What are other miniature companies similar to GW?

Right now I'm going to start and Orcs and Goblins warband, seeing as I have the models handy. I'd like to actually start up another or two, just to give me more stuff to paint. While I like a lot of the Games Workshop models, some of them aren't that great. So what are some other companies that make models in similar style and size to Games Workshop?

In particular, I would be looking for halfings, dwarves, and female warriors (sister of sigmar). Those are the warbands I'm most interested in building, but either I don't like the available GW models, or I can't find enough suitable figures. Anybody have some suggestions?

For female minis you cant go passed reaper mini's. The only potential problem is if you're playing "what you see is what you get" because a lot of the minis are heavily armoured.

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures

Reaper does some pretty good fantasy models across the board, so definitely take a peak there. Alternate halflings may be tough, and to be honest I'm not sure of any good suppliers in that realm.

The game company i-Kore made a very short-lived fantasy game called Celtos, that had a limited but good range of miniatures. There were a couple of dwarfs, barbarians, undead/demons, and some orcy types. If you do a search you can probably find some of them around too though.

Putting specific manufacturers aside, though, I would just take a gander through your gaming store and see what they have to offer. Often times you'll find random things on the shelf that you wouldn't necessarily be able to dig up online unless you knew just what you were looking for.

Lastly, based on the relatively short period of time I've been on TBMF, Deafnala seems to be an almost limitless source of knowledge in the miniatures industry, so ask him for some advice

We live in THE GOLDEN AGE of Minis; you can pretty much find ANYTHING that suits your tastes...or, in my case, a lack there of. With the Orcs & Goblins, Game Zone has an EXCELLENT variety of the Lads in a VERY similar, but somewhat better style as GW. Renegade & Foundry have ranges of Orcs & Goblins in the Old Kev Adams style, if that's your thing. Avatars of War make some STUNNING heros for the Orcs & Goblins...along with just about every other fanasy type. Reaper Orcs are similar although heftier than GW's; their Goblins are more Orcish than GW's however.

For The Holy Babes, Reaper has some REALLY nice stuff in the Dark Heaven Legends range:

06062: Battle Nuns and Mother Superior ($13.99) Werner Klocke

AND the Warlord Crusaders: http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/crusaders .

For Halflings check out these Reaper minis: http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/halfling .
Heresy also has several COOL Halfings. The Van Halfling in particular is a VERY COOL mini, although a bit smaller than GW or Reaper.

So I give you a list of some famous manufacturers :

Red Box Games
Avatars of War
Enigma Miniatures
Fenryll
Freebooter Miniatures
Gamezone
Alkemy from Kraken Editions
Ral Partha
Foundry
Black Tree design
And of course Reaper Minis

Some of them have not exactly the same size than GW, but no matter if you build an entire warband from the same manufacturer

Lest I forget...again; Dragon Rune available now from Armor Cast makes some VERY COOL if somewhat cartoony Orc & Goblins [the Ogres are REALLY COOL too]: http://armorcast.com/store/index.php?cPath=116_125&osCsid=d04b9719e1f2f01c4b9badf2d7d554a7 .



If you can find them the Rackham Orcs are VERY NICE.

Can't find the Orcs on the Rackham site, but here are 2 of them.

I also have a set of "basic" orcs, but they are yet to be painted (as well as a lot of other stuff )

Cool. Thanks a bunch for all the links. I'll check some of them out later.

Gobbo Freak wrote:

Can't find the Orcs on the Rackham site, but here are 2 of them.

...because they don't sell their metal range anymore :'(

Check out the mad goblins :O

I just love them and those are my next buy now when I have my witch hunters

Gamezone has some nice miniatures, too, and they fit very well with the GW ones I think.

As I have just bought another dwarven warband I have to recommend the dwarves from www.dwarftales.com.

There are nine different dwarfs (all really cool) - however there are no slayers.
For that, I highly recommend avatars of wars slayer - (and perhaps the thunderlord as well).

AlexBware wrote:

As I have just bought another dwarven warband I have to recommend the dwarves from www.dwarftales.com.

There are nine different dwarfs (all really cool) - however there are no slayers.
For that, I highly recommend avatars of wars slayer - (and perhaps the thunderlord as well).

