New models incoming
- Thread starter Malika
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No, the old LOTR minis were a more "realistic 25mm" scale, and many (most of the hero characters from the films) were sized and scaled to roughly match the movies, rather than the Warhammer big-heads-big-hands "heroic" scale. This looks more like a simple shift from a 25mm realistic scale, to a 28mm realistic scale.
Certainly seems to be the case as LOTR goes.
They also have to think of the kids and first timers who have to paint these, 25mm can be quite challenging. Got given some Gondor dudes years ago and they were very fiddly even for me. New start with a new generation of films is probably a good point to start over. Cross compatibility with their own and other model ranges will probably also help sales.
I remember reading something back when the LotR games first came out that GW was required to do it a different scale from its regular line of minis to get the license to make the game/models.
I have found them closer to historical scales. So the heads and hands are in proportion to the torso etc.
I say closer… some of those can get a bit cartoonish too, depending on manufacturer.
Sorry that came out exactly opposite as what I meant to say. I think the smaller scale was a kinda greedy move by GW and/or whoever to keep them uncompatible with normal warhammer. If they start to grow in size now, I can only imagine because Warhammer has already also grown.
Easy to forget they weren't doing fantastically at the time they got that LOTR license, they may have been in a poorer position to bargain or dictate terms than now.
Has anyone had a close up look, at the new necromunda, Japanese miniatures. Pictures I have seen are not floating my boat, despite actually looking for a Japanese inspired gang. I think I will go with the Triad miniatures from the Urban War range, from Scotia Grendel. I have their junker miniatures, which,along with odd GW miniatures, I use as my Rogue Traders (Titus Groan) armed forces.
The triad miniatures I believe will make a great gang with several choices of Leaders, Autogun armed Retainers (gangers), Naginata armed Retainers (Juves), Sumotori (Ogryn like dudes), Kabuki Dolls (female gangers), guys on bikes, snipers, heavies, and even a couple of mechs. They would actually make a pretty decent 40K guard army with a very different slant (no pun intended). Very nice thematic miniatures.
Have any of you folk purchased Urban Wars miniatures? I love the whole Roman theme of the Junkers and have around sixty of them. I also love the Nippon vibe of the Triad miniatures and I am keen to buy a gang of these. The only issue is that coming from Scotland they are not cheap to post to Oz, and being metal, not cheap to purchase either. On the plus side they are excellent casts.
The triad miniatures I believe will make a great gang with several choices of Leaders, Autogun armed Retainers (gangers), Naginata armed Retainers (Juves), Sumotori (Ogryn like dudes), Kabuki Dolls (female gangers), guys on bikes, snipers, heavies, and even a couple of mechs. They would actually make a pretty decent 40K guard army with a very different slant (no pun intended). Very nice thematic miniatures.
Have any of you folk purchased Urban Wars miniatures? I love the whole Roman theme of the Junkers and have around sixty of them. I also love the Nippon vibe of the Triad miniatures and I am keen to buy a gang of these. The only issue is that coming from Scotland they are not cheap to post to Oz, and being metal, not cheap to purchase either. On the plus side they are excellent casts.
Urban War and VOID are supposed to be getting new rules soon - there’s also some new minis being sculpted.
I think it was obtained by Seb Games a year back. Not sure where all the miniatures are being made now but they seem to be available to purchase from a few places.
Maybe there’ll be an Australian distributor??
I think it was obtained by Seb Games a year back. Not sure where all the miniatures are being made now but they seem to be available to purchase from a few places.
Maybe there’ll be an Australian distributor??
Maybe I'm spoilt by modern GW miniatures but the UW minis seem really basic and amateurish to me now. Even compared to gen1 Necro and 2nd ed models.
Stuff like Ramshackle and 7TV at least has tons of character, but I looked through the whole Grendel sci-fi range and maybe two or three minis appealled to me, but probably not enough for me to buy them.
They may have the edge on price but these days you're also competing with some incredible ranges of 3D printed minis available on Etsy etc that compare favourably in craft and definition to GW, Corvus Belli and the like.
Stuff like Ramshackle and 7TV at least has tons of character, but I looked through the whole Grendel sci-fi range and maybe two or three minis appealled to me, but probably not enough for me to buy them.
They may have the edge on price but these days you're also competing with some incredible ranges of 3D printed minis available on Etsy etc that compare favourably in craft and definition to GW, Corvus Belli and the like.
A lot of models these days are 3D designed - even some metals - so that allows a certain amount of texturing and detail that wasn’t usual in traditional putty sculpting and casting methods.
I think most of the VOID and Urban War stuff must be 20-30 years old now and was definitely physically sculpted.
I don’t think they’re too bad, certainly of their time though and produced to be quick to paint.
Modern models are often over detailed to the point that it can become a chore to paint. However we all become acclimatised to models we work with and newer sculpts certainly are crisp.
I don’t know why I’m defending them really, other than I think they’re interesting and were a good source of Necromunda models in the wilderness years when GW couldn’t give a stuff about the game.
