cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/23213051

Mini painter and model builder Michael Patterson, of YouTuber channel Nat 1 Videos, has successfully launched a Warhammer 40k Space Marine miniature into low orbit. He tells us how he achieved this feat using a weather balloon, help from his engineer brother Stephen, and a lot of messages to the British Civil Aviation Authority.

Stephen and Michael are “both nerds, but very different kinds of nerds”: while Michael builds DnD terrain, Lord of the Rings dioramas, and Warhammer 40k cosplay props for his YouTube channel, Stephen has a PhD from Imperial College and teaches engineering in London.

Stephen “runs a programme for his students where they launch small satellites called ‘can sats’ by using large weather balloons”, Michael says. The project to send a Space Marine into space “came about as a way for my brother and I to spend time together”, he explains, an activity that combined his “love of the miniature-based

Some of the world's biggest companies started from humble beginnings, but Games Workshop's early days were less glamourous than most.

"We ended up having to live in a van," says Sir Ian Livingstone.

He launched the brand - best known for its Warhammer games - with co-founder Steve Jackson back in 1975.

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The pair ended up working out of a small room in the back of an estate agent's office, and joined a local squash club to access the showers.

"We had no aspirations of it being anything large at all," says Sir Ian.

"We were following the passion of being gamers wanting to be involved in some sort of fledgling games business."

That passion has bloomed since then, and Games Workshop is more successful than it's ever been, recently entering the list of the UK's top 100 companies.

Headquartered in the Lenton area of Nottingham, it made £126.8m ($154.4m) profit in the second half of 2024, selling its products worldwide.

Miniatures were only part of the equat

In Nottingham, an army of tiny warriors is on the advance. Space Marines, Weirdboyz, Chaos Knights – and very small paint pots – are grabbing more territory as Games Workshop confirms plans for its fourth factory and buys land for two more to meet demand for its fantasy figurines.

It is the latest win for the designer and maker of miniature wargames – including the hit Warhammer franchise – which joined the FTSE 100 list of the UK’s leading companies shortly before Christmas. Its valuation has more than tripled in the past four years to just over £4.2bn – making it worth more than the airline EasyJet, the property firm British Land and the B&Q owner Kingfisher.

Started 50 years ago by three school friends, Games Workshop enjoyed a boom during the pandemic and has continued to thrive as hobbies and small treats that can be enjoyed at home have benefited from the cost of living squeeze.

It has also benefited from lucrative rights deals: signing up with Amazon last month to ad

Games Workshop has declared an 80p per share dividend as the retailer continues to see strong trading momentum after a bumper year of returns.

The latest payout takes the Warhammer creator's dividend payments to 265p per share so far this financial year, compared to 195p per share by the same time last year.

The Nottingham-based business, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, said the payouts reflected its policy to distribute 'truly surplus cash'.

Games Workshop expects to report at least £295million in total revenue and pre-tax profits of no less than £120million for the six months ending 1 December.

Its overall sales and pre-tax profits for the same period in 2023 were £248.6million and £13million, respectively.

Analysts at broker Peel Hunt said the company had enjoyed 'a busy few weeks,' with Space Marine sales topping 5 million units and the Secret Level animated anthology series becoming Amazon Prime's top-rated show.

One of Secret Level's episodes w

Like the Skaven mounting an expedition across the scorched Dark Lands, Games Workshop Group PLC (LSE:GAW) is entering territory fraught with dangers.

Following two years of deliberations, the Warhammer 40,000 owner has formally granted Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) exclusive rights to adapt its prized intellectual property into film and television content.

With the agreement, Games Workshop is putting its reputation – and 40 years of goodwill among loyal Warhammer fans – on the line.

Turning beloved, geeky franchises into mainstream content has had a mixed history, to say the least.

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For Games Workshop, the stakes are ostensibly higher.

Since 1983, Warhammer enthusiasts have kept Games Workshop afloat by being loyal customers of its pricey figurines, some of which go for more than £100 each.

