An unexpected find ... more old Citadel figures

Sometimes you discover something unexpected, even within your own collection.

I recently finished the 12 figures in the photograph below. I bought these as a "Pirate" set from Wargames/Guernsey Foundry in 1997, but they remained unpainted in my leadpile for over 20 years.

When I was looking through my collection of old White Dwarfs, to loop up a reference for the Knights of the Cleansing Flame (see this blogpost), I suddenly saw a picture of a fencing figure in White Dwarf 63, exactly the same figure I was painting at that moment (a remarkable coincidence, and completely true!). The photo I am talking about is the photo on the bottom-right of the page ...

Moreover, the photo on the same page, upper-right showed some more figures of this Pirate set I was painting. Quickly reading the caption, it said: "New from Citadel are their range of Rogues ..." (there is also an amusing anecdote about Steve Jackson). It is well-known that a number of old Citadel figures transferred to Wargames Foundry, and apparently, these Pirates must have done so as well.

I quickly went over to the Stuff of Legends website to browse through old Citadel flyers and catalogues, and I found a reference to these Rogues in a flyer from October 1984:

Most of the Pirates in my photograph can be seen in the drawings in this flyer, except for the two figures on the far right, the Town Lady and Powder Monkey. I haven't been able to identify them in old Citadel flyers, so perhaps these are Wargames Foundry after all, and were added to to set when repackaged as Pirates?

So, I have more vintage Citadel figures in my collection than I thought!

An old toy castle

Somewhere in the mid-nineties, I bought a vacuum-formed plastic castle from a toy shop that was closing its doors. It looks a bit like the old Elastolin castles, but I guess it is one of the later replicas.

Anyway, I kept the castle for many years, and never really used it in a game, apart from the now infamous Lowenheim game I ran in the attic of my previous house in 2006.

Then, I gave the castle to my younger nephews, along with a lot of plastic soldiers, in the hope of planting the wargaming bug. We still have to see about that, but I think the force is strong in one of them - he is addicted to a D&D dungeon-exploration boardgame (also one of my gifts), a promising sign.

Anyway, since those nephews all have reached the double-digit age at which they consider castles and toy soldiers beneath their dignity, the castle has come back to me, still in excellent condition.

Time to set up another game ... ! A siege perhaps?

Knights of the Cleansing Flame

A recent acquisition ... an unopened blister RR10 (Avenging) Knights of the Cleansing Flame, one of the Regiments of Renown for Warhammer back in the 80s. A nice addition to my Oldhammer collection.

These are the type of figures I drooled over when I was a young wargamer, studying every detail of them in Citadel catalogues and flyers, or in White Dwarf.

Here you see the original advert, in my copy of WD 66 (June 1985):

A full history of Regiments of the Renown, and the different releases and packaging, can be read on the Stuff of Legends website.