I think most of the VOID and Urban War stuff must be 20-30 years old now and was definitely physically sculpted.
I don’t think they’re too bad, certainly of their time though and produced to be quick to paint.
Modern models are often over detailed to the point that it can become a chore to paint. However we all become acclimatised to models we work with and newer sculpts certainly are crisp.
I don’t know why I’m defending them really, other than I think they’re interesting and were a good source of Necromunda models in the wilderness years when GW couldn’t give a stuff about the game.
You aren't wrong in that modern GW and 3D printed minis are generally much nicer, but as @MusingWarboss pointed out the Void/Urban War minis were a product of their time - a time that was 20 or 30 years ago. I have some that I bought back in the late 90s or early 00s, mainly because they were cheap proxies for Necromunda stuff that was hard to find at the time. Back then, I thought they compared quite favorably to other metal miniatures of the time and were better than some of the early GW plastics in terms of detail and character. I was organizing my hobby stuff a few months ago, and came across some of the old Syntha models and they do look dated when compared with modern options. They're probably best used to expand an OldMunda collection to have more sci-fi weirdos to use as proxy gangs or hired guns, since they're more in-scale with OldMunda versus newer "heroic" or GW stuff.
Some of them are certainly interesting concepts. I just feel if they were executed slightly better I might have more interest in buying them.
Good news for Rating fans: The latest issue of Miniature Wargames magazine has 4 of Wargames Atlantics totally-not-ratlings as a free gift on the cover. Not sure how they would scale with GW ratlings but I can provide a comparative photograph if you're on the fence.
I think it was a combination of two factors (all speculation - I have no inside knowledge):
1) SIZE: They didn't want people using their existing Fantasy armies to play LotR because they needed to sell minis. So they went with a different size. They could have gone bigger than WHFB or smaller, and as most of these were going to be metal, they went smaller to save money, not just in the amount of metal used to cast the pieces, but probably more importantly, how many pieces they could get in a mold. Also, 32mm minis weren't really a thing back then, and other similar wargames were using smaller minis, so it fit. Realistically, its possible that cost cutting on a primarily metal range may have been the primary reason.
That said, I know one of the things that kept ME from getting sucked in was that I already had a sizable investment in WHFB, and didn't want to start with a new scale. And being a cheapskate, couldn't convert LotR minis out of WHFB minis - or, more sadly, vice-versa (I really wanted to use some LotR minis in my Fantasy armies).
2) SCALE: As these were coming off a movie, they wanted to get the likenesses right, and felt they could do that better with a more 'realistic' scale. It's also entirely likely that the realistic scale was (also or primarily) used to dissuade people from double using minis so they'd have to buy more minis. As a rabid converter this had the opposite effect on me, as I would have happily bought lots of LotR minis to convert into WHFB armies.
I’ve just picked this up!!!
Quick review for everyone else:
They’re quite nice little models, I’ve no idea how they scale to GWs efforts as I don’t have any and now probably don’t need any.
Detail seems pretty decent, there’s four bodies and enough rifles for them all and a selection of pistols too. Nine heads on the sprue, including one smoking a rather nice little Sherlock Holmes style pipe!!
If this hasn’t persuaded you the sprue also comes with a cute little Thermos flask and a frying pan with two eggs cooking inside!!!
Also a nice loose grenade, pouches, backpack and three bullets for you gubbin hounds!!
I saw the ratling magazine, but decided to pass, at least for now. I'm not sure they'd scale so well with other models I have, plus four is an annoying number if you want five for a squad. (I was looking for another magazine - Wargames Illustrated I think - that supposedly had some Bolt Action models, but I guess I must have missed that issue.)
From what I remember of the Blood Bowl ratlings they all have pudgy fat heads. The nine on this sprue could probably be paired with a regular human torso, certainly a heroic scale one.
As I’m not interested in squads and more just looking for fun models to convert, four is adequate for my purposes.
As always though if mixing brands, you may get a mismatch on scales or style. I’ve seen Warlord Games WW2 US Troops next to Perry and they don’t match but probably useful enough to be able to use if you kept each brand to its own squad .
Not sure what BA sprues have been in the wild recently but the last magazine I got had a sprue of modern military guys on.
As always, for conversions, kitbashes and spares!!
Plus I read the magazine… crazy I know!!
Oof. No sign of that mag over here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, sadly. If anyone ends up with a spare sprue of them and some pretence at reasonable postage, let me know. More variety in more sci-fi hobbits is definitely in my wheelhouse. Not too worried about matching styles, as I have enough variety in my hobbits (both fantasy and slowly growing in SF as well) that no one model looks like the one out of place.
For those who can print themselves some hobbits, I very highly recommend the STLs from Westfalia Miniatures, both the One Gold Piece halflings as well as their gender-bent LotR set.
For those who can print themselves some hobbits, I very highly recommend the STLs from Westfalia Miniatures, both the One Gold Piece halflings as well as their gender-bent LotR set.
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