Hiya all

Now that I'm planning a TOR campaign, I've started looking into miniatures for the game, not really because they're needed but because I plan to use voidstate's really nice game mat and because... well, because I like minis

Looking into the heaps of unmounted minis at home I see I have lots of GW's LOTR minis, specifically lots of mordor and misty mountains orcs, a couple of trolls, mounted rohirrim, uruk hai, some warg riders, Gondor soldiers, armored elves and dwarves... lots of interesting things, really (although some things I probably wouldn't use, what with gondorians wearing plate, for example).

All that leaves me pretty well stocked in orcs, armored elves and dwarves and such... but there are some gaps that I'd love to fill (and if I could find minis at the same scale of the LOTR ones, it would be swell, too )

Some things I'm looking for are:

- Spiders
- "Evil" humans different from the ones from GW.
- humans in barding, beorning and woodmen trappings (the GW plastic rangers would work well as woodmen, I think).

I'd love to see something similar to John's bardings (the ones painted by John shoot me a very "ancient british/roman" vibe to me), for example.

I also have a couple of Perrys's War of the Roses plastic boxes, and although amazing, they look a bit too "advanced", if you will, for Middle-earth (I'll probably use some nonetheless, because they're great minis).

Thanks in advance

I recently called into Mithril Miniatures, who are still in business. They've got a huge collection of LotR figures - I picked up their Hobbit boxed set for TOR demos. http://www.mithril.ie/

My friends at Gripping Beast do some very nice Romano British could make an excellent start for Bardings:

http://www.grippingbeast.com/shop.php?CatID=63

A couple of these fellers look very nice too: http://www.grippingbeast.com/photos/jonesabr08.jpg

As far as minis go, I like Reaper Miniatures. They are priced reasonably and have decent quality.

Ex: Spiders

While GW has some spider LotR minis, for the price the Forest Goblin Spider Riders are a decent bet... and you get extra goblin bits.

For humans, Wargames Factory has decent plastics for prices much cheaper than GW. They are 28mm, vs. GW's 32mm, so they don't scale well with Warhammer, but they fare okay when compared to the LotR line.

Ex: Saxons and Vikings
Ex: Ancient Romans, Celts and Germans
Ex: Orcs and Skeletons

Hope some of this helps.

Do you know what scale they are? I could not find a hint on their website? From the images and proportions I'd say 28mm, but I'm not sure.

Thanks
Tolwen

If you have 32mm minis representing Númenóreans, you'd also have the benefit of a visual display of the greater average height for the Dúnedain.

IMO, the Mithril minis are superior to GW in the depiction of Humans, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves and Hobbits since an - at least for me - important aspect are bodily proportions as close as possible to normal ones, and the GW LotR ones are less so (even if they are better than the normal Warhammer ones). An added benefit is that they are independent from the movie design, which I do like only for a few select things

The "creatures" (e.g. Trolls) from Mithril are IMO not so good, here I prefer the movie versions.

Thus I like to buy those minis from one manufacturer where I deem him superior and mix it with others from different producers where these are better (all subjective of course).

Best
Tolwen

Thanks for all the responses!

Mytholder: I've been looking at the Mithril minis, and it has some very nice minis, but they might be a bit too big for the ones I already have.

Jon Hodgson: Thank you! Those Gripping arthurians are very nice... I wonder if I could use their plastic vikings and saxons...

TheMadBounder: I'll have to take a look at the Reaper's back catalog. I though about the GW spiders, and are actually quite nice for the price, even though I'd probably have to convert them somehow. Then again, it's plastic, and that's a big plus.

The WF minis are a bit of a mixed bag: The bodies are all right, but the arms tend to be kinda horrid , and the heads are all over the place. They're cheap, though, and ripe for conversions.

Tolwen: Yes, some of the Mithril monsters are not that good. Others, though, like for example Shelob, are quite nice. I actually do like quite a bit the GW LOTR minis on the whole, but they've just halved the contents of the plastic boxes and upped prices, so... not so affordable anymore.

Hi Guys,

I don't know when there out, but these lock pretty cool:-

http://heroclix.com/category/heroclix/lord-of-the-rings/

Cheers,

Steve

They're already out here in the States, bigsteveuk. One problem I see with them is getting the figures you want. I bought a Starter Set and two cases (48 figures) before Christmas and still didn't get a Gimli, an Eowyn, or a Faramir. Too, they did not come with a master list, so I have no idea what all I AM actually missing (in total) as I have only the link you provided with which to compare. With that said, the figures are nice ... the plastic quality is typical for Heroclix ... the paint job is understated with some interesting colors. Legolas, for instance, has lemon ice cream colored hair (i.e., bright pastel yellow!) ... not quite what I pictured in my mind or saw in the films.

bigsteveuk: Those are nice, but the range is bound to be basically the same than the GW ones (that may be costlier, but at least you know what you're buying), and those are prepainted, which to me is a bit of a dealbreaker, as I like to paint

Skywalker: Oh my, those are soooo cute! . They're not out until this summer ,though.

eBob for big spideys, Micro Art Studio for freaking big trolls (look under big brother), and Red Box Games for your dwarves, halflings, bardings and elves (go well with GW Lotr minis sizewise). Nuff said.

