The Orky world of Wargames artist Paul Bonner

Hey folks! It’s your resident Miniatures Editor James Winspear here. So for this month’s edition of Tabletop Gaming I had the great pleasure of interviewing the great Paul Bonner. A veteran fantasy artist who’s worked in the world of gaming for over three decades, he’s done stuff for Warhammer 40,000, Magic the Gathering, and Cool Mini Or Not (CMON), amongst others. 

When we were chatting Paul mentioned in passing that he was also an avid miniature painter, at least when he had time in between work – a problem that faces every hobbyist, it seems! I was really keen to see some of his stuff, and he very kindly sent over some pics of what he had on the workbench. 

We had to juggle getting as much of his artwork into the piece as possible with making room for the interview itself, and as such didn’t have enough space to put up Paul’s miniatures. I thought it’d be a real shame to let such great work go to waste, however, so we decided we’d share his stuff here on the website instead. 

A lot of people will remember Paul for the Ork illustrations he did for Warhammer 40,000 in the late 80’s, and the seminal gurning greenskins he drew back then were instrumental in shaping the look and feel for the faction in the following decades. It’s no surprise, then, that the miniatures he’s painting are, of course, orks! Here’s a selection of his stuff below.

My knowledge of Paul’s stuff springs from the work he did on Mutant Chronicles, something I stumbled across a few years ago when I happened across the trailer for the 2006 film. The stuff he did on that game is really quite tremendous (I especially like the more WW1-ish pieces), so here’s one from that title, along with a few other bits and pieces.