Citadel Miniatures
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Citadel Miniatures Limited is a producer of metal and plastic miniatures for tabletop wargames, such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle. While it was a separate company in partnership with Games Workshop in the past, today it is little more than a department in or a branding label for Games Workshop miniatures. Although primarily used for wargames and roleplaying games, the painting of Citadel's creations - and miniatures in general - is almost a hobby in its own right. Expert modellers also make conversions, whereby miniatures are chopped up, modified and swapped around to create either new creatures or old ones but with new weapons.
Early history
Citadel Miniatures was formed in 1978 as part of the British game company Games Workshop. Although the Games Workshop investor website states Citadel was formed in 1981[link], its formation was announced in White Dwarf issue 11 in early 1979 with the following issue having the first Citadel advertisement for its forth coming figures, a feature that has continued ever since. The following is the text of the brief statement from White Dwarf 11:
Games Workshop and Bryan Ansell have got together to form 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
Materials
Traditionally miniatures were produced using a white metal alloy including lead.In 1987 Citadel began to produce plastic miniatures as well. These were an innovation being made of a harder plastic than other plastic miniatures at time so they allowed greater detail and avoided the tendency to flake paint as they did not flex. Even as plastic technology has improved to allow plastic to reach or even in some cases surpass metal detail, Citadel miniatures have also continued to produce white metal miniatures as the economics of plastic make it only suitable for large runs. For this reason many core troops are plastic but specialist and rare troops are still made from white metal. Some models are a combination of both materials, with the arm-less bodies and heads metal and the arms, weapons and other accessories plastic.
In 1997 Citadel switched to a lead free white metal because of concerns about lead poisoning particularly in children.[]
Model ranges
Citadel in the past has produced and distributed miniatures under the names of Chronicle Miniatures, Iron Claw Miniatures and Marauder Miniatures. Chronicle was a competitor bought out Citadel and they continued for a time after the purchase to produce miniatures under the Chronicle name. Iron Claw were a range of miniatures designed manufactured and distributed by Citadel in 1987 and 1988. Many of the designs were later incorporated into the main Citadel range. Marauder Miniatures was a separate company set up by Games Workshop in 1988 and promoted alongside Citadel Miniatures in White Dwarf. The miniatures were cast and distributed by Citadel, and the company was reabsorbed back 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, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, Star Trek and Lone Wolf.
Citadel Miniatures sometimes release limited edition models of specific or unusual characters, such as Thrud the Barbarian, drunken Space Marines dressed in Christmas outfits [link] and even one representing a white-bearded dwarf, the logo of White Dwarf magazine.
Whole pile of misc info that really needs to be sorted and re-written
Models of large creatures - such as daemons, dragons, ogres, etc - come in multiple pieces and require careful construction using various techniques such as pinning and filling and in some cases actual modelling to ensure that the kit is assembled as intended.
Other 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 LandRaider and Rhino transports for Space Marines.
A recent edition to the minatures range are figures based on the Lord of the Rings. Initially, GW were awarded the licence to make minatures and a game for the trilogy of films directed by Peter Jackson and released by New Line Cinema. Since then, they have also made minatures based on the actual writings of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Most models are sold in blister packs of one to four, although boxed sets have become more common since the late-1980s, these sets feature a whole regiment or unit and are now more commonly made from plastic.
Boxed games such as Blood Bowl, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 frequently come with some plastic Citadel Miniatures to get the player started.
External links
- [Citadel's page on the hobby site The Stuff Of Legends] - features many scanned advertisements of Citadel Miniature's products from old White Dwarfs.
- [A Site covering the fanatisim of miniatures and hobby games]
- [CollectingCitadelMiniatures] - Yahoo! discussion group dedicated mainly to the collecting of Citadel Miniatures, especially from the 1970s and early/mid 1980s Citadel Miniatures.
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