There are plenty of options for miniatures

Vendel has a nice range of not-LOTR miniatures, including some spectacular dwarves, and a nice Fellowship of the Ring set. They also have a perfect Beorn as Bear figure. The style is compatible with Gripping Beast http://sgmm.biz/fantasy.html

Musketeer miniatures, now part of Gripping Beast also has a nice range of early Saxons and Germans

Scotia Grendel now carries the former LOTR range made by Black Tree Design, not everything has been re-released yet.

Wargames Factory makes Orcs that come straight from Angus McBride’s artwork.

Those Red Box minis look real good. Thanks! How's the scale compared with GW's LOTR?

They are very close:







It seems to me that the flings and dwarves might even be a mm or two shorter? But very close indeed. That human dude in the centre is clearly taller, but I expect he's meant to be a big b*astard in any case.

Well, I'd say these are basically a perfect fit for the size. Thank you very much!

I'll have to find a store to buy thee from, now

You're welcome, Albertorius. I bought mine directly from Tre at RBG, he's good to deal with.

Just a follow up to my advice: I put together 6 Wargames Factory Orcs yesterday. They scale very well with GW's LotR line. I got 24 orcs for $20. Not too shabby. The assembly part takes some skill, as there are no instructions. But with some trial and error dry-fitting it comes together easy enough.

Perusing the Gripping Beast page I've found their really great plastic viking hirdmen and saxon thegns boxes. Fully poseable multi component plastic minis, with 44 minis per box at 20 pounds each, and they look absolutely amazing to me.

At the very least, really ripe for conversions

I like Reaper Minis. They have some great personality. For spiders I use plastic toy spiders that can be dry brushed slightly to bring out some detail.

Otherworld miniatures do the biggest, scariest spider I've ever seen.

http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/shop/wil...giant-spider-i/

I think it's actually bigger than a real life tarantula. It's about 14cm across, that's nearly half a foot!

One day I'll actually have to buy and paint this........ thing!

EEEK!

That's pretty hideous.

I also think GW's "Arachnarok" spider (sans goblin riders) is an amazing and repulsive model.



It's big. As in "TPK, campaign over" big.

*shudders*

Ungoliant!

Gloomweaver!

Mother of Spiders!

RUN!

EXACTLY what I thought!!!

Ohh that's nasty, the 'smaller' spiders on the base are a nice touch.

Finally my FLGS got me two plastic Gripping Beast boxes: one of Viking hirdmen and one of saxon Thengs, so I spent part of yeterday painting up a viking to use as a generic northmen.

I'll try to post a pic as soon as possible

As I said, pics :











It's basically a test miniature, so I haven't done any transformation or anything, it's basically a viking out of the box with a subdued palette.

Very nice, I may invest in a box myself.

That's lovely work, Albertorius.
And great taste in headgear.

--Os.

Check out GW's Fenrisian Wolves. They are excellent, if expensive. Pity the Thunderwolves are saddled though.......

Glad you liked it

Seriously, those boxes are great, and great value for the money. I'll be using them extensively. Now, I really need to get more accostumed to use putty...

Saw them yesterday, and I think they're lovely. The thunderwolves may be a bit too big for anything other than the beast of Mirkwood

I also saw Otherworld Miniatures's wolf pack, and these are quite nice, too:

http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/shop/wil...c-wolf-pack-10/

...but for some reason they eem a bit too "cute" to me; apparently I believe that wargs should look fiercer XD

Anyways, I'm buying a box of Fenrisian wolves to see how they look and how they compare to the minis I have (and because I can walk down the street and pick a box instead of buying online).

I do like the GW Wild Wargs, and the price isn't too bad: $16.50 for 6. The Warg Chieftain is $15 all by himself; expensive but otherwise a neat figure.

I finally got my GW Wood Elves out of the box and assembled. I know the plastic troops don't have a lot of detail, but they all seemed (at this point) to be clones of their Legolas sculpt. I will have to do some painting to make sure the group doesn't look like a bunch of clones.

I am still impressed with Wargames Factory and their sculpts. I hope they can do some elves and dwarves in the future.

Hhmm. Already in the movie the Wargs looked a little strange to me. Has anyone else also had the impression that they were modelled more on hyaenas rather than wolves?

Best
Tolwen

I thought that as well, Tolwen. Sometimes I think they went too "monstery!" with their designs. Guess they thought "big bad wolf" wasn't cool/scary enough. :/

That's a good guess IMHO. And in the close-ups they looked rather un-natural, i.e. artifically constructed frames/puppets with glued-on hair (in contrast to the otherwise better CGI of creatures).

The Fenrisian Wolves from GW look IMO a lot better than the "original" GW Wargs. The Otherworld wolves (especially the Dire Wolves) look more like real animals rather than fantasy beasts. That makes them interesting for other applications though.

Best
Tolwen

Yes, it seemed to me that the wargs were derived from hyenas. I assumed that Jackson decided to avoid the rather substantial wolf-centric animal rights groups since their are fighting scenes where the creatures are injured.

I seem to recall someone in the extras stating exactly that, actually. It also apparently has something to do with the fact that it is supposedly complicated to do a realistic wolf's head with 3d effects, or at least it was at the time (apparently that was the same reason why Underworld's lycans looked more like rats or something).

I went and bought a box of Fenrisian wolves. Those are BIG. Freaking big. I'll try and post a comparison soonish.

Yeah, now that I look at them I like the Fenrisian wolves a lot more.

I look forward to seeing one compared to your Northman.

I reckon they will look great if painted in a darker colour scheme than GW have chosen.

Do you think they are too big?(before, I take a trip to my local GW store).