The Empire of Man is in more than a spot of bother. The Era of the Three Emperors has passed, and unity is a distant dream as Elector Counts feud, fortify, and fend for themselves. This is the Anarchy – a period of no central rule to speak of – yet the dream of Sigmar’s Empire still persists in the hearts of its people, and the grand armies of the disparate states still rally when they are beset.
There’s a weighty detachment of classic Made to Order releases arriving with the rest of the Empire of Man. They will only be available for a limited time – we’ll let you know the details nearer the time, but for now, the Old World development team are here to explain which miniatures they picked and why…
War Wagon
Rob: The War Wagon is very exciting. It’s the original kit from 1992 but we’ve taken the time to fully remaster it for Forge World resin rather than the original metal. That makes it much easier to build, and we’ve been able to add new details to bring it up to date. It comes with new horses based on those from the War Altar, and a new hand-sculpted engineer.
We don’t tend to release many hand-sculpted miniatures these days – he just came about because the designer responsible for this remastering work had been making him alongside working on this project. He suddenly became a real thing, just as a side project, and we decided to sneak him into the War Wagon as a nice little bonus.
JTY: The wheels are still the original plastic wheel sets, albeit cleaned up and cast in resin. The rest of the model is original, though certain details have been improved – the underside of the carriage used to be flat metal, and that’s now been sculpted and detailed, as have the sides. The rest of the detail has been sharpened up – it’s a pretty big rework for a model that hasn’t been available since around the year 2000!
Because it’s Made to Order, it guarantees that everyone who orders one will receive it, even if it takes a little while to fulfil every purchase. We feel that this is the best way to ensure that everyone who has ever wanted to own this classic miniature can do just that.
General of the Empire on Griffon
Rob: The General on Griffon is from a little later – the early 2000s. He’s not been remastered and is returning exactly as he was in the original metal. We recommend pinning him when you put him together – and there is even a guide on that available (from here).
The overall goal with all these Made to Order releases is to provide a sweep of miniatures – mostly characters or unique models – that you can use to add a little flavour to your army. It’s a nugget of nostalgia and also gives collectors a chance to round out their collections with a few sought-after rarities.
Commander of the Empire on Pegasus
Rob: The Imperial Captain on the Pegasus is a real classic – first released in 1991. He epitomises the Empire; he’s full of pomp, and much of the design language and attitude actually ended up in Hans von Löwenhacke. Look at him in terms of his size and stature, you can see a commonality – he’s a real chunk.
We went looking for these moulds in the dark recesses of the mould room, seeking out the tins* or even finding the designers who originally made them. We got some of the original greens** in that way – we needed one of the Imperial Ogres, who was brought in by Aly from his personal collection.
JTY: He was very happy to help. He had all of them, brought them all in and cleaned them all up. Some had become damaged over the years and he fixed them up so we could make moulds of the ones we were missing.
Commanders of the Empire, Empire Engineers and Battle-Standard Bearer
JTY: These are all great miniatures that we brought back just because we could. The engineers are from the early 2000s, while the Commanders and Standard Bearer were all Mail Order exclusive miniatures released during the sixth, seventh and eighth editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. They’re all returning in their original metal.
Thanks guys! These Made to Order miniatures will join the rest of the Empire of Man releases when they come to pre-orders. When is that? Soon…
*A ‘tin’ is a highly durable original casting of a metal miniature that production moulds are made from.
**Hand-sculpted Citadel Miniatures are usually built out of green modelling putty; the finished sculpture used to cast a ‘tin’ is known as a ‘green’.
