Friday 12 April 2013

Heroes for Wargames: Behind the Scenes at Citadel Miniatures Circa1985-6

As regular readers will know, I have just come into the possession of Heroes for Wargames, a seminal publication from 1986, that focused on the rising popularity of fantasy wargaming, painting and modelling. The publication is packed with loads of stuff that will be of interest to the Oldhammer enthusiast; interviews, pictures of miniatures, dioramas and much, much more.

One of the things I found most interesting was the 'behind the scenes' photographs that the book contains. They give us a glimpse of what the studio looked like in the mid 80s. You get a sense of just how relaxed and creative the studio was at this time. The images also contain some fascinating detail going on in the background. It's quite rewarding to try and work out what the Citadel stalwarts are working on in any particular picture. I have a few theories... Have a squint and see if you agree or disagree with me.


This first image shows Aly Morrison working at his desk. I love the pile of lead lying in that cardboard box on the left, which reminds me of what Andy Craig told us how members of the studio having piles of miniatures several feet deep. Have a quick glance around his desk. Anyone recognise the sculpt stuck on a cork next to the lead pile? I wonder what he is doing to those bases? Filling in the slit or something more creative, any ideas?


Here we have Colin Dixon, the original Citadel figure painter, working at his desk. Anyone recognise that building from any of his many dioramas? If you look at what he is painting, and this is easier if you own a copy of the book, you can just make out the Heroic Fighters of the Known World models being worked on. He's even got the original artwork from the box next to him for reference!

I believe that these are the very miniatures that Dixon is working on in the photograph above. 
What the original painting above would later look like as packaging.

And here we have the mighty John Blanche, though I am not sure who is watching him work over his shoulder, though Trish Morrison and Jes Goodwin are visible in the background. Here we can see Blanche busy working with an airbrush on a new piece of art. The piece, which is only in its early stages, could well be the famous painting of a mounted dwarf and ogre champion that was later used as the cover of Dwarf Wars published by Flame.

What do you eagle eyed readers think?

The finished product. This is the painting that I believe that John Blanche was working on the the photograph above was taken.

Looking like he has just stepped off the set of a Wham! video shhot, Goodwin is snapped at his desk working on what he does best, sculpting miniatures. A surprisingly spartan desk compared to many of the others, but if you look closely you can see some greens being worked up on the table before him. Is it just me, or could the green closest to his hand (the one facing forwards with two diagonal brass rods sticking out sideways) be a WIP Slambo, the chaos warrior of chaos warriors?

Here's a WIP shot of my Slambo. Could the original green be on the desk in the photograph above?
The next bench along looks the complete opposite. A cluttered mess, a sure hallmark of the genius at work? Here we have Bob Naismith at work creating models his way. Across that desk is cluttered a vast array of bits and pieces and all kids of modelling apparatus. I am sure that this is a picture we can all relate to, eh? 


And finally, here we have Tony Ackland enjoying a ciggie whilst working on another evocative picture at his desk. A shed load of reference material causes the shelves behind to groan under the pressure of inspiration itself while what look like images from Runequest are pinned nicely on the wall behind him. But what is he working on? Could it just be the illustration use in Slave to Darkness to introduce the pantheon of Khorne?

What do you think?

Orlygg.

19 comments:

  1. I see Colin using a copy of Osprey's The Vikings with Angus McBride colour plates as reference, you can never own enough Osprey books, I love all these old photos when the world was low tech.

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  2. Oooh, man, what an inspiring trip to those times! A really insightful report of how things were made. These were the things Rick Priestley talked about in the interview you made him! Great!

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  3. nice set of pictures, thanks :)
    regarding that green, it's hard to see much from the photo but if you zoom right in something about the way legs are posed makes me think it might be a space marine of some sort rather than slambo.

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    1. A space marine in 1985? Hmm, unlikely as Citadel were some years off beginning work on Rogue Trader and Bob Naismith did the original Space Marine designs if I remember correctly.

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    2. oh yeah. kinda forgot what dates we are talking about :)

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  4. Got a copy of this book at home...just awesome !

    jes Goodwin had the same hair cut than Alan Wilder and Wardancers (and many people) at the same time...aaahh 80's Hair Style...lol

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  5. Awesome photos! Thx for sharing!

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  6. Today the studio is 18 months ahead of the real world but I don't imagine things were that organised in '85 so I can't believe it's a marine, though it looks like one. I have convinced myself it is Grim Wrench, Chaos Lord (0201/14 in the '88 catalogue). What a great book, it's like a time machine.

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  7. Just ordered a copy of this on Amazon. Thanks for info, can't wait to flip through this.

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  8. The guy behind John is Charlie 'Chaz' Elliot who did a lot of the graphic design on Rogue Trader and went on to be sculptor for Warzone, Reaper et al. The people in the background were the graphics and paste up team, or 'fuzzy felters' as they were known, this before the desktop publishing revolution, all the pages were laid out by hand.

    I'd like to think the haircut was rather more 'Jesus and Mary Chain' than Wham, ;-] And I think you might very well be right about Slambo!

    You have to stop this Orlygg, makes a man feel rather old ;-]

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    1. lol! I was going to suggest an alternative hairstyle reference, but Jes beat me to it. I think Trish looked a bit more goth back in the day? Not sure why I think that, vague memories of a photo somewhere. The lady is possibly Joanne Podoski?

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    2. Thanks for commenting Jes and clearing up those little details. I shall endeavour to continue to seek out more 'haircut' photographs of you and other old Citadel staffers - perhaps a definitive article on '80s haircuts and their impact on the development of the miniature line? Ha ha!

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    3. Trish did have a bit of a goth phase, and you are right about Joanne. I think the guy behind her was called Nick, and I can remember a really nice rockabilly style guy called Brian, i think.

      There are a selection of 'haircut' pictures from the Citadel Journal around this time, and I can remember Bryan getting us all to pose on a pile of rubble with big coats and shades on, the things you do when you're young eh!

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  9. Great post. My desk looks like many of the more cluttered ones shown. Too bad I don't have an equal level of talent. Just a heads up, some of the pictures are now showing as broken links. I saw them earlier this morning. Enjoying the blast from the past although my sojourn was brief 1990-1992, I couldn't get my friends into it and then I went away to school and the minis have collected dust ever since.

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    1. Thanks for the heads up...

      I noticed that there were a few broken links late last night but everything seems fine now and I've checked the site on the laptop, Kindle and iPad... Anyone else having any problems?

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    2. Sometimes I need a few refreshes to load all the photos, I'm sure it's just a bandwidth thing.

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    3. yep it's happening with me too, lot's and lot's of refreshes needed, I don't know if we are maxing out your bandwidth?

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  10. That is an amazing pick off on the John Blanche artwork.I have looked at that picture several times and necer made the connection.Great spot.

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  11. This post is one of the many reasons why your blog is one of my favourites to read! Love to see all the old pictures!

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