Colin Dixon, In Memory of a Great Sculptor & Artist
With sadness I just heard that Colin Dixon has passed away very recently, his work has inspired me through out my life, so I wanted to gather some of it here to honor his legacy.
Colin Dixon (1964–2023) passed away last weekend suddenly apparently without any prior warning, what a horrible thing to happen and way too early. At least he did not need to suffer long from some horrible disease. I am very sorry to hear about such a great loss to his family and all his many friends. From all accounts I’ve heard along the years Colin was beyond friendly and a great person known by most in his area in Nottingham. I’m writing this short article to honor his great career at Games Workshop and the great legacy he left to all of us in the hobby, for me personally he is my all time favourite miniature sculptor. Just yesterday I was going through a list of all the miniatures he had sculpted thinking about what a great artist he is, when later that day I found out he had passed away. Unfortunately I do not know of his career after Games Workshop so I cannot talk to that, but I’m sure whatever he did was of great quality.
Colin was originally born in Zimbabwe but lived his adult life in Nottingham, in his youth he was a great fan of military history and that was his gateway to the tabletop wargaming hobby. He was a passionate hobbyist and painter and he first got noticed by winning an award at a Citadel Open Day for his painted regiment, then in 1985 he entered the “Chaos Banner Competition” from the Third Citadel Journal which he won. Based on that he was approached by John Blanche and got hired to work as the the first ever full time miniature painter at Games Workshop. Colin’s miniature painting has had a big impact on how we all paint our miniatures today, he was the first to start shaping the painting style of Games Workshop and later on he mentored Mike McVey with his painting style and Mike has said that he was very inspired by Colin and never thought to reach his level. Mike McVey would go on to be one of the most influential painters at Games Workshop, arguably having developed the first studio style for Games Workshop or at the very least being a massive influence for all studio painters there ever since and he was directly taught by Colin.
Colin would move on to sculpting miniatures in the very early 90s and he would go on to sculpt a huge range of stunning miniatures for Games Workshop and even some for Marauder Miniatures when they were still a separate company in the early 90s. Colin would work at Games Workshop until 2002 having worked there for 17 years and leaving a big legacy to the hobby. He was also a talented illustrator and a sketch artist, many times sketching and designing the miniatures he would then sculpt and he also painted the iconic cover art for the second edition of Blood Bowl among some other illustrations published by Games Workshop. Colin has also sculpted for Wargames Foundry, but unfortunately I don’t have more details on that other than it must have been after he left GW. I do know from the Perry Miniatures Facebook page that he helped them with sending out orders in 2020 during the Covid times when they had a huge amount of orders to go through, but I suspect that was just a friend helping friends as Colin was a close friend of the Perry brothers.
Here’s an early article about Colin Dixon from White Dwarf #81 (September 1986), he would have been just around 22 years old here! At this point he had worked full time at Games Workshop for around a year as a miniature painter, the article features some of his personal miniature conversions and paintjobs which are just stunning. The article talks a little about Colin’s way into the job and what he does before going into how he created the models. It’s a fascinating time capsule of the hobby during it’s early years and it’s fun to see such a young Colin and how he is clearly overjoyed at being able to paint miniatures for a living! He was probably the only person in the world able to do that back then.
Now let’s take a look at some of the best miniatures Colin sculpted (my selection), his work will remain with us and I’m sure countless hobbyist will enjoy it for a long long time to come.
Anyone who has previously read my Warhammer Chronicles article on the Dwarf Longbeards will know how much I love these models. These have been among my all time favourite miniatures since I first saw them in 2001 and now later on when I came back to the hobby they have become my absolute all time favourite unit of models. I was lucky enough to acquire a unit of 20 of them recently and I have built a whole army themed around them now, which I can’t wait to get to work on in a few years after my current project. I think I’ll need to get at least another 20 of them!
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes these models so great, but I think the by word for these and pretty much all of Colin’s sculpts is character. You can just take a glancing look at these models to know exactly what they are about, their grumpy longbeardiness is writ large on every inch of the model. When you have these models in hand you can really appreciate all the work that he did to ground them in the Warhammer world with all the extra equipment and items they are carrying on their belts like knives, pouches etc. Also from a simple technical point of view these are simply stunning works of sculpting and it still blows my mind that someone was able to sculpt these by hand at that scale and to pack them so full of believable character! It was also great to see Colin’s personal Longbeards in the 6th ed army book, showing that he was still painting his own miniatures then and I would still love to know where he got those stunning shields he used on his Longbeards! Most likely he sculpted them himself, possibly he meant them for the kit but they were left out as a cost saving measure or other such reason, which if true is a loss for all of us Dwarf enthusiasts.
