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Ral Partha

Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc.,
A Division of Iron Wind Metals
Industry Wargaming
Role-playing games
Founded 1975; 42 years ago (1975)
Headquarters Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Key people
Sculptors:
Tom Meier
Dennis Mize
Julie Guthrie
Robert N. Charrette
Sandra Garrity
Richard Kerr
Dave Summers
Presidents:
Glenn E. Kidd
Chuck Crain
Jack Hesselbrock
Michael Noe
Products miniature figures

Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio produces miniature figures in 25 mm, 30 mm, 15 mm, and 54 mm scale. The company was founded in 1975 and is now a division of Iron Wind Metals, LLC, a company created in 2001 around Ral Partha's manufacturing capacities. The company's products are made by spin-casting metal alloys which depict soldiers, adventurers and creatures that have been inspired by history and fiction. Their miniatures are sold at gaming conventions, in hobby shops, and by internet and mail order for use in role playing games, wargaming, dioramas, competitive painting, and collecting. The company began as a basement enterprise undertaken by a group of wargamers around the talents of Tom Meier, a 16-year-old sculptor. The company grew with the increasing popularity of board and role-playing games. By 1982 Ral Partha products were sold worldwide. Ral Partha is best known for its historical figures, Fantasy Collector's series, and miniatures produced for TSR, Inc.'s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and FASA's BattleTech games.

Tom Meier became a freelance sculptor in 1988, and retains copyrights to much of his work for Ral Partha. He works on commission and operates Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures, a boutique company for pet projects involving dioramas, 54 mm figurines, and a new series of elves and goblins. During its 40-year history Ral Partha has employed more than two dozen sculptors, of whom the most prolific were Dennis Mize, Julie Guthrie, Sandra Garrity, Robert N. Charrette, and Dave Summers. The owners of the original Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc. sold the company to FASA in 1998, and was one of the assets acquired by WizKids in 2000. The following year Ral Partha's production assets were recast as Iron Wind Metals, LLC of Cincinnati, a company which continues to produce many of the Ral Partha lines of miniatures. In 2015 and the 40th anniversary of the founding of Ral Partha, Iron Wind Metals reacquired the long unused trademarks and relaunched Ral Partha as a division of the company focused on producing archived miniature lines under the banner of the Chaos Wars gaming world.


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