What Are Little Men Made Of? (a review of common miniature materials)

Gaming miniatures are available in a variety of materials, and each has its positives and negatives.  There are times when you have no choice as to what material you end up with, because you may only be able to find a particular mini from one manufacturer, and in one kind of material.  Let’s look at how these different materials stack up.

LEAD (lead-based alloys)

The original metal used for gaming minis, some still swear by it.  The big advantage of lead is that it is easy to cast.  Lead melts at a low temperature, and sets quickly when cooled to room temperature.  These qualities mean that not much is required to cast.  A sculptor could make some simple molds and start producing lead minis in his or her garage.  This is why there are small outfits still working to produce small batches of minis, often of specialized subjects.

But lead, which has traditionally been cheap, has risen in price, making it harder for small operators to work cheaply.  But an even more pernicious problem is with its toxicity, both the reality and the public perception.  Many producers went away from lead to accommodate local laws or to avoid concerns over toxic exposure to children.

As a modeling material, lead leaves a lot to be desired.  It is extremely soft, and bends easily.  That means that swords, spears and other protrusions on a mini will frequently become bent out of shape, requiring you to bend them back.  Butit is also brittle, so that frequent bending may cause it to break.  Most old gamers have more than one old lead mini missing a sword or other feature.

Repairing lead minis is also quite difficult.  The metal deforms, so simply pinning back in place will leave an uneven appearance.  The soft lead is bad for filing and sanding, and pegs and holes for multipart figures can become bent and hard to fit together.

All minis will be dropped, knocked over or experience other table wear.  Lead minis do not weather these pitfalls well at all.  When a painted lead mini takes a hit, it often leaves a dent, chipping the paint and obscuring detail.  Anyone with a collection of painted lead minis likely has a few with grey, flattened noses from falling on their faces.

These fellows have seen better days.

All in all, there is a reason that companies that have the choice do not work in lead anymore.

PEWTER

Lead free pewter is the industry standard for gaming miniatures today.  It is a much harder metal, and holds details well because of this.  It resists deforming and chipping when subjected to abuse, and can be easily filed and drilled for pinning, although it can be difficult to cut, as clippers will deform the metal, requiring the use of saws, which dull quickly on the hard metal.

For many gamers and modelers, pewter is the only acceptable material.  Many wargamers in particular simply can’t abide to use minis without the heft of real metal.  For durability and versatility, pewter is tough to beat.

Pewter minis from a variety of sources and genres.

It is not as easy to cast in as softer, lead-based alloys, but still requires less equipment than plastic minis.  However pewter is pricier than lead alloys, and that price is steadily increasing, leading many manufacturers to look towards alternatives.

PLASTIC (Polystyrene)

This is the type of plastic that model cars and airplanes are made from.  The majority of minis that come on polystyrene are in the form of multipart kits.  Parts for the minis are molded onto sprues (those plastic frames that you have to clip the parts off of,) and are then assembled how you prefer, giving a greater degree of individualization.

Some assembly required

Polystyrene accepts wonderful levels of detail, and does not dent or chip easily.  The material is certainly the best for conversion work, as it drills smoothly, sands, shaves and carves easily, and if glued together with polystyrene solvent, bonds remarkably strong.  It is also far cheaper to make per miniature than either pewter or lead.

However, polystyrene is brittle, and will break if subjected to force.  There is also a practical limit on how narrow or thin a mini can be made.  Not only do small parts tend to develop molding errors such as flashing (the thin sheets of extra plastic that cling to the min, leftover from the molding process,) but such small parts become fragile timebombs, just waiting for the slightest nudge to snap off.

In addition, such minis are not simple to make.  Working with polystyrene involves precision injection molds, something to which most garage startups do not have access.  Because of the high startup price of this equipment, traditionally only the largest companies have been able to produce polystyrene minis.

This situation is changing somewhat, as a few newer companies are investing in plastics and producing their own multi-part kits.  Some will even offer to take your old sprues from their or other manufacturers to recycle, offering a discount in exchange.

Polystyrene is a great material to work with for converters or beginning modeleres alike, as long as you can find a producer who offers the particular kind of mini you need.

