Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures is Games Workshop's paint-and-miniatures production division. GW funded their founding, and licensed miniature production to them, and then bought them outright. They are often brutally overpriced for what they are, but are still reasonably good quality (except for fucking Finecast). They used to make miniatures for all kinds of games, but nowadays they only make models and miniatures for games in the Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game lines.
Minis
The models of Citadel Miniatures are generally detailed, detailed and robust, and you will only rarely have problems with compatability between the different parts, which tends to be the case with many other corps who makes models. They do have some mold lines, but usually not too obstructive. The design of the models also tend to fit very well together regardless of faction (so the Tyranid and Space Marine models look different, but still seem like they fit in the same universe. But, regardless of this flubdubbery, Citadel Miniatures have one, singular problem...
THEY COST TOO FUCKING MUCH!
This is apparent when you pay around 30 pounds for one Mek Gun kit, but the real problem is that you usually need a shitload of models for both Fantasy and 40K for them to be effective in crunch - In fact, both games are based around quantity rather than quality (in general at least), so get ready to murder your wallet over and over to pay for your plastic crack, however quality they put into the models.
Or, you could of course come over to the dark side.
Paints
They (may) have the best metallic paints available and quite some colours to chose from (150 in total), but they're REALLY fucking expensive. Pots cost about 3 pounds a piece - This is a hurdle for some, as you can get more paint for a bit less at other people, but to its credit, Citadel Paint is very consistently of great quality - Each paint has a specific feel to it, and by combining the right amount of water (usually just a tap) you can make exactly the paint you want, where the cheaper paints tend to be thin from the get go - To the creatively inpaired among us, the paints also fit together very nicely, so Rakarth Flesh (A white-ish tone) fits perfectly with Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull, making for easy blending of the right colours. If you have the money and the patience to blend each stroke with water, Citadel isn't a bad choice. Just a costly one.
See Also
- Forge World, GW's more specialist miniature studio which somehow manages to be even more overpriced. Because sculpted resin is worth twice its weight in gold, apparently.