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Posted by: Technocrat Jul 17 2006, 10:07 PM

Anyone know of a company that makes the little paintable figures, like the ones for DnD, for Shadowrun?

Posted by: eidolon Jul 17 2006, 10:09 PM

IIRC Grenadier (sp) made a Shadowrun line. Well, let's put it this way, I know there were miniatures (25mm), and I'm pretty sure that it was Grenadier that made them.

You can usually find them on Ebay.

Barring that, some of the figures from the Void line work well as subs. There are several lines of miniatures that would work pretty well, in fact. A few google searches for sci-fi miniatures should dig up some more.

Also, for a great resource for miniatures and news about them, try www.theminiaturespage.com. Great site for just about all things mini.

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 17 2006, 10:12 PM

Ral Partha made them.

Posted by: Technocrat Jul 17 2006, 10:17 PM

Now that's what I call a fast responce! Thanks guys!

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 17 2006, 10:22 PM

newwave.org is a big mini web store, they carry almost every mini game plus other things. I got a ton of SR minis from them. The problem is the minis havent been made in years. I just checked their site, its down for maintenance at the moment, so I cant say if they still have any left. So you may want to try ebay and check your local game store, you can still find some crazy stuff at your local stores.

EDIT: Almost forgot http://www.stiggybaby.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=RPE Sadly that is just a sliver of what Ral Partha had to offer.

Posted by: eidolon Jul 17 2006, 10:23 PM

No prob. Good luck, and if you get some painted up, throw up some links on here so we can check them out.

Oh, btw, Frag-o, both companies made Shadowrun sets, as it turns out.

Here's a website that talks about it, and seems to have a pretty complete listing of them:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/shadowrun/miniatures.html

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 17 2006, 10:32 PM

Hmmm, thats interesting, I hadnt heard of Grenadier till recently. They still make really cool stuff, if you can get to newwave they have a lot of nice pieces. In fact I have a couple there were given away as promotional things. Even they were SRish. Ral Partha is still around too, they went under when FASA did, seeing the FASA had bought Partha. They refomed under a new company name, but I can not for the life of me remember their name, something like Heavy Metals or something cliche.

Im not in anyway affiliated with newwave, they just have (or had, its been a while since I bought minis) a very wide range of minis from all over the world. Like these really bad ass minis for a french werewolf game (cant remember its name) I think there was a German holy war game, think the movie Prophecy not chatholics versus muslims.

Posted by: eidolon Jul 17 2006, 10:41 PM

Frag-o, I think you'd really dig http://www.theminiaturespage.com. Same here w/ the no affiliation, but it's by far the largest miniature news and hobby forum that I know of.

Thanks for the heads up on newwave. I'll check them out as soon as I get a chance to.

I'd have a lot more websites to contribute in the vein of SResque minis, but I'm travelling with a new laptop, and they're all bookmarked on my desktop.

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 17 2006, 10:54 PM

Damn you eidolon I have finally beaten my mini addiction and now you get me hooked again. LOL

I have enough pieces I could paint minis 8 hours a day 7 days a week and still have years of work ahead of me.

Posted by: Mr. Man Jul 17 2006, 11:11 PM

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 17 2006, 11:27 PM

Sweet, thanks for reminding me of their name. Looks like they are still making the old crimson skies minis also. That game came and went so fast I only had a chance to get a few pieces. I had to resort to molding and recasting them in resin to play. lol

Posted by: eidolon Jul 18 2006, 12:47 AM

@ Frag-o,

Yeah, you aren't kidding. I have a plastic 3 drawer chest with my unpainted lead in it.
1: Fantasy
2: Starships and Aircraft
3: Sci-fi

The drawers are hard to close, except for fantasy (because a bunch of the unpainted fantasy stuff isn't in the drawer).

Not only that, but I've got several board games that I need to paint the figures for (old Heroquest, etc.). Then there's the Warhammer IG army that's about 1/3 done (well, what I have is 1/3 done, I need some more stuff for it).

And I keep buying more.

It never ends.

