Miniature Figures
Knights in white metal…

Many FRPGers use miniature figures (minis) during gameplay, e.g., to help visualise where everyone is during combat: which way each character is facing, and who’s fighting who, etc.

These minis were most commonly cast in “white metal” (an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony), but following some (unfounded) concerns about the safety of white metal, many manufacturers now cast minis exclusively in lead-free pewter (an alloy of tin, copper, and antimony).

GW offers plastic (hard styrene) minis as well as metal; Fenryll, Forge World, and others offer resin minis (not so mini in Forge World’s case!).

Minis are available in various scales, of which the most common are:

• 25mm – 1:72
• 28mm / 30mm – ∼ 1:65 - 1:60
• 35mm – ∼ 1:50

Some miniatures are superbly sculpted, and are collectable in their own right. I went down this route and have bought far more than I will ever need for gameplay!

I have painted many of my best figures and created dioramas and vignettes to show them off. My as-yet-unrealised project is to build a “wizards’ tower” – at 30mm scale, this will likely be well over a metre (three-four feet) high.

Some of the best fantasy figures manufacturers and ranges are…

Artizan Designs ★★★ ― 28mm

Artizan Designs manufactures a variety of historical miniatures for wargamers and collectors alike. Two ranges, the Vikings and the Moors, are suitable for fantasy settings.

“Celtos” ★★★★ ― 28mm

Brigade Models offers “Celtos” – a fine range of 28mm fantasy Celtic figures – formerly from i-Kore Miniatures. These are some of the best-ever (fantasy!) Celtic models – while they have improbably huge weaponry, they are ideal for use with Mongoose Publishing’s Sláine RPG.

The “Celtos” range started life as a purely collectable range but the surprising success of the range prompted i-Kore to develop its own full-blown tabletop battle system, also called Celtos.

The figures represent the five races of Celtic myth… well, a version of it!

• the Fir Bolg – the accursed living dead hosts of Anwyn;
• the Sidhe – the immortal elven rulers of the elements;
• the Fomorians – demonic orc and goblin spawn of Chaos and Old Night;
• the Gaels – warrior men and women, the favoured children of the All Mother;
• the Vanir – dwarven raiders of the frozen wasteland.

One of i-Kore’s most talented sculptors, Kev White, now has his own company, Hasslefree Miniatures.

They can be found in specialist shops such as War Games World (Ilkley and St. Helen’s, UK).

“Confrontation” ★★★★ ― 28-35mm

Rackham, a French company, offers a beautifully crafted range of figures for its “Confrontation” fantasy trading-card game. The scale is officially 28mm, but seems to be closer to 35mm. Many figures are much bigger even than this: the Wolfen werewolf figures stand at least 50mm tall and the Orcs are all huge muscular brutes that dwarf similar ranges.

The Keltois Sessairs barbarians are some of the best-ever (fantasy!) Celtic models – like i-Kore’s “Celtos” figures they have improbably huge weaponry, but, again, are ideal for use with Mongoose Publishing’s Sláine RPG.

Rackham’s “Confrontation” miniatures are available directly from the Confrontation Boutique en Ligne (précédemment seulement en Français mais maintenant aussi en Anglais!) and from distributors such as Fantization Miniatures (U.S.) and GameMart (UK). They can also be found in specialist shops such as Orcs Nest (London, UK) and War Games World (Ilkley and St. Helen’s, UK).

Copplestone Castings ★★★ ― ?28mm

Copplestone Castings offers several ranges of miniatures scuplted by Mark Copplestone. There is a small Fantasy range, but there are two excellent ranges that fit an early 20th century “pulp” setting – just right for recreating The Mummy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lost World, etc. (cf. Pulp Figures):

• Back of Beyond: War in Central Asia 1918-1926
• High Adventure: Daring Deeds in Far-Flung Places

They can be found in specialist shops such as War Games World (Ilkley and St. Helen’s, UK).

Dark Age ★★★ ― 35mm

Dark Age Games is a new gaming company that has produced a miniatures skirmish game based on the art and themes of Gerard Brom’s Dark Age world. All miniatures are pewter ranging in size from 24mm to 54mm with the average human male model at 35mm. While the overall style is idiosyncratic to Brom’s vision, some of the less outré figures will fit generic fantasy settings.

Dark Age miniatures are available in the UK from distributors such as GameMart.

Freebooter Miniatures ★★★★★ ― 30mm

Freebooter Miniatures offers a small but excellent range of 30mm multipart miniatures by Werner Klocke (see Dark Age, Reaper). The range includes steampunk and science-fiction subjects as well as fantasy – chaos, mercenaries, vampires, usw.

Games Workshop (Citadel Miniatures) ★★★ ― 30mm

Citadel started as an independent company over 20 years ago, and was bought by Games Workshop about 15 years ago. Quality has been variable, but can be excellent. Some of the best figures have been designed by Nick Bibby, Jes Goodwin, and Ali Morrison. One notable offering was the “Eternal Champion” range, tying in with GW’s publication of Chaosium’s Stormbringer game.