The 6th ed Tomb Kings miniature range is among my all time favourite miniature ranges and the most modern range that I really love. Colin sculpted a few miniatures in this range and they were likely the last miniatures he sculpted for Games Workshop, at the very least they are the last ones released that were done by him. He sculpted the superb Bone Giant and the great Tomb Swarm as well, I’ve yet to add a Bone Giant to my collection but I do have a few of the swarms and while they are obviously not as impressive they are packed full of interesting details and look great. I really love the Bone Giant and when I was collecting Tomb Kings in 2003 it was the model I aspired to have in my collection one day and I will certainly get at least one but it has to be in the original metal. I really like how the model is sculpted with separate arms, torso, legs and heads so you can quite freely pose it as you want. That’s quite rare for miniatures of this size to be able to pose them how you like and he even sculpted another head for variation. I think the Bone Giant might not be a model most would think about when thinking about Colin’s best work, but personally I think it’s a stunning model and I can’t wait to get one. I also wanted to feature it as it was likely the last model he sculpted with GW (or the Tomb Swarm?).
Jumping from the latest to the earliest or at the very least the earliest I could find. The Norse Dwarfs pictured above were featured in White Dwarf #133 (January 1991) and they are the earliest sculpts by Colin that were published by Games Workshop. Below you can read a short article from that same issue of White Dwarf, where it mentions that Colin had been apprenticing to become a miniature sculptor with Jes Goodwin and that he’s working on Chaos Demon models for Epic as well as some Ork models for 40k. Apparently these Norse Dwarfs by Colin are quite rare nowadays and by this time there was already a big Norse Dwarf range designed by the Perry twins so maybe not so many of these were sold. You can certainly tell that these are early sculpts for Colin, but I think all the elements of what made him a great sculptor are already present in these miniatures as they are bursting with character and are of a good technical quality (posing, proportions, details etc.). We also get a bonus picture of young Colin here, he would have been around 27 years old here.
If I had to choose the most iconic unit sculpted by Colin Dixon, it would have to be these absolute classic Dwarf Miners. These really epitomize Colin’s talent and style, you are by now probably getting tired of the word characterful but these are the absolute pinnacle of characterful sculpts! They were released in November 1993 a few months after the bulk of the 4th ed Dwarf range had been released. Colin was of course best known for all the superb Dwarf models he designed and sculpted of which these are a prime example, if those Norse Dwarfs from 1991 are indeed his first released models then these are just 2 years after them. That’s a lot of progression in his skills in just a few years! For me these models are absolutely timeless and there’s nothing on them I could even imagine to want to change, I’m happy to have a unit of 15 of them in my Dwarf army.
Who else than Colin would have sculpted this amazing set of Drunken Dwarfs? These are an absolute classic set of miniatures which I’ll have to get my hands on one day, but unfortunately they are currently quite pricey as the demand is high for such classics. I’m not certain whether these were released for a specific campaign or just as a fun add on to include in your units, although I do know there was a White Dwarf campaign called Bugmans Lament that included rules for Drunken Dwarfs. If my memory serves me correct that campaign did come quite a bit later than these models. These were originally released a month after the miniatures for the Grudge of Drong campaign set (featured below), so they might be linked to that campaign as well. Whatever the reason for their release, the world is a better place with them having been released!
The set of Dwarf character models released alongside Warhammer Fantasy 5th ed campaign set The Grudge of Drong are among my all time favourite character models, especially Drong (big hammer) and Grung (Runesmith) which I’ve managed to add to my collection already. I’m really running out of words to use here, but just look at their glory, such great models!
