We recently featured the Epic Battles miniatures of Paul Mackay (original article here). As it turns out, his hobby interests stretch far beyond just Epic Battles scale miniatures.
Less a gamer than a painter and collector, rather than collect full armies, Paul cites variety as his preferred hobby spice, and dabbles in a wide variety of historical periods. One way he has been able to achieve this is with the free Warlord Games plastic sprues that will often come with issues of Wargames Illustrated. Here we showcase just a few of his 28mm Warlord Games miniatures. But first a few words from the man himself:
Paul: “Like many wargamers of my generation (I was born in the mid-1960s) I grew up on a diet of Airfix and Matchbox models and figures. When I got a bit older I discovered copies of Military Modelling and then Battle for Wargamers which had marvellous photographs of battlefields including Peter Gilder’s inspirational work. This led me to purchase my first ‘proper’ figures by Hinchliffe. My collection then grew with additions from companies such as Garrison, Lamming and Essex. I later discovered Games Workshop despite my primary wargaming interest being in historical miniatures, I could not help but be seduced. However, my regular wargaming buddy lost interest and to be honest my interest also waned. So in my mid-twenties, my paints and figure collection disappeared into storage boxes where they would remain for the next thirty-odd years.
The pandemic saw me with more time on my hands and during the first lockdown in the UK I decided to have a look at what was in those dusty old boxes. My wife recommended Youtube to me and I was amazed at the online resources now available for the wargamer/hobbyist. Though my love of wargaming per se did not return, I did start to paint again. In my day I started with enamel paints from Humbrol before beginning to use Citadel acrylics. A lot of my old collection was, in spite of it being decades old, still usable. I then added to my painting arsenal products from Vallejo, Scale 75, Liquitex, Wargames Foundry and Army Painter. My forays into online painting tutorials showed me how far things had progressed from my Humbrol days and I discovered techniques such as zenithal priming, object source lighting and non-metallic metals. Through the Plastic Crack Podcast Facebook group, I also made close friends with three other hobbyists. In essence, we are a little ‘wargames club’ with our own Facebook group and we thoroughly enjoy our hobby chats and associated nonsense. Warren and Tony are both from Australia and Bjorn is from Sweden.
As part of my hobby resurgence, I began to read wargames magazines again and have managed to get several articles about painting and modelling published in Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames. It was through the freebies that sometimes come with Wargames Illustrated that I discovered Warlord Games figures, which has afforded me a convenient opportunity to paint a varied mix of figures and historical periods.
Many of Warlord’s figures are ‘heroically’ sculpted which makes painting faces especially such a joy and their Bolt Action range just gets better and better with every new release. The same thing can also be said about the Black Powder Napoleonic Infantry which, incidentally are very easy to assemble (always a bonus).
The pandemic was a terrible time, and although I am aware that my story is not an unusual one, it is worth reiterating that the time the lockdowns gave people to indulge in hobbies or even allow them to (like myself) totally rediscover past passions was a great source of relief to many.
If you like my work you can find plenty more photographs on my Instagram account pmackay140215.”
Click on any photo to enlarge it.
Would you like to feature your own Warlord Games projects? Get in touch via articles@warlordgames.com.