PLASTIC (Polyvinyl chloride)

PVC comes in a wide variety of textures and qualities, and for many gamers, it is anathema, the forbidden plastic that dare not sully their tables.  But PVC has some traits that other materials can’t match.

One is that they are available in many colors, worked into the plastic itself.  This includes clear plastics, allowing for all kinds of funky effects.  The kinds of PVC that are used in miniatures such as Heroclix, and WotC’s Star Wars and D&D minis is soft and pliable, often quite rubbery in feel.

Heroclix, D&D Minis, and Star Wars Miniatures, all using funky transparent effects, with a Bones dragon in back

That pliancy makes them quite resilient, as minis will bend rather than break when subjected to force.  Because of this, minis can be made with very narrow features, such as swords, skinny arms, and whatnot.  Such pieces will not break or snap off, so the sculptors can make more fragile appearing minis.

But that same quality can make them hard to work with.  The rubbery types of PVC are difficult to shave or trim mold lines off of.  Drilling for pinning can also be somewhat troublesome, especially on minis with very skinny limbs. 

In addition, those swords and other accouterments will tend to droop, or become permanently bent in shipping.  Most sites will say that simply heating the pieces in hot water and then rebending them and setting them in cold water will reverse this, but your mileage may vary.

But these are far and away the cheapest minis available.  Even if you are paying retail, you will get more for your money with PVC.  Normally, those savings are offset by blind, random packaging, but Reaper Miniatures has a line of unpainted PVC minis called Bones that use the same sculpts as their pewter lines, but at a fraction of the cost.

Just like polystyrene, it takes a major manufacturer with the right equipment to produce such minis, so you won’t have as wide a selection.

If you can stand ‘bendy’ minis, and can reliably find pieces that fit what you want, PVC is probably the way to go.

RESIN

I’m going to level with you.  I don’t own a single resin mini, and have never worked with any.  I can’t speak as to how well they paint up (supposedly great,) or how resilient they are (damn near indestructible in some cases,) or how they are for converting (I’ve heard they’re terrible, really brittle and hard to cut or drill.)

What I can tell you is the reason I don’t have any: they are expensive.  Resin minis can be made by small outfits, and are usually found in specialized lines such as licensed properties or conversion kit parts.

I will say that supposedly new forms of resin have come to light, and companies like Mantic and Games Workshop (please hold all booing and hissing,) are moving towards more resin, with GW in particular pushing it heavily with their new ‘Citadel Finecast’ products.

And that’s all I have to say about Resin.

CONCLUSIONS

So there are my takes on the various materials you will find in the world of minis today.  I will be working with nearly all of these on this blog and will go into more specifics on how best to work with each.

I hope this has been informative.

Heroclix: Your Best Source For Modern Minis

In 2000, a company called Wizkids released a fantasy-themed tabletop miniatures wargame called Mage Knight.  What set this game apart from others is that each mini had its stats printed on a dial that formed the figure’s base.  As the figure took damage, one simply ‘clicked’ the dial to show hit point loss, with an attendant loss of strength and power until the piece was killed and removed from the board.

Enough people liked this concept, which greatly simplified the tabletop wargaming experience, that the company branched out in 2002 with Heroclix, a game using the same mechanic, but featuring licensed comic book characters.

And it is simply the greatest thing to happen to the miniature-seeking player of modern era roleplaying games ever, hands down.

As I’ve mentioned before, fantasy minis are a dime a dozen (well, they are as common as that, they actually cost much more,) and sci fi and western minis, while less common, are still easy to locate.  But finding minis for the 20^th (I mean 21^st now,) century has always been a challenge.

There were few ranges that had modern characters, and they were usually specialized, which means expensive.  Now if you wanted modern soldiers, there are multitudes of companies that produce great lines for wargamers.  But if you are a roleplayer, and you want minis to represent your civilian PC’s, as well as NPC’s from all walks of life, you were largely out of luck.  Companies like Hasslefree and Foundry do offer some metal minis, but you will have to pay a fair price to amass a collection.

 

Ta Daaa!

But then came Heroclix.  Now to be sure, the first few sets looked pretty rough.  I mean the sculpting was ugly with a capital ‘ugh!’  And sure, the early offerings were primarily spandex-clad superheroes, which weren’t much use if you wanted civilians in plain clothes.  But over time, both the sculpting and the selection have improved, making this line an indispensible aid.

