Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 4
Last day of our trip to the lead belt and we headed to the outer area of the Nottinghamshire, to Mansfield to be exactly. Why head out there? Maelstrom Games had their facilities there, back in the day one of the largest wargaming stores, maybe only second to Wayland Games in the UK.
What made it interesting was not only the vast range, but the incredibly large gaming hall with 72 (!) tables, that hosted two tournaments at the same time. Epic 40.000 and Warhammer Ancient Battles on that day we were there. But not all, they even covered a bar, lounge and even more gaming tables. I think one of the things that impressed me the most, that even although the vast amount of tables and this not being club rooms, the amount of terrain was high and the quality of it more than just presentable.
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.
Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 2
For the first full day in Nottingham we had the two newcomers on the miniature market on our schedule, Warlord Games and Mantic Games.
Warlord was already in the Lenton Business Centre where they sit until today. But back in the day, as a young and small company, they only rented single offices that were spread across the centre and not the whole wing and own brick & mortar store like today.
The range was already quite broad in terms of historical coverage, but far from the variety of plastic kits as today. The Early Imperial Romans and some Black Powder kits were already available and the first German soldiers for Bolt Action.
Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 1
In August I have written about my anniversary in "professional" wargaming, and during my time as editor-in-chief I visited a lot of shows and convention, and we did some tours to meet with some of the manufacturers. Our first large tour of that kind was exactly 10 years ago (well in the night from the 14th to the 15th), towards the lead belt.
For those of you not familiar with that term, the lead belt describes the greater Nottingham area / Midlands, as due to Games Workshop sitting there, a lot of other tabletop companies were founded in the surrounding area - many by former Games Workshop employees.
As we were already in touch with the bigger companies for coverage, news and such, we arranged a couple of meetings in and around Nottingham and booked our stay in a hotel in Nottingham (Jury's Inn, proper stay, can only recommend). When I say we, it was Christian/Darkover (my former second-in-command), his wife Sarah, and two friends of mine from the local wargaming club; Andre (the albanian national coach, more on that later) and Lukas (my flatmate from my student days).
Back from the Lead Belt
I still owe you guys some reportage on my Nottingham trip.
The 4 days around Warlord Games Day were not only used to visit Warlord Games, but Mantic, Battlefront and the Warhammer World as well.
First off all, what did i bring back to Germany? Due to travelling by plane a little bit less than i would have otherwise.
Bring out your Lead 2023
Last weekend we were in Nottinghamshire for Bring Out Your Lead 2023! And that gave me the opportunity to cross two items from my bucket list, visiting BOYL and visiting Foundry, as we never had the chance to do the later, not even in our initial Lead Belt trip in 2010. Brief warning - this article covers about 90 images.
What is Bring Out Your Lead?
Bring Out Your Lead (affectionately and unfortunately known as 'BOYL') is a celebration of all things Oldhammer; old games, old miniatures, old ... well, people too! We get together once a year to put on amazing narrative games surrounded by these old rules and miniatures - just like the pictures of the games we stared at in those various gaming magazines all those years ago before there was an internet.
And, whilst it gets harder to bring any more definition to BOYL, you can rest assured: Bring Out Your Lead is NOT A TOURNAMENT!
Wargames Foundry is kind enough to provide a venue for this event, the Carriage Court Stoke Hall, so we put on proper boots due to the weather and went from Nottingham towards Newark.
Great Escape Games – Old West Building
After tinkering around with the General Purpose Wagon, and further converting the kit, Great Escape got in touch with me and send me some sprues from their current Kickstarter campaign.
The crowdfunding campaign for Dead Man's Hand Redux is meant to finance a new starter set, covering plastic miniatures and terrain! And the later is something, that I noticed being hinted in the background of the product shots of the last few months. Please be aware, these are early test sprues, so things can change, parts can be tweaked and added, and what we see here might not be the final product.
August 2023 review
Half of the things that I promised in the preview on August actually happened - and we were in Nottingham for a prolonged weekend, including all the things we had planned beforehand and a few things more.
Our main reason for being there was BOYL / Bring out your Lead. I wrote a sum-up on it here - Bring out your Lead 2023, and it was a lovely day. And as we didn't have a tight schedule, as we had in our Salute trip in 2018 (Operation Sealion) or the prolonged detour in 2020, we had more time for other activies.
These included a bit more being at the pubs and restaurants, and some leisure time, that we used among other things to go Nottingham Castle and had a great time at the Lost City Adventure Golf. Very well maintained indoor golf facility, where you could not only have a beer while you play, you can order more on the course.
Warhammer World 2023 – Exhibition Centre Part 3
And the third part of our coverage on the 2023 visits to the Warhammer World exhibition, focusing on the 40,000 part of Warhammer, including the gigantic centre piece of the exhibit further below.
Imperial Might
A huge mustering of the Imperial Guard. This has been in the exhibition since 2015, and can be seen in our 2018 and 2020 coverage, but is updated from time to time, to include newer units. For example the tanks in the front rows have been replaced by the Rogal Dorn Tanks. This time I paid more attention to the background and I really like scratch build supply train in the background, as well as the modified Valkyrie using the wings and eagle from the Aquila Strongpoint of the Wall of Martyrs kit (rare kit and OOP).
July 2023 review
I am very excited about August, for multiple reasons. This weekend we will be heading to Nottingham, for Bring out your Lead 2023!
It is an open gaming weekend, a celebration of all things Oldhammer for which Wargames Foundry will provide once more the venue. BOYL gathers once a year to host narrative games using old rules and miniatures. And that was reason for us to visit this event for the first time and pay the Lead Belt another visit.
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