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Being Smart, Buying Miniatures


LORDSHEOGORATH

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Miniature models cost a good chunk of change (mostly the larger portion we need for necessities). 

It's been a practice far longer than many of you might realize to substitute models for game-play when the traditional format or official licensed ranges cost us too much.

As a matter of fact Gary Gygax (Co-Author/Founder of Dungeons and Dragons)started Dungeons and Dragons as a homemade rule-system to supplement a historical game from which we now have the system, 'Chainmail'. At the time him and his pals were mixing it up with that rule-system the standard miniature scale used for war-gaming was 54mm with some smaller scales like 32mm becoming popular. In order to create the appearance of the fantasy creatures and races Gary and his pals would mix in old toys bought from bargain bins and even some defunct or obscure models from lesser known manufacturers. The various scales that were appearing also helped when creating Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Goblins, etc.

Fast forward to today and there is a MASSIVE market, albeit very NICHE, with nearly endless opportunity to create ever more fantastical realms for us all to enjoy.

The top manufacturers dominant nearly 80% of the market, and there's literally only a handful that can fall into that category. For DnD we are fortunate to have Reaper, out of Texas in the United States, who produce traditional metal models and very affordable plastic resin miniatures in the 25/28mm range. And for the people who believe that the officially licensed product is all that should be used- you know the crummy injection molded product prepainted sold in 'blisters', they can spend MUCH MORE to acquire models.

If we add up the entire collection which is NEEDED to start gaming with DnD we find that buying models individually can easily cost more than we're able to justify spending...

For me I came across a few different solutions to this problem, scouring the inter-webs, and experimenting with different makes/scales. A 1/72 set of scale models from Red Alliance (VERY attractive models that are made to fit in with the LOTR, Conan, and other popular fantasy series) can set you back a mere $15.00 with S&H from either the UK or Ukraine. However, you would receive several large Balrogs, Cave Trolls, or nearly 40 or so highly detailed 20mm (1/72) models for whichever faction you so choose. AND the best part is you can easily combine scales from other manufacturers like Reaper! So suddenly your Orcus 'stand-in' looks even MORE imposing and supernatural, and a lesser dragon could easily pass as a medium-large dragon, costing you less money for that epic encounter.IMG_0238.thumb.jpg.c630698cc0261667614f5ffca70c6878.jpg

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Guest BlasterMaster

As a DM myself I use a lot of bottle caps, poker chips, little rubber toys from Micheal’s/Hobby Lobby and minis that come with other games (Talisman for example has great minis in lots of cool character models). PCs tend to be fancy minis, but everything else I just use whatever. Theatre of the mind!

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