I wanted to add some more of the iconic 4th ed Dwarfs range even though these Thunderers were sculpted by both Aly Morrison and Colin Dixon so it’s not clear to me which individual models were sculpted by Colin, but either way it’s a great looking unit and very representative of it’s era of Dwarfs. The Miners are from this same period, but they have a more timeless look to them and indeed they were used as the current miner miniatures all the way into 7th edition, while these Thunderers and all other Dwarf units were updated already in early 6th ed when Colin got the chance to do most of the range by himself. For me the 6th ed range is the pinnacle of Colin’s career as they were contemporary to me in my youth but I certainly wouldn’t argue too hard against someone saying that the 4th ed Dwarf range is the pinnacle.
In addition to Dwarfs the Skaven are likely the other army that Colin is most known for, the selection above are all Colin’s work except for Throt the Unclean, the Stormvermin Warlord and the Plague Monk painted green on the right of the top picture, which are some of the original Jes Goodwin Skaven models. Colin sculpted the 4th ed Stormvermin, Plague Monks and the Plague Censer Bearers and a few later additions like the Warlocks and it’s all again great stuff. It couldn’t have been easy to sculpt for the Skaven range after someone like Jes Goodwin had sculpted the original range, but I certainly think Colin did a great job here expanding the iconic range. These certainly wouldn’t be the only Skaven models Colin sculpted along the years, there were many others as well, a few of which are featured below.
I’ve always loved this quirky Skaven Jezzail team by Colin with it’s hilariously oversized gun and the other ratman holding it on by a stick apparatus.
Colin also had a major hand in updating the Skaven range during late 5th edition and early 6th edition to match the new more gritty and dark style that Warhammer had moved on to. This is the era I originally got into the hobby so for me this is how Warhammer should look and these are again great models, although now looking at them with having a wider perspective of all the model ranges throughout the years I do think the earlier 4th edition Skaven overall might be the better range. That doesn’t take anything away from these models and certainly nothing out of Colin’s absolute talent with sculpting. Those Poisoned Wind Globadiers especially are very iconic Skaven models which really embody the essence of that army.
The plastic Skeleton Warriors regiment from 1998 was sculpted by Colin Dixon and Aly Morrison, the original kit contained metal parts which I suspect where sculpted by Colin as he is not credited with the later Tomb Kings Skeleton Warriors regiment which contains the same basic skeleton sprues. In any case, this is likely my personal all time favourite plastic kit and I especially love those original metal command bits and knowing that Colin had a hand in creating it I had to include it here.
The Skeleton Warriors regiment wasn’t the only plastic regiment that Colin had a hand in, he also designed the late 5th edition plastic Skaven Clanrat and the plastic Dwarf Warriors regiments together with Aly Morrison. I think it’s fair to say these 3 plastic regiments are among the most iconic plastic kits ever released for Warhammer Fantasy and most of us in the hobby have put together one or more of them.
Colin didn’t sculpt many Undead models all together, but he did sculpt a few 5th ed Blood Dragon Vampires, the afore mentioned Tomb Kings models as well as the stunning Wight Army Standard Bearer and the absolute classic unit of 6th ed Grave Guard. Both the standard bearer and especially the Grave Guard are among my all time favourite models and they make me wish Colin did more models for the Undead factions as I enjoy both of them very much. These Grave Guard models epitomize what I love about Warhammer, the mixing of real historically grounded elements with fantastical elements as they look almost like real medieval warriors but with the slight detail that they are actually a shambling horde of animated skeletons! This is a really superb unit and I can’t wait to add a unit of them to my budding Vampire Counts project.
Colin was a part of the team that sculpted all the 4th ed Dark Elves models, he was credited as the second sculptor for Dark Elf Spearmen and Dark Elf Command as well as Dark Elf Warriors and Witch Elves together with Aly Morrison who was the main sculptor. The 4th ed Cold One Knights had all together 3 sculptors with Colin being one of them. This iteration of the Dark Elves aren’t among my favourite miniature ranges, but they certainly have a strong aesthetic and many nice models. These are quite outside of the style of most miniatures sculpted by Colin which shows that he was capable of adapting his style to fit others and work together for a common goal.
Colin seems to have had a slight affinity to Halflings as well since he sculpted the Lumpin Croop’s Fighting Cocks for Dogs of War as well as a Halfling cook for the Mordheim range. No wonder, they are short and yes — characterful so they are a perfect fit for Colin’s talents. I think everyone loves this classic Dogs of War unit, it’s just fun and another example of Colin’s remarkable skill in creating small, grounded and whimsical miniatures.
