So this year I had the chance to return to Warhammer World in Nottingham, before I swung by Bootleg BOYL.
Nottingham is a fun city- not too overwhelming but with several fun things to tour and do, especially if you’re into minis. The sandstone caves, the old pubs, the castle, and Wollaton hall are all worth a visit. I get the vibe it’s pretty off the beaten path for your typical US tourist who is not into Warhammer.
Anyhow, I drove over and parked downtown for Bootleg BOYL. If you’re downtown at the trainstation or a carpark, it is easy to get over to Warhammer World- there is a tram but I’d recommend the lovely walk down the Nottingham Canal if you can swing it.
Warhammer World
Anywho, Warhammer World! This is the big GW HQ and it is the corporate headquarters plus the tourist/consumer facing store, exhibition, and gaming area. The gaming area has been pretty hopping both times I’ve been. There is of course Bugman’s Brewery on site as well. I’ll focus on that all a bit more if/when I get around to writing up BOYL/Warhammer World/Warlord Games/Baccus 2025. Today I’ll just focus on the Exhibition itself! The gaming area and store is free to visit, but the exhibition is an extra eight pounds or so. I’ll walk through this, but if you’re into this kid of stuff I do highly recommend doing the exhibition, by the standards of GW it’s an absolute steal. You walk through 4 exhibition halls anchored by the spectacular dioramas.
The Oldhammer
One of the great things that struck me about WW is the museum setup at the beginning that explains a bit of the origins and evolution of the games workshop line. While obviously corporate focused, it does serve as a overview of the evolution of the miniature wargaming hobby from the early days of toy soldiers into RPG miniatures. Obviously, I’m quite into all this lore and history, even if it is overly focused on the GW history. To their credit, in the 80s they really did set a new model for wargaming that has continued on through today. And it was a fantastic chance to see some amazing pieces from GW history. It isn’t as extensive as the Ansell collection at Wargames Foundry, but it is better organized and displayed. And it lacks the charm of the Stuff of Legend’s and Richard Hale’s collection, but it is one of the top places to see this kind of thing (Citadel and GW only of course).
The oldhammer stuff is pretty well labeled with useful little info tags but is scattered in the first room of main exhibition and the gaming hall- so be sure to swing by the hall to take a look before you go in!
There were some incredible models and kits on display, and a handful of sprues/games and other artifacts. It was fun seeing younger kids take a look at these and draw the throughlines to the designs of GW stuff they like today!
The Golden Demon
Only a handful of old GD winners are on display, but you can see a slayer sword and all the plaques, including Borja’s win at Adepticon 2025 which I got to see and stuff like Paul Robbins double win in the early days of the comp!
The Dioramas
While there are many, many cases with beautifully painted armies spanning approximately the mid nineties to today, the highlight of WW is dioramas- many created for WW specifically. The scale is pretty incredible and the only comparable things are large model railroad displays or things like Miniature Wonderland in Germany (gotta get there someday). Somewhat less spectacularly, but very special to me, are the set of dioramas from the 90s, many created by Mike Mcvey when he had the coolest job in the miniatures hobby, which really set the standard for what miniature art could be. I see this kind of thing as the genesis of the modern Scifi/Fantasy painting hobby.
Mike Mcvey’s classic Lustria Diorama- look at all the detail in the terrain making!
A super cool Warhammer Quest diorama, again by Mike Mcvey, showing different scenes from the game!
To take a break from Mike, Dave Andrew’s winning GD jousting diorama- definitely super inspiring when I saw this in WD.
Finally, 2 classic scratch built 40k dioramas from Mike Mcvey in the 90s. Again set a standard for building scenarios, storytelling, and composition. But when you really zoom in (right) you can see the incredible detail and effort put into these. Wonderful to see in person.
Fantasy and AOS
The displays include lots of stuff both from the Old World (yay) and AOS (looks cool I supposed but less yay). Again, many wonderful armies in the cases, but the dioramas are the coolest.
Go get ’em, boyz!
These pegasus knights are super cool!
The cool dragon is based on a carnosaur body, and this portal is really rad!
Nurgle! And these giants are super cool- man there are so many cool details packed in these things.
Middle Earth Dioramas
While they don’t have any (or seem to acknowledge the existence of) the old LOTR line, there is a nice set of displays on all the minis from the movies. And some of the dioramas are great!
I also love this story about Rick Priestly annoying the heck out of the design team to make a Gandalf in Cart!
These were all very cool and super cinematic, with loads of little details to reward the patient viewer.
Warhammer 40,000, Epic, and Necromunda!
The biggest stuff was of course for 40k! Many of these dioramas were super cool. The largest and most majestic of them all of course is the huge Khorne assault on the Ultramarine Homeworld. Somewhere in there is an assassin hiding which, if you find it, garners you a prize! This is a huge affair, but my favorite thing is the titan being hit by the drop pod, which is super hard core.
This was one of my favorites of the modern dioramas- brings that whole space marine vibe to life.
This was impressive, but I think it highlights at some point how Warhammer 40,000 lost the punk counterculture subtext and just has the text left….
There were also a ton of fantastic Legion Imperialis/Epic dioramas- what a great scale for diorama building! Super impressive stuff.
So hopefully this makes a good overview of the exhibition! Lots of great stuff there- I’d plan for a couple three hours for your visit, if you’re like me. If you’re in a hurry, an hour is sufficient I think. Hope you get a chance to see it sometime!
I was chatting with one of the staff about the DC location. It sounds like a location in the DC suburbs has been selected and the plan is to make a distinct experience from the Nottingham WW. We’ll see what that ends up being, but we were both excited as nothing like this has existed since the old Battle Bunker closed in Glen Burnie!
And, of course, in the store, I couldn’t help myself.
So sorry to shill for ole GW, but this is an interesting exhibition if you’re in the area and have a chance to visit!
-BS