Journal Entry #3 : Warhammer in Tenby

Tenby lost its Warhammer supplier a few months back. Which meant that if you live here and you wanted a box, you got in the car.
Pembroke Dock. Narberth. Milford Haven. Haverfordwest. Whitland. Every one of those has somewhere, and not one of them is here. So you either made an afternoon of it, or you ordered it online and waited in for a van, or you did what most people round here do, which is think about it for two years and never start.
That has been quietly annoying me for a while. So a few weeks ago a box turned up in the post, and the box was the introduction set that comes with being an official Games Workshop stockist.
Old Eltons Clothing is now on the store finder on warhammer.com. Your next place to stop for Warhammer is in Tenby.
What that actually means
There is a proper Games Workshop stand in the corner of the shop, carrying the foundation range. That is the best sellers and the things people actually start with.
Starter sets, the ones aimed at somebody who has never done this before. Combat Patrol sized boxes, which are the sensible way into an army. Paints, brushes, clippers, glue. The bits you forget you need and then cannot start without.
I should say the stand is only up because of Dylan. It arrived as a flatpack and he came in late on a Sunday night so the two of us could put it together. Without him doing that it would still be in boxes in the back and I would not be writing this yet.
And a note on what this is not. It has not taken over the clothes shop, and I am being strict with myself about that. Old Eltons is still Old Eltons. This sits in the corner of it.
If it is not on the stand, just ask

It is one stand and the range is enormous, so this bit matters more than the stand does.
Email hello@oldeltonsclothing.co.uk and tell me what you want, or just come in and say. If it exists, I will order it in and you collect it in the shop. No postage, no waiting in, no driving to Haverfordwest. A specific character you need for a list, a paint you have run out of halfway through a squad, a box you saw online at midnight. Just ask.
How ordering in works. Orders need to be in and paid for by Monday morning to come in on the Wednesday, as long as it is in stock at the other end. If it is not, I will tell you and we will sort something out. Refunds where we can, though a credit note is always preferred.

Why a clothes shop in Tenby sells Warhammer
I call the shop my Brain Palace. I say it to people a lot, probably too much, and when anybody walks through the door I tell them they are welcome in my brain. It sounds daft until you realise that everything in there has come out of my head, so it sort of adds up.
Warhammer takes up a fair bit of that head. It has done for years.
Anyone who knows me knows I am a big nerd about it. And the honest reason it is now in the shop is not that I spotted a gap in the market, although there is one. It is this.
I want to bring stuff into the shop that is not only my product. I would like to endorse things in the shop that support mental health.
Warhammer is one of the tools I use to keep myself relatively balanced. It is proper escapism. You can lose yourself in it for hours. And the thing I keep coming back to is that it is a goalless hobby. There is no target, nothing to beat, no personal best to chase. You build a thing, you paint a thing, you stand round a table with your mates of an evening and you move some models about.
Running is the other one for me, which is why we started the Faint Hearted Running Club. Warhammer has been a massive help over the last couple of years in exactly the same way, just slower and sat down.
And it is not just me. Pretty much everyone I know who plays it says the same thing about what it does for their head, usually without being asked.

How this started
It started with two of us. I did a photoshoot for James's brand a while back, we kept in touch, and at some point the two of us started playing. Then there were three, then a few more, and now there is a group of us at Motley about once a month, after the shops have shut, standing round a table until half eleven at night. Luke who runs it does not play, has never played, and closes the place for us anyway.
None of which was planned. It grew one person at a time, off the back of a job I did for somebody, which I think is how most of these things actually start.
We have made a short documentary about that group, called No One Rolls Alone. It is not really about the game. That is coming shortly, with the interviews going out one a week after it.
And come and play
Our first proper event at Motley is Wednesday 18 November. Anybody is welcome, you do not need to know the rules, and nobody minds whether your models are painted.
If you want something new on the table for it, get your order in by Monday 16 November and it lands on the Wednesday.
Come in and have a look
If you have never done any of this and have no idea where to start, come in and ask. Honestly. You will not be the first person this week, and there is nothing in the hobby harder to work out than that first box.
Old Eltons Clothing
1 & 2 Church Street, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, SA70 7AH
hello@oldeltonsclothing.co.uk
For The Faint Hearted x




