Ian Kay and Irregular Miniatures.

              Ian [ in the red top ]commanding divisions at a refight of Borodino. 1987!!!

I found out the other day that my old friend Ian Kay was finally hanging up his ladle and retiring from Irregular Miniatures. I can understand why Ian has retired, but it's still a real shame. I first met Ian and his Dad at a Durham Wargames show in the 1980's, he had a small stall selling various metal accessories for wargamers. Ian was a skilled silversmith and had stepped over into wargaming. 

From that small beginning, Ian used his undoubted talents to sculpt strips of 6mm wargames figures. As usual, John saw the potential, and the next thing I knew, he had sold his lovely 25mm figures and invested in Ian's 15mm and 6mm ranges.   

  Being the 'follower' I am, I did the same as I embraced the 6mm revolution that Irregular Miniatures introduced. There was a 5mm range owned by Heroic and Ros, but because Ian sculpted the units in strips, they were easier to paint and also looked great en masse.  

One of the first projects I created was the Malburian Wars and I naturally started with the Battle of Blenheim, and because of Ians strips, I wanted every regiment, gun and squadron. I found I could paint units quickly, and as I painted, I got better. And thats how I ended up inviting the late great Charlie Wesencraft to take part in the refight at the community hall in Hunwick village.

I was hooked as I realised the potential to fight the big battles I had always wanted. Ian was churning out new ranges, Ancients, American Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars, Fantasy, the two World Wars, you name it, Ian could supply you, and in vast amounts. Did I mention his fantastic mail-order service overseen by his wonderful dad?

I remember travelling down to York with John, where we fought a big Spanish Civil War battle in Ian's quaint converted chapel, travelling back laden with more 6mm units. My big passion in the 1990's was Napoleonic, but Ian's original ranges didn't float my boat. No problem, he simply sculpted new figures and even took the backpacks off the figures because I wanted to show more of the uniforms. And so my enormous Napoleonic armies were created. Austerlitz, Friedland, Wagram, Leipzig, Waterloo. I had the armies for them all, every brigade, gun and cavalry unit. Did you know Ian was a skilled sculptor of historic buildings? They were too good not to use, and I built them into my 200-plus terrain boards. He created trees, walls, sheep, ponds, and anything one wanted.                                                                 

                                                                                                                                              

                              The Battle of Waterloo 1999.

John and I wanted to start a new project, the 100-year war. I wanted to show off the heraldry of the knights, so Ian broke with his strip rule and sculpted beautiful one-piece mounted knights. They looked beautiful even if they died quickly. Ian also created a 'Battle in a box'. Rules and figures you could buy in a box.   

He also sculpted a beautiful 54mm French Revolution chess set that lies unpainted somewhere in a box. When Ian was diagnosed with a long-standing, debilitating condition, he began to create his beautiful 40mm and 54mm toy soldier ranges. They are beautiful, stylised figures, and I wanted some until I realised I couldn't do them justice. I know his 'toy soldiers' were a huge success and rightly so. 

Ian is one of those annoying people who can turn his hand to anything, and while growing his business, continued performing with various bands. I know he still performs.

Wargamers owe a lot to Ian, his Dad and Irregular Miniatures, a small company that grew the 6mm phenomenon. Thanks Ian, for all your wonderful hard work, talent and contributing to our hobby.     

Some quick thoughts.

 I have some time to post and should update what Im doing.

 Basically its losing. Nothing new there really. John and I attempt to get one battle a week and we alternate between Midguard using John's lovely armies. Pillage and then Hail Caesar or Black Powder. 

Isn't it strange how we now speak of rule mechanisms as defining our wargames, as opposed to actual periods?   There was a time it would be 25mm or 28mm Napoleonics or some such thing but now its the actual rules, and nothing wrong with that, especially when the rules really add to the games.

John recently completed painting our Epic armies for the War of Independence. This was actually the one game I've won. Being a rebel, I naturally opted for the American revolutionaries. The new tweaked Black Powder rules in the Epic sets are very good.I'm not certain about their recommended general ratings but I did like the Washington rules regarding his inconsistent generalship, but its all subjective, look at the Emperor and his off days.

