UK GD Fail?

Well, GD UK 2010 has been and gone, what did I learn from it?

Forge World really need to get there act in gear regarding queueing systems. 

This year was an absolute mess, with people mobbing together, handing over their reservation emails, then being told do get into a second scrum (I refuse to call it a queue any more) where a single staff member calls out peoples names so they can pay. Overall I spent 2 hours waiting to pick up a reservation order. I thought reservations were meant to make things easier? Also, 2 hours out of a 6 hour day (UKGD runs 10am to 4pm) leaving 4 hours of the day left. I paid £30 for a ticket to stand in line for 2 hours? Not impressed.

I ended up on the phone to Forge World this morning to sort out some missing pieces (MK3 marines with no legs) and asked about the massive hold up - seemingly they were expecting around 150-200 reservation orders, but received close to 700. I would of thought that around 400% more orders than you were expecting would warrant a few more staff manning the reservation area.

On the other hand, they pulled out loads of cool stuff to show off, the new Warhammer Forge range being particularly interesting. I managed to pick up the 2 figures they were selling on the day, a Chaos Ogre and a Plague Toad with rider, which is basically a huge chaotically mutated toad with a Plague bearer riding it. Had to get one of those, im sure I can find a home for it in my Nurgle army. I would post some pics up, but after the sour taste Forge World left I really had no patience the rest of the day and didn't take any.

On the downside,as with every Games Day, I came home wanting to paint everything apart from what im actually working on (the Orks), though I shall force myself through the barrier and start work on the next of the Killa Kans, complete with tutorial on how I paint them. Dark Eldar will certainly be making an appearance at some point on the blog, even if it's just for something different to paint. Easily some of the best sculpts to come from GW in a while. Then there are the Word Bearers I want to paint in mk3 armour, and the Red Scorpions I need to start on, the list is endless.

For those of you that have got this far through all the text, I can only apologise. After GD I wanted to do a decent write-up of the day with loads of cool pictures but the scrum really took the wind out of my sails. As a thank you for getting this far I though i'd pull out an old figure from the photo archive that wouldn't of normally come out. This pre-heresy Dark Angel was an entry into a GW painting contest a couple of years ago, where it took top honours. Converted from Chaos Warrior, Marine and Chaos Marine parts, with plenty of Green Stuff.

Thanks for reading, hopefully the next post will be a bit more upbeat!