If you compare them to warhammer and avatar of war Dwarfs, which size do they come closest too? (AoW dwarfs are fair bit taller than GW's) They look great btw!

I can't believe I overlooked the Dwarves...LOVE painting Dwarves. Vertually EVERY mini maker has at least some Dwarves. You can pretty much go for whatever floats your boat.
Bob Olley's Dwatf World are probably among the BEST of the Dwarves available; as a former GWer, his stuff works SEAMLESSLY with GW's stuff, although with a LOT more personality...AND they're available from Armor Cast: http://armorcast.com/store/index.php?cPath=116_138&osCsid=2d6d5a9bf73b72dbe0e07e185e1f27d6 . Game Zone has some FINE looking Dwarven minis...sorry I don't have a link, but CMoN carries their line. Reaper has quite a Horde of the Little Lads & Lasses in their Dark Heaven range & Army packs with a whole section devoted to them in the Warlord range: http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/dwarves . The Warlord have the advantage of being set up for slotted bases.
Both Game Zone & Reaper are of a comparable size to GW.

A lot of Rackam metal mini's can be found on this site at very low price :
http://www.ludikbazar.com/index.php?cPath=460_4271_542

They buy all the metal stock to Rackam

I have buy my elf on this site and I have no problem with them.

This is a pretty NEW STORE with some HALFLINGS.

http://www.thebattleforge.co.uk/halflings_11.html

Check them out.

Gamezone is a spanish company, with a great detail, but usually their models are HUGE compared to GW, so be careful with that.

REAPER is THE STORE to stop by, but notice that scales are not so uniform; they sell 25mm and 27mm, 28mm, 30mm and 32mm all in the same range. Too bad they don't use a ruler in their pics. Noneteless their minis are just GREAT.

As has been said, THIS IS THE GOLDEN AGE of miniature hobbies.

There are countless companies producing fantasy 28mm, and some more springs almost every day.

Just check THE MINIATURES PAGE for ine of the best manufacturers index of the industry.

Hope that helps, best wishes.

Those halflings loook pretty cool. I have a few Reaper halflings, but they look more like kids than halflings. Those battleforge halflings look more on par with the GW's models, which are a lot smaller. Does anyone have some comparisons for those halflings with GW's?

I really doubt it, but they are supposed to be "28mm scale".

As I said, the company is pretty new (actually launched the website a few weeks ago), but you can write to the owner and ask, he's a very friendly guy afaik.

Hope that helps.

I received my package from www.dwarftales.com last week (just haven't been home).

The miniatures looks excellent - quite a few accessories/options with those miniatures (the hero in the middle of the picture has the option of three different heads, a two-handed hammer, an axe (shield optional) and a crossbow (backpack with quiver included).

As for size the miniatures are a little taller than GWs, but they look fine with Avatars of War miniatures - see the picture below for size comparison.



I highly recommend the miniatures - just a bit of a shame, that I already have a dwarf gang - now I will have two shortly

Mantic games offers good minis for a low price .

But right now they only have 3 races ... (its going to expand over time).
I'm particulary fond of their undeads.. but dwarves that doesn't look like Mr. Potatoes are cool too !!!

Since you are in the U.S., one place I've shopped from online is Fantization.com

It's a clearing house for dozens of mini companies in the U.S. Click on "tabletop miniatures" in the lefthand menu, and when browsing or shopping make sure to pay attention to the scale of the models you may be interested in, as they do sell stuff for larger scale games or for show pieces.

Gobbo Freak wrote:

Can't find the Orcs on the Rackham site, but here are 2 of them.

I also have a set of "basic" orcs, but they are yet to be painted (as well as a lot of other stuff )

Oooo!!! Nice wishing/water well......


Shows what I really like in the game.....

thanks man. the well is from an australian company called CNC Workshop.

It's easy to build and all made of wood. Shipping is a bit on the expensive side though.

a good list to dig through


http://www.astronomican.com/showthread.php?17033-Releases-and-news-concerning-various-non-GW-manufacturers

Nice thread! I knew about some of these companies, but found a few new ones here too.