Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review

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November 2021 saw the launch of a number of brand-new Citadel Colour hobby products, all of which were designed to be used in tandem with one another in a new modular system. Today, we’re having a look at the Citadel Colour Assembly Stand.

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Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review – Summary

A useful addition to any hobby workstation, the Citadel Colour Assembly Stand works seamlessly with either the Citadel Colour Painting Handle or the citadel Colour Painting Handle XL. That it requires the purchases of either, or both of these in order to be used to its full potential isn’t so great, but once it has a Citadel Colour Painting Handle in its dock, it’s a useful piece of kit for any budding modeler.

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review – Introduction

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m building something I get really sick of all the holding.

It’s usually if something’s going wrong. Perhaps you didn’t quite line up the component the first time round so the part didn’t take to the rest of the model. You’ve now got a figure with those spiderweb-like strands of partly-dried glue all over it, there’s glue on your hands, and you’ve got to realign the component all over again. And, oh, look at that: you’ve slipped and you’ve snapped off a bit of detail – a hand, a grenade, a puff of smoke, a solitary finger.

Then, just having to sit sit there and hold it the parts again whilst the rest of the unbuilt unit looks up at you from where it lies, still dismembered upon its sheets of sprue, feels like torture. After a minute or two of just holding, you go to take your fingers away just to remember you never wiped that partially-dried glue from earlier off your fingers. You’ve now got a great big fingerprint on the part. The detail is gone. You hate yourself. You never want to hobby again.

Gah.

We’ve all been there – particularly me, and particularly recently. Being an above averagely-sized human with larger-than-average hands, sometimes getting those fiddly little components – antennae, hands, whatever – onto a figure can drive you mad.

Luckily for us (well, for me at least), Citadel has come up with a solution: the Assembly Stand.

Equipped with a pair of rubber-mouthed assembly arms that can be reposed and moved around its base at will, the Citadel Colour Assembly Stand is designed to take the sticky, gluey-fingered stress and rage out of building.

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review – Design

Before we get too into this, now feels like a good time to mention that in order to get the most out of the Citadel Colour Assembly Stand, you will need to make at least one more purchase: one of the two Citadel Colour Painting Handles.

The Assembly Stand is designed to work around one of these painting handles. As you’ll see in the image below, there’s a large circular cutaway in the centre of the base. This is the slot into which the grip section of your painting handle of choice will need to be inserted.

Here’s the assembled piece of kit:

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review Stand

It’s a very straightforward design: a trihedral base with cutaways at the corners – presumably for loose components – and the long edges of which are studded with a number of holes at various angles. The assembly arms, which can be removed and repositioned at will, can me slotted into these holes as they are required in order to ensure that they reach the particular part you require them to.

Each of the ball-joints, knuckles, or whatever you want to call them on the assembly arms is fully rotational and posable, so you can twist the arm into whatever shape you need. The grips themselves are very firm, but are lined with rubber to prevent them damaging any of your components.

It’s a very simple and straightforward bit of kit to understand. You certainly won’t need a degree in engineering to work it. Here’s the thing disassembled:

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review Stand Components

So, now is a good time to point out that in the box I received, my two assembly arms are actually different lengths.

On all the advertising media I’ve seen for this product, the Assembly Stand looks to be provided with two six-jointed assembly arms. Well, as you can see in the image above, one of mine has seven.

I do live in Norfolk, so maybe this isn’t to be unexpected.

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review – Testing

So, as I mentioned above you will need to use a Citadel Colour Painting Handle or Painting Handle XL with the Assembly Stand. Whilst you may be able to balance third-party painting handles on top of or inside the slot where the handle is designed to sit, you’re much better off just using Citadel’s kit. It’s designed specifically to work with the Assembly Stand, so you’re far less likely to have any slipping or other disasters mid-build.

I actually tested out the Assembly Stand on one of the T’au Pathfinders from, the Kill Team: Chalnath box that was released on the same day as the Assembly Stand.

