Good hobby shops in London...

[Calavera]

Hmm, aye.. let\'s get it on.

In early october i\'ll be going on a trip
to London, and... because there is
absolutely no hobby shop in Iceland
that cares about miniature painting
other than the one that sells GW stuff,
they have GW paints and of course a
very good selection of 40k and Fantasy
.. well, i\'m looking for a good hobby
shop that carries good items for our
lovely hobby... best if it were in the
vicinity of Oxford street I\'m dead sick
of not finding any good quality brushes
and paints here on this forsaken frozen
rock ! So, if you know of any hobby shop
there in London.. mind sharing ?

 

[tooshy]

Good question Batman...

Hi there Calavera - welcome to CMON.

I know what you mean re hobby shops - it\'s nice to find a good independant retailer rather than the standard GW fare. Afterall, GW\'s shops seem to be exactly the same, no matter where they are! I went to one in Toronto and it was really disappointing \'cos it was just like the one back home...

Anyhoo....I I guess what I\'m really trying to say is, I don\'t know of any shops in London, but I\'ll keep an eye out for some. I\'m going up to London September time, so I could do with knowing myself.

It might be an idea to let us know when you will be over here so that we know when you need the info for.

In the meantime, enjoy youself on here

 

[kittykat23uk]

Hi There!

The nearest gaming store to Oxford Street that I know of is The Orcs Nest:

http://www.orcsnest.com/

Close to Tottenham Court Road/ Leicester Square tube stations. They do a good range of Reaper, Confrontation, etc. I think they may also have a couple of the old Ral Partha box set dragons still available.

Other than that, theres Leisure Games, but I\'ve never been there myself.

http://www.leisuregames.co.uk/

They\'re accessible via the Northern line, alighting at Finchely station.

Hope this helps. I\'m afriad Hamleys doesn\'t stock much in the way of miniatures, but they do do a nice range of plushies

Regards

Kat

 

[Calavera]

Thanks!

Yup, that was helpful, i liked the Leisure Games more.. the Orcsnest. The Orcsnest
website was a bit inaccesible. If i\'ll go to Leisure Games i\'ll definetly buy some
Rackham figs :flip: And i do think that GW store in The Plaza at Oxford Street is
better than good old Nexus here. But keep answering if you know any other...
i\'d like to know of one that sells Vallejo, Coat d\'arms or other good paints :bouncy:

 

[sippog]

Model shops in London

are thin on the ground .

\"Under 2 Flags\", a Military Modelling shop, is opposite Bond St Tube, up a narrow alley called Christopher\'s Place. They sell the Andrea paint range (same as Vallejo), sable brushes etc.

There used to be lots of independent gaming shops in London - ( remember Gamers in Exile anyone?) now there\'s just GW branches and a few left.

If you\'re interested in modeling as well as gaming, CometMiniatures, a garage kit shop, in Battersea is not too far from the city and worth checking out.

But the ultimate shop for modeling supplies is \"The Model Shop\" opposite Moorfields Eye Hospital near Old Street Tube. They cater for professional modelmakers and have all the specialised stuff those guys use. No fantasy figures though!!

 

[kittykat23uk]

We are very lucky here in Norwich, having a nice independant retailler as well as a GW store. There is also another gaming place that started off with Lan gaming and has now branched out to sell Void Miniatures and RPGs. However, for Confrontation and Vallejo, I still have to buy them online.

Regards

Kat

 

[Nomis]

If you can get out of London into Essex (Southend) there is Caliver books which stock Vallejo paints and Confrontation minis

Caliver Books

Other than that I would also highly recommend Leisure Games and to a lesser extent Orc\'s Nest.

Haven\'t been to Under Two flags for years but remember it very fondly from my days as a military modeler.

As far as brushes are concerned there are lots of decent art shops around London - a particularly good one is in Long Acre (Near Leicester Square) - don\'t know the name - also near Orc\'s Nest

Hope you enjoy your trip

 

[Calavera]

Resurrection

Riiiight, didn\'t want to make a new thread so i\'ll dump it on my old one.