 Let’s look at some pros and cons:

Pro #1: Cost

A booster of clix minis costs about ten bucks and comes with five figures.  That’s far less ($2 a mini,) than you are likely to find from any other source, metal or plastic.  

Not a bad pull...

Pro #2: Availability

You can find boosters at your Friendly Local game Store, where you normally buy minis.  But in addition, you can often find them at toy stores, bookstores, and big box stores like Wal-Mart.  This also means that they occasionally wind up on clearance as well.  They are also readily available on line, in boosters, bricks, cases or individual models.

Pro #3: Selection

Over the course of the ten years they have been making Heroclix, they have made a ridiculous number of minis, often plumbing the depths of Marvel & DC comics’ back catalogue to make minis of nearly every minor hero and villain ever to grace the pages of a comic, including variants, alternate timelines identities, special outfits or one-time appearances.

What’s even better is that these days they are making more and more useful minis.  There are plenty of comic book characters these days who eschew the spandex in favor of street clothes, and you can often find minis of them.  In addition, the line includes alter ego figures and generics, such as cops, criminals and paramedics. 

Here are a few useful additions to any 21st century minis collection

With all those minis, you are bound to find at least one that can fit your needs.   But even if you can’t find one that is 100% perfect, you can always convert one because of pro #4…

Pro #4: Ease of Conversion

Heroclix are cast in a pliable plastic, the exact quality of which has changed over time.  This plastic is relatively easy to reshape in hot water, and is esay to cut and glue.  While the plastic does not work with polystyrene solvent, it will hold with superglue or white glue, and can be easily pinned.  The material is not great for carving details, but it allows for easy head and hand swaps.  Many minis have been frankensteined together from parts of multiple Heroclix minis.

Stupid hair and a trident?  Not when I have green stuff!

Often, the simplest conversion is simply to repaint a mini.  By changing the colors on a mini, it can alter the way a viewer thinks about the mini itself.  Skin tight spandex can be repainted as bare skin, white lab coats can become trench coats, and bright yellow superheroic goggles can become sunglasses.

 

Bruno Mannheim, boss of Intergang, meet Frank Kuttner, used car salesman.

But let’s stop this love fest and consider some of the drawbacks of using Heroclix minis for roleplaying games.

Con #1: Randomness

That booster of five minis can contain any mini, and there may be only a few that you actually want.  That means that you may be paying for minis you don’t want and can’t use.

You may only want one or two specific minis, and there is no way of determining what you will find when you open the box.  Further complicating this is the issue of…

Con #2: Rarity

Each mini has a rarity, which determines how many have been made and put into boosters.  This helps drive collecting (which can be good for the casual collector, as we will discuss later,) but also means that some minis will be hard (and expensive) to find.

The boosters each contain 2 common, 2 uncommon, and one rare or super rare mini.  So if you are buying boosters, you will end up with tons of the commons for each rare you pull.  If the mini you want is rare, you will usually have to buy a great number of boosters to find that elusive figure, while many commons and uncommons that you do not want are building up.

Then there are even rarer minis, such as alternate, prime, limited edition or chase figures.  If you find yourself drawn to one of these, you may be better off looking for another figure.

Con #3: Bases

The defining characteristic of Heroclix minis is that they come mounted on the clix base.  These bases are roughly 1.5” across (which is why the grid on the maps are so disappointingly large,) about the width of a standard 40mm base.  You could leave them mounted to the clix base, but it would require you to change your scale if you are using a standard 1” grid.  Even if you are using measurements, the larger bases would require you to alter how you measure base to base.

Most remove them from the clix base and remount on 20mm or 25mm bases (you can buy them by the bag on Ebay.)  But that means removing them from the bases in the first place.  The first sets of Heroclix minis had their feet glued to the bise directly, or mounted on little circles that were then glued to the base.  On some, you could simply twist the minis right off the base with a snap and then rebase them. 

Later, they switched to bonding the minis’ feet to small half moon shaped bases that attached to the clix dials with three little pegs.  These held on to the dial better, but could still be snapped off, or you could slide a craft knife under it to detach the little posts.

