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Miniatures and terrain are not for everyone, but many gamers like to enhance the visual experience of their game or require physical portrayals of the action for tactical reasons. If you’re looking for miniatures and terrain for a Wild West game, look no further, this article is your ultimate resource. I will highlight few of my favorite figures/lines.

At the end of the article you can find a Wild West Miniatures Database that compiles 75+ different miniature and terrain lines to fit the needs of anyone gaming in the American Old West. If you know of a manufacturer that isn’t on that list (or find that one of my links are broken), do not hesitate to inform me.

Witchtown Tales

Witchtown Tales documents a private Old West miniature collection. It shows some excellent paint schemes for figures as well as terrain. However, one of it’s best resources is its manufacturer scale comparison page.

Dixon Miniatures

Dixon has a solid range of figures and considering that the same figure can come with multiple head variants, it makes their line surprising large. I think my favorite mini from Dixon are the Lying Wounded and Lying Dead figures.

Blue Moon Manufacturing

Blue Moon’s lineup features a lot of famous names from the legendary West. The Earps, the James, and most of the names you hear while watching Tombstone are there.. I really like the Tombstone Civilians set and the Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane pack. Of particular coolness is Blue Moon’s Wagons Ho! line.

Wargames Foundry

The Foundry probably has the most expansive selection of Old West miniatures available. I especially like their Townsfolk and Mountain Men lines. For the gamer with deep pockets, they have two excellent army packs. The Plains War Indian Army comes with 99 figures (51 horses), but will set you back $450.

Black Scorpion

Black Scorpion has some of the most gorgeous Western themed lines available. They are a little taller than your average heroic sized minis (32mm vs. 28mm), but those extra millimeters allows for some additional detail. Particularly, I like the Billy the Kid and Bobba Fat Mexican sculpts.

Eric Hotz

Hotz’s Whitewash City is probably the most affordable, dynamic and re-usable terrain available for Old West gaming. It’s cardstock, but that means you can easily modify the images to change up the look and feel of building. I also like the game mat they have as a base for building an Old West town.

Hovels, Ltd.

Hovels provides their resin buildings either plain or already painted. In addition to the 25mm Wild West line, they also have an American Civil War line which could easily be used in an Old West setting. My particular favorite is the Grand Hotel.

Roll Your Own

For the crafty gamer, you could also build your own terrain out of balsa wood or cardstock. A tutorial by David Marshall and another from Dave Bezio should give the DIY gamer a good place to begin.

Wild West Minis DB

Wild West Weeks

• Welcome to Wild West Weeks
• Wild West RPG Database
• Into the Far West
• Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier
• Deadlands Reloaded
• Red Dead Redemption
• 24 Hour Old West RPG, Part 1
• 24 Hour Old West RPG, Core Mechanics
• 24 Hour Old West RPG, Traits I
• 24 Hour Old West RPG, Traits II
• 24 Hour Old West RPG, Traits III
• Wild West Minis Database
• Legends of the West RPG: Vitality & Experience

Listening to: Toy Story 2 Video Game OST – Al’s Penthouse

Paizo ^[1] and WizKids ^[2] announced the Pathfinder Battles pre-painted miniature line yesterday, ^[3] just a few days before GenCon 2011, so I expect they will have samples at their booth (see interactive GenCon exhibit hall map ^[4]). This announcement comes practically on the heels of their first foray, the Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes ^[5] 4 mini set. The first set, Heroes and Monsters, includes 40 figures and will debut in December with the second 60 figure set to follow June, 2012 called Rise of the Runelords. No doubt we can expect some sort of collected hardcover anniversary edition of the Adventure Path of the same name.

Random Expensive

The good news is pre-painted miniatures are back (after D&D minis’ slow decline) and the promotional images make the sculpts and paint job look pretty good. The bad news is that they are random and expensive. Also, the look & feel of the minis is just a bit too stylized [anime] for my tastes.

• $3.99 for a single, random mini with a medium base (or two small based miniatures).
• $5.99 for a single, random mini with a large base

I think those prices are exorbitant for a single sight-unseen, random miniature.  A standard Pathfinder mini from Reaper usually costs around $5.99. ^[6] Yes, I may have to paint it, but I know what I’m getting. Random is synonymous with Collectable in this instance, and I’m not a fan of catering to the collector or speculative markets. It is standard practice in those markets to make things rare so people buy mass quantities of your product just to obtain key pieces… which are in turn sold on the second hand market for even steeper prices.