GW’s miniatures are now made solely to complement its various Warhammer tabletop wargames, and tend to be very heavily stylised. Nevertheless, they do offer some good 30mm white-metal and plastic figures that are suitable for FRPGs. The Wood Elves and Skaven (rat-men) are particularly good.

The Lord of the Rings

One of GW’s most recent ranges is, of course, its The Lord of the Rings range, to tie-in with Peter Jackson’s excellent movie trilogy. These figures are very good indeed, and the main character figures have a remarkable likeness to the actors. Citadel had previously released Middle Earth figures in 1987. These were good, but not as finely sculpted as the new range.

Forge World

A GW subsidiary, Forge World, produces a range of large resin miniatures for the various GW games, mainly vehicles for W40K, but including some impressive Warhammer monsters, such as this £200 chaos war mammoth…

Hasslefree Miniatures ★★★★ ― ?28mm

One of i-Kore’s sculptors, Kev White, has started his own fantasy-figures company, Hasslefree Miniatures, with a (currently) small range of quality figures… some of them a tad rude….

Heresy Miniatures ★★★ ― 28/30mm

Heresy Miniatures – largeley the work of one sculptor, Andy Foster – offers a small range of commonplace but finely-sculpted fantasy figures. The (literally) outstanding models are his huge Netherlord figures: the frist versions were approximately 145mm from their hooves to the tips of their horns; the Winged Netherlord (below) is 183mm to its wing-tips – it is, as Andy says, “big”; these have now been replaced by Netherlord II!

Mithril Miniatures ★★★ ― 32mm

Mithril Miniatures was founded in 1987 and has been dedicated since then to the creation of 32mm miniature figures, inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s world of Middle-Earth as portrayed in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Mithril has striven to faithfully recreate the characters from these works and imbue the miniatures as much as possible with the atmosphere and feel of Middle-Earth. To this end much painstaking research has gone into this range, both in costume and character appearance, so as to remain true to Tolkien’s original vision. Many of the non-character figures are versatile, however, and are very suitable for generic FRPG or modelling use.

Perry Miniatures ★★★★ ― 28mm

Perry Miniatures is a relatively new company run by Alan & Michael Perry, former sculptors of Foundry, whose current day job is with Games Workshop. All of the ranges are historical – including: English Civil War, Scots of the Civil War, Napoleonic Brunswick, and American War of Independence – but the Crusades and Samurai ranges would fit well with early mediæval FRPG setting and with Bushido.

Ral Partha ★★★ ― 25mm

Ral Partha (RP) has made very fine 25mm miniature figures for over twenty years. RP’s designs sometimes lean towards the whimsical and baroque, but they are consistently well sculpted and well cast.

One of my favourite RP figures is this Jabberwock (below left), beautifully adapted from Sir John Tenniel’s illustration for Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872). RP also offer some splendid dragons, of which Nick Bibby’s Fearless Frost Dragon (below right) is a favourite.

After being bought by FASA in 2000, Ral Partha disappeared entirely for a while when FASA closed its doors. Ironwind Metals (IWM) now owns rights to their miniature line for North America and Ral Partha (Europe) for (apparently) the rest of the world.

IWM also offers its own “cutting-edge, original” miniature lines.

Reaper Miniatures ★★★★ ― 25-35mm

Reaper Miniatures offer two fantasy figure ranges in pewter – “Dark Heaven Legends” (25mm) and the new “Warlord” (35mm). Quality is excellent, with fine figures from Sandra Garrity, Julie Guthrie, Werner Klocke, Bob Ridolfi, and other sculptors.

(Sadly, Reaper no longer offer the “Dungeon Dwellers” range, originally from Heritage, or Bob Charrette’s “Daimyo” figures for Bushido and other Japanese FRPGs.)

“War Gods of Ægyptus” ★★★★ ― ?28mm

Crocodile Games offers a range of miniatures for its War Gods… series of games set in their own fantasy world, based on classic themes of mythology and ancient cultures. War Gods of Ægyptus, the first game in the series, features several humanoid races in the image of their patron deities:

• Anubi – jackal-headed children of Anubis (god of cemetaries and embalming, “Judge of the Dead”)
• Asar – human children of Osiris (god of the Underworld)
• Basti – cat-headed children of Bast (Bastet: cat-goddess, daughter of the sun-god Re)
• Heru – hawk-headed children of Horus (“Lord of the Sky”)
• Khemru – ram-headed children of Khanum (Khnum: creator of Life)
• Nekharu – vulture-headed children of Nekhebet (Nekhbet: goddess of Nekheb)
• Sebeki – crocodile-headed children of Sobek (god of pharaonic power)
• Tethru – ibis-headed children of Thoth (moon-god of scribes and knowledge)
• To-tanem – golem-like children of Ptah (creator-god of Memphis, god of craftsmen)
• Typhon – monstrous children of Set (Seth or Sutekh: god of chaotic forces)

They can be found in specialist shops such as War Games World (Ilkley and St. Helen’s, UK).

