Obituary Paul Sawyer
Earlier today Paul's family posted this on facebook, informing his friends about his passing.
To all that knew and loved Paul, it’s with a truly broken heart that we must share the news that our beloved husband and father passed away on the evening of March 27th surrounded by the immense love of his family. From the very beginning of his diagnosis, he showed nothing short of heroism with his bravery and strength and that carried through right until the end. We are truly devastated and will feel his loss forever.
We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the kindness that has been shared with Dad and to us as a family during this cruel battle.
May he finally rest peacefully.
All our love,
Julie, Catherine & Holly
It was a great privilege to meet Paul Sawyer in person 15 years ago – and that on our first ‘official’ trip to Nottingham. Together with John Stallard, Paul took a lot of time for us, a small group of German wargaming bloggers who were on a true pilgrimage to the Lead Belt. In the following years, often even at invitation, as at the Warlord Games Day, we were repeatedly able to experience the hospitality of Paul and his team. Our visit in 2023 as part of the Bring-out-your-Lead event, when we were guests in Nottingham again, remains particularly unforgettable.
It was not only a personal experience for me to meet Paul as the former long-standing editor-in-chief of White Dwarf, but also to feel the passion and enthusiasm for the hobby that he has brought to life in his numerous articles. It was equally fascinating to witness how Warlord Games, the company Paul co-founded, grew from its modest beginnings in the small offices of the first headquarters to the later relocations to larger premises – always with Paul in the characteristic Notts County jersey, a polo shirt or the tea cup of his beloved Magpies in hand. We were also allowed to take a look at the personal projects he worked on at his desk.
It is therefore particularly painful to have to say goodbye to a man for whom our hobby was not just a job, but a true calling.
Our deepest condolences go out to his family and to all those who knew and appreciated him.
In case you want to donate, as the GoFundMe campaign for Paul has been closed, you can do so at CancerResearchUK.
Bembel Miniature Cup 2025
Last weekend the second Bembel Miniature Cup was held in the centre of Germany near Frankfurt / Main at the EVO Sportfabrik in Rodgau (Hessia). It is painting competition that goes for four days, including workshop sessions, but is opened public for the weekend. The event is free of charge for visitors, only participants of the workshops and painting competition pay a fee.
We dropped by Sunday morning and as loyal readers will know, our event reports start with a picture of the parking lot. The venue itself has only a few, and even charging points (but those were blocked by inconsidered people with their non-electric SUVs), so you're parking a few hundred meters down the road, next to the forest cemetery.
The painting competition itself is divided into four categories Painting / Sculpting / Technical, Expression / Storytelling, Gaming and Out-of-Competition / Judges, with the first three divided into two tiers (Standard and Master). As the competition is set as an open event, there can be more than one, gold, silver and bronce per tier and category, along with further special awards like Best of Show. You can find the complete rule set on their page.
The Silver Bayonet – Spain 1810
Most people when they think about the Napoleonic Wars, they think about the Battle of Austerlitz, Trafalgar or Waterloo, but quite a long period of the war was fought on the Iberian Pensinular, in Portugal and Spain, but if you want to have a quick intro, there are three YouTube videos bringing you up to speed in different levels of depth:
- History Matters - Why did Napoleon betray Spain? (3m 23s)
- Feature History - The Peninsular War (12m 14s)
- Epic History - The Peninsular War (19m 50s)
But why of all conflicts the Iberian theatre of war? This would give me the chance to re-use some of the mediterranean terrain that I have for Bolt Action and the Crusades, and I like using terrain across multiple settings, as it saves room and time.
And this project idea brewed for quite some time on the back burner. It is no secret, I am a fan of the works of Paul Hicks, and at some point I was made aware that he sculpted Napoleonics, but not just any Napoleonics, but the 95th rifles, a unit from an old tv-show with Sean Bean, where he actually sees the end of the day to film 16 episodes over 15 years - we're talking about Sharpe.
January 2025 review
Welcome to 2025 and we're doing a recap on January!
The year started directly with a gaming event, Dino and I went to ScenarioCon in Hackenheim. I managed to play quite a few games, tried out Fallout Wasteland Warfare, a home brew horror game about Jack the Ripper and All That'Z Left.
Footsore Miniatures – Mortal Gods Mythic Wild Centaurs
After we've already taken a closer look at the civilized centaurs, today we're taking a look at the wild version of the four-legged gentlemen. All models are intended for the Mortal Gods Mythic game and, like the civilized version, were modelled by Trish Carden.
SzenarioCon 2025
After a long break, I came back to the Palatinate, and as already described in the kick-off, the new wargaming year starts early, right on the second weekend, with the Szenario Con in Hackenheim, near Bad Kreuznach.
The event was fully booked, around 200 guests and 25 hosted Games / presentations along with several traders. Many thanks at this point to Jürgen and Frank for the great organisation.
The venue is a courtyard restaurant in the foothills of the Rheinhessen wine-growing region. You can go for a walk nearby or take a look upon the animals in the petting zoo nearby. And as veteran readers know, there is no event coverage without a proper parking lot picture.
Kick Off 2025
We gave you a summary of the last year already in our recap article on 2024, so it is time to look ahead on 2025.
It was surely a good year wargaming wise, lots of travelling and meeting up with people, and the plan is surely to keep on doing that for the new year.
Shows, Conventions and real-life gaming meetups
I talked with Dino and the others, to see what we can fit in our schedule for this year and try to fix as much as possible. So far these are booked or at least written down in bold letters in my calendar. And we're starting with an event in the next week already.
Happy New Year and December 2024 review
Another year is coming to an end, so enjoy 2024's New Year's Eve and have a Happy New Year!
Just like we did in the past, let me combine the review of December and looking back upon the whole year in a single article.
November 2024 review
It's December - again. That was or at least felt quite quick. Anyhow, let us sum up the last month, November of 2024.
Prior to the christmas time, other holidays were present. For example Sankt Martin, which I took as a chance to built a Space Marine latern, and just a few days earlier was Halloween. Usually something that we only participate as a grown-up party, if at all, but with the kids growing up and in coordination with other households in our little town, we went "trick or treating" with our kids and they got quite the haul.
TabletopWelt Paint Meeting 2024
For the third time, Robert aka Grinsemann of Wolpertinger Miniatures organised the TabletopWelt Maltreff (Painting Meeting), and this time - after some mild persuasion by Dino - I joined in.
The venue is a youth hostel, located within an old manor in the Eastern part of Germany, in Thuringia about half an hour north of Erfurt. But more on that later.
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