Case in point, the huge black dragon miniature offered through Pathfinder Battles. According to the press release, it can only be obtained through retailers who have purchased at least a case of minis. I can just imagine what unscrupulous retailers might do on eBay with these. Well, I guess it’s helping out brick & mortar shops; they need all the help they can get to survive.

Cost Effective?

On the discussion tab of the product page, ^[7] Lisa Stevens (CEO of Paizo) points to the reasoning behind the randomness is because it gives them the ability to produce a wide range of miniatures while still being cost effective:

Randomized miniatures also allow you to provide more variety. Not only can you introduce more figures at once, but the fact that you make make some of them rarer than others means you can produce plenty of the figures that everyone needs, like goblins or skeletons, and fewer of the figures that have narrower appeal, like strange monsters or iconic figures.

Another factor to think about is the brick-and-mortar retailer. It’s much easier for a retailer to stock single booster packs than individual packaged minis.

Conclusion

Paizo has earned a reputation with me for producing quality material and backing that up with exceptional customer service and fan support. They obviously are successful because they make good business decisions while I’m just vocal consumer with no experience with miniature manufacturing. Even so, WizKid’s business model seems to take advantage of the collector syndrome, which I’m not a fan of exploiting.

My strategy would have been to release themed sets, much like the Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes and like D&D tried to do but with better quality. I’d love to see a set of 10 or 20 figures for each Adventure Path or sets for PCs when major supplements like the Advance Player’s Guide are published. Then you can still produce those misfit minis that are needed, but not popular, because you’re not selling them singly. The press release does state that Encounter Packs of visible non-random re-sculpts/re-paints from the parent sets will be available, but I wonder if it will be enough to satisfy me.

Listening to: Celtic Frost – Into the Pandemonium – Mesmerized

References

[1] Paizo, the publisher of Pathfinder

[2] WizKid, the manufacture of MageKnight/Clix

[3] The Pathfinder Battles press release

[4] An interactive GenCon 2011 Exhibit Hall Map I created

[5] Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes announced around PaizoCon 2011

[6] A Reaper unpainted, metal Pathfinder miniature

[7] Pathfinder Battles product page

 

There are multitudes of scales for miniatures. There are micro scale (1:1200, 1:2400, etc.) that allow wargamers to play out large naval or space battles on the dining room table. 15mm is a common size for historical and fantasy battles of epic proportions. And sometimes you may not really care about scale you just want an impressively detailed 90mm resin model to paint and display.

In this installment of Miniatures & Terrain Series, I provide a simple database of manufacturers of miniatures of what I’m calling non-heroic scales (everything but the D&D 25mm-28mm standard). But don’t let the name deceive you, there are some very heroic minis available within these scales.

Non-Heroic Minis Database

Scroll right to see more.

Miniatures & Terrain Article Series

If you’re having trouble finding that [near] perfect mini (or terrain to put it on), visit a few of the manufacturers I have cataloged in Google Spreadsheets in one of these articles:

• Heroic Sized Minis Database (25mm-28mm)
• Terrain, Cardstock, & Tutorials (not Googlized yet, but soon)
• Level-Up Your Miniature Hobby Skills (painting and modeling resources)

Listening to: Testament – The Gathering – Eyes of Wrath

So you purchased the perfect mini for your character, but it is currently just a heap of white metal in a plastic blister pack. Oh, and it uses a scimitar instead of that awesome two-handed falchion your character likes to use to split enemies in twain, but it is close enough to perfect… and you can literally picture what it will look like painted and finished in your head.

However, a day and a few paint pots later, your miniature figurine doesn’t even come close to what you wanted. This is probably a familiar scenario for many roleplayers who try their hand at trying to find and paint the perfect miniature. Well today, as part of my series of miniature resources, I am presenting a database of websites that offer tutorials to level up your miniature hobby skills.

The following collection of sites has been tagged with what types of help they offer. Typical examples include painting tips & tricks (like how to paint non-metallic metal), basing (make your mini look like it’s standing on terrain), photography (how to grab an awesome pic of your finished masterpiece), sculpting & conversion (make your own mini or modify an existing one), casting (mass produce a custom mini), and terrain (creature awesome environments to use your mini with).

Miniature Hobby Resources

Scroll right to see the URLs.