London here i come, after 6 days :flip:
But, i figured i\'d want some plasticard for
my brothers christmas gift. Which is a 40k Landspeeder converted into a Nissan Skyline GT-R Just to show him Warhammer ain\'t so bad.. but i really don\'t think i will be able to greenstuff with the smoothness of a master on my first months :| So if you know where to get plasticard in London, preferably in downtown but not in the suburbs... reply !!

Or die

 

[aescarion]

The Model Shop in Old Street is probably good for stuff like plasticard.

I get my brushes (sexy Windsor & Newtons, because I\'m worth it) from Cass Arts on Charing Cross Road, near Leicester Square and the National Portrait Gallery.

Orc\'s Nest is okay - it has some Rackham minis (including a few new releases like Mira) and a couple of warmachine boxes, along with Reaper stuff and few other odds & ends. Orc\'s nest is much closer to me so I haven\'t been to Leisure Games, but I\'e heard good things about it.

 

[Fizl]

If I remember rightly, Leisure Games sells Vallejo paints as well!

I don\'t get up there much, as its much easier to pop into the West End and go to Orc\'s nest. I generally avoid GW as the staff tend to have female sensors on overdrive. Its amazing how often I can be asked if I need assistance

 

[PStafAllen]

Originally posted by Fizl
I don\'t get up there much, as its much easier to pop into the West End and go to Orc\'s nest. I generally avoid GW as the staff tend to have female sensors on overdrive. Its amazing how often I can be asked if I need assistance

My sister and her friends used to play a fun game whenever I wanted to go to GW. I\'d go in, and just before I took my selections to the counter, a number of girls equal to the number of staff in the shop would walk in. We\'d then see how long it took for me to get served even though none of the girls wanted any help or advice.
Longest was something like 11 minutes, timed by my sister.

 

[GunjiNoKanrei]

To chime in, my girlfriend once went to the GW store here in Cologne to look for a birthday present for me. She entered the store with a good friend (a girl too) in tow and they were immediately swarmed by a bunch of teenagers wanting to show them their \'miniatures\' :innocent: Not much later some of the staffers chased of the teenagers to take matters in their on hands...
She has been to a number of fantasy stores but never experienced something like this except in a GW store
Well if I visit the GW store and actually want help or advice from a staffer I always have to talk to them. They never ask me if I need help...

About the shops in London, I have been to Orc\'s Nest and they had a lot of miniatures. Leisure Games I have only heard of, but I will make sure to go there too next time I am in London.

 

[Nomis]

Originally posted by Fizl
If I remember rightly, Leisure Games sells Vallejo paints as well!

Not unless they have started in the last couple of weeks!

They do have GW and Gamecraft Miniature Paints.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Well I think I\'m one of the only women in Norwich who regularly goes into GW but I don\'t normally get swamped by the male staff members because then know I\'m attached and the also know how big my Fiancee is!

But it\'s rather disturbing when out of 2 coaches to Games Day there are only two women and the otherone is there with her son. Multiply that general ratio by all the other GW stores and the girls are seriously outnumbered!!

Regards

Kat

 

[JonG]

In addition to the aforementioned Leisure Games (never been there but buy a lot of stuff online from them) and Orcs Nest, there are:

Playin\' Games - Museum Street I think, just walk 5 minutes up New Oxford Street from Tottenham Court Road and Museum street is on the left.

And So it Begins - This is a new one in Ealing. A very nice shop with 16-pc LAN arena downstairs. It\'s my local.

One thing to note though is that both of these shops cater more for RPG/board/card games than minis.

My guess is that Leisure Games is probably best bet for figures/paints based on their catalogue.

 

[Calavera]

Thanks !

Thanks to all of you.. only 3 days now
I\'ll go to the Orcsnest to grab some minis and Harbinger... and maybe to that Model Shop.