Painting Tiny Happy Dwarves: Lets talk about the plastics!

No, I don't mean those "Plastics." I realize making a Mean Girls reference on a geek blog will go over about as well as a sportsball reference. Instead I am talking about the actual material a miniature is made of. Most of the miniatures I choose to paint are made of metal (tin actually, with other alloys, lead is no longer used that much in the US, due to the whole poison brain damage thing). However many miniatures are made of plastic also. There are a ton of different plastic models, for the sake of todays discussion we are talking about High Density Plastic similar to what you would find in a model kit bought at most department stores and hobby shops.

Assembly Note:

All of the models discussed can be assembled using the same techniques one can use on metal and resin miniatures, but you can also use plastic cement which will melt the parts causing them to stick as opposed to just gluing them as normal glue well...does. Warning: Use in a well ventilated area unless you want to get higher than a participant at a Snoop Dogg concert.

Note: All of the companies/Companies I will be talking about are Kits, not individual models. In most cases you will have a ton of extra parts and be able to create multiple characters and you will have a metric fuckload of parts left over.

Games Workshop https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Home?_requestid=7018882

This company has been around for years, and to my knowledge they were one of the first to use that type of plastic. They give you a ton of weapon options and cover most of the major races. One issue many people find with these figures is that the GW IP has a very distinct look and with the newer iteration of the rules, that look is even more distinct. That being said, the models are beautiful and the current plastic kits are some of the best I have seen in a while. Please note they are expensive, expect to pay anywhere from 25-50 bucks a box for 5-20 figures. Many of their older models are out of print, but you can still find them at LGSs and online.

North Star Miniatures http://www.northstarfigures.com/

Recently in the miniature world a new game called Frostgrave has hit the scene. It is a fantasy skirmish game reminiscent of an old Games Workshop game called Mordheim. A game based on Games Worrkshop you say? Pay attention to this trend. While this is a UK based company you can find the figures on Ebay as well as most LGSs can get their hands on them. They are putting out multi-part kits that you can use to arm your adventurer with any number of weapons options. As it stands right now they have two Human kits (one being normal soldiers and they other cultists) and a Gnoll kit. I am sure the other races are on their way. They price is super cheap around 30-35 American for 20 figures!

Mantic Entertainment http://www.manticgames.com/

Remember when I said Frostgrave was similar to another GW game, well for many years GW was the big boy on the block and ripping off ideas from them was par for the course. Mantic started making generic fantasy figures for use in GW's Warhammer, but soon went on to make their own game. The figures none the less are great for your table and again cover most of the race class combos. The figures are a great deal more generic so they will fit better in your world.

There are a ton of other companies out there who all do hard plastic figures, you can also check out:

http://wargamesfactory.com/

http://giveusyourmoneypleasethankyou-wyrd.com/collections/through-the-breach/products/wyr30401?variant=1826676865

With both companies I will warn you, the parts are smaller than I feel they need to be so do not assemble over a shag rug.

As stated many of these kits will leave you with a ton of extra parts, which are great to have if you ever plan to convert models. You can take a plastic sword from a kit and use it on your metal model. For example this Dwarf is metal but the two swords are plastic from a GW Marauder Kit.