Review: Citadel Colour Sub-Assembly Holder

Sometimes Games Workshop releases something you didn’t know you needed until you saw it. Ok, you could actually say that about every new miniature, but I’m talking about the new Citadel Colour Sub-Assembly Holder here. In this review we’ll find out if they’re an indispensable aid to your hobby, a waste of money, or something in between.

The Citadel Colour Sub-Assembly Holder box is out now and contains 44 hard-plastic part holders and two handles. The part holders fit into the updated version of the Citadel Colour Spray Stick, while the handles fit into the circular holes in the Painting Handle XL and Assembly Stand from Games Workshop. The RRP is £8 / 10 Euro / $12.50.

Features

The small cardboard box contains two duplicate sprues of hard plastic, each sprue comes with 22 part holders and a handle. The part holders measure about 20 x 20 mm, with a depth of 4 mm. They are shaped like a cross, with two wide arms, and a tip that can also be easily snapped off if you need more contact surface. The idea now is to glue individual parts (or sub-assemblies) onto the Part Holder for easier access while painting. Since the plastic is the same as on Citadel models, you can also use plastic glue, although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, as superglue comes off more easily.

The part holders can be plugged into the handle without glue, so you can easily switch between several holders. The handle has a diameter of 24 mm, and a height of 20 mm. With a total of 44 parts, the holders are also easy to replace.

Of course, you can argue that you can make the whole thing for (almost) nothing, e.g. with corks, wire, or leftover sprue pieces. Or you can save yourself the work and just buy this box and be done with it. Games Workshop is simply good at designing useful hobby aids that are not essential, but nice to have and make the hobby a little easier if you want to spend money on them. The compatibility with the other assembly and painting aids is the cherry on top if you are already in the Games Workshop ecosystem.

The only thing I can criticise is that the part holders are slightly slanted at the bottom and do not stand up straight by themselves, as you can see in the picture. And including a few more handles would have been nice.

Value

At an RRP of £8 / 10 Euro / $12.50, the Citadel Colour Sub-Assembly Holders are not cheap, but not unexpected by Games Workshop standards. With 44 part holders, they will last an eternity. If you don’t need the extra handle, I would even recommend sharing the box with a friend, as I think half should be enough for one person.

You can find Games Workshop prducts at our partner stores Wayland Games and Element Games at up to 20% discount.