Alan and Michael Perry
Encyclopedia
Alan and Michael Perry are Citadel Miniatures
designers, and two of the most renowned and prolific sculptors for the miniature wargaming
hobby. They have worked for Games Workshop
since 1978, and during that time they have worked on most of the company's miniature ranges. They produce many of the miniature figures used in the company's three core game systems: Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40,000
and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game
.
In addition, they were former sculptors for Wargames Foundry
, helped found Warhammer Historical Wargames
and now run the relatively new company "Perry miniatures", for which they produce historical miniatures. They have also taken part in reenactments
of historical battle
s and have illustrated a number of books on military history
for Osprey Publishing
. They currently live in Nottingham
, England
.
. They have played wargames since the age of 10, and are avid collectors of antique armour, weapons and other militaria. They studied Art at A-levels, and started sculpting freelance for Games Workshop in 1978, while still in school. They joined the company in 1980, and have since become the longest-serving members in the Games Workshop Design Studio.
The pair have "a passion for Military History and love to recreate it;" they were members of Sir Marmadaduke Rawdon's Regiment of Foote, which is a Royalist
foot regiment of the King's Army, part of the British historical re-enactment group, the English Civil War Society. They have also belonged to other re-enactment groups. With the help of their friend John Stallard, they published an actual-size, full colour facsimile of a unique officer’s handbook, The Art of Martial Discipline, which had been in their collection for some years.
Aside from facial hair they look virtually identical, except that Michael lost part of his right arm in 1996, following an accident loading a reproduction cannon during a re-enactment of the Battle of Crécy
in France
. This was a very serious injury for a right-handed model sculptor and illustrator, but he learned to sculpt and paint with his left hand.
They founded the company Warhammer Historical with a number of colleagues from Games Workshop, collaborated on the first four books of Warhammer Historical with Jervis Johnson
and Rick Priestly, and have said that they "try and fit in a historical game when ever we can." Their own company, Perry Miniatures, currently produces 12 ranges on different historical themes: Samurai
, American War of Independence, Agincourt to Orleans, Border Reivers
, English Civil War
, Napoleonic Wars
, The Crusades, etc. In all, their miniatures are covered by hundreds of commercial rulesets. They have also sculpted a range of 54mm World War I
ANZAC
s for the Gallipoli Campaign for Peter Jackson
's private collection.
They have also served as illustrators for Osprey Publishing
. Alan has illustrated books on Rorke's Drift
and the American Civil War
, while Michael has specialised in Chinese subjects such as the Taiping Rebellion
of the 19th century. According to the Osprey website, Alan's interest in World War II
has led him recently to buy a Stuart Light Tank (M3A1)
.
Both are now married and live in Nottingham
, England
.
They have described the illustrator John Howe as an "old friend", and share an interest in miniature wargaming and military history with The Lord of the Rings film
director Peter Jackson
.
They also had a cameo appearance
in The Return of the King
film as Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields
, alongside Games Workshop designers Alessio Cavatore and Brian Nelson. They can be seen near the Mumakil Peregrin Took
goes searching for Meriadoc Brandybuck
among the debris from the battle, and are also on the base of Games Workshop's Mûmak miniature.
Alan and Michael Perry "have been heavily involved in every The Lord of The Rings
project that Games Workshop has undertaken," which comprises their current work at Games Workshop. They expressed excitement when they were first asked, as it would allow them to "work on more true-to-life proportioned figures which is what we prefer." As with their sculpting for other miniature ranges, they always work on sculpting miniatures separately and "only occasionally combine on plastic projects."
Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures Limited is a company which produces metal, resin and plastic miniature figures for tabletop wargames such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000....
designers, and two of the most renowned and prolific sculptors for the miniature wargaming
Miniature wargaming
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming that incorporates miniature figures, miniature armor and modeled terrain as the main components of play...
hobby. They have worked for Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
since 1978, and during that time they have worked on most of the company's miniature ranges. They produce many of the miniature figures used in the company's three core game systems: Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...
and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game
The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game
The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game , and often referred to by players as Lord of the Rings, is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop . It is based on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, and the book that inspired it, written by J. R. R...
.
In addition, they were former sculptors for Wargames Foundry
Wargames Foundry
The Wargames Foundry is a company which designs, manufactures and sells Miniature Figures from its base in Nottingham, England. It has grown to be a world leader in its market from its set up by Bryan Ansell in 1976....
