Citadel Star Cruisers

The Space Battles game can be played with any collection of models, so long as they can be divided into the four categories of small, medium, large and massive. During the development of the game a huge variety of models were used, most of them pieces I've had for decades, some going back to the mid 1970s. During the process of putting the game together, I took plenty of photos, some of which are included in the rulebook, but many of which didn't quite make the cut. I thought I 'd share some of these on the blog, starting with these models from the Citadel Star Cruisers range. 

This model was described at the time as a Bismark class Battle Cruiser - a cruiser sized ship in terms of Space Battles. The paint job is very much a case of pile on the washes for a grubby space-industrial look. Probably inspired by the appearance of the run-down Nostromo in Alien, which was quite a new take on spacecraft at the time. 

This one rejoices under the name of the John F Kennedy class Cruiser. In Space Battles I used these as destroyers. It has the same low-tech design ethos as the Bismark, and it has received the same kind of paint treatment. 

This pair of ships are Stateside class Scout Cruisers. I used these as destroyers in the Space Battles game. I don't remember why I gave these a different paint job to the previous ships. They must have been painted at the same time. I've rebased the models onto round MDF bases, drilled for a cocktail-stick stand. These stands are really sturdy, and even quite large and heavy models can be mounted this way without any danger of falling over. 

These are ships on the stands that I put them on at the time. I don't remember where these came from, but they are something like acrylic bases with wire stands. It doesn't matter at all whether ships have stands or not for the Space Battles game, but it does lend the models a certain dignity! 

That's all I have - or all that has survived intact - of the Star Cruisers range ships. The range itself was fairly extensive, and included a number of  rather interesting organic spaceships, some of which were later re-released as 'Tyrannid' ships to support the Spacefleet game.