In the 80s, Citadel released an extensive range of figures for Traveller. Shown above are the Tech 3 military. the figures were produced and are still available from RAFM. The figures above use a black undercoat with a layer of pthalo blue acrylic paint and some Testors gold paint on the visors.
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There has never been a shortage of advertising material for Games Workshop. Marketing has clearly been a strong point. Even so, these catalog pages look surprisingly nondescript. Already there is a division based on region which certainly makes sense since Americans do not respond well to references to alternate currencies.
By the time this catalog was released, Warhammer and Warhammer 40K were in full swing. Games Workshop had also put out a series of games often incorporating figures including Blood Bowl and The Fury of Dracula. They also followed up with a collaboration with Milton Bradley producing Battle Masters and HeroQuest. If nothing else, all these efforts must have pointed the way towards a reliance on all inclusive boxed sets. I should at some point dig out my old copy of Advanced Space Crusade for a look.
The Citadel/Games Workshop
The one real monster of wargaming, they have crafted rules and worlds for their games that has not seen an equal. There are two of their stores nearby. I have seen their stores throughout Europe. The Citadel used to be a separate entity for miniatures manufacture but was long ago subsumed by Games Workshop. For a look at some early pre-Warhammer stuff, check out the 15mm space miniatures now sold by RAFM.
The temptation is to refer to these as Traveller miniatures but some are part of the Laserburn range which had its own unique set of rules. The figures shown are by a variety of companies including Citadel, Laserburn, Martian Metals, and Asgard. There may be others tucked in there but I am not really sure. The figures are over 30 years old give or take a year. These are my only award winning figures having taking first place for SF/Fantasy group at some in the distant past Origins convention. Most of the painting was done with enamels.
15mm had seemed an odd scale for an RPG. RPGs usually relied on larger 25mm and 28mm figures. It did make Traveller unique for its time and facilitated the introduction of the Striker rules for mass combat replacing the earlier simplistic rules found in the original RPG. There were also rules like Snapshot and a later more streamlined version of the Snapshot rules in the Azhanti High Lightning game set that allowed battles using individual figures rather than using multiple based figures. With the Snapshot type rules, figures could use maps of spaceships, outdoor areas, and buildings as handy battlefields. Eventually, Traveller began using 25mm figures with several companies licensed to manufacture them. Licensing really would seem unimportant as any figure could function in a Traveller game but the alien races were pretty unique.
All the figures are nice though I prefer the Laserburn and Citadel (now RAFM) figures. Vehicles have never quite kept up with the range of figures. There are more manufacturers offering vehicles these days but all seem grounded in 20th century technology.
A group of 15mm Traveller figures. These were originally produced under The Citadel logo, the label that distributed figures for Games Workshop. The figures were sold either bagged or boxed with a nice brochure describing the military formation represented. Now the figures are produced under the RAFM label, a Canadian company, who according to their website, originally produced the figures for Citadel. For years, I lamented the lack of a source for these figures but they are currently being sold by RAFM.
I painted the figures with bright blue helmets to emulate those worn by the UN and red helmets to emulate the Red Devils of WWII. The dress, a khaki uniform with dark grey body armor, was deliberately kept drab. Figures on the left are newer. The ones on the right are painted with Humbrol enamels and mounted on matboard (now delaminating with age), the ones on the left were painted with Liquitex acrylics and mounted on wooden bases. The enamels are sturdier but not as bright. The figures represent a Tech 2 army for use with GDW’s original Striker rules. RAFM offered low tech troops resembling American infantry from the 50s, mid tech such as those shown and high tech where figures are dressed in battle armor. Figures to the right represent security troops and are painted with an olive drab base overlaid with paint dabs of light green and tan to offer the appearance of camouflage.
The figures are pleasant, easy to paint, and offer a nice range of support for 15mm SF military support.