Colin Dixon was one of the major sculptors for Mordheim as well, having his hand in many of the sculpts released for it, especially the Dwarf and Skaven models. The Dwarf Treasure Hunters are credited to Colin Dixon and Mark Bedford. I’m sure Colin treasured the chance to sculpt a bit more individualized models with Mordheim and these certainly are once again another characterful set of models. They really sell the look of being adventurers on a quest.
There were multiple late 90s and early 00’s Skaven kits that Colin was credited in, but most of them were half credits with another sculptor so I didn’t want to give the wrong impression on who had sculpted what. For all of the above pictured Mordheim Skaven Colin Dixon was the sole credited sculptor and I think they showcase the later style of Skaven he sculpted very well. I don’t personally have as big of an affinity towards Skaven, although the more I look at them the more I like them and I’d certainly like to collect a large collection of Colin’s sculpts along the years so it’s likely I’ll get to them one day. I won’t go into it once again, but these Skaven certainly exhibit the usual touch of Colin and I do like them quite a bit, although I do personally prefer the 4th ed Skaven that he sculpted some of which was showcased above in this article.
When I found out the Skeleton Warrior and Horsemen conversions and paintjobs above were done by Colin, I had to include them here. I remember seeing these in the 5th edition Vampire Counts army book back in 1999, which was my first ever Warhammer Fantasy army book and being very impressed with them. I’m still very impressed with these conversions, especially the Skeleton Warrior on the right looks absolutely stunning! Sadly I couldn’t find high resolution pictures so they are a bit smudged, but you can still see how good the paintjob looks and how skillfully Colin has bleneded the Skeleton Warriors plastic kit with Empire parts. The pistol on the rider is from the Long Drong’s Slayer Pirates set which Colin had sculpted himself. These really are a testament to how skilled Colin was in the hobby in addition to being a superb sculptor, he also was a superb painter and converter!
In addition to all the models featured above, Colin had a big hand in the 4th ed Dwarfs range most of which was sculpted by Aly Morrison and Colin Dixon so that some of the models in one set / unit are by one and some by the other (like the Thunderers pictured above). The superb late 5th and early 6th ed Dwarfs range which is likely my all time favourite one was almost fully sculpted by Colin with a few exceptions, which I consider a remarkable feat of miniature design and sculpting. Then there were a lot of Skaven models beginning with the 4th ed range where he sculpted many with him having the sole credit and he would continue to sculpt Skaven until early 6th ed. There were the few Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings models, most of which are pictured above and in addition to those there are various small ranges or one off miniatures he worked on like the 4th ed Snotlings and possibly the Goblin Wolf Riders for Orcs & Goblins, he also did some classic Daemon sculpts like 4th ed Plaguebearers, Bloodletters and Daemonettes with Aly Morrison as well as many 4th ed Dark Elves models, again with Aly Morrison. He seemed to have had a great working relationship with Aly as they are credited together on very many sets of models! I found some mentions that Colin would have also had a hand in the 4th ed High Elf range, but at least the catalogues do not credit him on any of those models, so I’m not sure whether he did or not.
Those are all the main ranges and the smaller ranges he did for various Warhammer Fantasy armies, although I’m sure there’s some single sculpts for some other armies that I’ve missed here. Colin also sculpted at least some demon models for Epic like some of the Greater Demons, he also did the whole Scavvies range and Plague Zombies for Necromunda. For 40K the only models by Colin I was able to find where a range of Gretchin for Rogue Trader which he did together with Kev Adams who was leading that project, the ’86 White Dwarf mentions that Colin was working on some Ork models so it’s possible it was referring to those Gretchin or maybe there’s a few more Ork models done by Colin, but all in all he didn’t seem to do more than that for 40K and fantasy was clearly he’s passion. I’ll include a few of Colin’s great sculpts of those other ranges below as well as a few more of his great fantasy models for us to admire.
Which models would you have selected as your favourites from Colin’s extensive catalogue? Please do let me know in the comments and do also let me know if you know about Colin’s career after Games Workshop or especially if I made any glaring mistakes here.
If you enjoy reading about the history of Warhammer, for example articles looking at all the models, rules and lore of a Warhammer unit, see all my other articles here. Thank you for your interest!
Rest in Peace Colin, you are fondly remembered by a horde of hobbyists and most of all by your loved ones and the many people who knew you personally.
