not east for everyone. but it is for me!

Having never been there before. thought id give it a try with the family. having a week off work over the summer holidays has allowed us to take a few day trips out. and we  try to do something we've never done before at least once a year. so off we went, albeit nothing like a spectacular 2 week holiday in Florida!

but still something we've never done and something I've always wanted to say "yup I've been there!"
OK..this was for me. not the kids and the wife rolled her eyes and said "OK lets give it a go"
but surprisingly we all ended up enjoying give or take a few weird things

firstly i forgot to charge my phone so had to rely on the wife to take pictures. of which she duly did...many times. unfortunately most of them looked like they were taken through rice paper or something. but still i cant complain

so heres a stock photo to show you where we went

so its really weirdly situated away from the city centre of Nottingham on the edge of a typical english industrial estate. i dont know why they dont move this to the city centre. we walked through the gates and i didnt even know if we were going the right way or not. maybe trespassing on the factory grounds that make all of those wonderful sprues we all like to snip at and eventually paint.
but i spotted the tank thing (im not a 40K fan so forgive me. i think it might be called a rhino. but i dont particularly care)
we took some obligatory photos which were naff and went on inside. looking around not sure where we were going.
inside the foyer we were presented with some huge 40k posters and some pretty amazing dioramas. a taster of things to come?

so we had a look around spotting some excellently painted mini's featured in the pages of white dwarf before heading up the huge stairwell leading into warhammer world

it leads into a shop!! i was expecting the gift shop at the end. but right away i was presented with a balding guy with the obligatory "can i help you?" drone that seems to simmer from every single games workshop store.

to which i respond "no thanks, we're just looking" of which i had to say this about 4 times to the same guy each time he came within our proximity.
each time he seemed to get more and more impatient with me. eventually rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders. im not going to go on a rant about GW staff as everyone else within warhammer world were excellent were good with my kids and ultimately helped to give us a pleasurable experience.
so you have the store which opens out into a huge gaming room. as i looked around in semi awe /half prepared again to say "sorry we're just looking" when the guy that makes the painting blogs for warhammer tv walked past

this dude

 ironically as he walked past he was talking about thinning out your paints....which seems to be a an ongoing meme for him these days. anyways i geeked out a little bit. my daughter called me a nerd and of we walked into the huge gaming room.
there were some other guys filming something for warhammer tv in the corner a couple of gaming groups scattered around. i was kind of hoping someone would of been playing one of the newer boxed games. but literally everyone in there was playing 40k..it must be more popular than i imagined?

off we went to bugmans bar to start with because were were all starving.
the whole place is decked out to look like a dwaven tavern. its pretty cool setup with orc heads and weaponry, art and other warhammer tidbits decorating the walls. we ordered some food. which was averagely priced. but pretty nice. for anyone that lives in England we have a lot of former pubs which became gastro pubs. they grill your steak and microwave your food. i think the same happens here. but the food itself was on the upper crust of that. regardless we all enjoyed our food and drinks and decided to actually look around properly.

so first up we heading back into the gaming room. where a hilarious situation occurred with my 4 year old approaching a table just as 2 guys were setting up. the look on this guys face as my girl walked closer and he kind of huddled his army in protection thinking she was going to be some clumsy kid with no regard for looking after his lil toys....ive got thousands..of course she knows how to behave. "she walked up and said "those are cool arent they daddy!" to which i nodded and she pleasantly walked away.....the guy didn't really know how to react and smiled awkwardly. perhaps expecting her to run over and do a swan dive across the table trashing everything in her wake.

 i then noticed these 2 guys in the corner a little more filming some vlog. i kept well out of the way of that!

so we go looking around the forgeworld booth. its amazing how high quality these models are. the niche top of the range series of models that you must have a hole in your pocket to purchase.
but regardless. they were very impressive.

the we go in search of what we actually came here for. the museum!
i couldnt find it anywhere only to realise it is tucked out of the way right by the main entrance. having to have to go back through the shop i ducked and dived to avoid Mr Canihelpyou. and paid our way in. the guy at the counter here was very helpful and just an all round nice guy. spending time to talk to my 4 year old that if she searched hard enough and found any of these 4 guys that she would win a prize.

at the point of entering here i was like "HOLY SHIT!"

this is the point where only having 2% battery on your phone doesnt come in handy. i think even if i did have enough battery life i would still of forgotton to take pictures because i was way too busy going
"oooh look at this"
"check out the detail on that"
"look at this one"
"look at that wow!"

luckily the wife did snap some for me. and one of the first things on show was this absolute gem of old

a true John Blanche gem that i think anyone would truly admire. but for older gamers like myself seeing this adorn pages of old to seeing it with my own eyes was truly a bizarre but accomplishing moment for something so defining in my venture into this hobby many years ago.

this however wasnt my favourite of the day. and sadly my wife didnt take photos of my favourite. but for anyone that has been there or has seen the warhammer quest diorama by mike mcvey that truly is something to behold. sadly i cant even find any worthy internet photos of it either!
regardless its been about 2 months now since we were there. so i just wanted to get this post up so for those that havent seen can now!

upon leaving i was once again faced with balding over enthusiastic GW employee of the month. as i picked up some plaguebearers to add to my exotic adversaries for shadows over hammerhal this guy ACTUALLY rolled his eyes at me and said "is that it?" if it werent for my kids being with me i might if sent him home with a broken nose!

but of course im not a violent man. but if anyone deserved a slap...........

kudos to the super helpful guy on the till (same guy who was talking with my daughter) i wish there were more people like you working for games workshop as opposed to captain eyeroller!

anyways there is always 1 prick in a bunch of roses right? regardless we had a great day.
peace