Avatars of War

You have probably seen the company, if not the site is avatars-of-war.com
and two figures (about to be released) have really caught my eye, so I thought I'd share.

First, As I cant seem to resist a good rat catcher erm, I mean witch hunter, I have so got to get this when he's available:


And Second, because the skaven are my first love (been collecting them for nigh on 20 years) there's this:


I thought them a bit too awesome to find and not share.

oh, they also do some good orcs, goblins, a plastic box of slayers that puts gw to shame and a whole bunch of other stuff.
One hero of most races now, and plenty more coming.

Avatars of War make some truly exceptional stuff. The Old Lady Burner looks cool; I really like the Super Rat Guy.

Certainly better than the GW GD Skaven


I have one of him, but i'm not sure I like him

renfield286 wrote:

I mean witch hunter, I have so got to get this when he's available:

I don't know where you are from, but in Germany, and mostlikely all of Europe, the WH has been available for quite some time. Almost bought him myself 2-3 weeks ago.

I've got a bit of AoW stuff:-

Beastman hero leads my Beastmen warband

Berserkers (Slayer proxies) box for the bulk of my Slayer Cult Warband

Dwarf Noble as a Rememberer

Bor Dragonbane to lead my Slayer Cult.

Now I just want them to do a High Elf that fits in better with GW High Elves

Grimscull wrote:

renfield286 wrote:

I mean witch hunter, I have so got to get this when he's available:

I don't know where you are from, but in Germany, and mostlikely all of Europe, the WH has been available for quite some time. Almost bought him myself 2-3 weeks ago.

In the interest of supporting my FLGS I'm waiting for my local store to get them in on their next order.

either that or waiting until the new year and treating myself as a reward for getting a load of my figures painted.

how come avatars of war and scribor and propably other companies can make figures that looks almost exactly like GWs? I mean are GW not pissed off, I would think skaven and space marines are trademarked.

Not that I am complaining that somebody is making better figures than GW but is just seems odd that they get away with it. But then again I dont know anything about the miniatures business...

I'm not sure about AoW or Scibor, but Game Zone's sculptor(s) also do masters for G.W...SO, like the Morrisons' Marauder line, they give their freelancers some slack.

Alex wrote:

how come avatars of war and scribor and propably other companies can make figures that looks almost exactly like GWs? I mean are GW not pissed off, I would think skaven and space marines are trademarked.

"Skaven" is a trademarked word yeah, but Nezumi, Wererat, Ver'men Etc. are not. and although they have a similar style & scale they would have a hard time serving a C&D order on them because they aren't actually copies of the gw figures. Black tree design have been making Ver'men for years, iirc the chap is an ex gw sculptor and even some of his figs are some of the old harlequin (Citidels old partner company) figures recast.

Same goes for "Space marines"

BTW the main sculptor of AoW is Felix Paneagua (sp?), who used to be a sculptor for GW, for example being responsible for some of the last-edition Dark Elves, who imho made DE the army with the best models back then. This is why he knows how to get a look to his minis similar to GWs. And, as renfield286 explained, if he doesn't call his trollslayer a trollslayer, but something else, GW can do nothing about it.

heh thanks for explaining guys. It seemed a bit odd to me when I saw the avatar "skaven". Great that some other companies can do similar stuff since in many cases they do them better

I've now got this Vermin Clan Lord and the Marauder Warlord (dude with the morning star and axe/shield). Both solid sculpts and worth every penny (not that I actually paid anything, cause they were a 30th birthday present off my in-laws )

The only real downside I've noticed with AoW is that the slottatabs tend to be way too thick for the slottabases. Nothing that is too difficult to fix, but is a bit of a hassle nonetheless.

5pointer wrote:

The only real downside I've noticed with AoW is that the slottatabs tend to be way too thick for the slottabases. Nothing that is too difficult to fix, but is a bit of a hassle nonetheless.

I just cut them off anyway, i model & paint the base & the figure separately so the figure looks like its walking on the base rather than in it. it just looks better.

renfield286 wrote:

5pointer wrote:

The only real downside I've noticed with AoW is that the slottatabs tend to be way too thick for the slottabases. Nothing that is too difficult to fix, but is a bit of a hassle nonetheless.

I just cut them off anyway, i model & paint the base & the figure separately so the figure looks like its walking on the base rather than in it. it just looks better.

I think my point is that if a model is provided with a slottabase, then the slottatab should generally fit without too much effort on my part. I don't think that is too much to expect - GW and Reaper more often than not manage it, but it's been a problem on all of the AoW minis I've got.

Of course, I may choose to do what you do, but I shouldn't have to take that approach.