Good evening fellow followers of old school Citadel and all things 1980s Games Workshop. It has come to my attention that one of the rarest miniatures produced by Citadel during the Golden Age has cropped up on eBay recently and I thought that followers of this blog would be more than interested in seeing how the sale progresses. The miniature (as you will have guessed by now) is the famous Imperial or Chicken Dragon sculpted by Micheal Perry in 1982 and moulded and cast by none other than Richard 'GW's Forgotten Genius' Halliwell!
The model is huge, hence its name, and is said to be of similar size to an actual chicken! Now I have never seen one for sale before so I am intrigued by how much it will sell for. I am sure that Steve Casey from Eldritch Epistles would probably be able to give a more informed estimate by I am going to go for a price between £1000-1500 for this monster.
During the Oldhammer Weekend at the Foundry last September, I was told an amusing, and dare I say rather unprintable, story about the creation of this model by Rick Priestley and John Stallard. The picture they painted was of a far more rough and ready Citadel Miniatures than the one that would become so successful later on in the 1980s and beyond. Looking back, you really have to be impressed by their ambition as the model is absolutely huge, even by today's resin monstrosity standards. Also, remember that these were the days before CAD allowed slot together models on a grand scale and a little bit of (or in this case a lot of) modelling skill was required to build some of the more ambitious kits. Having personally restored a Great Spined Dragon in recent days I can certainly appreciate how difficult building and painting such a model would be. So here's hoping this beast is bought by a collector who actually intends to build and paint the dragon as a model so we someday get to see the monster in the way its creators always intended!
Anyway, here's the eBay link and a scan from Solegends of the guide paperwork that went with the model.
eBay Imperial Dragon AKA The Chicken Dragon
Good luck indeed!
Orlygg.
Bit beyond my price range! Amazing figure though.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of Richard Halliwell, does anyone have any contact info for him? Would like to know how his WW2 game is getting on, as I once did some research towards a hypothetical WW2 Invasion of England project that never saw fruition, and I'd interested to see how the game he's developing works. Did a fair bit of research on what kinds of weapons and skills the various forces of the British home guard and resistance would have been able to muster, but project was abandoned very early in playtesting amidst the predictable "don't panic, Capt Mainwairing", and other Dad's Army related mockery!
It seems it finished 460£, not so much...
ReplyDeleteHe’s going to be really unhappy.
DeleteThe Molds for this Dragon were finally recovered by the owner to whom Citadel sold the Dragon in 1984.
It looks like it will be back in production by this summer (although the price is likely to be between $175 and $250, given just the amount of lead in it, and getting boxes and foam liners produced, and the labor of assembling them for sale.
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DeleteMost magic and fantastic "miniature" ever.
ReplyDeleterobotfaraday, Sadly Hal (Richard Halliwell) now suffers from a form of dementia. Rick and Jervis see him occasionally but you can forget about contact info.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note the Perrys suggested the use of an hammer in constructing the Dragon. I should mention that I did not need to resort to such drastic measures.
Just as an update, for any who might be interested.
ReplyDeleteThe owner of the Rights to this Dragon had lost the Molds in the 1980s due to an accident in the building where they were stored.
But it appears that the Mold-Maker for the owner of the Imperial Dragon, after Citadel Miniatures sold the rights in 1984, had made a set of “Pirate Molds” (that was pretty common in those days). But he recently contacted the owner of the Rights to produce it, revealing “I have a second set of molds.”
If these are usable, the intent is to get them back into production (that will require some “Beefing up” of a few of the parts to eliminate what would be shrinkage from using a production mold to produce New Masters to produce a new set of Master Molds, and then a new set of production molds).
Being that “Owner,” I am going to see next weekend (Friday, Feb 5 or Feb 6, 2021) if these Molds are indeed the Molds for this Dragon, and if they are, I will then be making an official announcement via the company who will be doing the actual production.
There are going to be some new things with the Citadel Imperial Dragon if these molds turn-out to be those of this Dragon. If so, I will announce the news at the confirmation of it going back into production.
The Molds ARE for the Citadel Imperial Dragon, and they are in good enough shape to produce a new set of Master-Parts, and then a set of production molds.
ReplyDeleteExpect an “Official Announcement” by the end of February, or the beginning of March.
Brilliant! Can't wait! Do you have a website I can bookmark?
DeleteI will make an Official Announcement soon.
DeleteThe miniature will be produced by an existing producer of legacy and “classic” miniatures.
We have to get all our ducks in a row, so to speak.
But the Molds were officially recovered mere moments before I responded here. Be looking for Teasers on various Oldhammer and 1980s Miniature Sites.
Mere moments ago the Master Molds of the Citadel Imperial (Chicken) Dragon, thought lost in 1990/91/92, were Officially Recovered.
ReplyDeleteBe watching for various Classic, Legacy, and Nostalgic 1980s Miniature Forums (Oldhammer, Etc.) for Teasers and The “Official” official announcement of its return to production.
Hi any updates on this? Itching to order one!
DeleteAny news??
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