Citadel Miniatures

Citadel Miniatures

Citadel Miniatures logo
Industry	Miniature wargaming
Genre	Scale models
Headquarters	Nottingham, England
Products	Metal, plastic and resin miniature figures
Parent	Games Workshop

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.

In the past Citadel Miniatures was a separate company but it has become a brand for Games Workshop miniatures. Although its models are used for the wargaming hobby, the painting of its miniatures (and miniatures in general) is a hobby in itself.^[1]

Early history

Citadel Miniatures was formed as part of the British game company Games Workshop in early 1979, as announced in White Dwarf issue #11:

"Games Workshop and Bryan Ansell have got together to keep-alive Citadel Miniatures, a new miniatures company that will be manufacturing several ranges of figures. Ral Partha are already in production, but Citadel will also be producing own ranges, including the Fiend Factory figures, Fantasy Adventurers and Fantasy Specials. Citadel will not be limiting production to SF/F figures, but also new ranges of historical wargaming figures".^[2]

The following issue of White Dwarf contained the first advertisement for Citadel's forthcoming figures.

Materials and Construction

Originally miniatures were produced using a white metal alloy including lead, although in 1987 Citadel began to produce plastic miniatures as well under the name "Psychostyrene" and "Drastik Plastik". These were made of a harder plastic than other plastic miniatures at time and allowed for greater detailed sculpting.^{[citation needed]} Citadel has continued to produce white metal miniatures as the economics of plastic make it only suitable for large runs.^[3] Some models are a combination of both materials, with the arm-less bodies and heads metal and the arms, weapons and other accessories plastic.^[4]

In 1997 Citadel switched to a lead free white metal because of concerns about lead poisoning particularly in children.^[5]

Most of the models created by Citadel require some form of construction after purchase. With smaller models this usually involves attaching arms, weapons and the base. Larger models come in many pieces and require more construction.

On May 16th, 2011, Games Workshop announced a new range of Citadel models known as Citadel Finecast. ^[6] The new range of models are made out of high-quality resin, and were released on the 28th May 2011. All of the models that have been shown are resin versions of Citadel's lead-free white metal models, but are much lighter and more durable than their metal equivalents, as well as being of a higher level of detail than any other Citadel miniature currently available. ^[7] However, it has arisen that maybe the quality of these models aren't actually as good as Games Workshop intended. As many people have pointed out, they have many flaws. Usually the models come with defects in them, such as bent weapons, lots of additional flash etc.^{[citation needed]}

Model ranges

From 1979 to 1984 Citadel had a reciprocal distribution and manufacturing deal with Ral Partha to bring each others products to Britain and North America respectively.^[8]

Citadel has also produced and distributed miniatures under other names:

• Chronicle Miniatures was a competitor run by Nick Lund and bought out by Citadel and they continued to operate under that name for a time.
• Iron Claw Miniatures were a range of miniatures designed, manufactured and distributed by Citadel in 1987 and 1988 and sculpted by Bob Olley. Many of the designs were later incorporated into the main Citadel range.
• Marauder Miniatures was a separate company set up by two former Games Workshop/Citadel sculptors (Aly and Trish Morrison) in 1988 and promoted alongside Citadel Miniatures in White Dwarf. The miniatures were cast and distributed by Citadel, and the company was absorbed into Citadel in 1993.

Over the years, as well as producing their own original miniatures, they have produced licenced ranges based on characters from games, movies, TV and books. These included figures based on RuneQuest, Fighting Fantasy , Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, Paranoia, Eternal Champion, Dungeons and Dragons, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, Star Trek, Lone Wolf and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Games Workshop re-won the Lord of the Rings licence, allowing them to make The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game miniatures to tie-in with the trilogy of films released by New Line Cinema, and have extended the range to include characters based on the actual writings of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Citadel Miniatures sometimes release limited edition models of specific or unusual characters, such as Thrud the Barbarian,^[9] Ian Livingstone,^[10] drunken Space Marines dressed in Christmas outfits^[11] and several representing Grombrindal, the white-bearded logo of White Dwarf magazine.^[12][13]

Along with the standard range of miniature soldiers, Citadel's lines include fantasy based war-machines, like catapults and chariots, and when Warhammer 40,000 came out, Citadel Miniatures also branched out into vehicles, such as the Land Raider and Rhino transports for Space Marines.

See also

• Forge World
• Miniature conversion

Notes

1. ^ McVey, Mike (1992). Citadel Miniatures Painting Guide. Nottingham: Games Workshop. p. 1. ISBN 1-872372-61-9. 
2. ^ "News". White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (11): 10. February/March 1979. 
3. ^ Masterson, Sean (January 1988). "From Sprue to You". White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (97): 6–7. 
4. ^ McVey, Mike (1992). Citadel Miniatures Painting Guide. Nottingham: Games Workshop. p. 6. ISBN 1-872372-61-9. 
5. ^ "Lead Advisory Service News Volume 1 No 1". February 1997. http://www.lead.org.au/lasn/lasn014.html. Retrieved 2006-08-28.  reprinting New Lead Free Metal Miniatures from White Dwarf
6. ^ "Citadel Finecast Announced;". http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=16400050a. Retrieved 2011-05-24. 
7. ^ "Citadel Finecast - What you need to know...". http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=16700019a. Retrieved 2011-05-24. 
8. ^ "Stuff of Legends — Ral Partha History". http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/ral-partha/history.html. Retrieved 2006-08-06. 
9. ^ Four versions of Thrud have been produced according to "LE19 - Thrudd and Female Admirer". Stuff of Legends. http://www.solegends.com/citle/citle1990/numbered/le19ThruddAdmirer.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-15.  Another example is LE104 - Thrudd (Scratching Head)
10. ^ Priestley, Rick (et al.) The Second Citadel Compedium, p.45
11. ^ "RTLE — Spaced Out Marines". Solegends.com. 2008-02-02. http://www.solegends.com/citle/citle1990/misc/leRTSpacedMarines.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
12. ^ "The White Dwarf at 90". Solegends.com. 2008-02-02. http://www.solegends.com/citle/citle1990/misc/whitedwarf90.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
13. ^ "PR12 - The White Dwarf". Solegends.com. 2008-02-02. http://www.solegends.com/citle/citle2000/prcodes/pr12WhiteDwarf.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 

References

• Barson, Michelle (Editor) (2004). The Undead Collectors Guide. Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-565-1. 
• Blanche, John (1989). The Citadel Miniatures Painting Guide. Games Workshop. ISBN 1-869893-74-3. 
• Citadel Miniatures Annual 2000. Games Workshop. 1999. ISBN 1-84154-031-5. 
• "Stuff of Legends — A Brief History of Citadel Miniatures". http://www.solegends.com/citadel/citadelhistory.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-06. 

External links

• Citadel Miniatures Hall - A Museum of Citadel Miniatures.
• Citadel's page on the hobby site The Stuff Of Legends - features many scanned advertisements of Citadel Miniature's products from old White Dwarfs.
• CCM wiki - A site maintained by members of the Yahoo! group for research of poorly and undocumented Citadel miniatures.
• Delcam PR on use of Delcam 3D modelling and machining tools for creation of Citadel Miniatures