The company exists because of a tight-knit base of fans that risks being alienated if their hobby is not given the treatment it deserves in a big-budget adaptation.

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Germany has Europe’s industrial titans. Denmark is home to one of the world’s hottest pharma stocks. France has the kings of luxury goods. Meanwhile, the latest recruit to the UK’s blue-chip index makes injection-moulded figurines of necrons, dark angels and imperial knights.

It would be easy to depict Games Workshop, whose shares will join the FTSE 100 from December 23, as emblematic of the growing unseriousness of the country’s stock market. Its central brand is Warhammer, a fantasy realm similar in concept to Dungeons & Dragons.

In the popular imagination, Warhammer is about as cool as trainspotting. But books about wizards who grew up in under-stairs cupboards and triumphed over the Dementors weren’t cool either — until they sold 500mn copies and spawned eight blockbuster films. By the same token, Games Workshop has plenty to teach the rest of corporate Britain.

Those who despair at the UK’s inability to spawn a Facebook and want our kids to learn Visual Basic in nursery,

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19769669

Ratnik Tactical, the Russian military equipment maker, said on Telegram: “The best warriors of humanity applied scrolls with prayers and promises to their armour before the battle.

“We really liked this image, and we decided that Russian soldiers are rightfully the best warriors of humanity, and can also wear such scrolls into battle. Thousands of seals have already gone to the front, and gave hope to soldiers in the darkest hour.”

The seals, with the words of Psalm 90, are similar in style to Warhammer 40k and cost about £9. The psalm is about the brevity of life.

It replaces the space marine skull with a Christian symbol and is available in normal and “sooty versions”.

The phenomenon was spotted and researched by ChrisO_wiki, a military history author and blogger on the Ukraine war.

He said on X: “The seals have been blessed by priests at the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces in Kubin

Warhammer maker Games Workshop has suffered a major shareholder revolt after handing millions in bonuses to its top bosses.

The Nottingham-headquartered company saw almost 21 per cent vote against its remuneration report and nearly 27 per cent vote against its remuneration policy at its AGM today (Wednesday, 18 September).

Following record sales and pre-tax profit for the listed business, Games Workshop handed its chief executive, Kevin Rountree, a bonus worth 150 per cent of his base salary.

Its chief financial officer, Rachel Tongue stepped down from her role after 27 years at Games Workshop at the AGM and is to be succeeded by Liz Harrison, also received the same percentage bonus.

Rountree has a total pay packet of £1.87m which is made up of £787,000 in fixed pay and the same amount linked to targets.

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Under the firm’s policy, each executive director must use 67 per cent of the 150 per cent bonus to buy shares in Games Workshop after tax and hold them for at

There are few miniature painting contents as prestigious as the Golden Demon, Games Workshop’s showcase for the artistry and talent in the Warhammer hobby. After the March 2024 Golden Demon was marred by controversy around AI content in a gold-medal winning entry, GW has revised its guidelines, and any kind of AI assistance is out.

The Warhammer 40k single miniature category at the Adepticon 2024 Golden Demon was won by Neil Hollis, who submitted a custom, dinosaur-riding Aeldari Exodite (a fringe Warhammer 40k faction that has long been part of the lore but never received models). The model’s base included a backdrop image which, it emerged, had been generated using AI software.

Online discussions soon turned sour as fans quarrelled over the eligibility of the model, the relevance of a backdrop in a competition about painting miniatures, the ethics of AI-generated media, and Hollis’ responses to criticism.

Games Workshop didn’t issue any statements at the time, but it ha

Warhammer figurine maker Games Workshop will soon plough millions of its record-breaking profits back into its Nottingham headquarters to build a new factory. The globally-dominant wargaming giant has outlined its intent to spend millions of pounds on expanding its manufacturing complex on Willow Road, in Lenton, so it can keep up with soaring demand for its miniatures.

