Looking for Cheap Wargame Mini Sets

[DontEatRawHagis]

I'm really bored right now. And I have been watching videos of people making 40k minis and thought, "Hey I wouldn't mind assembling and painting a mini set, just for fun."

I am far from the wargaming background, but just wondering if there are any miniature sets out there that are cheap to buy. Right now I'm looking towards either 40k or Warnachine, but I thought I would ask if there were any cheaper alternatives.

I know a lot of cost will go into the tools and paint. Just looking for some cheap minis.

[Dragonus45]

Malifaux is an excellent game, very cheap when compared to 40k and warmachine, and has a very interesting and quirky gothicpunk setting and story.

[redmassam]

Infinity also looks pretty cheap. However, nobody in my area plays or sells it, which is why I haven't bought any.

[Aotrs Commander]

Not many places do anything in terms of plastic aside from Workshop (because of the massive set-up costs), most of the other large numbers of wargames companies use white metal and resin and their material, so if the aspect you're most looking for is building the kits with some customisation or whathave you, Workshop is still in terms of models, probably one of the only options. (This ignores the prices. I used workshop models as the physical representations of my Aotrs ground forces, because they were the only place I could buy stuff and custom build an Undead army using bits from fantasy and sci-fi models. Mind you, that was a few years ago, before the prices went up!)

Anyway, the first real question has to be what sort of models you want to paint. If you're not dead set on 28mm sci-fi, the sky is not even your limit, and even if you are there's still a wide breath of stuff out there.

For 1:72nd scale, i.e. 25mm (slightly smaller than than 28mm - now closer to 30mm), the cheapest is probably historical to modern stuff from places like Airfix. It's so cheap on comparison, you can buy a box of soldiers for the radio men or something and not worry about ditching the rest.

Otherwise, I'd suggest a good look at Grounds Zero Games (type gzg into google, it should be the first entry), who do 25mm sci-fi (as a comparion, their metal infantry figures are £1.50 each, which equates to what, about $2-$2.5 dollars or something at the minute? MUCH cheaper than Workshop. Their 25mm range is pretty much huge.

GZG also do 15mm sci-fi (which is pretty good for games with larger amounts of more affordable vehicles - though I prefer to use 12mm scale (1:144) myself for that), 6mm sci-fi and, as far as I'm concerned, most importantly, starships.

Also of note are Irregular Miniatures, who are about the cheapest on the market (and probably as good a place to buy brushes from as any, size Workshop's brushes I've found are more expensive and really no better than anyone else's, and Irregular's brushes are cheap!) Irregular have a phenominal range of stuff, covering pretty much all periods, including a few ranges at extreme scales like 2mm and 54mm. Their quality is a bit variable, but you get what you pay for. That said, some of their best stuff is amazing. Their human heavy cruiser, I think it is, is one of my favourite starship models, and it's still only about a quid...



If starships are something you're interested in, I suggest to trip along to Star Ranger Starship Combat News (I'd be adding links, for you, but I've got to go out shortly), which has an exhaustive list of all companies that make starship models. (I'd suggest you have a gander in any case, as a lot of the places will lead you to companies that do all sorts of stuff, like GZG and Irregular.)

That's just what I can think of off the top of m head, I can probably find some more focussed ideas if you decided what you're into.



It should be noted, that, at least in the UK, (non-GW) wargames is a very cheap hobby in comparison to most.

[Klose_the_Sith]

You can get 56-60 plastic Napoleonics from Victrix for $30 AUD (which is so much cheaper than GW here that words alone cannot express) and Perry have similarly cheap plastics, but those are historicals which seem to be less popular than fantasy/sci-fi (I know, I know, geeks have no taste :smalltongue:).

If you want to do cheapy cheap then smaller scales is a good idea and Plastic Soldier Company will let you buy oodles of nicely detailed WW2 tanks at 15mm (about 1/2 GW scale). The advantage of that is that if you ever want to get into wargaming, it'll work really well with Flames of War which is a widespread, popular and well balanced ruleset.

EDIT: What's said about Irregular Miniatures is very true (my favourite stuff from them is actually Thirty Years War in 2mm) and I'll also add the fact that this (https://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/) website is a great boon, depending on what range you want to get (and where you live if you decide on games workshop).

[Aotrs Commander]

Also, a point worth raising, I discovered myself this morning, when I went into GW to buy some more Blood Red:

Workshop are releasing a new range of paints shortly (and I will be amazed if the price isn't going to go up...)

