Aly Morrison, one of the sculptors who helped shape what Warhammer miniatures look like, has died. His family shared the news this week, and Wargamer reported it on November 12, 2026. He had retired from Games Workshop in May 2026, after more than forty years of making little metal and plastic people that a lot of us grew up with.
Published November 12, 2026. Facts in this tribute come from Wargamer's obituary, which draws on Trish Carden's own posts and interviews.
A career that started in a fanzine
Aly's story doesn't start at Games Workshop. According to Wargamer, he began making miniatures as a young man around 1977. He drew art for the Scottish Dungeons & Dragons fanzine Underworld Oracle, and with the zine's co-editor Lou Nesbit he made models for a small range called Oracle Miniatures. He also worked freelance for other companies, including the historical figure maker Mike's Models.
That's the part I like most about it. It's the same path so many of us in the hobby know: drawing, tinkering, making things for friends, and slowly getting good enough that someone notices.
Citadel, and Trish and Aly Morrison
Bryan Ansell at Games Workshop noticed. In 1983 Aly started freelance work designing figures for Citadel Miniatures. Long-time fans will know the name as half of a pair: Trish and Aly Morrison. Trish, today Trish Carden, saw the detail Aly put into his models and started sculpting too, and when Aly showed her work to Ansell, she was offered a job as well.
The two married in 1984 and spent about eighteen months working from a tiny top-floor flat in Edinburgh, taking orders from the Citadel studio and sending finished models south by post or by train. In 1986 Aly was offered a full-time job at Citadel, and the pair moved to Nottingham to join the design studio.
Marauder Miniatures
In 1988, Aly and Trish founded Marauder Miniatures. Wargamer explains it was really part of Games Workshop, using Citadel's factories and distribution, but Aly and Trish were free to run their own studio the way they wanted.
And it lasted. The Marauder dwarf Troll Slayers were never replaced, and they're still the current models for Warhammer: The Old World today. Wargamer calls them arguably the design archetype behind the Age of Sigmar Fyreslayers range, which we cover in our Khazalite Holds and Fyreslayers guide. Think about that for a second: a sculpt from the late 1980s is still on shelves, still being painted, still being put on the table.
Wargamer describes his style beautifully: where Trish became known for monsters, Aly's designs had whimsy and wit, models with the exaggerated movement of a Jim Henson puppet. If you've ever picked up an old dwarf and smiled at the face on it, there's a good chance that was the point.
Still sculpting until this year
Aly stayed part of model design at Games Workshop right up until his retirement in May 2026. He also kept a blog, Aly's Toy Soldiers. That's a long career by any measure, and almost the whole history of Citadel happened while he was there.
Like this kind of news? Get the WIZY weekly: one email every Sunday, no spam.
From his family
Trish Carden shared the news in her Facebook group, saying that she and their daughter are heartbroken, and describing Aly as a much-loved father, a veteran wargames miniatures designer and a friend to many around the tabletop and the world. She said he passed unexpectedly but peacefully. The family has asked for privacy, and said they would love to hear stories from people who knew him.
So if you met him at an event, or you have a model of his that means something to you, that's probably the best way to remember him: tell the story.
My take
I never met Aly Morrison, and I play Ultramarines, not dwarfs. But this hobby is built by people like him. Every army on every table today stands on the work of those first Citadel sculptors who figured out what a Warhammer miniature should look like. Forty-odd years of that is a legacy most of us can't imagine. Thank you, Aly. Rest in peace.
WIZY Blog is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Games Workshop.
Sources
- Wargamer (Timothy Linward): Legendary Warhammer sculptor Aly Morrison has died (Nov 12, 2026) wargamer.com
Written by the WIZY creator
A lifelong gamer and Warhammer painter, and the maker of the WIZY RPG game. I write about games, hardware, Warhammer and crypto in plain English, and I check every fact against its source.
