Pirate Miniatures

[Cealocanth]

So I'm starting a campaign based around the Golden Age of Piracy and I seem to have hit a bit of a snag. While they exist, there seems to be a remarkable lack of variety in "pirate" or "colonial" based miniatures. Furthermore, I can't seem to find any miniatures of ships that aren't modern, steampunk or astral sea based. While I could use tokens for these purposes, my group is a bit old fashioned and they tend to prefer we use miniatures.

So, Playground. Any suggestions on lines of pirate miniatures. I need them in a standard d&d size (1 square inch maximum), and I'd prefer them to be of at least an acceptable quality. The ships I need to be 1"x2" or around that size.

Anything you can suggest would be useful.

[Ravens_cry]

Paizo recently came out with miniatures based on their Skull and Shackles adventure path. The trouble is it's random pick, so you are probably best off going for the secondary market if you see something you like.

[Jack of Spades]

If you can find any Pirates of the Spanish Main minis, they were pretty sturdy and diverse. I'm sure there's a more modern game of cardboard naval combat out there but I couldn't find it.

As for people minis... That may be difficult. There appear to be a lot of companies with lines of Napoleonic soldiers, but colonial is a bit more sparse. This is a list of links someone made that may be of help. A couple of the lines over at Empress Miniatures look promising. But that's just the first couple of Google results, so I don't know for sure.

For what it's worth, when you're looking for DnD minis, I think the scale you're looking for is 28mm.

[originalginger]

Scale isn't perfect, and the quality is iffy, but "army man" style pirate play sets might work well enough in your case. While I can't say I have specifically seen them, because I have never looked, but it would surprise me if Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, etc. didn't have sets with lots of pirates and privateers, ships, treasure, and what-have-you for a reasonable price.

Don't know how picky your group is, but I have used 'army man' figures on several occasions in my games to great success.

EDIT
Perhaps something like this
Amazon - $4.99

or this
Ebay- $14.99

[Cristo Meyers]

So I'm starting a campaign based around the Golden Age of Piracy and I seem to have hit a bit of a snag. While they exist, there seems to be a remarkable lack of variety in "pirate" or "colonial" based miniatures. Furthermore, I can't seem to find any miniatures of ships that aren't modern, steampunk or astral sea based. While I could use tokens for these purposes, my group is a bit old fashioned and they tend to prefer we use miniatures.

So, Playground. Any suggestions on lines of pirate miniatures. I need them in a standard d&d size (1 square inch maximum), and I'd prefer them to be of at least an acceptable quality. The ships I need to be 1"x2" or around that size.

Anything you can suggest would be useful.

Reaper Miniatures has a pretty wide variety. No help on the actual ships, but there's a fairly good selection of piratical figs to choose from.

There's undead and other fantasy style mixed in there, sorry. Reaper's search function is a little finicky.

[Jormengand]

If you can get your hands on Dreadfleet, a few of the ships are good - the Heldenhammer, the Swordfysh and the Seadrake - if horrifically out of scale. The others largely won't work for a non-fantasy setting, though a few could be adapted.

Unfortunately, it's limited edition and out of stock, but if you can get your hands on them they might be good for bits where the only things about are ships.

[Erasmas]

I second Jack of Spades' recommendation on the Spanish Main ships... and the game system itself might give you a good handle on how to handle the naval combat (until it comes time for boarding that is... ).

Another place to look for good colonial soldiers (though not pirates, I am afraid) would be Heroscape figures. They are no longer being produced and you would likely have to re-base them as the standard are more than 1", but they made a couple different groups (one of which was called 'The 10th Regiment of Foot' and another was called 'The 4th Massachusetts Line'). Places like eBay and Amazon are probably going to be your best bet.

[Cealocanth]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'm looking into quite a few of those suggestions, and attempting to balance the "how much I need for the game" with "how much I can actually afford to get" right now.

[Erasmas]

That is the age old issue.

[caden_varn]

Privateer Press had a number of pirate-style minis in their Iron Kingdoms line, or maybe in one of the mercenary groups in the Warmachine line. I have a few of them and they are quite nice IMO.
Not so sure about troops - I doubt their lines would work so well for this (it is mainly steampunk, although the pirates aren't steampunky), but you might find something in the Cyngar troops in Warmachine that would suit. I tend to doubt it though.

[Jay R]

Amazon has these:

12 70mm pirates for $6.55

8 pirates plus cannon, skeleton and tiny ship for $9.34

36 piece plastic set with pirates, skeletons, and chest cannon, and rowboat for $6.80

[fusilier]

Old Glory Miniatures makes 25mm (more like 28mm) pirates and pirate ships. The ships are expensive but designed for wargaming. Their miniatures are pewter but at an excellent price. The quality isn't great, but once you clean up the flashing they paint up well. I usually suggest Old Glory when you want a lot of miniatures on a budget.

Foundry Miniatures is located in England and their stuff is usually top notch, it costs more (although they've readjusted their prices so US customers pay the same as English customers). Shipping is usually reasonable, but every once in a while a shipment might take 5-6 weeks to the US -- I think this is usually a fault of customs, so being patient helps.

When putting together an army I usually like to have the rank and file made from Old Glory, but the officers and characters from Foundry. :-)

Dixon miniatures also makes nice miniatures and they have a pirate line with resin ships. I've never ordered directly from them, however.