Attended: 10 thru 14th August 2009

Ingredient #1: von Peter himself has said it before and he will say it again - one of the benefits of travelling to the other side of the world is the access to hobby related activities that are available to be experienced during such a trip.

Ingredient #2: Sadly (at least in the eyes of Fraulien von Peter herself 😀) The Son & heir seems to have taken to The Hobby like a duck to water. It’s all von Peter’s fault apparently. In particular the Games Workshop (GW) games Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) and Warhammer 40K (40K) fill his days with scheming and plotting for world or galaxy domination.

Ingredient #3: GW offer (for a price!) a range of hobby activities at Warhammer World which is situated on their Nottingham headquarters site. The offerings include Hobby Camps where the lucky/brainwashed hobbyist can spend a week (five days) painting, modelling and playing their choice of either WFB or 40K.

The consequence: The Son & heir spent the 10th through 14th of August 2009 indulging his dreams on a GW Hobby Camp at Warhammer World in Nottingham. von Peter himself and the Fraulien von Peter herself spent those very same days trying to fill in the hours around Nottingham while still being able to deliver the happy Hobby Camper to Warhammer World at 9am and retrieve him at 5pm. <grumble grumble>

Above: a view of the gaming area in Warhammer World before the hoards of gamers descend - these tables are available for use by the public. I even spotted a test game of Warmaster Napoleonics here one day. The closed and partially open black gateways in the distance are the entrances to the onsite shop. The Son & heir was amused that at times the shop would run out of stock and would have to wait for a reorder ... which would appear in about half an hour. Read it and weep regular GW shops. The heading picture shows another view of the same

For the princely sum of £186.00 the Hobby Camper gets a Large Army Carry Case, a Battalion (WFB) or Battleforce (40K) of your choice and a cooked lunch with a dessert and a drink each day. Tools, paints, brushes and materials are provided. The Son & heir elected to reprise Orcs and Goblin (they were his first army) in WFB. Of course the Orcs and Goblins Battalion box leaves a little to be desired in the force makeup stakes so a general pack and some fanatics were added to the fiscal battering over the course of the week.

Above left: The Son & heir happy in his his work. Looking at those fingers I’m not sure who’s getting more paint applied - orc or human! One night I got a lecture about using a pallet to paint from. Damned indoctrination! Mind you, I don’t see much evidence of a pallet here  

Right: A GW photo shows The Son & heir in the Citadel Miniatures Hall having just put the Slayer Sword on his foot in an uncontrolled and painful manner ... apparently!

The Hobby Camp participants ranged in age from a little less than The Son & heir to adult and they were supervised and mentored by three GW staffers. Unfortunately the week we chose ended up being the biggest Hobby Camp ever which meant that some events were a little curtailed. This didn’t worry The Son & heir who was engrossed in a giddy schedule of painting, gaming and chatting to the GW staff and fellow campers.

Meanwhile the poor undervalued father <sniff> was tasked with delivering the happy Hobby Camper each day and then taking up station in Bugman's Bar & Restaurant to check emails and the web on his laptop via the free wifi. There were only two problems with this arrangement (well three actually if you include the nearly 40 minute walk there and the nearly 40 minute walk back twice a day).

     i.     the happy Hobby Campers were let into Warhammer World at 9am, but everything else (including the service at Bugman’s) started at 10am which left an hour before a coffee ... or anything ... could be procured,

     ii.     for the whole week we were there Bugman’s was out of its special brew - Bugman’s XXX XXX - so von Peter himself never got to sample it.

A particularly pleasant event came the way of von Peter himself one morning as he started his walk back to town - Alan Perry was chanced upon in the car park. After a pleasant chat Alan offered to drive von Peter himself into town as he was going that way. So we both clambered into Alan’s motor (an Audi TT, 3.5 I think - very nice and explained as being the result of a mid life crisis) and went on our way. Most excellent.

Above: a view of Bugman’s Bar & Restaurant. The far end contains games and books (not all of them GW product I was surprised and pleased  to see) that can be played in Bugman’s. The Family ate a meal here one night. I checked but couldn’t spot any obvious Orc flesh in the food!

See below for a few more assorted photos.

Oh yes - The Son & heir loved his Hobby Camp week. He wants to do it again next year!

Salute

von Peter himself