Modern Miniature Research And Links
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In my never-ending search for great miniatures, I compiled a list of websites that sell miniatures and miniature accessories. Now, there are a ton of places you can purchase miniatures, but since I’ll be running a modern campaign I specifically looked for sites that sell miniatures that would fit in a modern setting. However, many of these sites also sell miniatures in a variety of settings which include fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, pulp, zombie, war, and tons more. I personally e-mailed each company and asked them about their products, about any discounts RoleplayingPro readers should be aware, and if they had any review products that we could show our readers. Out of fourteen companies, four of them responded. The first four companies are listed in the order they responded.
Dixon Miniatures (dixonminis@aol.com)
http://dixonminiatures.co.uk/
Dixon Miniatures was the first to respond to me out of the fourteen miniature companies I contacted. They are based out of the United Kingdom and have a huge line of modern miniatures. They also informed me they are currently working on a range of Yakuza figures in 28mm scale. So far they have a set of four male figures and a set of female figures. They hope to have another two or three sets out for next month which will include martial arts figures.Old Glory Miniatures (service@oldgloryminiatures.com)
http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/
Old Glory Miniatures has one of the largest lines of miniatures of any company in the world. They have a full line from historical, to fantasy, to modern. They also have a program called the Old Glory Army, where you can pay $50.00 a year and you get 40% off on your orders. I’m not great at math, but I think if you spent $125 (or more) in a year with them, this program would pay for itself.RAFM Miniatures & Games (sales@rafm.com)
http://www.rafm.com/
RAFM has been building a high quality range of modern figures for many years now that are sold under their USX brand. You can check out single or group USX miniatures here, or the USX Unit Boxes here. Also, back in November RAFM released a set of rules to use for modern miniature games called “USX Modern Day Heroes”.Pulp Figures (murch@pulpfigures.com)
http://www.pulpfigures.com/
Pulp Figures sells figures based on a Retro-Pop culture world (Indiana Jones and Sky Captain type genres). Many Call of Cthulhu gamers find the figures useful in the roleplaying world. Pulp Figures primary customers are interested in tabletop adventure gaming which is a combination of war-gaming and roleplaying with a cinematic approach. Miniatures are treated as main characters and extras. The tabletop is the set. The figures therefore need to be quite character-oriented, relying considerably on pop-culture clichés from the period. It tends to be a tongue-in-cheek approach with light fun as the emphasis.The following companies did not respond to my request for information about their products. Here are links to each site, in no particular order:
em4miniatures (enquiries@em4miniatures.com)
http://www.em4miniatures.com/Iron Wind Metals (officewench@ironwindmetals.com)
http://ironwindmetals.com/Denizen Miniatures (Mail@HistoricalMiniatures.com)
http://www.historicalminiatures.com/Ground Zero Games (admin@groundzerogames.net)
http://www.gtns.co.uk/store1/commerce.cgiAll About Miniatures (jleahy@zoomtown.com)
http://johnleahy.wordpress.com/Stan Johansen Miniatures (sjjj@ix.netcom.com)
http://www.stanjohansenminiatures.com/Amazon Miniatures (info@amazonminiatures.com)
http://www.amazonminiatures.com/Lance & Laser (lanceandlaser.com@gmail.com)
http://www.lanceandlaser.com/Metal Maniacs (metal.maniacs@ntlworld.com)
http://www.geocities.com/doodlemonkie/ZombieSmith (josh@zombiesmith.com)
http://www.zombiesmith.com/In addition to these sites, I have two more sites you can check out for modern miniatures. The first is Mega Miniatures. It is an eBay Store that sells 25mm miniatures for fantasy, futuristic, sci-fi, and modern settings. You can read the full article entitled, “Miniatures and 3D Gaming For Modern Campaigns“.
In that article, one of our readers informed us about Reaper Miniatures, Inc. Although I did not contact them about their products, I highly suggest checking out their website at ReaperMini.com. They have a miniature convention each year and a very active forum devoted to all things Reaper!
I hope you find these links to websites that sell modern miniatures useful. If you have any sites that sell quality miniatures you could recommend, please suggest them in the comment section of this article.
Other Roleplaying Pro articles on Modern Miniatures:
Modern Miniature Picture Inspiration - Picture inspiration from RAFM Miniatures and Games
Modern Miniatures and 3d Gaming For Campaigns – Modern miniature examples and free downloadable PDF game aids from Mega Miniatures
Leave a Comment
March 5, 2009 at 4:50 pm
You’ll probably also want to check out Foundry Miniatures’ “Street Violence” line, and Hasslefree Miniatures. (You can buy Foundry’s stuff in the US via The WarStore, and Hasslefree’s via Rattlehead Games.)
Christopher B’s last blog post.."Word Verification" Character Names – Order of the D30 Edition
March 10, 2009 at 10:06 am
I actually put a lot of time and effort into this list. It was by no means meant to be a comprehensive list. But I’m surprised that it hasn’t gotten much attention. I guess that means I’ll have to pour even more research into it and really throw out good information on each one of the companies and/or products.
April 14, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Most of the people I know are happy with Games Workshop’s products. However, as much as I enjoy Warhammer, I also enjoy teaching martial arts. I have been looking for realistic minis for a while. I think you turned up in the third page of my search results. I for one, thank you for your time in putting all these on one page for me.
April 14, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Thanks, Jestor. The research I did for this article and the ones that accompany it was the most I’d done for any article. I realized though, that most people play non-modern games (fantasy or sci-fi).
Lets just say also, that I learned a lot about these companies and some of the people that work for them. Some of it good, and some of it bad…
July 10, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Thanks for the articles about 3-d Maps and Modern Minis. I am on a quest too. Thanks for the links. I am checking them out. So far, so good.
Thanks again.
July 11, 2009 at 12:15 am
@ Martin Goodman – Thanks for the kudos. I remember when I initally made this list, it was a pretty big deal. It took a lot of time and effort. But I learned a lot about each company and wouldn’t trade that for sure.
November 14, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Samuel-
If I didn’t respond, I apologize! I’m not trying to make excuses, but I do lose some mail to spam filters, I try and check it all but I am sure I miss some things.
So, um, sorry!
May 24, 2010 at 2:28 am
Thanks for all the research! I had already found a few of these sources on my own, but your list (and the additional sources provided by Christopher B) helped fill the rest of them out; again, thank you. One that I have though that I notice you didn’t mention is Wyrd Miniatures (very uncanny and alternative miniatures – possible Boss characters) and RPGShop.com (they seem to carry some Reaper items at a bit of a discount).