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 18 2006, 02:35 AM

If I gave a comprehensive list of all the shit I have two things would happen, youd think I was lying or think I have a mental problem. I will say I had to build a troop case just for my IG army, the soldiers alone fill a rubber made trunk thats 4 foot wide, 2 foot long and 2 foot deep. I need my brothers help to load it on my truck to take it to our game place. I have another trunk with just tanks. And the list goes on... and on.

I forced myself to get a different hobby to stop buying minis. So now Im building armor. Just finished my first Lorica Segmentata and built most of my brothers. Unfortunately I dont have the tools right now to build helmets, so I buy them. And prosthetic make up. Need something creative to do with my time.

Posted by: eidolon Jul 18 2006, 04:35 AM

Awesome. Yeah, my IG force is only around 600 points at the moment, but I have the stuff to go to about 750. Well, "complete" I have about 0 points (painted, based and sealed, ready to play). They mostly get worked on when I can bear to paint repetitively. Otherwise I do one-off figures for other games and the like.

Oh, and you'd be surprised what I'd believe. After all, I'm a regular at TMP.

The armor thing sounds badass though.

Posted by: Adam Jul 18 2006, 04:58 AM

Iron Wind hasn't done new Shadowrun stuff for awhile ... but you should drop them a line and let them know you'd like to see some new SR minis.

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 18 2006, 05:07 AM

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/ackam/Myloricafromthefront.jpg its a little different now though. I made some minor mods, lifted the belly straps to close the "holes" in the arm pit area. Normally the lorica will have hooks that the laces go around to tie the straps together. But since this is for a full contact fighting game I used eyelets to lace it together for safety reasons. I also had to add more rivets to the shoulder plate straps. If you notice they are staggered and not sitting right, its because the plates swung on the straps like a pendulum.

Ill be working on a steel muscled cuirass shortly after I finish the rest of this suit. Which is basically full wrap around greaves in the fashion of a hoplite, vambraces and im thinking a studded leather skirt.

Posted by: Frag-o Delux Jul 18 2006, 05:09 AM

Posted by: Adam Jul 18 2006, 05:50 AM

Well, they aren't. They're making WizKids/FanPro stuff.

Posted by: Kyoto Kid Jul 18 2006, 04:50 PM

Posted by: Platinum Jul 18 2006, 05:35 PM

My friend took a number of space marines and modified them. they turned out awesome. Wish I had pics.

Posted by: underaneonhalo Jul 18 2006, 06:54 PM

Some of I-Kores http://www.brookhursthobbies.com/VOIDIKORE.htm line are great for shadowrun. I use Junker Legionaries as lonestar and I also have some of the Junker quads and Vasa vipers just waiting to be made into go gangers. Also check out http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/modern.asp


Now for a brief explanation of mini scales for those not yet cursed with mini fever. Most minis will be listed as "25mm" this is generally a lie, most minis post 95 are actually "heroic 25mm" which is actually 28mm. What does this mean? It means Ironwind minis which use the old school partha molds will be slightly smaller next to Foundry, I-Kore, Games Workshop, and I believe Grenedier. Does this really matter? Not really. Oh and 1/35 model cars are about perfect for 28mm scale.

-EDIT-
Just found http://www.thewarstore.com/ website, they have lots of near future/(ultra)modern stuff under sci-fi minis.

Posted by: Technocrat Jul 18 2006, 11:15 PM

Posted by: underaneonhalo Jul 19 2006, 03:54 AM

I cut my teeth on the Citadel paints that GW pushes but I hear wonderful things about the vallejo paints, haven't tried 'em yet myself. Regardless of brand I would suggest an acrylic due to it being water based and generally easier to work with.

If you've never painted before I recomend grabbing some cheap minis at your friendly local gaming store, reaper produces some fairly affordable ones that are easy to find and also have a fairly wide selection. Most comic book stores these days have some random bargain bin minis (usually old battle tech or sometimes vampire the masquerade or void) to rifle through. Take your time painting about 10 minis with a variety of textures (fabric, metals, skin, hair) and you should be ready to make your shadowrun minis damn pretty.

Happy painting and good luck!

Posted by: Cleremond Jul 20 2006, 05:59 PM

I used to be pretty big into Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I had enough dwarves (painted) back in 1992 to field a 8000 point dwarf army with several supporting Empire Calvary (Knights Panther, White Wolf, etc.) and artilery units. I went into the Army though after graduating college and sold the whole shabang for like $1000 to a buddy that owned a local game shop.