Miniatures & Terrain Article Series

If you’re having trouble finding that [near] perfect mini (or terrain to put it on), visit a few of the manufacturers I have cataloged in Google Spreadsheets in one of these articles:

• Heroic Sized Minis Database (25mm-28mm)
• Non-Heroic Scale Minis Database
• Terrain, Cardstock, & Tutorials (not Googlized yet, but soon)

Listening to: Soilwork – Figure Number Five – Rejection Role

Besides dice, miniatures are probably the next most recognizable roleplaying accouterments found at the gaming table. Minis, a vestige of RPGs wargaming roots, are often more than just a physical means for representing characters. For many, the collecting and painting of minis are a hobby within the hobby. For the past month, I have scoured the internet for as many miniature resources that I could, and this week I will be publishing the results of my hard work. I have cataloged and sorted miniature manufacturers by scale and genre. Today, I present what is most likely the scale most used for roleplaying games, the heroic 25mm scale (25mm-28mm). For those unfamiliar with miniature scale, when it is represented in millimeters (which truly isn’t a scale), it expresses what the “toe to eye” measurement of a miniature that represented a 6′ tall man. A 28mm mini uses a 1:60 scale. This is rather convenient for D&D influenced games that use 1″ grids to represent 5′. But there are a ton of scales in use, and one company’s 28mm might be another’s 32mm, sculpting is an art not (usually) an exact science. This means that you might be able to find minis of compatible size for you games from the 30mm-34mm range (which can be found in my next post). You’ll notice that I have included cardstock (or flats) minis. They are definitely worth a look as most of them are free. The website for each manufacturer can be seen if you scroll right.

Heroic Minis Database

If you know any manufacturers of “heroic” sized miniatures or flats that I have overlooked, do not hesitate to link to them in the comments.

Miniatures & Terrain Article Series

If you want minis in other scales, resources to improve your miniature hobby skills (like painting or basing), or looking for some interesting terrain to use your minis on, check out my other articles:

• Non-Heroic Scale Minis Database
• Level-up Your Miniature Hobby Skills
• Terrain, Cardstock, & Tutorials

Listening to: Velvet Revolver – Contraband – Slither

Since I am not currently running a game, I have been thinking about the next campaign that I will run.  While I am still at the beginning phase of planning (as in I am still deciding the genre: fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, horror, or pulp), I do know that I want to include some fantastic scenery and terrain.

Thus, I have reconnoitered the internet in pursuit of the finest terrain, scenery, structures, and tutorials that the web has to offer.  I thought I would share my list of resources (just like my previous lists) with the community.  Some of the best scenery is sourced from companies that cater to the wargaming crowd, while I find most of the cardstock is marketed to the roleplayers.  If any readers know of some cool places I missed, pipe up in the comments!

Cast Scenery & Terrain

I am not for sure there is a standard definition for these terms, but I distinguish terrain as the actual landforms carved or molded from/into the base material.  These would include the major and minor terrain features, from a military perspective.  Major features include: Hill, Ridge, Valley, Saddle, and Depression.  While minor features include:  Draw, Spur and Cliff.  Terrain also includes bodies of water.  Roads are also usually incorporated into the terrain.  I view scenery as any structures, debris, vegetation, or man-mad/free-standing objects.  This section covers retailers that sell cast or carved items.

Kobblestone Miniatures – I previously credited the above awesome diorama to another company, well I want to set the record straight.  The oriental village above was created by Kobblestone Miniatures from Canada. Their website is packed with stuff of the same caliber work; I urge everyone to check out their gallery!

Dwarven Forge – There is always a crowd around the Dwarven Forge booth at GenCon, at the awe is well deserved.  Dwarven Forge makes some of the best dungeon sets on the market.  They are all hand painted and very detailed.  I’d give some body parts for some of these sets (I don’t need them anymore anyways…).

Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture – I drool over their cast-your-own molds at GenCon every year, and every year I kick myself in the ass for not purchasing a bunch of molds.  Probably the most cost efficient cast/carved scenery, since you can make as much as you want (and if you use plaster of paris, it is cheap).  Well, the molds do wear out after prolonged use… but still.

Red Dragon Terrain – Rob uses the high quality molds from Hirst Arts to create buildings for his custom scenic terrains. So if you like Hirst Arts but cringe at the idea of having to cast hundreds of bricks and pieces and then assemble them, then Red Dragon Terrain is for you.