The most recent ones however, have the half-moon thingies attached to the dial with a recessed groove, which holds on extremely well.  This makes it difficult to detach, so modelers wishing to rebase them must carefully slice the feet off of the base, cutting through the plastic.

Grrr...  Hulk hate inset thingie on right!

Con #4: Scale Problems

Heroclix suffers both from scale creep as well as scale inconsistency within it’s own line.  Scale creep is a term describing the general trend of minis to get larger through the years, and has been documented elsewhere, so I won’t belabor the point here.  Heroclix not only follows the same general trend, but the minis being released today are much closer to 32mm minis, as opposed to the 28mm scale you find amongst the earlier sets.

But even within the same set, some minis will be larger or smaller than their peers.  Usually this is not too jarring, but there are some glaring examples, and that can be a dealbreaker for some.

These three characters are from the same set.  In the middle you have the normal sized Bruce Banner, flanked by the minuscule White Tiger and the gargantuan Black Tarantula, the world's largest ninja.  Think about how tall he would be standing up.

Pro/Con: Prepainted

I’m counting this one as both, as it depends on what you are looking for.  The minis come prepainted, but the quality varies wildly.  Earlier attempts especially were prone to sloppy jobs, but even today, you can still get some faces with mangled eyes, or a symbol not quite centered on the chest.

Or the Joker's less threatening cousin from the Ozarks...

For some, especially those who do not like to paint, or who lack confidence in their skill, having the minis ready to go is a relief.  Even experienced painters may appreciate being able to use some minis right out of the box with little prep other than basing.

But for people who want better painted minis, that will mean repainting.  Luckily, Heroclix minis take paint well, often not even needing any priming.  Even some actual Heroclix players may repaint their superheroes simply to look better on the table.

In the final analysis, Heroclix are an excellent source for miniatures for the modern setting. 

A Miniature History

First, a little history on miniatures.  Just as we measure human history by the materials people were able to work with at that time (stone age, bronze age, iron age, etc.,) we can look at minis from the perspective of the materials that miniatures were commonly available in. 

The true start of miniature gaming was the tin age, and indeed we could go all the way back to the clay age if we want to talk about Egyptian ushabtis, but I’m going to start in the more modern era, focusing specifically on miniatures for role playing games, and that is…

The Lead Age- starting around the 1970’s, companies such as Ral Partha began making minis expressly for the role-playing game market.  Many of these companies got their start creating figures for tabletop wargames, and games like D&D brought in a new group of consumers, who wanted quality sculpts of individual characters for role players.

The minis were all made of lead, which is easy and cheap to cast, so lots of companies were small affairs run out of basements, sculpting in putty and casting with simple pour molds.  They followed the trends of the games, offering minis that were in line with the character classes available in the games.

There are still some companies working in lead today, largely due to its ease of casting.  But lead has many drawbacks as a material (topic for another post,) one of the biggest being that it is toxic.   Fears that children would eat the minis (which would be dangerous anyways, due to sharp weapons and what not,) led many manufacturers to switch to lead-free alloys, which brings us to…

The Pewter Age- In the late 80’s and 90’s, the gaming market really took off.  Tons of new games flooded the market, and RPG’s and tabletop wargames broke out to a wider audience.  Manufacturers switched to pewter, and several larger companies began to crank out volumes of minis, filling the pegboards of game stores with rows of blister packs.

Companies proliferated, offering specialty lines based on film properties (such Leading Edge’s Aliens minis,) as well as less popular games like Paranoia or Ars Magica.  Even games that ostensibly did not use minis, like White Wolf’s Vampire games, got mini lines dedicated to them.

The sculpts on minis improved as well.  The sculptors from the eighties were still working, but were now joined by those who had admired their work for years.  Pewter holds edges much better, and the minis reflected this with increased detail, and there were plenty of collectors buying the minis to paint as art, rather than just for use on a tabletop.

But of course there was still plenty of that going on as well.  This was a great time for gaming in general, and that was good for miniatures as well.   Games were being based around the minis themselves, with terrain and other resources more available than in the past.  But this bubble eventually burst, and there were some hard times for RPGs ahead.

TSR folded and sold off to a company that made its fortunes making collectible card games, of all ignominies, Ral Partha closed its doors, and local game stores had pegs filled with yellowed, cracking  blister packs that swung forlornly in the breeze.   A few miniature companies struggled on, but the flood of new product slowed to a trickle.