Last week I chose to fight the Wars of the Roses using Midguard. God was that bloody, and yes, I lost again. It didn't matter because it was such an enjoyable game, and that's the crux. Play hard and enjoy it.

In an effort to take up the brushes again, I purchased an unpainted 3d chess set in the hope it would kick-start things. The pieces, loosely based on Vikings, are beautiful and crying out for a decent paint job. The more 3D becomes established, the more I realise that metal is becoming the choice of more mature wargamers whilst younger ie under 50, are happy with all types of materials.I still like metal to be honest, but I marvel at the quality of plastic and the new resins. 

One thing very noticeable is that the trends are for smaller games that take only a few hours to play. Again Ive no issue with that, especially when the game is really enjoyable. John and I still tend to push the size of the armies when fighting the new rule books; we just like bigger armies.

 

Good morning and felicitations on the first day of 2026. I felt that I should type something in my main blog to;

1] Prove I was alive.

2] I am still a wargamer.

3] Because I wanted to put down some thoughts about 2025.

My last post was back in May 2025 and at that time I faced a lot of questions that I needed to answer or simply ignore. 

2025 became the year that I wanted to actually become useful again, that is generally and had nothing to do with wargaming. In fact I had serious doubts about my future in wargaming as I hurtled towards the big 70.

In order to finance my main aim for 2025 I had to raise some funds and reluctantly sold my lovely 25mm English Civil Wars collections. I was in several minds about which one of my collections to lose, it could have been my massive SYW collection, my ACW collection, or several smaller but equally precious smaller collections. But it was my ECW collection that went. It hurt but was necessary as politics, even local ones isnt cheap.

  Did I regret sng the ECW collection that I had worked so hard to build? Of course I did, but needs must. And now that I know it is actuually being used, its a little easier to accept.

 So by May 2025 I was ensconsed in local politics and that has been a huge learning curve and took up a great deal of my time. But I dont regret the choice thankfully.

But wargaming suffered. 

Not the games, because I made certain I was able to get a game virtually every week with John who introducded me to the world of Midgard and later Pillage. Both have been hugely enjoyable and are examples of well thought out wargame rules that provide a fun game but also great narratives and stories. 

What did suffer was my painting. I havent picked up a brush since May 2025. Not because I didnt have time but simply because I had no desire to paint a figure of any sort.

I hadnt felt like that since the very early 1980's. Every wargamer will face the same sensation eventually, whether because of personal or financial reasons but in my case I didnt see the point of painting more figures that I simply wouldnt use. Perhaps it was a result of selling my ECW collections? Its not important now and there is no point analysing something that could change again very quickly.

 Another thing that did suffer was me attending wargames shows. In the end I managed three, which is well below my usual tally. Sadly worklife balance was a big factor.

  The shows I attended, I enjoyed. Not because of the trade. Not because of the games, but because of the wargamers I met.

Ive just noticed there are a lot of 'nots' in the text, whats that about?

Anyway here we are in 2026 and a big birthday on the horizon. Will that change things? Hopefully not. One thing that struck me focefully is the healthy state of the hobby. The rules being producded provide some excellent games. The figures, especially the resin and plastic ones are improving in qualitity expotentially.

 Unfortunately the pressures on our cost of living are forcing prices up and shrinking the size of armies and collections, hence the smaller games being popular perhaps?

  One ambition I do have is I would actually like to win a game in 2026 as I havent come close all of 2025!!!

I should blame my dice and I would be justified to a certain extent but the reality is Im just not a very good general, or John is a wargaming genius. I think its the latter.

I must apologise for the lack of photographs, my poor PC is on its last legs and needs a good seeing to.

 2025 saw the loss of another influential wargamer and all round decent man, George Gush. Sadly there was no decent obituary of Gush who was a huge influence on me and John in the 1980's with his wonderful renaissance rules and books. Perhaps someone will provide a detailed obituary of Mr. Gush, he deserves one.