West Wind ★★★ ― 30mm

West Wind is a British minitures company with several 30mm figure ranges, including: Dwarf Wars, a fantasy range with a Nordic feel; Gothic Horror, a splendid range of characters inspired by Irving, Shelly, Stoker, Conan Doyle, Wells, et al; and Samurai Wars, a fine range of figures suitable for Bushido and historical Japanese wargaming. Other ranges span classical Rome (Gladiator Wars), the Wild West, World War II and Viet-Nam, superheroes and sf.

They can be found in specialist shops such as War Games World (Ilkley and St. Helen’s, UK).

Other miniatures companies

There are many other good fantasy mini ranges… and of course many companies that offer extensive non-fantasy minis. Historical miniatures can be an excellent source of rank-and-file figures to complement the fantasy ranges. And although SF RPGs aren’t a particular interest, I can’t overlook some of the great sf minis that just cry out to be put into dioramas.

AS03-03SN Assassin Scene (assassin figure)	Assassin Miniatures: a new German company that offers fine limited-edition miniatures.
Set # 4: Amazon Original Larry Elmore artwork and figure sculpted by Dennis Mize (painted by Matt Verzani)	Dark Sword Miniatures: A new U.S. company that offers a small range of 28-30mm fantasy miniatures based on art by Larry Elmore and Keith Parkinson.
Father Ted (sculpted by Gael Goumon; photo by Mickey Leach) This Father Ted could really kick Bishop Brennon up the arse…	Eastern Front Studios: A new U.S. company, owned by Mickey Leach, that offers four figure lines, most 30mm scale: Dungeon Crawl, traditional fantasy minis; Fathoms Deep, underwater minis, including some cool elf sea-horse riders; Battle Scars, with slotted bases, for Warha— sorry, wargaming; and Myths of Legend – so far, only one 54mm figure: Odin.
TCC11 Pumpkin King (Pumpking?) TCC12 Pumpkin Assassin	Fenryll: Thierry Crabouliet founded Fenryll in 1991 and the company launched its 25/28mm fantasy ranges in 1996. Many of the figures – which are moulded in a high-quality resin – are very fine, but some seem rather jejune and others suffer from too much French wimsy… The pumpkins, though… now, they’re funny! Fenryll miniatures are available in the UK from Spirit Games.
PPA4 War Orc (one of four)	Foundry: This company offers a huge range of minis – well, a huge range of ranges: ancients; medieval; Renaissance; “horse & musket”; etc., as well as fantasy.
CRU004c Crusader Knight on Foot	Griffin Miniatures: an English company that offers a small range of 28mm historical minis some of which are suitable for fantasy milieu, as well as some sf minis that include some eerie Greys… It also offers a small number (two, as of October 2004) of large-scale collectors’ figures.
LCF03a Knight, Great Helm, Advancing	Gripping Beast: an English company that offers a huge range of fine 28mm historical minis, from ancient Celts to the Middle Ages.
Lanyssa Ryssyll, Nyss Sorceress	Privateer Press offers Iron Kingdoms and Warmachine 30mm miniatures to support its d20-System RPG and tabletop minitures battle game, set in a world where you “encounter steam power and gunpowder almost as often as swords and sorcery”. The steam-powered… um… warmachines don’t fit a conventional fantasy setting, but quite a few of the people do.
BA01 Idaho Bonz	Martin Moonlight Miniatures: offers 34mm collectable gaming miniatures and a smaller range of 28mm figures. Set in the 1930s on an uncharted chain of islands near the Caribbean, daring adventurers and dastardly villains battle vile creatures, horrible abominations and each other as they search for their destinies amid the Islands of Blood.
PLT 7 Giant Hairy Hominids (one of two) (from the Lost Tribes and Lost Worlds range)	Pulp Figures: Bob Murch’s continuation of his GAMA Award winning Call of Cthulhu range for Chaosium and RAFM, but generalized to all early 20th century “pulp” setting – just right for recreating The Mummy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rocketeer, etc.. Bob says, “fun and personality [are] given priority over historical accuracy”.
FHV103 Valkyrie with Longsword #4 (from the Fantasy Historical series)	Shadowforge: This Australian company offers a selection of female miniatures, including fantasy and fantasy historical series.
Shae, Half-Elf Archer (painted by Jenova)	Spyglass Miniatures offers a small (but growing!) range of minis by one of the best freelance sculptors around, Steve Buddle. Steve has done work Games Workshop, Foundry, and Dark Age Games, among others. Spyglass minis are cleanly sculpted, with no fussy detailing, and easy to paint. Spyglass Miniatures are available direct and in the UK from Artemis Black’s.
Shinmen Reiko	WarCrow, or Corvus Belli, a Spanish company, offers a small but interesting range, including some fine Bushido-style figures. WarCrow miniatures are available in the UK from Urban Mammoth.