So, I would either hold off getting any until they've been released, or look at something like Vallejo (which I think I might switch to, after twenty years of Citidel paints) which are much cheaper (the price is less and you get +50% per pot than the new range if I'm reading this correctly), and Vallejo's game colour range are basically Not-Games-Workshop-Colours-Honest. I know quite a lot of people use Valljo and/or Citidel, though I've not made extensive use of them myself, so they aren't terrible paints of anything.

Just a point I felt I should raise!

(Also, depending where you are, it might be worth looking at non-GW suppliers even for GW paints. Here in the UK, I tend to use Wayland Games, who sell the paints a bit cheaper (like 10% or so), so it's worth doing a shop around anyway.)

[dsmiles]

or look at something like VallejoSeconded. Vallejo is a much better quality paint than either Citadel or P3, though to go through less mixing of paints, I use a variety of brands to get the colors I want.

To address the OP, WarmaHordes is cheaper than either WHFB or WH40K, but nowhere near as cheap as Malifaux (if you're looking to get into wargaming, rather than just paint minis). I hear Flames of War is pretty cheap, as well, but it's not fantasy/sci-fi. I've come to like the Dystopian Wars models, but I'm not up to starting another wargame right now. (I have enough WarmaHordes and Malifaux on my plate.)

[Aotrs Commander]

I hear Flames of War is pretty cheap, as well, but it's not fantasy/sci-fi.

Oh gods no! No, it really is not! It's been accused of trying to be GW in that regard. As I understand it, it's winding down, so you might be able to get stuff on the cheap now (second hand or whatnot), but it's always been notorius for that. There are far cheaper and better places to get WW2 models, if that's your thing.



As a general note, it's worth noting that there are plenty of sets of rules you can use any miniatures for, so, even if you're interested in the gaming aspect, and not just the figures, don't feel you have to only get stuff from one miniature manufacturer, as there are some really good sets of more generic rules out there, as opposed to the more GW style of models-for-the-rules.

(My aforementioned GW Aotrs army has never seen the light of 40k, and has only been used with Stargrunt II and Manouver Group. Heck, the last time I played 40K was when it was Rogue Trader...)

[Erloas]

If you are simply looking for models to paint and customize then you'll be best served picking the models you like the look of the most and go from there.

I have found that I really don't like the looks of a lot of models from various companies, some of their line might be good and others aren't.
I've also found that in many cases the cost of the game is more dependent on the rules then the cost of the models, so while one game might be "cheaper" its because the average game consists 15 models instead of 80, but the cost per model isn't really that different.

As for paints, it is kind of like the models as well, in that some companies do some colors better then others. Reds tend to have a lot of variability in its coverage and if I remember correctly most dedicated painters recommend GW for reds. I haven't found an orange I really like yet... even the GW Foundation orange I really didn't like the coverage of. For Metalics I think Brazen Brass from GW is my favorite, but I like... I forget which right now, Vallejo or P3 for my silvers.
And of course GW dropped all of their inks, which were replaced by washes but don't work the same way in all cases so if you want to use inks then you have to look elsewhere (and inks work considerably better when mixed with metallics then colored paints, I get some good looks with greens and reds mixed with silver and brass/gold metallics). GWs foundation line is great for base layers but you need something else for shading/highlighting and details. Their washes are also really good. With some practice you can do really neat stuff with glazes and it helps a lot with transitions, but GW doesn't carry glazes.

The main point though is that if you're doing it just for painting and modeling and not the gaming then its more important then ever to pick the models you like the most. If you're doing nothing but show pieces then it doesn't matter what the rule sets are and the quality of the model is all that matters. And considering that time is money; if you're doing a good job you're going to be spending a lot of time on each model and the cost in time is going to dwarf the cost of the model itself, so saving $2 per model is going to be nothing compared to the time put into it, so you had better make sure you like the models you are working on.

[Klose_the_Sith]

Oh gods no! No, it really is not! It's been accused of trying to be GW in that regard. As I understand it, it's winding down, so you might be able to get stuff on the cheap now (second hand or whatnot), but it's always been notorius for that. There are far cheaper and better places to get WW2 models, if that's your thing.

Cheaper yes, but as far as 15mm WW2 goes I haven't seen any better sculpts. The Tanks in particular are the best of the scale. Prices are a little more expensive than some manufacturers (like PSC I recommended or Forged in Battle) but they still aren't bad. The only pricing problem that I've had is with their artillery, but the models were fantastic.

And the accusation of 'winding down' is just absurd. They're a thriving company that just released a well-received Third Edition and show no signs of weakness.

[Aotrs Commander]

And the accusation of 'winding down' is just absurd. They're a thriving company that just released a well-received Third Edition and show no signs of weakness.

I had heard rumours that they were, but that may have been due to the edition change, then. (Wasn't something I had heard anything concrete on.) May have been purely speculatory or something.