Tabletop gamers meet in Great Falls for the Big Sky Open

Warhammer 40,000 is the world’s most popular miniature wargame, and its popularity can be seen in Great Falls. At the second annual Big Sky Open, people from around the country and Canada brought their miniatures to the Great Falls Elks Club.

To an outsider, you might just see plastic models, dice, and measuring tapes. To those in the game, it’s so much more.

“There’s a lot of players that came out and came to join us play 40k in our town,” said Jerred Whitehead, the Big Sky Open tournament organizer.

Whitehead organized the event after playing in a tournament in Salt Lake City in 2021.

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Warhammer brings together model building, painting, and strategy gaming. It is a hobby that requires dedication, with games lasting three hours long.

“All the players buy and build model kits, paint them, and then they go to war with each other,” Whitehead said.

While the battlefields can get rough, the community around it is anything but.

“It's just nothing but happiness, excitement, enjoyment,” Whitehead said, “90% of the people out here are friends. The other 10% of the people I met today, and we'll be friends after this weekend.”

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Over the weekend five rounds of tournament play will take place, but that is not the only thing people love about Warhammer. Beyond playing the game, there is a separate passion within the community; painting.

“The hobby can’t be ignored,” Whitehead said, “There are people here that spend many, many hours on one model. I mean, probably like 50, 60 hours just painting one model. And it's beautiful. It's art. You know, you can see some really gorgeous armies that are out here today.”

Take Josef Hanson, a painter who only entered the hobby five years ago.

“The community is really, really helpful and like positive,” Hanson said, “Really accepting of anybody, you know, at all times kind of thing.”

Hanson found that the intricacies of painting fits perfectly in how he lives his life.

“I’m a veteran, so after I got out of the army…paying attention to detail… was very big and ingrained in me,” Hanson said, “And so miniature painting just turned out, it was just a perfect fit.”

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Additionally, it serves as a healthy way to handle life after the Army.

“There are things that, you know, [I] deal with after the Army,” Hanson said, “…and when I sit down to paint, it's like it's like I step out of that.”

Painting is more than a job for Hanson; It is a type of therapy, and the results speak for themselves, winning second place for his painted miniature.

The hours and dedication that people put into their models show that it is much more than just a game, but a community where people can come together, make new friends, and be themselves.

Josef Hanson’s website can be found here.