Armorcast – These guys mass produce a lot of battlefield scenery, many terrain retailers re-sell their products.  Armorcast makes high quality scenery and terrain for various genres (fantasy, historical, and sci-fi).

Games Workshop - These guys make fantastic scenery to decorate the field for their Warhammer wargames.

Ziterdes – This German company has a line called Dunkelstadt (which I believe translates to Dark City) that just looks freakin’ superb.

Manorhouse – An Italian workshop that built the intense dual-layered scene pictured below.  I don’t know how practical it is, but it reeks of cool and detail work.

Baueda Wargames – Bauda have some nice accessories for various genres, including some nice WWII stuff as well as an Ancients (Hoppidus) line.

The Miniature Building Authority – I am pretty sure this is another strong GenCon attendee.  They have several very nice lines including a fantasy and sci-fi line and one of my favorites, the EuroVillage.

Antenociti’s Workshop – Antenociti has a few really nice small stuff for scenery like barrels, treasure chests, gun placements, doors and windows.

Miniature World Maker – They have a nice selection of 25mm structures like towers and huts that could find a home in your world.

Fantascene – I really like their Dracula’s Crypt and their Gothic line, though it seems like I’ve seen it somewhere else…

TerraScenic – TS is a vendor for Pegasus Scenery, which has some nice looking cathedrals (but I am unsure as to the scale).  But the best stuff TS offers is really their range of modeling tools.

Scenic Express – These guy probably target the model railroad market, but they have some excellent supplies for scratch-building your own custom terrain.

Wargames-Scenery – It looks like these guys currently have a clearance sale.  Unfortunately, it is because are closing their doors.  I especially like their blacksmith foundry that could be part of any middle-ages/fantasy town.

TerrainScapes – These guys have a mixture of their own custom molds as well as using and modifying high-quality Hirst Arts stuff.

Zuzzy Miniatures – Zuzzy has a three original lines: The Despoiled Reaches, The Ruined Land, and Verdant Fields.  Each line is manufactured to build a specific atmosphere.  The Despoiled Reaches are truly frillin’ wicked!

War-Game-Terrain – WGT offers up custom built terrain and scenery.  I find their site difficult to navigate, but if he definitely has some skill.

Art of War – AoW has some nice look desert (Arabic) themed structures as well as several other products, but their claim to fame is the fantastic Helm’s Deep reproduction from the Lord of the Rings.

Ultimate Table Top Terrain – Markets the Griffon Miniatures Wargaming Terrain System based on pre-made hex tiles.

Cardstock Environments

Cardstock environments are usually created by purchasing, downloading, or creating images that can be printed out onto cardstock (heavy weight) paper and then folded and/or glued together to form buildings, dungeons, and other features.  Cardstock is a quick and cheap method of providing solid environments that can spectacular pieces in their own right, and you don’t have to be too worried about ruining them, cause its fairly cheap to print another!  This section covers retailers and sites that sell or provide free downloads.

RPGNow – I’ve linked to the 3D Terrain/Buildings tag on RPGNow’s site.  I’ll also link to RPGNow product page of any of the other companies’ products if there is one available.

World Works Games – Probably THE premiere cardstock terrain company.  These guys’ work pretty much sets the bar for me.  They have a lot of lines to choose from that cover the popular genres.  Definitely check out their site!

Empty Room Studios - Another producer of very high quality cardstock terrain.  ERS also has a storefront at RPGNow.

Fat Dragon Games – The obese wyrm has an excellent selection of cardstock dungeons and terrain, not to mention a 3D spacecraft that looks like a cross between the Firefly class Serenity and the Defiant (Defiant class) from Star Trek.  Fat Dragon Games also has a storefront on RPGNow for the EZ-Dungeon & the EZ Terrain lines.

Microtactix – MTX has an impressive array of cardstock buildings for sci-fi, historical, and fantasy games.  They are famous for their “Dirt Cheap” and “Budget Battlefield” lines.  Microtactix has a storefront at RPGNow.

Stones Edges – Stones has a couple of very nice looking dungeons.  From what I have heard, the people behind Stones Edges actually joined World Works Games, which I think speaks a lot for the quality.  Stones Edges also has a storefront at RPGNow.

Joel L. Teply – Makes some decent cardstock dungeons and accessories like barrels.  JLTP also has a storefront on RPGNow.