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review Regular Handle

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review Regular Handle with T'au

The clips may at first seem a firm to be holding any small or fragile components, but the rubber-lined “mouths” of the clips are soft enough to prevent any damage or marks being left on your figures. As you can see in the image above on the right, I attached one of the T’au Pathfinder’s arm by the antenna of the device he was holding to the rest of his body. The component was completely undamaged.

I have tow criticisms: one moderate-sized one, and one smaller one. The larger one is that using a Citadel Colour Assembly Stand on a small model like the one above very much anchors you to the surface you work from. With smaller models in particular, you might find it useful to be able to pick the figure up, turn it around and flip it over in order to get the contact points to meet. You can do this with the Assembly stand by clipping one of the arms onto the base of your figure, but in doing so that does take up one of the arms.

The second, much smaller criticism: I found the clips to be a little bit big when trying to attach the smaller components to the figure. I imagine a smaller-nosed, thinner clip would be more appropriate – and wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if these were released as a separate purchase at some point in the future.

Now, moving on to larger figures.

The Assembly Stand works like a dream with the new Citadel Painting Handle XL – so much so that I found myself wishing I’d had the Assembly Stand and the Painting Handle XL sooner.

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review Stand with XL Handle

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review Mortis Engine

The Assembly Stand really begins to make sense with the XL, and the clever design of the two modular systems suddenly makes perfect sense. The arms of the Assembly Stand can be detached from the base and re-attached to the brackets on the XL, allowing them to reach any area of even some of the largest models with ease.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the assembly arms aren’t strong enough to weight-bear some of the biggest bits of the model. If, for example, I tried to attach the entire Mortis Engine in the above image to its base in one go and hold it in place with the assembly arms, the arms likely wouldn’t be able to take it. At one point, on a whim, I attached the regular Citadel Colour Painting Handle to the assembly arm. The arm was able to hold the handle up for a minute or so, but after a while it did give out and collapse, unable to hold the weight.

Will Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Improve my Hobby?

Yes. Yes, it will.

It takes a bit of getting used to at first, but once I’d got the hang of the Assembly Stand, I found I was really enjoying using it. I was able to get up and do other things whilst I waited for parts of my figures to fully dry, plus with the claws and the trays on the base of the thing, I never found myself wondering just where I’d left that part I’d just cut out.

It’s a thoughtful thing, designed to make life easier. And it does.

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review – Price and Availability

At £16/$27/€21, the Citadel Colour Assembly Stand is a reasonably-priced bit of kit. Of course, this comes with a singular caveat: you’ll also need to buy yourself either a regular Citadel Colour Painting Handle or the Painting Handle XL, but neither handle is a bank-breaker, and both are worth the money they cost.

Citadel Colour Assembly Stand Review – Final Thoughts

Pros	Cons
Frees up your hands so you can work on other aspects of assembly Works very well with the other parts of the Citadel range Easy to disassemble and reassemble Good grip strength on the clips Clearly separated at birth from the XL handle	Does not come with a Citadel Colour painting handle and requires one in order to be used properly Assembly arms could, perhaps, be just a little bit stronger Not always helpful when working with smaller models

I like this.

Before today, I’ve never used anything quiet like the Citadel Colour Assembly Stand, and after a little adjustment I found I was really quite enjoying it. It made my life easier as the human error factors of gluey fingers and wobbly hands are removed from the assembly equation once a figure is strung up between the arms of the Assembly Stand.

And, if I’m honest, it actually lends a little gravitas to my hobby desk. It gives the vibe that the person who sits here knows what they’re doing (which I definitely don’t), but more importantly it doesn’t take up all that much space, so can be stored easily or pushed to one side once you no-longer have any use for it.

The Assembly Stand’s only real problem is that it anchors you to your worksurface. A couple of times when building the T’au Pathfinders I tested the Assembly Stand on I found myself removing the handle from the just to make sure I was lining things up right then replacing it.

The Assembly Stand really comes into its own with larger models, though. You’ll no-longer need to be hoisting around larger and more cumbersome based models, terrified you might drop them and shatter hours of your hard work.

In all, a worthy addition to the Citadel Colour range.

★★★★