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INTERVIEW·WHITE DWARF 518

50 Years of Games Workshop

November 2025·pp. 2–11

THE SHORT VERSION

This oral history follows Games Workshop from the handmade games and mail-order work of its London beginnings through Citadel Miniatures, Warhammer’s arrival and the move to Nottingham. Staff recollections explain how miniature production became the centre of the business, how the two companies united, and how Rogue Trader emerged from a studio where people routinely wrote, drew and sculpted across job boundaries.

The later account connects the company’s growth to welcoming shops, demonstration games and boxes containing everything needed to start playing. Improvised gaming tables and early push-fit models become part of the same story: a passionate staff finding practical ways to make an unfamiliar hobby approachable and to give its growing community places to meet.

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Find this article in White Dwarf 518, pp. 2–11.

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InterviewWD 518 · pp. 12–15

The Miniatures

Designers trace the technical and creative changes from lead figures with integral bases to slotta-bases, multipart plastic kits and digital sculpting. Their memories show how mould constraints shaped familiar designs, why plastic demanded new skills, and how the transition to computers opened up finer detail, larger models and closer collaboration.

November 2025Read summary
InterviewWD 518 · pp. 16–19

The Games

Phil describes the relationship between miniatures, fictional worlds and game rules as a collaborative act of storytelling. The article recalls an earlier, more generalist studio, explains why models became the starting point for new projects, and shows how rules turn a collection into characters whose actions generate memorable stories at the table.

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November 2025Read summary
InterviewWD 518 · pp. 20–25

The Art of Illumination

Artists Alex and Paul explore the visual character of Warhammer, combining classical artistic influences with the dirt, rebellion and unease of late twentieth-century British punk. The accompanying gallery supports their argument that a convincing image needs an emotional connection to its inhabitants: technical polish, grotesque details and skulls alone cannot make an imagined world feel dangerous. They also explain why digital tools should preserve the scratchy, tangible quality associated with the company’s older art.

November 2025Read summary