Aug 31, 2020

28mm miniatures and conversion bits roundup

The bulk of our 28mm miniatures are obviously from Games Workshop; few other companies offer such a diverse range of models or similar value for money. However, now that I've returned to the 28mm hobby, it's been an absolute delight to discover so many companies around the world supplying both high-quality 28mm miniatures and piles upon piles of conversion bits. Over the last year or so, we've had the distinct pleasure of shopping with several of these companies, and it's high time I put together a list with some links.

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Statuesque Miniatures

Our Imperial army would be a lot more boring without Statuesque Miniatures and their heroic scale accessories line! The heroic scale female heads are perfect for head swaps with GW miniatures and other 28mm heroic minis, and I absolutely love them. Especially the beret and veteran heads are really good. The techno roider heads, on the other hand, go great with space marines and even Terminators. Highly recommended!

We also got Commissar Vespera Venko for our commissar collection, and I was very happy with the model - especially at such a competitive price!

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Bad Squiddo Games

Bad Squiddo miniatures are simply wonderful. Here's the Women's Land Army picnic and the lovely Time for Beer model in my Blood Bowl stands:



These are all excellent quality models, very characterful, and I will definitely be ordering more!

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Wargame Exclusive

Wargame Exclusive do a line of fairly spectacular character models who are, well, let's say especially suitable for a Slaanesh army. Here's my Dark Apostle and an Imperial Guard Commissar.


I'll be ordering some of their Mechanic Adepts to use as, well, Warhammer Tech-Priests. Frankly, the models are good enough that these folks could do original stuff as well.

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Brother Vinni

St. Petersburg's own Brother Vinni have a small range of good quality models I've quite enjoyed painting; below is our Imperial Guard captain and totally not Morrigan from Dragon Age.


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Eureka Miniatures

The invaluable Eureka Miniatures are where I got my Blood Bowl team and several of my Blood Bowl spectators, and their samurai rabbits provided the essential components for my Stormbun Eternals and Zootopia's finest. They were also kind enough to send us some complimentary frogs, one of whom is in the stands. I really like their models: they're full of character and very decently priced.

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Oathsworn Miniatures

Speaking of my Blood Bowl stands, I ordered several figures from Oathsworn Miniatures for them, and I have to say that out of all the miniatures I've ever gotten my hands on, I think these may be the best. I posted a bunch of pictures already, but in addition to my spectators, I've also got a Dandy Highwayfox and a fantastic Badger Mercenary waiting in case someone wants to play Burrows and Badgers. These are simply brilliant miniatures, and I think everyone should own at least one.



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Victoria Miniatures

I can't say enough good things about Australia's Victoria Miniatures: their infantry models and conversion bits are fantastic, as are their character models. I also bought and painted one of their vehicles as part of their brushfire fundraiser, and it's a really good kit too.


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Anvil Industries

Another excellent company, Anvil also produces character models and top-notch infantry bits. Several of our Rogue Trader characters are built from Anvil bits, and they are simply a delight to work with.



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Reaper Miniatures

Reaper have been around long enough that they hardly need me to advertise them; hell, they even have a Wikipedia page. What I can tell you, though, is that their very affordable plastic Bones range is pretty decent, and paints up quite nicely with Vallejo paints. I've got a couple of their models in use as Heralds for my daemons, and some Eastern Mouslings in my Blood Bowl stands and Burrows and Badgers warband. They're good value for money and in my experience, perfectly usable in 28mm games.

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Perry Miniatures

The Perry brothers should need no introduction: I've got several of their boxed sets and they are absolutely excellent, and they're also the go-to source for horses. I'll show off what I've done with them as soon as those projects are finished!

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Raging Heroes

A French company who specialize in female miniatures. I've bought several of their models, and I have two mildly critical observations to make. The first is that to some extent Raging Heroes are victims of their own marketing. Their miniatures look amazing online, but when you actually get them, they're, well, a lot less heroic than they looked in the pictures. I've found them to be surprisingly small. The second problem is related: the models are very fiddly, even annoyingly so. I've still got one of them lying around unfinished because I straight up lost its other arm. This does not usually happen. No other 28mm models have been anything as flat out annoying to assemble. Especially the metal models are annoying. Then again, I got some resin Davidians, and they're brilliant.



So I'm kind of on the fence here: when the models are good, they're very good, but then they have to be for the amount of trouble they are!

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Warlord Games

The place for World War II miniatures, Warlord Games's flagship product is Bolt Action, a 28mm WWII miniature game that's also an excellent source of Imperial Guard infantry and vehicles. Here's a Panzer IV next to some GW metal Sisters for scale:


And here's my latest purchase: the cutest little Renault FT.


I love Warlord Games tanks, and will definitely be buying more of them. The resin ones are good; the hard plastic ones are excellent.

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Sloppy Jalopy

I bought a Sloppy Jalopy BMP-2 via Sally 4th, and I'm very happy with it!


You can see it painted up here.

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Sally 4th

A UK company with a line of fantasy football accessories, I've got their crowd waiting to get into my Blood Bowl stands. They're very good quality miniatures.

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Kromlech

A Polish company, Kromlech are a great source for conversion bits, especially for Marines (the "Legionary" line); my Terminator Inquisitor has a Kromlech power maul. They also do some pretty neat Ork stuff, I've got an Orc Commissar lying around, waiting for my Blood Axes to show up...


High quality miniatures and bits, definitely recommended!

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Zealot Miniatures

I've used several Zealot conversion bits and been very happy with them. My Tech-Marine has a servo arm and power axe from them, and I've been meaning to order some of their dungeon scenery for ages.

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Dark Sword Miniatures

I mentioned the complimentary frog we received from Eureka Miniatures earlier; we couldn't just have one frog in the stands, so in addition to ordering a pile more Eureka miniatures, we also went to Dark Sword Miniatures for a Frog Bishop, as well as several other models from their Critter Kingdoms line. They're absolutely lovely.


They also do a line of Game of Thrones miniatures, and how was I supposed to resist their Cersei? Would definitely throw a child miniature out of a window for her. We also received a complimentary birdman, which is also a really neat model and is definitely going to be watching some Blood Bowl. All in all, these are very high quality fantasy miniatures; definitely recommended.

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Modiphiüs Entertainment

Modiphiüs are the creators of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, which I'm kinda interested in, but slightly put off by the high price and the fact that most of the models are, in my opinion, kind of bland. I did get their Boston companions box, so I could have Piper in my 40k Chaos army, and I can testify that the models are very high quality. It's just that most of them aren't very interesting.


Hint: if you play Fantasy Flight's Fallout board game, and you should, Modiphiüs's bottle caps are worth your money.

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Fantasy Flight Games

Finally, I should mention that we're using quite a few models from Fantasy Flight's Imperial Assault in our Warhammer 40,000 games, from Primaris Psykers and Eversor Assassins to Armiger Helverins. I've quite liked the miniatures, and in my experience they fit in just fine with the more heroic-scale GW minis.

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I think that's everybody! I can't tell you what a delight it is to have so many different places to buy quality minis and bits, and for affordable prices too.

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