Alternate miniatures

By: Jay

Today I want to talk for a minute about alternate miniatures for Warhammer Fantasy. I know there are MANY people out there that believe that GW in the be-all, end-all of miniatures but I can tell you that this is in no way true. My main army is Wood Elves, and lets face it, the Treeman model is horrid. The Treekin look as bad, but they're smaller so it's not as noticeable. I personally refuse to use either of those models. I'm not a huge fan of the Treebeard model in the LotR range, so where does that leave me? Well there are so many mini makers out there these days that you really have to be trying to not find what you're looking for. For instance, my dilemma was solved by the good people at Reaper miniatures:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r25/eadgbe0/Treeman.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r25/eadgbe0/TreemanAncient.jpg

I picked these up for half the price of a GW Treeman. These Treemen are FAR better looking than the GW model, they actually look dangerous! Now for my Treeman Ancient I was using the one Reaper Treeman that I had painted white, but in my endless search for better minis I found this gorgeous guy:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r25/eadgbe0/517.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r25/eadgbe0/514.jpg

He's a Privateer Press Feral Warpwolf Extreme sculpt. This wasn't exactly a cost effective mini, but he really wasn't much more than the GW Treeman (Privateer Press has some fantastic minis in their entire range, and they still use metal!)

My Treekin I was torn on, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do about them because I still had a few of the old GW Treeman sculpts from back in the early 90's and I was having trouble finding an alternative model that would fit in with them. I decided to not even try to find something that fit in and go with a look that made them look like a unit that was torn from different parts of the forest. I ended up with this guy first:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r25/eadgbe0/TKChamp.jpg

Another Privateer Press sculpt, and eventually picked up these as a  compliment to my new TM ancient:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r25/eadgbe0/Wolf-kinunit.jpg

These are examples from just one army of units that are completely useable as opposed to the GW norm. There are tons of places out there to find some great minis that are either affordable or fantastic looking and sometimes both. I personally despise plastics, and I hate the fact that GW is forcing everything into plastic sculpts. I hate that my minis are too light and I hate the lack of detail. These alternate minis are a wonderful solution to my problem. Here are some sites that I like to peruse from time to time just to see what they might have or to find something that might inspire me (Wild Riders mounted on sabretooth cats?):

http://privateerpress.com/
http://www.reapermini.com/
http://www.avatars-of-war.com
http://www.shop.microartstudio.com/
http://wargamesfoundry.com/main.asp
http://www.blacktreedesign.com/northamerica/home.php
http://cart.blackorc.com/
http://www.gamezoneminiatures.de/index.php
http://wyrd-games.net/shop/home.php
http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/
http://www.gf9.com/
http://www.davesgames.net/wfrp2/
http://www.ragingheroes.com/
http://www.gamestation.net/
http://battlefoam.com/

All of these sites have things that us wargamers will find of some interest, be it scenery, dice, cases, or just minis. This is just a short list of the sites I like to check in on occasionally. If you have one you like leave a comment and I'll gladly add it to the list of links. I'd actually love to find more mini developers.