A Summer of Citadel: C04 Thief Pre-slotta 'Thug'

 

Hello dear readers,

I'm back from a bit of an hiatus. Mostly end of term school stress and house development. Since we last spoke we've had a patio laid,  the house rewired, been surveyed for wall insulation and I've had to have some wisdom teeth extracted! All while dealing with the never-ending drag of the end of a school year.

Through it all I promised myself that once the holidays arrived, I'd try and paint a figure a day over the long summer break. And this post is the first in what I hope will be an extravaganza of painting I'm calling 'The Summer of Citadel'. Sure, there are a few days here and there when I'm away with MFM but I'm pretty much aiming high in the painting front. After all, I am keen to improve my technique after my five year long 'lost weekend'. 

Top of my list is fleshwork. The first few figures in this project will hopefully allow me to hone the old skills in painting skin. Hence why we are looking at this wonderful preslotta figure from the early 1980s. He has bags of character and loads of menace. Which I like in a miniature but not in a person. I opted for darker skin to start with as it felt more challenging and a good starting point. I used colour harmony for this figure with a little bit of Swamp Brown mixed in with everything. It took a while to get back up to speed but with a reduced palette I actually found it easier to work with. I'm hoping that the tones convey flesh well and I am pleased with the way he has come out. I even managed to dot the eyes!

I gave him a splatter of blood on his club as a final touch. Tomorrow I'll try a figure with lighter skin, and then perhaps some orcs or goblins to really sharpen up my skills. We will see where this adventure takes us...

His solid base says 'thug' but he has an interesting history. 

First released in the early 1980s as part of the C04 Thieves range as a rogue, he was later listed (in France) as a pirate and he really does have that kind of look about him. 

See here he is in the good old 'they used to hand-draw the models' days. If you didn't know, the model with the crutch below (Ruffler) is a homage to Steve Jackson. 

And here he is again during the later days of being able to afford a camera in the studio. Some of these models are rather rare now but they have bags of character... which is very much something I am keen to work with when painting over the next four or five weeks. I mean, I love my skellies but they don't have much charm about them.. beyond the whiff of the grave. Our 'thug' model is given centre stage here. 

By the Realm of Chaos era in the later 1980s, he has been repurposed as a club wielding chaos thug. The slotta version of this figure is different with some conversion work on the head and legs to make him less piratical and more chaotic. Obviously. Can you spot him here? Club 4 is our man. 

What is incredible, is this figure is still available to buy in 2025. He was one of the many 'historicals' Bryan Ansell took with him after he sold Games Workshop in 1992. He is called Stocky Joe Dent these days and likes to hang around with the Steve Jackson look alike figure and few of the others. I know all this because I can remember many moons ago being shown this set by Bryan himself. A few months back while Stuart was networking at the Foundry stand, I slipped away to check to see if this pack was still on the racks (no pun intended) and it was... looking back, I should have bought it for the other pirate style characters but the memory of discussing it years ago was enough. 

Well, let's see what tomorrow brings. I have a few figures in the queue. Circumstances have changed in my old life and I received a rather battered box of my belongings a few weeks back quite out of the blue. A bulging bag of classic figures, old scenery pieces and even some painted remains from my McDeath board. All rather unexpected... Of course the stuff was all pretty smashed up but I may try and restore several pieces if its possible.

More tomorrow...

Orlygg