I never liked the Ral Partha Shadowrun mini's. They just weren't scuplted or molded well to accurately reflect the game style. I never bought any of them cause I just never found any of them that I liked except maybe that one Combat Mage mini. It was ok, but that's only cause it looked exactly like the template picture from Sprawl Sites supplement.

After checking out the Street Violence collection though...DAMN! Makes me want to blow $250 right now and get back into painting again. Especially since it looks like I'm going to be starting a SR4 campaign for my nephew and his buddies in the next few weeks.

Thanks for the links. Very cool stuff.

Posted by: eidolon Jul 20 2006, 07:35 PM

I'm a big user of Reaper's Pro Paints (and now their Masters Series). The metals are good. I've also used Citadel/GW paints, and the metals are good from those too. Keep in mind that if you seal with a matt varnish, you'll want to go back over your metals with a brush on gloss to restore the "metallic" look (unless you're going for corrosion).

The Ral Partha SR minis reflect the sculpting styles and manufacturing techniques of the time they were produced. If a good sculptor were to start doing them now, they'd look a lot "better". (Quotes for subjectivity.)

Btw, thanks for the reminder about Foundry's Street Violence. I had forgotten who made those.

Posted by: Kyoto Kid Jul 20 2006, 09:01 PM

...of course, if you are in the 'El Cheapo" mode there is always Steve Jackson's Cardboard Heroes ($24.95 for 400 figures + accessories from various periods). As GM I find these are very useful when you ned a lot of grunts & don't want to shell out $100s to get a sizable "army" of NPC figures and they still look better than dice, poker chips, M&Ms, or coins (though the M&Ms are quite tasty).

Posted by: underaneonhalo Jul 20 2006, 09:35 PM

So now I'm back on a mini kick after just getting a rhythm down while making chainmail, thanks guys

So anyways I just found http://www.fantization.com/cgi-bin/cart/mSHOP4.pl/page=GamingMiniPage.html#Miniatures company and they have some pretty spiffy stuff I haven't seen anywhere else as well as some of the more obscure lines like Thugs and Hasslefree.

Posted by: Technocrat Jul 21 2006, 12:20 AM

I used to play DnD a LOT - Me and my buddies never took the Hex-board off the diningroom table for three solid years! - and so I've painted many figs in my time...THE best ones I've found so far have been from http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/liste_rayons.cfm?code_lg=lg_us

It's a shame they don't have a Shadowrun line. But, it might be worth putting together some kinda petition here at Dumpshock...something to show Rackham. 'Ya know?

Posted by: eidolon Jul 21 2006, 02:25 AM

Rackham does make some neat stuff, but it's not what I'd call the best stuff out there. There are so many lines with so many sculptors out there that you can pretty much find anything you want, at any level of realism you want. To me, the Rackam stuff looks too cartoon/anime-ish.

For fantasy "perfection", I don't think there's much that beats the stuff that Tom Meir sculpts. https://www.thunderboltmountain.com/index.php

I know, it's all subjective. But just check out his wood elves and Arthurians. Totally whoop ass.

Posted by: Mercer Jul 21 2006, 08:19 PM

The figures my old group used to use were 1/72 scale military. That's an inch tall, slightly smaller than 25mm (which has gotten bigger and bigger over the years, for whatever reason). They're plastic, you can paint them, they come about 50 to a box for around 8 bucks, and they make them for any time period you can think of. They are used primarily in historical wargames, so that covers any time period with a war in it. In addition to the 1/72 scale minis, my local dollar store had baggies of the plastic Army men that were the same size, though less detailed. I picked up the four colors they had of these (green, yellow, gray and tan) to fill out the schmoe rosters.

Posted by: eidolon Jul 22 2006, 04:25 PM

Yup, definitely a good route to go when you're using lots of figs. I generally don't use figs for shmoes, we just throw out dice of a color that nobody is using.

For D&D, I found a site that has dl'able counters that are 1x1". They have pictures of the more common fantasy figs. For large creatures, the counter is the proper size, etc. If you've got Photoshop, he gives instructions for making your own too. http://dndcounters.tripod.com/