Warhammer World 2020 – Exhibition Centre Part 1

Part of the Warhammer World experience is the exhibition centre, with a large gallery of miniatures, vignettes and battle scenes, across multiple rooms and levels. Some parts of the exhibition are updated multiple times during the year, including guest displays. Reason enough to give it another go and browse the displays, for some close ups. To see additional pictures of these and former exhibits, take a look at my visit to the Exhibition Centre back in 2018.

As before, the exhibition starts with the very early days of the Citadel and Games Workshop works in the first corner of the miniature hall. Among those are some of the very first miniatures and books of the 80s, along with iconic vignettes from the early 90s.

The vignette of the Bretonian jousting tournament was made by Dave Andrews back in 1996 and won a Golden Demon. It was made from - among others - miniatures of the old bretonian range, that were sculpted by the Michael and Alan Perry. Some of the civilians are even from older Citadel ranges from the early 1980s.

Next to them were some classic Champions of Chaos / Chaos Warriors along with the Heroic Fighters of the Old World (1988, designed by Jes Goodwin). And further dioramas / vignettes, like Azrael on the Rock and a very classic battle scene between Wood Elves and the Undead, that was shown in the White Dwarf in the mid 90s.

A fantastic vignette is this scene of Tilean / Estalian Conquistadors attacking a Slann temple, trying to free a captive. This was done used with some miniatures from the early Empire range (Pistoliers, converted Foot Soldiers, converted Reiksguard) and Lizardman range (Slann Magepriest and his Temple Guard), along with extensive use of Green Stuff and scratchbuild terrain.

These lovely and even among Oldhammer miniatures rare Chaos Dwarf miniatures are shown in their full glory. You can see the Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, the Bull Centaurs, the regular Hobgoblin warriors and some warmachines.

But all that is just the first display cabinet! It leads you towards the first stairs and upper level of the exhibition, showing the holy grail of many miniature painters - the Slayer Sword. Next it are boards listing the Slayer Sword winners of the past, not only from the UK but all over the world. You can see some well known names on there, that are still active in the scenes for quite some time. Games Workshop hosts a website for the Golden Demon itself, showing some of the winning entries and of course the Slayer Sword winning exhibits.

The halls are roughly split into the old world of Warhammer Fantasy and new Realms of Age of Sigmar in the first rooms and later continue towards the grim dark future of Warhammer 40.000.

The exhibits are mixed between large installations, covering epic battle scenes and illuminated display cabinets, that show armies and individual miniatures.

As I am still a huge fan of the Empire, I couldn't withstand to once again take pictures of this Imperial city being attacked by an Orkish Waaagh! This is a mixture of classic 6th edition miniatures and later additions to the range in the 8th edition, for both sides the Empire and the Orks.

Even Warcry can be seen in one of the lower shelfs, covering the contents of the Warcry starter set, and a stylized eight pointed chaos star as terrain.

Some parts of the exhibition are rather dark, other brightly illuminated, which makes it hard to take pictures. Especially this large Necropolis, with lots of human slaves and multiple levels and angles. This is something, that is best viewed directly at the exhibition, as pictures just don't do it justice.

And in between those large tables, are the smaller cabinets, with forces and warbands, large monsters and individual miniatures, dominantly of the current range of Age of Sigmar.

The Raid on Mawrack Peninsula from 2018, was first shown at Warhammer Fest UK and then exhibited at Warhammer World starting in May of the same year. If you have White Dwarf of November 2018 you can see further coverage of that interesting scene between Idoneth Deepkin and Savage Orruks.

A little bit of love came to the Lord of the Rings as well, with this Rohan Village using the new terrain kits. I'll return to this once I've done the reviews on both, the houses and walls. To recreate the buildings you would need two of the Stronghold sets, which isn't that much for such an impressive table.

One of the cabinets showed winning entries from the Golden Demon painting competition. Mixed, not only Fantasy but 40k as well.

I have covered The Clash of Marrowbreak Spire from 2017 in the last coverage as well. But I thought with the rules for Airfights in the White Dwarfs of Dec 19 / Jan 20 it would be a good idea to bring that back into the minds of the readers. And In the Gargants Trap by Owen Patte picks up that idea again (this vignette is covered in the Diorama book as well).

And so continues the exhibition with further large battle scenes, like the one for the introduction of Age of Sigmar, and further armies, that not only cover the AoS kits, but additional miniatures from the Forge World range. Blood Bowl was pulled a bit back, but was updated to show some of the newer releases like the Halflings of the Greenfield Grasshuggers and Forge World boosters.

As I took more than 200 pictures in the halls, I reduced and split the total number into the two articles. The Warhammer 40.000 models will be covered in the second part.

The exhibition halls costs 7,50 GBP per adult, 5 GBP for children from 12 to 17, younger kids are free. There are group and family tickets available as well. The exhibition covers a lift, so you can reach the levels with a stroller or wheel chair.

Link: Games Workshop Warhammer World Exhibition Centre