The company behind the Warhammer 40,000 phenomenon unveiled plans to build a new factory to continue its impressive growth last month, and now further details have emerged about the expansion scheme. This proposed workshop, which is pending planning permission from Nottingham City Council, would cost £9 million to complete according to the firm's recently filed financial results.

The financial records revealed the land for the fourth factory had been purchased in 2020 at a cost of £2.7 million. CEO Kevin Rountree, writing in Games Workshop's end-of-year filings, said: "We are proud to manufacture our product i

The Warhammer 40k film and TV series deal between Games Workshop and Amazon may fall apart this year, unless the two teams can “mutually” agree “creative guidelines” by December 2024. That’s according to new information revealed in Games Workshop’s annual financial report, published on Tuesday.

Games Workshop granted “exclusive rights to Amazon in relation to films and television series set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe” in an agreement announced in December 2023. Celebrity champion of Warhammer 40k Henry Cavill is attached to the project, both as an executive producer, and prospective star.

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According to Games Workshop’s most recent annual report, it and Amazon Content Services LLC are spending the 12 months from December 2023 to December 2024 “working together” to “agree creative guidelines for the films and television series to be developed by Amazon”. The agreement between the firms “will only proceed if the creative guidelines are mutually agreed”.

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Wargaming giant Games Workshop wants to build a new Nottingham factory as it plots years of expansion to keep up with booming customer demand. The company behind the phenomenon Warhammer miniatures has unveiled plans to build a new manufacturing facility to continue its impressive growth.

The globally dominant tabletop games firm, which made £94.5 million profit in the six months up to November 2023, said it will be investing to grow its complex on Willow Road, Lenton, over the next several years. More than 350 staff currently work around the clock at the site's three existing factories to produce millions of the popular figures, but even that is now not enough to meet demand according to the company.

Games Workshop plans to open its fourth factory on land at the rear of its headquarters in spring 2026, before relocating its packing operations to the new facility. Moving these operations out of factories along Willow Road would then create space to expand its tooling and inje

It seems like Games Workshop is just rolling out the new editions for everything this year. Talisman is back with a new 5th edition coming out July 1, 2024. And the first 5th edition expansion will be out later this year, too! But let’s get into all the details.

.So what’s new in this edition? It’s the same gameplay you remember. Two to six players are competing to traverse the land and gain power in hope to become powerful enough to claim the Crown of Command. For the new edition there’s new art and some “smart refinements” to the gameplay to make it a smoother experience.

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Oh hey, remember above when we mentioned an expansion was coming later this year? Well say hello to Talisman Alliances: Fate Beckons.

Talisman is no stranger to expansions. The classic game had a TON of cool extras that really (and literally) expanded the board game. But Fate Beckons is adding something never before seen in Talisman: Co-operative game play.

Warhammer fans and AEW wrestling fans will soon be doing the Predator hand-shaking meme thanks to an upcoming exhibition match where Claudio Castagnoli and Kip Sabian will compete using Age of Sigmar’s new Spearhead mode.

The bout is one part of the miniature wargame’s big preview of Age of Sigmar’s upcoming 4th Edition - Mortal Realms Reforged during the Dallas Open at the Arlington eSports Stadium on May 16th and 17th. Castagnoli and Sabian will take control of a Skaven and Stormcast Eternals army and battle it out using the recently announced Spearhead game mode.

Sitting somewhere between lightning-quick skirmishes and complex full army battles, Spearhead advertises a gateway to large-scale Warhammer played on a battlefield that’s only a quarter of the core game’s recommendation - and not coincidentally perfect for the kitchen table. Warhammer will be releasing Spearhead boxes for many of its existing factions, and existing Vanguard boxes will be rebranded going forward. O

In what has become an annual tradition, Games Workshop has announced an across-the-board price increase to its miniatures for the popular Warhammer tabletop games. Games like Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, and the recently launched Warhammer: The Old World are titans in tabletop miniatures, but are often lamented as some of the most expensive miniatures skirmish games that you can play.

