27/9/2025: It was an enormous privilege that Warlord Games reached out to me ahead of the open day to offer myself and the team invitations as content creators to their open day. I’ve been a massive fan of Warlord games for a heap of reasons, so to be invited as a guest to their open day was excellent. Myself, Kieran and Mike saddled up and headed to Lenton to get an inside look at all things Warlord. This article will be great for those wanting an inside look at one of the biggest miniature gaming companies in the world. So whether you’re a painter, a gamer, or even simply a buyer, there’ll be something in here for you.

Jon Stallard speaks:

We all arrived and got to the first tour of the day 3 minutes late (I blame the A52 roadworks entirely for this), but managed to get in just as Warlord Founder and big boss Jon Stallard was talking about the business, what’s exciting him, what’s worked well for Warlord and what we can all be excited about coming soon. I made my absolute adoration at all things epic scale known, and Jon echoed this with his own projects of Epic Warlord bits he’s been working on. There were questions around epic scale bolt action “Maybe, who knows!”, and other timelines for Epic Warlord (Dark Ages, Agincourt etc) which got the room of creators excited. The focus currently for release is Konflict 47. Warlord’s own sci fi entry based on ‘Weird’ War II. Jon was ever the gent and receptive of all our questions and comments. He was thanked for his time and left to do something incredibly important and professional (obviously…).

Up next, we were horded across the corridor to talk with the design team/studio!

Design Studio:

In the design studio, we were told about the amazing work going on between all members in the room. From the professional high end painting for boxes and promos, to the digital sculptors working on model renders before our eyes and even the package designers making the boxes as visually appealing as possible. We were then given free rein to ask any questions of those before us, and to oggle the bits in the cabinets (No Photos allowed!).

I asked the army painter representative about what the fine balance is between historical accuracy, fast and effective deadline painting and accessibility for customers to be inspired by the work done:

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“It’s very much a compromise between speed and accuracy. It’s knowing when to cut corners and ensuring your prime focus for any accuracy is the main and where needed secondary colours. Things like the khaki fatigues for a lot of the WWII stuff, but also thinking about the Axis forces being very identical black and grey in their uniforms. This means being creative with blue and green hues where needed to separate faction schemes. Some Facebook commenters don’t like it, but we don’t worry too much about what they have to say!” (Non Verbatim)
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This was a great conversation to have as someone who paints a lot of models for a living. And I think something many hobbyists will appreciate hearing.

I had a similar discussion with the box art painter on the panel, who said pushing highlights and shading for box art and social media photography doesn’t always translate effectively to tabletop gaming or competitive painters, but that’s another compromise to have on understand the do’s, don’ts and the why for each project you work on.

I took a bit of time to go through the new Konflict 47 rulebook. Not enough time to look at game mechanics or rules but certainly enough to admire the wonderful quality of the book and the magnificent artwork and showcase photos of the game. I then had a chat with one of the digital sculptors while he was showing off some infantry being designed. I let him know I tried to design some low detail objective tokens on Blender and after 30 minutes I was ready to chuck myself off a bridge…
”Well, that’s because you’d only been using Blender 30 minutes!”
”Yes… but if I give it another go I can’t promise you won’t be reading about me in the Derby Telegraph and referred to in the past tense…”

We were then wrangled towards the factory proper. I thanks everyone in the room for their valuable time and conversation that was truly valuable and inspirational. Apologies for not remembering everyone’s names that I spoke to, if I gather them, I’ll add them to this article later down the line.

The Factory:

Everyone was wearing black… Bloody morbid bunch!

Conventional Resin:

Up next, we went over to resin casting! And were looked after by the chaps responsible for resin miniature manufacturing. This was absolutely mega to see and ask about. Warlord use physical masters or 3d printed masters produced by the studio, and resin silicon molds are made. These range from tiny 2x1 inch casting blocks for some infantry, to massive 9kg blocks for large terrain pieces. 2 Part epoxy resin is mixed before being placed in the mold, and are then left and prepped to be removed. This works great for the larger bits such as tank chassis’ and terrain.

Warlord Resin:

From here, we were then taken to Ed, who managed the ‘Warlord Resin’ injection model casting. Warlord Resin is something to behold. It’s a tough, yet slightly mailable resin that can be mass produced and quickly cast for mass production. Before our eyes, a 2 slab silicone mold was placed in to the molding machine, a code entered specific to the kit being produced, and within 60 seconds, a whole batch of Soviet officers was ready to go, and handed to each attendee (Still nice and warm). This means the demand for certain kits can be met extremely quickly to replenish supply. The thing that I absolutely love about this material is that it is plant based, and recyclable. So any defunct produce (Which is very rare in the first place) are chucked in to a bucket, and broken down to be returned to their resin pools. In an industry that is infamously wasteful, this is such a great thing to hear from one of the industry heavyweight.

Ed was thanked for this insight, and we were off to all things metal!

So we’ve seen the resin, we’ve seen the ‘Warlord Resin’ and up next, it’s time for some good old fashioned weighty heavy metal.

Metal:

Here, we were told about how metal components are predominantly used for kits not yet caught up in the resin or plastic formats, as it is FAR cheaper to produce these in metal for now. It’s also better for casting longer thing components like weapon tripods and gun barrels that require the durability of metal.

The metal team were working away in front of us. Casting, Quality checking and packaging away at a variety of kits. This was on a done in a very ‘line of production’ assembly format. We got to look at the materials, the molds and a great QnA that ensure we were all paying attention and asking questions.

Mooch Time:

We were given some metal freebies (Cheers guys!) and were led away and thanks for coming along and taking part in the tour (Not sure why they thanked us, we just turned up! They did all the hard work). After this, we went through to the store that was absolutely HEAVING with customers all picking up their Konflict 47 Starter Sets that launched on the same day (That was a clever coincidence…).

Myself, Kie and Mike grabbed a cuppa and awmed about the shop, and checked out some demo games going on with Konflict 47. I had a nosey at the Epic tables, the Bolt Action bits and from there, we all headed home after a good natter about the excellent bits we’d seen.

A huge and massive thank you to Warlord for letting us be some of the first through the door. It’s amazing to see a company so transparent and welcoming in regards to their processes and ethics within their team. If you ever get the chance to pop to Warlord, do go along and have the best time! The staff are nothing short of wonderful with their time and passion. (Apologies again for not remembering everyone’s names)

Now, I’m suitably hyped up on Konflict 47, so lets see if anyone in Team Unrelenting fancies taking it for a spin!

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