Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

wyldspirit · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:40 pm Post subject: Finding cheap minis

I was wondering if there is a good sight to purchase plastic minatures. I use to be able to buy indivdual figures from the million of assorted minature games for the price of a dollar a piece. Unfourtanetly that game store closed and I'm not willing to put down 30 bucks for 6 Warhammer figures no matter how awesome they look. I also want to stay away from paper minis as errant beer bottles sometimes roll about the battlemap. Any suggestions?

Timon · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:13 pm Post subject:

There's nowhere you can buy specific SW minis, of course you can pick up D&D minis at your FLGS or EBay.

It took me a while to understand why SW was all about figure flats. Its basically because you might be pirates this week and space marines the next, but you will never be a standard "Elf Paladin" or "Halfling Mage": there are no classes, so you cannot buy a mini that looks like your character and there is no single standard list of SW monsters to make minis of.
Warhammer figs are a bit large for rpg tabletop use and indeed hella expensive.
Possible solutions are:

Idea

tokens (ie flat coin-type markers) which should be pretty beer-bottle proof

Idea

lego mini-figs (build whatever char you like and even the scenery, but a bit large

Idea

pawns from any game + imagination

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sculpt your own - you can do a lot with papier mache and patience

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not using a battlemap (many swear it improves the immersion)

Idea

use figure flats anyway and either plastify them or keep a bunch of spares. You can easily replace flattened ones or even perhaps corral the beerbottles. Laughing

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Cryonic · Veteran Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 822

Ogma · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:43 pm Post subject:

Just scour the following...

Craigslist
eBay
Your Local Conventions (Auctions and Flea Markets)

I've had remarkable success with all sources.
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Bavix · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:23 am Post subject: Auddies

Honestly, Auggie's is the best site I have found over the years.

http://www.auggiesgamesonline.com/

Jordan Peacock · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:45 am Post subject:

I have bought a bunch of "loose" Clix, Star Wars, D&D & etc. miniatures and other "bitz" from online sites such as:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com
http://www.popularcollections.com

Miniature Market still has quite a bit of assorted HeroClix and HorrorClix minis, plus odd figures from discontinued lines such as AT-43 and Confrontation, while Popular Collections (last I checked) has a number of Halo figures.
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chugosh · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 10:14 am Post subject:

If you don't mind a little bit smaller scale, I'll point you at the various 1/72 scale plastics. I have a couple wonderful sets from Ceaser's, at Michigan Toy Soldier that could workf for fantasy games. The price comes out to about fifty cents a figure. There are a whol bunch of plastic toy soldier sets that might certainly do for a lot of different genres.

Another option, though not as cheap, is Megaminiatureshttp://megaminis.com/. they have a great range, but their prices are up a bit due to their materials going up. two or three bucks isn't too bad for metal, though.

As for me, I go with paper figures. I find I am not so fond of tri fold figure flats as I am of stuff more like OneMonk does.

chitownroy · Seasoned Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 487 Location: Illinois

I like the One Monk minis but I fear the amount of cutting needed would be a bit tedious.

nathaniel · Novice Joined: 22 Jul 2011 Posts: 38

For anyone thinking of using 1/72 plastics, definitely check out http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com

TheLoremaster · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:30 pm Post subject:

chugosh · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:53 pm Post subject:

i almost never cut hte minis out right on the lines, just kind of near the general shape. Patience issues.

For the finished product, a brushing with a sanding sealer or clearcote or the like should help against humidity issues.

TheLoremaster · Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 6:23 am Post subject:

decalod85 · Seasoned Joined: 02 Aug 2011 Posts: 122

decalod85 · Seasoned Joined: 02 Aug 2011 Posts: 122

Heroclix has lots of good minis for (duh) supers games, but also lots of modern looking figs (guys in suits with guns). We are using rebased Heroclix for the humans in our Zombie Run game. (and D&D zombies, vampires and ghouls for the zombies).

mruseless · Novice Joined: 30 Aug 2010 Posts: 8

I'm a big fan of cardstock paper miniatures.

Onemonk.com is a great place to start, but if you check the cardboard warriors forums you'll find lots of great sources.

They are really easy to put together, I can build a whole army in just a few hours. One figure only takes a few minutes.

Print, cut, edge, glue to base. Done.

These might look familiar, if you have played 50 Fathoms. I did these in just about an hour, including the time to GIMP them from the scanned pages.

mruseless · Novice Joined: 30 Aug 2010 Posts: 8

And another one for you Firefly/Serenity fans.

nonefornic · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:32 pm Post subject:

For SW I'm totally in the no mini camp. But that said; lately, I've been getting into building Token sets for various games. I bought a bunch of Warmachine bases and Warhammer sheild bits to make fantasy counters (specifically for D&D), and for post-apoc I've been getting a hammer and squashing bottle caps with my three year old son. The latter, for all us Fallout fans, doubles as great in game currency!

The fun thing is with DIY tokens, is they're relatively cheap and easy to make and you get something that "feels" like your setting...
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Mindseye · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:08 am Post subject:

VonDan · Legendary Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 3306

My local FlGS lways has minis used or 50 cents or 5 for $2 mostly mage knight and hero clix sometimes D&D and warhammer
go to your local flgs

marshal kt · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:49 pm Post subject:

go to www.bartertown.com and buy minis there.

It's a free selling/trading site.

you can usuually get most minis for 50-60% of retail.
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