It was clear that new approaches were needed.  Companies experimented with newer, more profit-friendly ideas.  It was an age of bottom lines and brand recognition.  Many lamented the death of the old spirit of gaming, but for others it was a great time, because game designers were looking at ways to bring in new players into the habit by making games inviting, easy to get started and most importantly, cheap.  It was…

The Plastic Age-  WOtC took D&D into new directions, making both the rules and the experience more accessible to newcomers.  In the world of minis, WizKids changed the game by introducing the concept of the blind box booster, selling cheap, plastic minis.  These minis brought people into games, and many of them stayed, trying other games, and learning how to paint and convert minis on their own.

D&D went away from metals to follow the prepackaged random plastics, and a lot of people were able to finally afford a miniature collection, purchased off of Ebay.   Reaper experimented with plastic minis (the Bones line,) and it exploded, and the Kickstarter they did to expand the line brought in over three million dollars.

Today there are plenty of options for every budget, and the quality and selection of minis, including the traditionally under-represented modern civilian minis, are better than ever before.

And this is where we will start looking at the minis available to you today; how to find them, how to acquire them, and how to alter them to suit your needs.

It may be a plastic age, but things have never looked better.

Examples of the three main ages of minis:  To the left, an ancient Ral Partha lead, in the middle is a Reaper pewter from the late nineties, while on the right is a Heroclix from the most recent set.  We can discuss scale creep another time...

Welcome!

Here is my workstation.  I imagine it is not too different from many of your own.

I have been playing roleplaying games for over thirty years now, starting with the D&D basic set (the one with the purple cover with the Erol Otus artwork.)  I have played every edition of Dungeons & Dragons, in nearly every campaign world produced, and with every alternate ruleset ever offered.

In my time I have played Star Wars (D6 & D20,) Call of Cthulhu, both full campaigns and one shots (more on those another post,)1st and 2nd edition Shadowrun, Vampire the Masquerade (alongside its ill fitting bandmates Werewolf and Mage,) Ghostbusters, Paranoia, Mechwarrior, Deadlands, D20 Modern, & freaking Star Frontiers, along with tabletop wargames like Warhammer, 40K, Mordheim, Star Warriors, Crimson Skies and every version of Battletech conceived of by man.

I've got shelves full of books, cabinets of character sheets, Binders full of campaigns notes, a house full of house rules, more maps than the National Geographic's archives, and enough polyhedral dice to use as grapeshot in a civil war cannon and still be able to reload.

I've played my share of games, is what I am saying.

And nearly all of them have involved miniatures in some degree or other.  I have always loved using minis in my games, and although I know many 'hardcore' roleplayers eschew them, and feel they "take away from the feel or the imagination or blah blah whatever," I like them.  They help add a dash of excitement and investiture for the players who imprint themselves upon their mini (who hasn't uttered an "eep!" when they see their PC's mini surrounded by enemies?) they help resolve issues of placement, and most importantly, they are fun as hell to collect, convert and paint.

And that's what this blog is all about.  I've been working with minis for decades, and usually on a very low budget.  So I can provide a little insight about how to get the most for your dollar when using minis (Min-Maxing, in other words.)

However, there are tons and tons of other forums and blogs out there to help the miniature enthusiast.  The thing I could not find when I went looking is a site that focuses on real world based minis and scenery specifically for RPG's.  There are plenty of sites that will show you how to set up a frontier town in a Fallout setting, but if you are someone who is looking for a 1" grid, you are largely out of luck.

Every day it seems, another company providing fantasy miniatures pops up, making it child's play to locate great minis to represent Zagnithor, the barbarian of the Northern tribes, but nearly impossible to find an appropriate mini for Andrew, the accountant from Cincinnati.  So I want to provide a place where people can share their experiences and help give advice and inspiration to their fellow gamers.

So I will be posting photos of my various projects, and telling you how I did each, and how you could do it yourself (for as cheap as possible.)  Your comments are wildly encouraged and appreciated.

So welcome to my blog.

(This blog is in no way affiliated with the X-Acto brand, other than the fact that I use their fine products and love them, so I hope they will not sue me.)