Penguin Labs, LLC – Penguin offers the chunky looking Portable Dungeon cardstock.  Here is their storefront at RPGNow.

Hotz Stuff – Eric Hotz has created a bunch of cardstock scenery for Wild West and Roman settings.  I think I might buy the gallows accessory and place it in every town as a reminder to my players of what happens to the unruly!  Hotz has a storefront at RPGNow too.

Finger & Toe Models – F&TM have a lot to offer the sci-fi genre with a post-apocalyptic Slag Town and various futuristic military vehicles.  Finger & Toe has a storefront at RPGNow.

Dave’s Games – Dave has a ton of free cardstock structures made for Warhammer Fantasy, but I am sure they could be easily repurposed.

Unknown Forum Post – I don’t know who these belong too, or if they are breaking someone’s copyright, but they are free and available here.

Wizards of the Coast -  Hey, Wizards does do some things right.  A while back they released these fold-up paper models for free!

Archi Kit – Some very nice FREE medieval/Renaissance style buildings.

Free Paper Models – A ton of free paper models of real, historical, and fantasy buildings.

Cast/Carved Terrain Tutorials

The last time I did some research on building my own terrain (which was about 6 years ago when Privateer Press launched Warmachine), there seemed to be a lot more tutorials out there.  Maybe I’m have looked hard or long enough, but here are some of the better tutorials I found.

What really seems to be missing is technique.  Though I have provided links to books at the end of the section that should hopefully shed light on the subject.  I highly recommend the Osprey books.

Table Top Terrain – This guy has some excellent tutorials on making your own molds so you can mass produce your own (or others’, for personal use) creations.

Mini Wargaming – Has several posts on making your own scenery, uncluding stuff for Warhammer 40k.

Basement Battle Scenery – Has a nice pictorial on creating rocky terrain.

Ultimate Table Top Terrain – U3T has some tutorials on how to make your own hex tile terrain.

War-Game Terrain – This site has video tutorials on how to create your own terrain.

Fire & Smoke – Here is an excellent pictorial concerning fire and smoke.

Maff0 Models – Maffo has a tutorial on creating a bunker as well as a unique looking rock formation.

Ryan Skow – Ryan has a few tutorials to offer, including one on how to make a thatched roof.

Colonial Era Wargames – Has some cool scenery how-tos, such as what materials make good-looking water.

NetTerrain - While I didn’t come across any tutorials here, they do have a gallery of cool scenery to get you inspired.

TerraGenesis – This forum is dedicated to creating fantastic scenery and terrain on a budget for a long time (since 1997),.

How to Make Wargames Terrain – Published by Games Workshop, this book 128 of instruction on scenery and terrain.

Making Terrain & Buildings for Historical Wargames - This book covers groundwork, landscape features and buildings that are realistic and detailed.

Terrain Modelling – Published by Osprey, this book is an excellent guide to fabricating realistic terrain.

Advanced Terrain Modelling – The second part of Osprey’s terrain series offers some unique techniques to bring scenery to life.

Wargame Terrain Videos – Here is a link to a Google Video search on wargame terrain.

Cardstock Tutorials

A lot of planning actually goes into the process of making your own cardstock environments, especially when you get more complex than squares and rectangles.  You need to be able to visualize in three dimensions how something will come together, and spatial thinking is a difficult task for most people.

I didn’t want to get too much into making simple tiles, because there are tons of awesome photoshop tutorials out there that focus on textures (which is the primary ingredient in tiles, the other being grids).  Unfortunately, there is squat out there in web (that I found) in regards to cardstock terrain and scenery.

World Works Games – These guys have some fantastic videos regarding the assembly and finish of their cardstock models.  They also offer a free download.

Profantasy: Dioramas Pro – I haven’t tried it, but this software is supposed to make the creation of cardstock buildings easy.  You design it and it figures out the rest.

Miniatures & Terrain Article Series

If you need some miniatures to use on your kick-ass terrain or looking to improve your miniature hobby skills (like painting or basing), check out my other articles:

• Heroic Sized Minis Database (25mm-28mm)
• Non-Heroic Scale Minis Database
• Level-up Your Miniature Hobby Skills (painting & modeling resources)

Again, if you know of anything good that I have missed, please let me know in the comments.

Listening to: Gary Jules - Donnie Darko - Mad World

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