New Lead Free Metal Miniatures

The following article by Paul Robbins is reprinted from White Dwarf, February 1997, with kind permission.

For many months now, the Citadel designers and alchemists have been locked away in dingy rooms behind our foundry, engaged in secret experiments with all manner of metals and alloys in order to come up with a "white metal" casting material that has all the qualities and properties we need to cast Citadel miniatures and yet is totally lead free! Well finally they've succeeded!

Over the last few years, as Games Workshop has expanded, the demand for Space Marines and other Citadel miniatures has become a worldwide phenomenon. Although "toy soldiers" made of lead have a long and glorious history amongst serious wargamers and collectors, times change, and particularly in some overseas countries, we have encountered resistance to the use of lead in our models and kits. Of course, we believe that everyone in the world should have the right to play Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, and so rather than being forced to change by legislation, we decided to send in our investigation team to come up with a viable alternative.

The job of selecting an alternative fell to me, Paul Robbins, the Citadel Miniatures factory manager, and my crew. These days I'm responsible for the production of thousands of miniatures a week, though you may remember me instead as a two times Golden Demon Slayer Sword winner. No stranger to painting and converting miniatures, my team and I left no stone unturned in the search for a material that met our exacting standards as modellers and gamers.

What we've come up with is a new "white metal" alloy that is totally lead free! The new material casts well, produces sharper, crisper detail and results in fewer miscasts, and thus fewer defective miniatures. In addition it can be cut, drilled, bent and filed and so will continue to allow modellers to convert and customise their miniatures.

We are currently working on the details of how and when to introduce the new metal into our ranges and will keep you posted as it happens.

All of this means that we are now in the position to take the Warhammer hobby around the world and build a truly worldwide community of gamers who all speak the same language - WARHAMMER!

For more information on leaded product recalls, go to lead poisoning hazard consumer product recalls