Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 3

Friday started quite early, at 9 a.m. we went for a quick shopping at Mantic, as some of us wanted to buy some Kings of War armies. In my case, it were a few zombies (I really like the versatile use of the ghouls and zombies by Mantic) and the Dwarfen kings council. On top we got these Mantic messenger bags with personal dedication by Ronnie and Alessio.

But that was just a brief stay at Mantics, as we had the second part of our meeting with Warlord Games. I had the chance to meet John Stallard, who was tied the day before (he participated in the Games Workshop shareholder meeting). It was really great to meet another former high ranking manager. John participated in the same battle report, we mentioned yesterday with Ronnie.

Of course, Paul Sawyer is no unknown person either. Long time editor-in-chief of the White Dwarf (as the German White Dwarf had its own editorial staff, something not that familiar on our end), but we knew him from the 4 Generals series and as a cunning beastmen general as well.

While talking about upcoming releases, having the chance to see some 3-ups and unreleased models was amazing. What I really liked about Warlord, compared to many others who just want to release a personal project, they have a plan. There was already a roadmap for the upcoming years and now after 10 years it is amazing to see how all that developed.

As the Lenton Business Center is home to more than one miniature company and even covers a few casting rooms, our way to North Star Military Figures wasn't far. Steve introduced us to the owner, Nick Eyre. I remember Steve announcing us with "Hey Nick, I have some Germans for you" and a brief return from inside the office "What scale?". Steve looked at us ... "True scale I guess?". Off to a good start.

North Star is a distributor for many different manufacturers and coordinates whole-sale for a lot of smaller companies, who wouldn't be able to do so by their own. Especially if you're looking for historical miniatures, there is so much to find. Nowadays he teams up more often with Osprey Games and produced bestsellers like Frostgrave or the new mass combat ruleset of Oathmark. I bought an A7V back then, and Andre took care of his 15mm needs, cleaning the stock of many things like war-elephants or certain pike units. We even had the chance to talk some to some of the guys of the Warhammer Historical division.

But we had to move on, as we had a date for lunch and were meeting Alessio at Nottingham Castle. He arranged quite the lunch for us at the notorious Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, as we were about to meet Michael and Alan Perry, the infamous Perry twins. Working for more than 30 years in the business, this was an incredible honour to meet the two. We talked about crazy conversions, scales and personal preferences while gaming.

Alessio, Michael and Alan were invited to Wellington for preparation of the Lord of the Rings tabletop (the former name of the Middle-Earth Strategy Game) and even had cameos in Lord of the Rings (Return of the King as Rohan soldiers) during the final battle. They even put that into the final model of the War-Mumak, as you can see on the base. Especially the twins developed a close friendship with Peter Jackson, that laid the foundation for the impressive Gallipoli exhibition. As well as a further cameo of the two in the last part of the Hobbit Trilogy.

We were invited by Alan for a game of Black Powder, and would have loved to go with them, but their work schedule and our remaining program didn't allow that to happen (still a pity) as the two had to get back to work.  But Alessio had Turanga with him (the multiplayer expansion for Shuro), and we played two fast rounds.

After browsing through the city centre of Nottingham and paying a visit to the local gaming stores of the city (who didn't cover tabletop), we headed back to Bugmans. Because, you know, free wifi, good choice of meals.

In case you're wondering, the dim lighting and round tables were the preparations for the board meeting celebration. Anyhow, we grabbed some dinner and got back to the Hotel, as tomorrow our final day incl. the travel back to Germany would need us rested.

Back in the hotel we used the time to take a closer look into the freshly acquired miniatures and kits, while having a pint or two.