That complaint isn't without merit, but the high prices also aren't without reason—Games Workshop's miniatures are certainly some of the most detailed, impressive ones you can buy, with by far the most varied range of models. Games Workshop, however, is increasingly facing competition from higher-resolution, cheaper 3D printers and an army of home sculptors selling the license to print as many of their designs as you'd like.

In a post pragmatically titled "2024 Pricing Update" on its Warhammer Community website, Games Workshop announced that prices will increase between 3% and 5%

But in recent weeks the sprawling Warhammer fandom has been enveloped in a dramatic controversy – or at least you would think so, from some news headlines.

“It’s Wokehammer! Games Workshop engulfed in gender row with fans after it said Warhammer squadron that was previously thought of as men-only has ‘always had females’,” screamed one MailOnline headline. What had prompted these claims of outrage was Games Workshop introducing a new female character into one of its science fantasy games, Warhammer 40,000. The character in question was part of a group of genetically engineered warriors called Custodes, which had, so far, not had any women models in it – but, according to Games Workshop, had always been included in the weighty narrative “lore” of the game.

The Mail had seen a number of tweets complaining about it, such as one from a games designer saying that Games Workshop was “‘gender flipping’ characters for ‘woke points’”. This was portrayed as a widespread backlash from f

Rachel Tongue, Games Workshop’s current Chief Financial Officer, has sold roughly $875,000 of her share holdings in the firm, according to a share dealing notification Games Workshop published on Monday. Tongue has already announced her intention to leave the firm behind Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: she will step down from her executive position at the 2024 AGM, and plans to depart in January 2025.

Tongue joined the Warhammer 40k manufacturer in September 1996 as group tax manager, two years after the firm was first listed on the London Stock Exchange. For the last nine years she has been part of the firm’s board of directors, first as group finance director and since 2022 as chief financial officer. Her intention to retire was revealed in the firm’s half year report, published in January this year.

According to the share dealing notification, Tongue sold 7,500 shares on April 19, at an average value of $117 (£94.893) per share, netting her $879,000 (£711,697.50

As a 15-year-old girl with a voracious desire to play TTRPGs and a friend group who couldn't be less interested in the idea, I struggled to organically tap into the tabletop hobby. My first contact with wargames happened on the suggestion of a teacher of mine. Apparently, her son (a fellow D&D nerd) wandered into the Warhammer store after the Age of Sigmar launch drew in him like a moth to a fantasy flame. Cue the friendly sales assistants initiating him into the wonderful world(s) of Warhammer. Yes, please. I’ll have what he’s having.

Once I convinced my best friend to stray from our usual Saturday routine of drinking bubble tea and buying tat at Forbidden Planet, the plan was in motion. I was going to the Warhammer store. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly receive the same warm reception.

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Progress is being made in representation for women, POC, and LGBTQ+ people in Warhammer games. No doubt, this is a worthwhile development (even despite the slightly scary, very polit

The first edition of Warhammer 40k, Rogue Trader, was written in 1987 largely by Rick Priestley, an up and coming young game designer who had cut his teeth co-writing the original Warhammer Fantasy battles. It was a hodgepodge of ideas from many sources: Frank Herbert’s Dune, 2000AD comic strips like Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock, Michael Moorcock’s fantasy and sci-fi, Philip José Farmer’s The World of Tiers, Bryan Ansell’s Laserburn wargame.

We can add to that Priestley’s lived experience in mid 20th century Britain; the long-tail of the Second World War and the end of British Empire; the ongoing civil discontent of the ‘70s and ‘80s between trade unions and the government; the UK’s ongoing military operations in Northern Ireland; state sanctioned support for the South African Apartheid government; and the Falklands war. All fed into an early 40k corpus that was politically charged and anti-authoritarian.

Since Rogue Trader was published, Warhammer 40k has been develop