, helped found Warhammer Historical Wargames
Warhammer Historical Wargames
Warhammer Historical Wargames, also known as Warhammer Historical, is the publisher of Warhammer Ancient Battles and other game systems. It is was imprint from the BL Publishing division of Games Workshop...
and now run the relatively new company "Perry miniatures", for which they produce historical miniatures. They have also taken part in reenactments
Historical reenactment
Historical reenactment is an educational activity in which participants attempt torecreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...
of historical battle
Battle
Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...
s and have illustrated a number of books on military history
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....
for Osprey Publishing
Osprey Publishing
Osprey Publishing is an Oxford-based publishing company specializing in military history. Predominantly an illustrated publisher, many of their books contain full-colour artwork plates, maps and photographs, and the company produces over a dozen ongoing series, each focusing on a specific aspect of...
. They currently live in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Life
Alan and Michael are twin brothers, sometimes referred to either as the Perry Brothers or the Perry Twins, who were born in 1961 and brought up in North LondonNorth London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
. They have played wargames since the age of 10, and are avid collectors of antique armour, weapons and other militaria. They studied Art at A-levels, and started sculpting freelance for Games Workshop in 1978, while still in school. They joined the company in 1980, and have since become the longest-serving members in the Games Workshop Design Studio.
The pair have "a passion for Military History and love to recreate it;" they were members of Sir Marmadaduke Rawdon's Regiment of Foote, which is a Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
foot regiment of the King's Army, part of the British historical re-enactment group, the English Civil War Society. They have also belonged to other re-enactment groups. With the help of their friend John Stallard, they published an actual-size, full colour facsimile of a unique officer’s handbook, The Art of Martial Discipline, which had been in their collection for some years.
Aside from facial hair they look virtually identical, except that Michael lost part of his right arm in 1996, following an accident loading a reproduction cannon during a re-enactment of the Battle of Crécy
Battle of Crécy
The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 near Crécy in northern France, and was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. This was a very serious injury for a right-handed model sculptor and illustrator, but he learned to sculpt and paint with his left hand.
They founded the company Warhammer Historical with a number of colleagues from Games Workshop, collaborated on the first four books of Warhammer Historical with Jervis Johnson
Jervis Johnson
Jervis Johnson is a game designer for Games Workshop.He is currently one of Game Workshop's long-term strategy managers, having previously been employed as head of its Specialist Games division.Jervis is credited with creating the following games:...
and Rick Priestly, and have said that they "try and fit in a historical game when ever we can." Their own company, Perry Miniatures, currently produces 12 ranges on different historical themes: Samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, American War of Independence, Agincourt to Orleans, Border Reivers
Border Reivers
Border Reivers were raiders along the Anglo–Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. Their ranks consisted of both Scottish and English families, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality...
, English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, The Crusades, etc. In all, their miniatures are covered by hundreds of commercial rulesets. They have also sculpted a range of 54mm World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
ANZAC
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that was formed in Egypt in 1915 and operated during the Battle of Gallipoli. General William Birdwood commanded the corps, which comprised troops from the First Australian Imperial...
s for the Gallipoli Campaign for Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
's private collection.
They have also served as illustrators for Osprey Publishing
Osprey Publishing
Osprey Publishing is an Oxford-based publishing company specializing in military history. Predominantly an illustrated publisher, many of their books contain full-colour artwork plates, maps and photographs, and the company produces over a dozen ongoing series, each focusing on a specific aspect of...
. Alan has illustrated books on Rorke's Drift
Rorke's Drift
The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was a battle in the Anglo-Zulu War. The defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers, immediately followed the British Army's defeat at the Battle of...
and the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, while Michael has specialised in Chinese subjects such as the Taiping Rebellion
Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...
of the 19th century. According to the Osprey website, Alan's interest in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
has led him recently to buy a Stuart Light Tank (M3A1)
Stuart tank
The M3 Stuart, formally Light Tank M3, was an American light tank of World War II and supplied to British and Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. into the war—and used thereafter by U.S...
.
Both are now married and live in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
director Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
.
They also had a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
film as Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields
Battle of the Pelennor Fields
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy fiction, the Battle of Pelennor Fields is the battle for the city of Minas Tirith between the forces of Gondor and its allies, and the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron...
, alongside Games Workshop designers Alessio Cavatore and Brian Nelson. They can be seen near the Mumakil Peregrin Took
Peregrin Took
Peregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Pippin is introduced as a Hobbit who plays a major role as one of the companions of Frodo Baggins, in his quest to destroy the One Ring.Peregrin was the only son of...
goes searching for Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings....
among the debris from the battle, and are also on the base of Games Workshop's Mûmak miniature.
Alan and Michael Perry "have been heavily involved in every The Lord of The Rings
The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game
The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game , and often referred to by players as Lord of the Rings, is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop . It is based on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, and the book that inspired it, written by J. R. R...
project that Games Workshop has undertaken," which comprises their current work at Games Workshop. They expressed excitement when they were first asked, as it would allow them to "work on more true-to-life proportioned figures which is what we prefer." As with their sculpting for other miniature ranges, they always work on sculpting miniatures separately and "only occasionally combine on plastic projects."