mini-related things to do in London?

[CrookedEye]

Hello all,

I'll be back in London next week for work, and may have a little time to shop. Are there any suggestions for retail stores and/or mini-related things to do?

Too bad Atenocities isn't in London, I could easily drop a lot there. Actually, maybe that's a good thing.

Zach
www.crookedeye.net

 

[supervike]

You'd think there'd be a thing or two to do.

 

[IdofEntity]

Well, there are ladies of the night that have dwarfism and--Oh!

Sorry, not what you meant with the title. Need to learn to read the whole post.

 

[BPI]

Last time I was down there, the best I managed was nipping to The Orc's Nest (a short walk from Covent Garden/Tottenham Court Road/Leicester Square tube) followed by a wander over to L. Cornelissen & Son on Great Russell Street for art supplies (website is a bit shabby but the store is fantastic).
http://www.orcsnest.com/shop.htm
http://www.cornelissen.com/html/location_map.asp
Not sure what else there is down there for minis but in the same area there are numerous comic shops, several of which have plenty of Japanese merchandise as well as the US stuff. I like Gosh, down the road from the art supplies store & conveniently opposite the British Museum in case you want to go & look at a mummy!
If you're into the military history end of things then of course numerous places to visit if you've time, the Imperial War Museum & the Tower Of London being two obvious candidates.

Have a fun visit :good:

Cheers, B.

 

[CrookedEye]

Thanks guys. I've been to the Orcs Nest before, may head back there and I'll be staying near the British Museum so Gosh sounds like a good visit too.

Appreciate the info!

And as for the dwarfish ladies of the night, that would be "mini-related PEOPLE to do". That's in my other post.

Zach

 

[Einion]

In terms of what's easy to get to, I think Orc's Nest and L. Cornelissen & Son are really good suggestions. There was or is a general model shop (Gamezone?) within a reasonable walking distance of the same area but it might not be worth the hike to you.

In Cornelissen's, obviously there's a lot of paint you probably won't have any interest in but they have their own line of Kolinsky brushes that are worth trying. This is one of the good shops, where they won't look at you funny if you ask for a glass of water to test the pointing of brushes!

If you might want to look into getting some acrylic mediums, retarder etc. then another good central place to pop into is the London Graphic Centre, which is a short walk from Covent Garden (it's a bit hard to find if you don't have an A-Z but you can always look it up on Google Maps before you go).

And if you happen to make it down to the area of Sloane Square there's another good art shop down there called Green & Stone and ditto all of the above comments related to Cornelissen & Son.

Personally I never go to London without popping into The National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery is just behind it so it's easy to hit both in a flying visit. Come to think of it, just up Charing Cross Road a bit is a small art store that seems to have regular sales, right beside the Capital Radio building.

Einion

 

[nels0nmac]

Other than what's suggested above you could also try Forbidden Planet. Which is round the corner from the Orcs Nest. Not so much in the way of gaming mini's (in fact I don't think they do any) but lots of film related statuettes / figures and other cool stuff. They also have a fantastic book section downstairs which stocks a huge selection of Fantasy/sci fi as well as Anima and other graphic novels.

The science museum is well worth looking into - if you have a spare day ( or two) - it's massive. Lots of things to play with and look at. There is a section that I found myself in whilst wandering about, basically a huge space filled with lots of model boats. And I mean lots of boats. Everything from trawlers to WW2 destroyers, cargo ships to tudor galleons. loads of stuff. I think that section is a bit out of the way as there wasn't that many people in that section when I was poking around. Again not necessarily mini related but it is fun just looking at the amount of detail that is applied to some of the models.

 

[CrookedEye]

Personally I never go to London without popping into The National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery is just behind it so it's easy to hit both in a flying visit. Come to think of it, just up Charing Cross Road a bit is a small art store that seems to have regular sales, right beside the Capital Radio building.

Einion

And thanks to you find blokes as well. I have actually been to this store before, got a whole bunch of W&N series 7 mini brushes for just a few pounds each. I will be checking again.

Zach

 

[Wyrmypops]

If supplies have an allure, could maybe pop into the physical presence of http://www.modelshop.co.uk/frontend/contactUs I ain't been there so can't say what it'd be like.

There's always Games Workshop just up the road, on Oxford Street in the ikkle Plaza centre.

I live in London but sate most of my hobby needs online. Seems a rule of thumb, no matter where you are where you need to go it takes an hour and a half.

 

[CrookedEye]

That looks great, I'm always looking for extras and things to add to my collection. I will definitely stop by there.

Zach

 

[nels0nmac]

If supplies have an allure, could maybe pop into the physical presence of http://www.modelshop.co.uk/frontend/contactUs I ain't been there so can't say what it'd be like.

I've been in there a lot as the stuff they have is very useful for detailing architectural models, which is my profession, and it's what they tend to cater for.Most of the items are specific scales for the most used architectural sized models. That said they do have some interesting stock material- various metal meshes and sheet material, a good range of rods and tubes, most glues that you can think of using and a lot of useful tools. Despite the scaled stuff I still find it interesting to have a look around every now and then and see what interesting bits and pieces that they have that can be used on minis.
It's not a particularly large shop and it's a bit out of the way if you're limited time wise. Generally speaking what they have in the store is what they have on their website.